In a recent press interview, Arnaud Cerutti, a young Geneva-based journalist, talked about how Facebook had “almost saved his life”. Arnaud joined Facebook in the midst of a serious depression. The social network allowed him to get in touch with old friends and helped him realise from the depths of his solitude that people showed an interest in him. But it was when he published a photo of himself, showing how physically wasted away he had become, that the online relationship took on real-life form. When his estranged family saw the picture, they grasped the full extent of his condition and called the Swiss psychiatry supervisory council to have him treated. Arnaud says that he has since rediscovered his lust for life and now has friendships on and off line.

For better – as in Arnaud’s case – or for worse, new technologies have come to occupy a considerable place in our lives. To the extent that it has become practically absurd to refer to life on line as “virtual”. “Relationships formed on the internet are real, a part of everyday life,” says French psychologist Yann Leroux, author of several works on the influence of new media on psychology. “In my consultations, people tell me about what they do on Meetic and Facebook while making no distinction with other parts of their lives.” The web gives many shy people a window on the world and a more comfortable way to interact with others. “People aren’t physically exposed on the internet. They can play any number of roles because the other person can’t see them,” says Sophia Achab, head of the addiction unit at the Geneva University Hospitals (HUG). “You can hone your skills on the web before expressing them in real life.”

„People addicted to online gambling and seeking help arrive in a state of deep anxiety and depression.“

Olivier Simon, Associate Physician at the CHUV

For better – as in Arnaud’s case – or for worse, new technologies have come to occupy a considerable place in our lives. To the extent that it has become practically absurd to refer to life on line as “virtual”. “Relationships formed on the internet are real, a part of everyday life,” says French psychologist Yann Leroux, author of several works on the influence of new media on psychology. “In my consultations, people tell me about what they do on Meetic and Facebook while making no distinction with other parts of their lives.” The web gives many shy people a window on the world and a more comfortable way to interact with others. “People aren’t physically exposed on the internet. They can play any number of roles because the other person can’t see them,” says Sophia Achab, head of the addiction unit at the Geneva University Hospitals (HUG). “You can hone your skills on the web before expressing them in real life.”

While freeing some people from their inhibitions, new technologies also have a dark side, trapping users in a web of dependency. The “bible of psychiatry”, The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, or DSM, has yet to classify cyber-dependency as a known disorder, but more and more people are seeing doctors for problems stemming from excessive use of new media. “We get this kind of case regularly, especially with gambling addicts, often involving several individuals,” says Olivier Simon, Associate Physician at the Centre for Excessive Gambling at the Lausanne University Hospital (CHUV).

Research on this type of mental problem is still in its infancy and a clear consensus as to the reality of the addiction has yet to be established among psychiatrists and psychologists. Yann Leroux has a sceptical view. “It’s a holy grail that people have been looking for in vain for years. In my opinion cyber-addiction doesn’t exist. People with psychopathological problems express them through the social networks and internet.” In other words, the technological tools have no addictive properties in themselves, unlike substances such as nicotine. They are simply outlets through which people with mental illnesses express their problems.

Yann Leroux cites the example of FOMO, or the “fear of missing out”. FOMO sufferers are under the impression that other people are having more fun than them and are worried about missing the “unmissable” party. FOMO, which can paralyse an individual in asserting a preference, is caused by the non-stop comparison of personal choices and those of others, aided and abetted by posts on the social networks. “But really it’s just an old fear dressed up in modern clothing, the fear of not having bought the right car or not getting good marks,” says Yann Leroux. “In today’s world, where everyone is interconnected, a person can feel left out simply by having failed to follow a particularly heated discussion on line.”

While caution should be taken before declaring the appearance of new syndromes, a substantial amount of research shows that there is a link between new media and addiction. “Even if the causality hasn’t been formally established and test samples are still limited in scale, brain imaging data demonstrate similarities between addiction to the internet and addiction to a substance,” says psychiatrist Sophia Achab. Head of the “New Addiction, New Treatment” programme launched in 2007 in Geneva, Sophia Achab took part in a study sketching out a parallel between web and cigarette addiction. “Internet use activates parts of the brain associated with the idea of reward. We noted the secretion of dopamine and serotonin, for example. Even with the absence of a substance an addiction may develop, as it does with gambling.”

Surprisingly, the same mechanisms are involved in the two cases. “For example, multi-player online video games bring players a consistent and immediate dose of wellbeing after the game. Players moving up to higher game levels experience an even better feeling, as they set their aim on new goals and receive acknowledgement from their peers.” These mechanisms, combined with the 24/7 access, low cost, high speed and anonymity of the web, favour the development of addiction. Addiction is diagnosed by psychiatry departments from the moment a form of suffering is expressed, not just by the person’s friends and family but by the person himself. The latter is forced to put other parts of his life on hold – work or social relations, for example – in order to get his dose of satisfaction, much like cocaine-addicted mice willing to pedal forever to obtain their drug. “People seeking help at this level generally arrive in a state of deep anxiety and depression,” says Olivier Simon.

Unlimited access to electronic media may contribute to the addiction, but it is the content in itself – chat sessions, social networks, porn sites, games – that works as a catalyst. “In the prehistoric era, the more humans grouped together, the higher their chance of survival. Some spheres of the web call on these same primal instincts,” says Olivier Simon.
By strengthening the feeling of belonging to a community, the social networks have a reassuring effect. “Also, sites with strong and hard-hitting stimuli elicit reactions related to survival, sex and social interaction.”

Given the extent of the stimuli, specialists talk about cyber-addictions in the plural. Cyber-dependents also include subgroups with a variety of profiles. “Women are more addicted to the social networks, mature men to cyber-porn and well-integrated young people to video games. But these categories are shifting with the arrival of new technologies,” says Sophia Achab.

The disconnect between online and offline behaviour can also be credited to the recognition of cyber-dependency. “In my practice I have never encountered people addicted to both sex and porn sites or to real-life gambling and online poker,” says Sophia Achab. “People visit virtual casinos in search of different sensations. Sociability and chatting while playing on slot machines, which may play a role in entrenching problem gambling, do not exist online.”

Treating these addictions is complex because sufferers cannot be weaned completely, as they can with addictive substances. As a result, treatment often involves individual or group therapy. “The idea is to help the person find a life objective. They have to re-learn how to consume multimedia content. We also try to find out to what extent the addiction is linked to family issues and how the evolution of the addiction is affecting the sufferer’s family and friends.”

Experts all agree that the web should not be demonised. “It’s a working tool that only becomes problematic for a small minority,” says Sophia Achab. Internet is a life preserver for some and a new way of living their sexuality and social life for others. It is a place for interaction, generally positive but sometimes destructive. The key is educating people on how to limit the risk of ill use. ⁄