Posts: Links / Internet addiction linked to ADHD, depression in teens

I'm trying to decide whether I was depressed, hostile, or have attention deficit hyperactivity disorder or social phobia.

even if its a byproduct of these fundamentals, at the higher levels, its really just having no friends.

I don't know, Mike. I had plenty of friends and partied hard... But when I get home - I pet my computer. lol

My mother told me a long ass time ago that teachers suggested she test me for ADD & ADHD... Her and my father didn't believe in medicating children for ADD & ADHD at the time so they didn't bother. *shrug* Who knows?

The real question is: What the heck were people with social phobia and depression doing before the internet???

Dylan, arguing about grammar and deleting their account 4-5 times. Durr.

i was on local bulletin board systems years before the internet. i met my first online friend in 1990 but i dont think i have adhd. the guy i met did though.

ADHD is not the same as D&D, nerdlinger.

I wonder what percentage of teenagers AREN'T depressed.

"In a national study conducted by the Centers for Disease Control, 61 percent of 8th to 10th graders reported feeling sad and hopeless, 36 percent reported nothing to look forward to, and 34 percent expressed serious thoughts of committing suicide."
http://parentingteens.about.com/od/depression/f/depression_faq2.htm

4 years ago I had a serious blowout with my ex-wife over our oldest daughters excessive internet usage. It has strained my relationship with my daughter for 4 years. I believe she was addicted to the internet and her mother was not helping me solve the problem. I became the 'bad guy'. Those issues were never really resolved properly and my oldest hasn't talked to me since June. Fucking internet and fucking ex-wives.

Well this thread took an unexpected turn. Was your daughter playing games or "chatting"?

..or was she developing a medium-traffic message board?

I fought a lot with my mother over computer usage. When she noticed that upon not paying the bill for a month I was still up until 4-5 in the morning except now going out and not returning home - she started paying the bill again. heh According to her, the internet was her way of keeping me out of trouble. My father is very non-confrontational so he just let her call all of the shots and gave me the evil eye whenever she asked him to. Looking back on it now, I'm not sure I agree with how my parents raised me through-out high school but I know they tried their damndest to be good parents even with the crazy amount of overtime they had to put in at work. I didn't turn out TOO bad. heh

I think the biggest problems I had was that 1. They weren't around enough and 2. There wasn't enough money to allow for me to persue extracurricular activities like Colorguard and Theater. While I had a lot of friends, I was embarassed to go out with them because I rarely had more than $5-10 on me. Then once I got a job at KMart and later Best Buy - all of that cash went into helping my parents out at home since my dying broke-ass grandparents took it upon themselves to move in without much notice.

I know it's not a "realistic" situation with today's households but it's so important that couples make sure to be financially stable with a nice large savings nest prior to bringing children into the equation, also - at least one parent [preferably both] have enough free time from the hassles of their career to focus on their child's upbringing and both parents be on the same page. I'd like to know with this study in mind as to how much focus the parents pay to their "internet addicted and socially phobic" children.

At the time the issue was spending too much time in front of the computer playing games and chatting. She was not interacting with friends outside of school or family in the home. Then i found out she had a myspace page. Her mother reluctantly agreed to limit her internet usage, but never really did so. Her mother went so far as to tell me she had forced her to delete the myspace page. What I found out later was she told her to delete that one and create a new one and I would never find out. Can you imagine a mother telling her 12 year old daughter that 1. its ok to have a myspace page, 2. as long as your father doesnt find out. I have had zero ability to help shape my daughter since then.

That's fucked up, Chris.

Sign her up to idiotechnica! : )

I had a very active life as a child but when I got home I would spend hours online talking to my friends. It was weird though, I was kind of afraid of chat rooms and never met anyone in real life from the internet. I never sent pictures either. But everyday I needed to be on the computer. The only punishment that worked for my mom was when she would take away the computer!

i actually preferred the internet before it was so based on rich media. i hate when i see a headline and i click on it and it takes me to a video or a slideshow. i want to read about the headline.