Internet Addiction and Relationship with Depression Anxiety and Stress

Introduction: Internet is one of the greatest technologies developed, which has aided mankind in every way to make his life easier. Like any pathological disorder, internet addiction is also impulse – controlled without any specific intoxicant. The negative effects of internet use have been described in a few studies and characterized as depression, anxiety, craving, hostility, loss of control, low self-esteem, social phobia, poor sleep quality, preoccupation and withdrawal. Materials and methods: This cross-sectional study was done on 277 children and adolescents between the ages of 6 – 18 years who had approached the outpatient ward of our hospital. Information about the internet addiction was collected by using the questionnaire according to the young’s criteria. Depression, Anxiety and Stress were measured according to the Depression, Anxiety, Stress Scale-21 (DASS-21), which is a questionnaire consisting of 21 points using 4-point Likert’s scale for the measurement of all the 3 parameters. Results:  76% of the children showed mild to severe levels of addiction to the internet with the most common age group being 10-14 years. 37.4% of the children spent 4-6 hours on the internet per day while 24.2% spent more than 6 hours per day. Over 68% of them used internet late into the night. Over 62% of the children addicted to internet were depressed while 65% of them were overtly anxious and nearly 70% of them were stressed. Conclusion: Internet addiction should be treated similar to drug or alcohol addiction. Identifying such children and adolescents who are on the verge of internet addiction or already addicts is highly important so that timely treatment or rehabilitation may be taken at the earliest.