Although “internet addiction” has yet to be officially recognized as a psychiatric condition, a hospital in Pennsylvania has become the first in the world to offer a treatment program for it.
According to Fox News, the voluntary inpatient program—which means no forced intervention—is organized by “experts in the field and cognitive specialists with backgrounds in treating more familiar addictions like drug and alcohol abuse”.
Patients participating in the program will have to go through a “digital detox” where they are cut off from the internet for 72 hours—after which, they will go through psychological evaluation and counselling activities.
To receive this treatment, patients would have to be relatively deep-pocketed financially—the program would cost each of them US$14,000, an expense that would not be covered by insurance.
Dr. Kimberly Young, the founder of the non-profit program, points out that a “mere dependence on modern technology does not make someone an internet addict”—find out more about the “condition” and the program that is designed to treat it here.
[via Fox News, image via Kotaku]