NEWS - Internet addiction: local professionals say treatments still emerging

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Internet addiction: Local professionals say treatments still emerging

First residential facility of its kind opened this summer near Seattle

Chicago Tribune

September 9, 2009

Though the nation's first residential treatment center for Internet

addiction opened this summer near Seattle, local experts say they've

been treating the problem for some time.

" In the last few years, I'm hearing from more parents who are very

concerned, " said Jeanette Spires, a Lake Forest-based educational

consultant who matches troubled teens with the right therapeutic

setting. " Their kids have stopped going to school ... because they are

just obsessed. "

The center, called reSTART, opened in July and is designed

specifically for people who can't kick their cyber-habit -- be it

Facebook, video poker or " World of Warcraft. " The cost? $14,000 for 45

days.

While the American Psychiatric Association has yet to recognize the

preoccupation as a separate disorder, mental health professionals

usually treat it under the broader umbrella of impulse control

disorders.

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Read the entire article here:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-talk-internet-addictionsep09,0,7078258.st\

ory

Not an MD