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Abstract While many believed the term addiction should be applied only to cases involving the ingestion of a drug, defining addiction has moved beyond this to include a number of behaviors which do not involve an intoxicant such as compulsive gambling, video game playing, overeating, exercise, love relationships, and television-viewing (Alexander and Scheweighofer, 1988). Bayle et al. (1996) proposed that compulsive disorders as kleptomania and trichotillomania as well as pathological behaviours (e.g. suicidal behaviours, compulsive spending) should also be included in the addictive spectrum. These disorders are now collectively referred to as ”Behavioral Addiction”. The Internet & video games cause enthusiasm but also arouse worry. Addiction (dependency), isolation, retiring within oneself, and loss of reality are among the possible risks of overuse of these modern technologies. (Plusqelle, 2000) However, the concept ”Internet addiction”, also called ”Internet addictive disorder” or ”pathological Internet use”, entered the medical dictionary in 1995. More and more authors have been preoccupied with it lately, and the majority concluded that this condition, on which some people cast doubt a few years ago, well and truly exists. Several forms of Internet addiction appear to exist, categorized according to the type of misuse it is subjected to: ”cybersex”, ”chat rooms”, ”net gaming”, the pathological search for information or video games being the most frequent (Dejoie, 2001). |