As more Canadian parents seek help for their children for gaming and social media addiction, experts continue to struggle over a definition and treatment for the condition.
Quebec is the only province to publicly fund cyber addiction care. But pricey private rehab centres have opened across the country, for those who can afford it.
One of them is Venture Academy, which offers adolescents residential treatment at centres in Alberta and Ontario. Joshua Montgomery, CEO of the academy, said they have seen the number of patients admitted for electronic addiction more than double in the last five years, from almost one in four, to half their clients.
“I was just reviewing an application the other day. The youth becomes very aggressive when they try to take his electronics away or limit his use of online activities,” said Montgomery. “While we’re not diagnosing at the application process, it becomes very evident that there is a behavioural addiction to electronics.”
In assessing a new client, an admissions team has parents complete a questionnaire outlining their child’s history of mental health issues, medical, social and other information. From there, a psychiatrist and other mental health workers develop a treatment plan for the child.
The centre costs $650 per day for behavioural therapy treatment. The average family keeps their child at the academy for four months, which would cost $78,000. The centre offers financial assistance to 40 to 50 per cent of their clients.
First treatment model
More publicly funded help may be coming. In 2018, Quebec and the federal government agreed to add funding for cyber addiction services at each of the province’s rehab centres. In 2019, the Quebec government released data showing a drastic increase in youth treated for internet addiction, from 83 to 467 over a five-year period.
This year, Magali Dufour, an associate professor at the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM) whose expertise is cyber addiction, was contracted by the province to develop Canada’s first model of internet addiction treatment for 15 to 25 year olds. Dufour will work with doctors to develop the program, called Virtua.
“It’s interesting because it’s a project that we are doing with the clinicians. They don’t just recruit. They don’t just do the treatment. They will be (involved with) analyzing the strategy,” Dufour told Canadian Affairs. “We will discuss with them what kind of improvement we can do to the treatment.”
Not a recognized condition — yet
A 2016 study published in the scientific journal Psychological Science found receiving ‘likes’ on social media increased activity in the area of the brain associated with reward. Similarly, another research paper published in 2020 in the Journal of Neurology & Neurophysiology found reward-based activities, such as scrolling through ‘reels’, releases dopamine in the brain.
Dopamine is the hormone responsible for happiness. The release of the hormone creates a recurring urge to stay on screen for the next rush of happiness, a pattern also seen in gambling addiction.
However, internet and social media disorder is not recognized as a medical condition, according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5). Currently gambling is the only non-substance related disorder with which people can be diagnosed.
But change may be forthcoming. This year, the American Psychiatric Association, which defines disorders, issued 10 recommendations for social media use among minors, “based on the scientific evidence to date” — a first for the organization.
The association’s recommendations include that adults should monitor youth social media use, and should ensure their time online is not interfering with their sleep and exercise.
The lack of a definition of internet and social media addiction complicates establishing an effective treatment, said Tyler Black, a psychiatrist and clinical assistant professor at the University of British Columbia.
The scientific efforts to define internet gaming disorder, video game disorder or social media addiction usually try to borrow language from substance addiction, said Black. “But it’s really not the same thing.”
“If all of a sudden Instagram went offline, no one would die of withdrawal.”
Instead, social media addiction is a “process addiction” where the addict has a behavioural, not substance, problem. It involves a loss of self-control, with the addict constantly repeating the behaviour even when that causes detrimental effects to their life.
Education essential
Michael Adorjan is more sanguine about the risks. The associate sociology professor at the University of Calgary has studied youth perspectives on internet and social media use.
It’s a myth that a significant portion of adolescents have negative experiences with technology, Adorjan said. He found teens engage on social media to fight their fear of missing out and to respond to what others say about them.
Instead of just looking toward individualized solutions on social media use, such as one-on-one treatment plans, Adorjan said there should be better cyber education for youth.
“I think that there could be more discussion about how to manage technologies,” said Adorjan. “Good digital literacy skills, critical media study skills for misinformation, disinformation, those sorts of things need to come very early.”
Also, parents should model the behaviour they preach for their children at home, he said. “There’s a lot more discussion that needs to be held in terms of the wider family dynamics in the home.”
I just started a website https://www.smartphonefreechildhood.ca . First we should go there, then seek treatment for addicted youth. Get rid of the problem first, all it takes is a Federal Government with some balls.