the Internet has many of us on a very short leash – an addictive one.

Whether you’re mid-bite, mid-sentence or perhaps mid-sleep, do you react to that ‘bing’ from your smartphone? Or, is it the flashing red light that gets you?

You’ve programmed your phone to alert you to messages, or has it programmed you to respond?

From the constant smartphone companion to the laptop replacing the lapdog, the Internet has many of us on a very short leash – an addictive one.

The consumer research firm Intersperience surveyed more than 1,000 people in Britain and found quitting the Internet is as hard for some as quitting drinking or smoking.

Without the Internet, 40% said they felt lonely. Ironically, it’s fathomable that 40% of those living with Internet addicts probably feel lonely too.

Laurie Tamblyn, an addictions counsellor in special programs at Toronto’s Bellwood Health Services, says there are many types of Internet addiction, including gambling, gaming, pornography and social networking.

“We’re just beginning to treat this. It is a big problem and it is going to become bigger before people start recognizing that they need to do something about it,” Tamblyn says.

“Some of us believe there is a tsunami coming because we haven’t fully recognized the problem yet.”

Part of that problem is the generation gap. Children today are children of technology – dependent on the social web and its tools.

Addiction is a progressive illness that ends up in isolation, Tamblyn says, so Internet use can be a slippery slope, and can have devastating effects on relationships.

“The amount of time people spend lost in their behaviours is comparable to a drinker spending time at the bar instead of with his family or friends,” Tamblyn says.

“The addiction becomes the focus of the addict’s life. The focus is to interact with the addiction before anything else. If this doesn’t happen, it results in mood swings and irritability.”

Internet addiction can be difficult to diagnose, says Dr. Greg Dubord, who teaches in the psychiatry department at the University of Toronto.

“Drawing the line between normal Internet use and Internet addiction is often difficult, because no set criteria for diagnosing the disorder have been established by the American Psychiatric Association.”

What is easy to recognize, however, is the impact of web overuse on our relationships.

Though social networking allows us to communicate with people all over the world, at times it seems to segregate us more than ever. Real-life interaction is often interrupted by bings and beeps. Thoughts become tweets and e-mails. Our fingers do the walking and the talking now.

From neglecting friends and family members to creating severe relationship problems, the Internet and our attachment to it can consume our lives.

One study documents 396 negative effects of the web on social involvement, including significant family problems, Dubord says.

“Reports have shown that excessive use of the Internet resulted in personal and family problems, with 53% of test-takers reporting severe relationship problems,” he says.

“Personal and family concerns extended to marriages, dating relationships, parent-child relationships, and close friendships.”

Dubord notes one case where a New York woman divorced her husband due to Internet overuse, and an extreme case involving a Korean couple so addicted to virtual games they let their three-month-old daughter starve to death.

If you think you may have a problem, Tamblyn says the best thing to do is ask for help.

“You can get an assessment at any treatment centre, or do it online and it’s anonymous. There are a lot of people struggling, and there’s a lot of help.”

Too e-dependent? Greg Dubord points out some general warning signs:

1. Lose track of time online.

2. Failed attempts at moderating Internet behaviour.

3. Neglecting work, sleep, friends and/or family to spend time online.

4. Turning to the Internet in times of stress or sadness to feel better.

How to cut down, according to Laurie Tamblyn:

1. Give yourself short breaks throughout the day when you can’t check your messages. Try going for a walk without your smartphone.

2. Put your iPad to bed. Set a bedtime for your Internet devices.

3. Wi-Fi-free meals. Wash your hands of wireless devices before eating.

4. Put your computer in a high-traffic area to stay accountable to those around you.

COLOMBIAN lingerie model dubbed "Narco Queen" was handed six years in jail

 

COLOMBIAN lingerie model dubbed "Narco Queen" was handed six years in jail yesterday after trying to ship cocaine to Europe in her suitcases. Stunning Angie Sanclemente Valencia, 31, had denied helping her boyfriend recruit other beautiful young women to work for her international drug smuggling ring. The former beauty queen tried to take drugs from Argentina to Europe in late 2009 via Mexico. She was arrested in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in May 2010 after months on the run from police. Her attorney German Delgado said he would appeal the conviction. He insisted there was no proof, declaring that Sanclemente should be acquitted as she had no criminal record. Nicolas Gualco, her boyfriend, was also sentenced to six years and eight months for his role in the same plot. Sanclemente claimed during the trial in Argentina that she travelled to the country to marry Gualco and was not involved in the drug trade. She told the court: "I did not come here to commit crimes, I am not a narco-trafficker." She said all she had done for her boyfriend was "make a few calls", adding: "God knows I did it for love." Another man, Venezuelan Gustavo Paez Arneses, was sentenced to six years and two months for his role in the smuggling attempt.

Addicts may have glitch in frontal brain

 

“The better we understand our decision-making brain circuitry, the better we can target treatment, whether it’s pharmaceutical, behavioral, or deep brain stimulation,” says Jonathan Wallis, associate professor of psychology and neuroscience at University of California, Berkeley. Wallis says he was inspired to study the brain mechanism behind substance abuse after observing the lengths to which an addict will go to fulfill a craving, despite knowing the downside of a habit. He wanted to know what the drug did to the brain that made it so difficult to not make the right choice and what prevented the addict from making a healthier one. Straight from the Source Read the original study DOI: 10.1038/nn.2961 In the new study, published in Nature Neuroscience, Wallis targeted the orbitofrontal cortex and anterior cingulate cortex—two areas in the frontal brain—because previous research has shown that patients with damage to these areas of the brain are impaired in the choices they make. While these individuals may appear perfectly normal on the surface, they routinely make decisions that create chaos in their lives. A similar dynamic has been observed in chronic drug addicts, alcoholics, and people with obsessive-compulsive tendencies. “They get divorced, quit their jobs, lose their friends, and lose all their money,” Wallis says. “All the decisions they make are bad ones.” To test the hypothesis that these areas of the brain are the key players in impaired decision-making, researchers measured the neural activity of macaque monkeys as they played games in which they identified the pictures most likely to deliver juice through a spout into their mouths. The animals quickly learned which pictures would most frequently deliver the greatest amount of juice, allowing researchers to see what calculations they were making, and in which part of the brain. The brains of macaques function similarly to those of humans in basic decision making. The exercise was designed to see how the animals weigh costs, benefits, and risks. The results show that the orbitofrontal cortex regulates neural activity, depending on the value or “stakes” of a decision. This part of the brain enables you to switch easily between making important decisions, such as what school to attend or which job to take, and making trivial decisions such as coffee versus tea or burrito versus pizza. But in the case of addicts and people with damage to the orbitofrontal cortex, the neural activity does not change based on the gravity of the decision, presenting trouble when these individuals try to get their brains in gear to make sound choices, the findings suggest. As for the anterior cingulate cortex, the study found that when this part of the brain functions normally, we learn quickly whether a decision we made matched our expectations. If we eat food that makes us sick, we don’t eat it again. But in people with a malfunctioning anterior cingulate cortex, these signals are missing, and so they continue to make poor choices, Wallis says. “This is the first study to pin down the calculations made by these two specific parts of the brain that underlie healthy decision-making,”  Wallis says, who believes that a clearer understanding of how people with addictions make decisions may help remove some of the stigma of the condition. However, Wallis warned that the findings should not be used as a rationale for addicts to maintain unhealthy habits. Chronic drug and alcohol use changes the brain circuitry, and that can lead to unhealthy choices, he says. If anything, the findings offer hope that, through understanding the mechanism of addiction, treatment can be targeted at these risk-weighing, decision-making centers of the brain. “We know beyond doubt that addiction is a complex brain disease with significant behavioral characteristics,” says Susan E. Foster, vice president and director of policy research and analysis at the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University. “This research is an important contribution to understanding how the disease works. The challenge going forward is to sharpen our understanding, translate this knowledge into effective medical treatments and new prevention strategies and ultimately find a cure for this disease.” Researchers from the University of London and the University of Oxford contributed to the study that was funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

Chief Superintendent Mark Mathias from South Wales Police said: "Each addict can cost society not far off £850,000

Photo: PA

 

Top officers warned of the increasing cost of drug-ravaged society with hundreds of millions is being spent on the increasing number of addicts.

Chief Superintendent Mark Mathias from South Wales Police said: "Each addict can cost society not far off £850,000.

"You work through all the treatment, all the criminal justice issues that arise - then you see a significant costs involved."

Police in Swansea have launched a £500,00 clampdown in the city known as the "heroin capital of Wales" where officers have seized 1,000 "deals" in the last two weeks.

Superintendent Phil Davies said: "Some of these drug dealers have stated they are untouchable.

"My message to them is there is no hiding place, we will find you, we will catch you and we will put you behind bars."

Addict Amy Protheroe, 20, who has been an addict since she was 13 has just started her fifth treatment programme in Swansea.

She said: "When you're a heroin addict you wake up and you think straight away: "Where am I going to get money from, where am I going to score from?'"

"You get up, you go out, you get the money for the heroin, you buy the heroin, you do the heroin and then it starts all over again.

"To be honest, heroin has wrecked my life."