If you compare the influence of the Internet on a modern person with a drug, it may seem that this is partly legitimate. And lately, more and more often you can hear from people that they are “hooked” on some game or chat, or have become headlong into a certain “clan”. Few people talk about porn surfing and erotic correspondence, but the traffic to the relevant resources speaks for itself. Try talking about computers with the internet user’s relatives. The Internet is becoming a real threat to people's mental health. In our country, the problem of Internet addiction is not yet fully understood and poorly studied. This note will use materials from the famous Dr. Kimberley S. Young, professor of psychology at the University of Pittsburgh at Bratford, author of the book “Caught in the Net” (“Caught in the Net”), which has been translated into many languages ​​and has a 5-star reader rating on Amazon Books. She is the founder of the Center for On-Line Addiction. Recently, the number of patients whose main complaints are related to the influence of the Internet has sharply increased. The Internet is a powerful tool for processing and exchanging information, and thanks to the computer, various types of information have become available. This is now considered the root cause of computer or Internet addiction, since in a certain sense they suffer from a violation of the processes of information exchange. Along with the increasing popularity of the Internet, the number of Internet addicted patients is also increasing, while very little is still known about treatment methods and the nature of the disease. It is also necessary to develop standard diagnostic tools to determine the criteria for cyber-addicted people and assess their condition in order to understand in the future the role of communication and the influence of the Internet on other established habits (for example, alcoholism, gambling, sexual complexes) and psychiatric conditions (for example, depression , manic-depressive disorders, decreased attention span). Kimberly S. Young identifies five main subtypes of the main diagnosis of “Internet addiction”, which characterize what exactly a person is addicted to: cybersex, virtual dating, addiction to online stock trading and gambling, compulsive surfing, finally, one of the most popular cases, addiction to computer games. For successful treatment, it is necessary that the person realizes that he is sick, after which attempts are made to rid the patient of his sexual complexes, which are often the result of an inferiority complex. Shifting a person's attention to his family or teaching various social skills is also very effective. At her clinic, Kimberly S. Young runs a treatment program that addresses the core problems faced by Internet addicts. The term "addiction" was borrowed from the lexicon of psychiatrists to facilitate the identification of an Internet problem by associating it with characteristic social and psychological problems . There may be anywhere from 1 to 10 symptoms, which include excessive time spent online, increased anxiety when in the real world, lying or hiding the amount of time spent in cyberspace, or sluggish functioning in the real world. At the same time, Internet abuse leads to social isolation, increasing depression, family breakdown, academic failure, financial distress and job loss. Such diseases are often either a consequence of drug or alcohol addiction, or, conversely, such addiction follows addiction to the Internet."Internet “Addiction” is a broad term that refers to a wide range of behavioral and impulse control problems. There are five main types of addiction, characterized as follows: 1. Cybersexual addiction - an irresistible attraction tovisiting porn sites and having cybersex. 2. Addiction to virtual communication and virtual acquaintances - large volumes of correspondence, constant participation in chats, forums, redundancy of acquaintances and friends on the Internet. 3. Obsessive financial need - playing online gambling, constant unnecessary purchases in online stores or regular participation in online auctions. 4. Information overload (obsessive web surfing) - endless travel on the Internet, searching for information in databases and search sites. 5. Gaming addiction - an obsessive passion for playing computer games on the Internet (shooting games - Doom, Quake, Unreal, etc., strategies like Star Craft, quests) 6. Addiction to watching movies via the Internet. And the main factor due to which all these phenomena occurred widespread is the anonymity of the individual on the Internet. Anonymity is especially linked to four main disorders: Increasing various deviations from the norm, lying and even committing criminal acts such as viewing and downloading obscene or completely prohibited images (child pornography), which are widespread on many sites. It is important that people who entertain themselves by viewing such images, thereby satisfying their sexual fantasies, do not try to contact children in real life. This behavior very often begins as curiosity and ends as attraction. In such cases, psychotherapy is indicated, aimed at normalizing sexual desires in order to reduce potential risks. A virtual world in which a person feels much more comfortable than in real life creates a threat to the success of real life. In such cases, personal psychotherapy is used, the purpose of which is to reduce the desire to escape from the real world. Interactive components of the network facilitate the creation of cyber addiction, which negatively affects intra-family relationships and the stability of the family as such, which primarily leads to the alienation of people in real life and to divorce. In this case, individual and family therapy is used, during which the spouses work together to reconcile and recreate the family after infidelity online. The ability to create alternative online characters, depending on the mood and desire of the user, which creates the opportunity to escape from the real world with his emotional problems (for example, stress, depression, anxiety), or from simple life difficulties (abundance of work, problems in school, sudden unemployment, family disorders). The instant escape into the fantasy world of the Internet serves as a support for addiction, followed by worsening mood and psychological differences, which are treated with psychotherapy and, if necessary, pharmacological intervention. The ACE (Accessibility, Control, and Excitement) model, developed by Kimberly Young in 1999, explains how accessibility, control and arousal play major roles in the development of Internet addiction. According to the model, attraction to the Internet develops due to three main factors: Availability of information, interactive areas and pornographic images. Personal control and anonymity of transmitted information. Internal feelings, which at a subconscious level establish a greater level of trust in online communication. Models like this make it easier to understand underlying problems and allow for more effective treatment planning. Most important is how often young children access the Internet. The fact is that there is an increase in online pedophilia, which is associated with a certain risk in relation to children. In addition, it should be noted that to make a diagnosis of pedophilia, no examples of child molestation are required, but quiteThe fact that someone entertains various sexual fantasies involving children is enough. In addition, the number of downloaded prohibited images is steadily growing. From a psychological perspective, it is very important to monitor the connection between viewing child pornography and the actual risk of child molestation. And finally, it is necessary to limit such information to simple examples, eliminate the possibility of ending up on such pages by accident, improve the method of searching the Internet, and provide a mandatory warning when entering such sites. Making a correct diagnosis is often complicated by the fact that there are no officially approved criteria for determining degree of attachment to the Internet. But still, based on the modern view of addiction, Internet addiction can be defined as a disorder of volitional control that is not caused by chemical substances. For clarity, Dr. Young developed a short test in 1996 that can be used to determine the degree of Internet addiction. Do you feel preoccupied with the Internet (do you think about previous online sessions and look forward to subsequent ones)? Do you also feel the need for more time? time online? Have you tried unsuccessfully to control, limit, or stop using the Internet? Do you feel tired, depressed, or irritated when you try to limit or stop using the Internet? Are you online more than you thought you would be? Have you ever risked problems at work, school or in your personal life because of the Internet? Have you ever lied to family members, doctors or other people to hide the time you spent on the Internet? Do you use the Internet to escape from problems or from a bad mood (for example, from feelings of helplessness, guilt, irritation or depression)? A patient is considered Internet addicted if the answers to these questions are five or more positive. Although the Internet is an ideal research tool, many students have problems with their studies because they visit irrelevant sites, chat for hours, chat with friends and play interactive games instead of studying. They have problems doing homework and preparing for exams. Very often they cannot control the time they spend online and therefore do not get enough sleep after nights spent on the Internet. General signs of the disease in young people can be noted: - Decrease in academic performance, systematic absenteeism, delays in taking tests and exams and other problems in the learning process. • Frequent causeless changes in mood, from lethargic to elated, from indifferent-depressed to elated-euphoric. • Painful. and inadequate response to criticism, comments, advice.• Increasing opposition to parents, relatives, old friends.• Significant emotional alienation.• Deterioration of memory and attention.• Attacks of depression, fear, anxiety, the appearance of phobias.• Limited communication with friends, parents , relatives, a significant change in the circle of friends. • Avoidance of activities in which there was interest, abandonment of hobbies. • Loss of valuables or money from the house, the appearance of other people's things, financial debts. • Resourcefulness, deceit, untidiness, sloppiness, previously not typical. Marriages, parent-child relationships and close friendships are also victims of the Internet. Time spent with real people often becomes less time spent in the company of a computer. In the beginning, addiction manifests itself in the fact that instead of doing ordinary things like doing laundry or going to stores, people sit in front of the computer. These everyday worries are ignored just like caring for children. Close people are the first to realize that the Internet has taken over a person’s mind and at first they hope that this will soon go away on its own. However, when nothing changes, arguments against excessive time spent on the Internet begin to be used. Unfortunately,most often this leads to the opposite effect. The addict becomes embittered and tries to protect himself from everyone who tries to limit their use of the Internet. For example, such standard phrases as “I have no problems,” or “I’m just relaxing, don’t bother me,” follow - all this is a sign of an established addiction. And finally, like alcoholics who hide their need for alcohol, people begin to lie about the amount of time they spend on the Internet. All this sooner or later undermines close relationships in the family or between friends. Dependent people often have financial problems. Instead of reducing the amount of time they spend online to avoid spending, people don't stop until they run out of money. On the other hand, the reduction in prices of Internet providers leads to an increase in the time spent on the Internet, because people no longer have to pay for every minute. Addicted people have work-related problems, for example, when they use work Internet access in their personal purposes. Modern filtering and monitoring systems allow bosses to monitor employee Internet use. But often bosses don’t know how to limit their subordinates’ Internet habits and threaten dismissals and sanctions, which in turn leads to a rapid decline in trust between employees. Physical harm to health from Internet addiction is not as obvious as, for example, cirrhosis of the liver due to alcoholism or high probability of death from a heroin overdose. The health risks of using the Internet are minimal, but still noticeable. Typically, addicted people try to use the Internet from anywhere at the slightest opportunity, and individual sessions can reach fifteen hours. Attempts to realize one's desire under time constraints lead to a tendency to stay up late at night on the Internet. An addicted person usually gets up later than others and uses the Internet until two, three or four in the morning, after which, for example, he does the necessary work until six in the morning. In the most extreme cases, there is the use of coffee and other tonics in order to drive away sleep. Such sleepless nights contribute to constant fatigue and weakening of the human immune system, after which the likelihood of illness increases sharply. In addition, a sedentary lifestyle can lead to problems with the spine, and improper lighting at night can lead to various eye diseases. Recent anonymous surveys indicate that despite the harmful consequences of Internet addiction, approximately 54% of patients do not want to reduce the time spent on Internet. -line. Some of them consider themselves completely hooked on the Internet and unable to quit this habit. The remaining 46% made several unsuccessful attempts to get rid of addiction. Usually in these cases, self-confinement to some time limit was applied, but these people were unable to comply with the limits set for themselves. After which there were attempts to disconnect from the Internet altogether, throw away the modem, or even dismantle the computer in order to protect themselves from using the Internet. Unfortunately, almost everyone realized after some time that they could not live without the Internet for a long time, like smokers who need a cigarette after a certain period of time. They reconnected to the Internet, bought a new modem and put the computer back together so that they could surf the Internet for hours again. And this turned out to be most destructive for family relationships. An addicted person begins to make new online acquaintances. In most cases, communicating with online friends is quite exciting and often leads to romantic conversations or cybersex. Cybersex and romantic conversations are presented as harmless entertainment, because people can live thousands of kilometers from each other. For all their apparent harmlessness, suchentertainment leaves little time for communicating with real people. Finally, addicts continue to emotionally break off their relationships with real people and consciously, more and more, immerse themselves in the virtual world. Cybersexual attraction has become a specific subtype of Internet addiction. Initially, this is watching pornography and/or engaging in cybersex. Surveys show that men generally prefer to watch pornography, and women prefer to engage in cybersex. It is difficult to imagine that a husband who has never even visited the adult sections of bookstores would download obscene pictures, or a wife who has never even considered call a phone sex service, visit erotic chat rooms or have phone sex with a man she met on the Internet. It is also difficult to believe that happy marriages that lasted 15, or even 25 years, ended in divorce after just three or four months of cyber addiction. But such cases are no longer uncommon and their number continues to increase. The characteristics of the Internet as a communication environment create very attractive conditions for engaging in virtual sex and the prerequisites for the emergence of dependence on this attraction. Firstly, the anonymity of electronic communications allows many to secretly visit erotic chats, without fear of being recognized or caught by your spouse. Anonymity keeps your place of residence, work and location secret, which cannot be traced even if desired. Typically, cyber addiction begins in chat rooms, where people can communicate in real time using fictitious names. It is the anonymity and privacy of sent messages that can become the first steps towards the emergence of cyber addiction. Very soon, harmless conversations can turn into emotional conversations that develop into virtual infidelity. Secondly, the convenience of many interactive applications turns out to be a very simple way to communicate with other people and get to know each other quite closely. It may start as a simple exchange of letters or chats, but can quickly escalate into cyber addiction, secret phone calls, and actual sexual relationships. It happens that a curious wife or husband secretly enters a chat room under pseudonyms only to be amazed at the impunity of others participating in virtual infidelity, which does not even seem like infidelity due to the lack of physical contact. You should be wary if your husband suddenly begins to demand secrecy while on the Internet, or when an attentive, tenderly loving mother spends hours at the computer instead of taking care of the children. Some people mistakenly believe that in order to commit cyber infidelity, it is necessary to obtain satisfaction from cyber activities. sex. But this is not true at all. So a wife who feels lonely can escape from this loneliness in various chats, where she is surrounded by many of her cyber-lovers. And a sexually unsatisfied husband can transform into a hot lover for whom all women will fight. While sexual sensations will reinforce the initial attraction, a more powerful stimulus - the opportunity to escape from real life with its stresses, will lure a person into a virtual world of fantasy. Unlike open (physical) infidelity, catching your spouse while engaging in cybersex is much more difficult. Here, identifying the first signs will help in order to then navigate the situation and take deliberate actions. Changes in sleep mode - chats and other meeting places in the virtual world come to life closer to the night, so the unfaithful spouse will have to stay late to participate in this. Often such people go to bed in the morning, or vice versa, get up several hours earlier to exchange romantic letters with their partners. The need for secrecy - if someone begins to lie in real life, then this may be a symptom of what he is trying to hide your virtual relationships from your family. First of all, it canexpressed in attempts to organize secrecy around the computer and information. The computer can be moved to the far corner of the room and locked with a key. You should also be wary of frequent password changes and any other environment surrounding it with secrecy. If such a person is disturbed while he is online, this may cause him to have an angry or defensive reaction. Ignoring his household responsibilities, because... As time spent online increases, the time available for doing household chores decreases and they often remain unfulfilled. This is not an automatic sign of cyber addiction, but if a wife leaves dishes unwashed and laundry unwashed, then this should serve as a sign that her attention is drawn to something else. Usually in families, responsibilities are divided between its members, and their failure to fulfill them means that perhaps the person has some kind of extraneous relationship that he puts above family ones. Obvious lies begin - this includes such moments as hiding bills from the provider, telephone bills for calls to cyber-lovers and lies about the need to use the Internet in such a large volume. And many cleverly lie to hide their virtual connections. Changes in character - cyber-addicted people have noticeable differences in mood and behavior compared to behavior before starting to use the Internet. For example, a gentle and affectionate wife can become cold and indifferent, while a cheerful and cheerful husband can become calm and serious. If you ask them about such changes, the answer will most likely be some kind of rational explanation or no answer at all. For people who are addicted to the Internet, such conversations will seem like just an annoying nuisance that prevents them from spending time the way they want. Loss of interest in sex - some cyber addictions turn into phone sex and other sexual entertainment. When one spouse suddenly loses interest in sex, it may be an indicator that some other outlet for sexual emotions has emerged. This can be expressed in lethargy, indifference to courtship and loss of enthusiasm. General indifference to family relationships - these people simply do not want to participate in family life, preferring the Internet to it. They perform their duties like some kind of rituals without any interest. They avoid talking about any long-term plans and do not enjoy joint trips to nature. Often they spend their time with someone else and all their thoughts are focused on their cyber partners rather than on real people. Internet addiction and cyber sexual attraction in particular are usually symptoms of an underlying problem that is present in the family even before The Internet has entered the lives of spouses. This problem may include: lack of communication, sexual dissatisfaction, differences in parenting approaches, lack of support from family and friends, financial problems. These are common problems for any family. But the presence of such factors increases the possibility of Internet addiction. And when two people talk via the Internet, it is very comfortable and pleasant when compared with real communication. Cyber ​​lovers can send romantic, affectionate messages while living thousands of miles apart, but in real life they can be rude, aggressive or just plain unpleasant people. Because electronic means help to realize one’s own fantasy and all those romantic feelings that a person lacks when communicating with real interlocutors. After one of the spouses can be saved from cyber addiction, the main goal of family therapy is to restore trust and a warm atmosphere in family. Knowing the warning signs listed above will help you notice the onset of cyber addiction in time. Families with problems are most at risk. Virtual relationships are easily elevated to the rank of ideal, which subsequently destroys family relationships and.