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- PSYCHOLOGISTS say computer
nerds hooked on surfing the Internet are mentally ill and need medical
help.
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- That means those who spend more than four hours a day
on the Net could soon be treated on the NHS like alcholics and gamblers.
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- Top Brussels health advisers say new evidence shows constant
surfing creates high brain levels of the drug dopamine, an adrenalin-like
chemical linked to gambling fever.
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- Now the EU psychologists are warning Scots GPs to brace
themselves for a wave of new patients suffering from addiction to the Internet.
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- Stars like David Bowie and Keanu Reeves have already
admitted to surfing binges. Bowie gets up at 5am every day so he can cram
in four hours online.
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- But it is the growing number of ordinary surfers with
access to home computers who are causing most concern.
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- The spread of cheaper and easier ways to use computers
means that an increasing number of housewives and older people are getting
hooked.
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- The psychologists base their fears on alarming real-life
case studies. One Florida mum recently lost her children in a court custody
battle because she couldn't keep off the computer.
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- Experts say up to 400,000 Brits may develop Internet
addiction in the new Millennium. A recent study of young people in the
UK revealed that the problem often starts at college, where one in 10 students
surf the net for up to 229 minutes a day.
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- Dr Kimberely Young, a lecturer at the University of Pittsburgh
who is advising Brussels scientists, said: "Until recently, it was
regarded by some psychologists as a joking matter. But the increasing number
of divorces in which it is cited as a cause of family break-up has changed
this attitude."
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