Tech obsession ruins several relationships

NEW YORK: Technology might be just as addictive as alcohol and drugs and could also wreak havoc with personal and work relationships, a leading expert said.

John O’Neill, the director of addictions services at the Menninger Clinic in Houston, Texas refers to it as “technology overload” when he sees addiction-like behaviour in his patients using cell phones or emails.

“I think they share some of the same components as people who become addicted to alcohol and drugs in that we start to see that someone cannot really put it down and cannot stop the use of it even when there are some consequences,” he said. “We can become overloaded by technology and suffer consequences in our relationships,” he added.

O’Neill’s observations are backed up by psychologists who have classified technology addiction as an impulse disorder that can be as socially damaging as alcoholism, gambling and drug addiction.

The Internet/Computer Addiction Services in Washington, which runs treatment programs and provides therapy, estimate that 6 to 10% of the approximately 189 million Internet users in the US have a dependency on technology.