Doctor Claims Sending Lots of SMS's is a Mental Disorder
People who send large quantities of SMS messages could be suffering from a mental disorder more usually associated with internet addiction - writes a doctor in the latest issue of the American Journal Of Psychiatry. He wrote that people who are denied access to the internet or mobile phones displayed feelings of anger, tension, and/or depression.
Jerald Block said that "internet addiction" is a "common disorder" that deserved inclusion in a manual of mental disorders used by health professionals. He also argued that excessive - as he put it - sending of SMS's or computer gaming should be put into the same category as an internet disorder.
It could be suggested therefore that it is communication addiction that is the core of the problem, and that the internet is simply one of many ways of expressing that addiction - albeit the most convenient.
It was difficult to know how widespread the illness was, Dr Block said. "Attempts to measure the phenomenon are clouded by shame, denial, and minimization," he wrote.
On the web: American Journal Of Psychiatry
Posted to the site on 27th March 2008