Theraverse . May 8, 2025

At a day and age like this, the only time a notification gets ignored, is if it is from an ex! Our lives are increasingly lived online, both professional and personal, making the boundary between healthy use and harmful dependence grow disturbingly thin. What begins as a harmless scroll through social media or a quick online game can quietly evolve into hours lost, sleep sacrificed, and relationships strained. Brushing this aside as poor time-management may be turning a blind eye towards maladaptive addictions to gaming, gambling, porn and more.

Here are some signs and symptoms that you may be experiencing due to your internet addiction:

• Physical signs
  • Headaches, backaches, neckaches
  • Eyesight issues
  • Insomnia
  • Weight fluctuations due to change in lifestyle and eating habits
  • Lack of personal hygiene
• Mental/emotional signs
  • Increase in amount of time spent on the internet to feel the same sense of satisfaction
  • Experiencing unpleasant withdrawal symptoms like guilt, moodiness, anxiousness, irritability, fixation or obsessions to perform compulsive behaviours.
  • Making internet a coping mechanism to avoid dealing with conflict in real life situations
  • Neglecting other areas of life from personal responsibilities, work life and relationships and withdrawing from leisure activities.
  • Excessive anger when access to internet has been curbed

Here are some factors that may be maintaining or facilitating this behaviour:

1. Social awkwardness, social anxiety, shyness, introversion – Individual experiencing these may find solace and comfort in online interactions. The anonymity and reduced social cues in online environments can lower the perceived barriers to social interaction, making it easier to engage compared to face-to-face interactions and also allowing for their truest selves to be more conveniently showcased.
2. Escapism – The immediate gratification and distractions offered by the internet through gaming, social media, or even browsing can create a cycle where individuals seek out online activities to avoid facing underlying issues or responsibilities, further reinforcing addictive behaviors.
3. Other mental conditions – Internet addiction frequently coexists with other mental health conditions such as depression, anxiety disorders, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), or impulse control disorders. Individuals may turn to the internet as a form of self-medication, seeking relief from emotional distress or psychological symptoms. The continuous engagement with online activities can provide temporary relief, albeit at the cost of exacerbating addictive behaviors.

Treatment

1. Pattern recognition

Take note of your symptoms and keep track of your behaviour, thoughts and feelings. Notice if there are certain periods during the day or situations or people who make you engage in the behaviour more. See if there is a shift in the frequency or duration of the behaviour during these patterns.

2. What is this behaviour protecting you from?

Think about why you use the Internet so much. What makes you go online? Is there a real problem you’re not facing up to? Understanding the patterns will help you get to the root cause of what purpose this addiction has. Instead of symptom, sometimes it helps to think of the problem behaviour as the solution we are choosing. Now think of what this addiction is providing the solution to. Sometimes it could be a stressful life transition, dysfunctional home environment, loneliness or even disenfranchised grief.

3. Alternative ways of coping

Now that you have understood patterns and the underlying cause of the behaviour, it is time to find healthy ways to cope with the incongruence and practice replacing it with internet addiction. Brainstorm other ways to cope with your problem that could potentially work for you and slowly incorporate it. The point of change is not to completely irradicate internet use but to curb any overuse, addition and maladaptive coping.

4. Anticipate withdrawal

If this behaviour is strong enough to turn into an addiction, then chances are that it had a big role to play is your day-to-day functioning and survival. And a change in that would cause significant amounts of distress. It is important to anticipate withdrawal symptoms and come up with safety behaviours we can engage in to manage it effectively without relapse. Using relaxation methods like deep breathing or meditation can be helpful.

5. Professional help

Although all the above-mentioned self-help steps can be beneficial, there is no alternative to help from a mental health professional. Cognitive behavioural therapy has been effective in successfully restructuring the mind to more adaptive ways of coping and engaging in healthier behaviours.

Relapse is often misunderstood as a complete return to old habits. In reality, a slip or moment of indulgence, spending several hours online after a period of self-control, for example can be a temporary detour, not a full-blown return to the addiction. Psychologically, this distinction matters deeply.

Cognitive-behavioral theories emphasize that it’s not the slip itself, but the interpretation of the slip that determines what happens next. This is known as the “abstinence violation effect” when someone believes that a single mistake means total failure, they are more likely to give up entirely and revert to the full pattern of addictive behavior. Conversely, if the slip is seen as a moment of vulnerability rather than defeat, you are more likely to regain control and continue the journey of recovery. So instead of berating, self-loathing, and feeling hopeless, here are four questions you can ask yourself after the relapse to stay on the path towards recovery,

-What triggered the relapse?

-What emotion or situation did I try to escape?

-What coping mechanisms were unavailable or ineffective at that moment for me?

-What do I need now to get back on track?

In essence, one misstep doesn’t erase the steps already taken forward so practicing self-compassion can propagate growth. It is important to remember that recovery is about building the capacity to pause, reflect, and return to the path you’ve chosen as many times as it takes!

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By,

Jensita Grace,

In-house Psychologist, Theraverse

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Resources

https://www.clinicbarcelona.org/en/assistance/be-healthy/addiction-to-the-internet/symptoms

https://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/health/healthyliving/internet-addiction

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10179495/