Internet addicts face withdrawal symptoms akin to drug users
01 Jun 2017
Heavy users of the internet may face withdrawal symptoms similar to drug addicts when they are forced to go offline, with significant physiological changes such as increased heart rate and blood pressure, scientists have found.
''We have known for some time that people who are over-dependent on digital devices report feelings of anxiety when they are stopped from using them, but now we can see that these psychological effects are accompanied by actual physiological changes,'' said study lead Phil Reed, professor at Swansea University in Britain.
The study involved 144 participants, aged 18 to 33 years, whose heart rate and blood pressure were measured before and after a brief internet session. Their anxiety and self-reported internet-addiction were also assessed.
The results showed increases in physiological arousal for those with problematically high internet usage on terminating the internet session. There was an average 3 to 4 per cent increase in heart rate and blood pressure, and in some cases double that figure, immediately on termination of internet use, compared to before using it, for those with digital-behaviour problems, according to the study published in the journal PLOS ONE.
The physiological changes indicate a withdrawal-like state seen for many 'sedative' drugs, such as alcohol, cannabis and heroin.
Although the changes are not enough to be life-threatening, they can be associated with feelings of anxiety, and with alterations to the hormonal system that can reduce immune responses. This state may be responsible for some people's need to re-engage with their digital devices to reduce these unpleasant feelings.
However, there were no such changes for participants who reported no internet-usage problems.
