The addiction begins innocently. At the start, you are not even aware of the possibilities that may form from your excessive computer use. You begin to take an avid interest in e-mailing with your friends and family. Once the novelty of keeping in touch with your colleagues wears off, and researching starts to bore you, you may possibly expand your computer usage to chatting. Yes, chatting. It is something that is becoming more acceptable in our lives, but it is still looked down upon by many skeptics. Chatting through the Internet involves choosing an appropriate nickname for yourself (IE: Fisherman), and then finding a room where you feel compelled to spend time in. Once you've entered the room, other fellow chatters may say, "Hello...a/s/l (age/sex/location) please."

People with no prior sign of psychiatric trouble have gotten hooked on the Internet too. Yes, it is avoidable, but still many people fall into the addictive track, just as if it were smoking, drinking, or any other habitual behavior. The addiction can attack anyone, of any age. Today's youth live with the Internet as a daily part of their lives. Chatting after school and on the weekends is listed among the usual activities like sporting events and shopping. Help is available, but don't get yourself tangled into the addiction. It's hard to break once you've got yourself wound into the habit. Good luck fellow Internet users.

People who seem addicted to the Internet often show signs of psychiatric disorders such as, manic-depression. Psychiatrist Nathan Shapira of the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, studied 14 people who had spent so much time online, that they were facing problems at home, job loss, and flunking out of school. Nine of the 14 people studied, were found to have manic-depression at the time of the interview; half of the users had anxiety disorder such as "social phobia"; three suffered from eating disorders; four had uncontrollable burst of anger; and eight had abused alcohol or drugs at some time in their life. (Associated Press)

Symptoms of Internet Addiction Disorder include: "A) Psychomotor agitation, B) anxiety, C) obsessive thinking about what is happening on Internet, D) fantasies or dreams a

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Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)