Internet addiction and anxiety

**Kazimiera** · 05-31-2012, 03:23 PM

I found this on a forum on an anxiety website and was wondering what you though of internet anxiety.

I don't know what's going on with me. I have always had social anxiety, but it has gotten much worse over the years.

It's to the point where I don't like going out in public, unless my husband or kids are with me. I'll do it if I have to, but I don't like it. Usually I end up procrastinating or rescheduling appointments. I even let my driver's license lapse because I can't drive anymore without going into full-blown panic mode.

Now all the sudden, I have huge social anxiety on the internet. I can't go onto forums that I'm liked and respected on and post the way I used to, because I feel like anything I say sounds stupid, or I'm going to be rediculed. I even cancelled my facebook account because the social anxiety from it is killing me.

Another reason I cancelled the facebook though, is because I'm getting paranoia issues. I don't know if this is a reasonable or unreasonable paranoia, but I can't stand the thought of being "tracked". All the applications that are used in facebook to track consumer computer habits and what websites they visit...plus the fact that the NSA is data mining and tracking website visits, emails, even all our phone calls and texts get turned over to them. The thing is, this really happens, it's not like it's in my head that this goes on. Not that I'm doing anything illegal or have anything to hide, it just bothers me a LOT and makes me paranoid about getting online or texting.

I know there aren't "agents" secretly following me around, or tapping my phone, or anything that extreme. So I don't know if it's true paranoia I feel, or just extreme displeasure at the thought of my privacy being violated. I don't know if I'm developing some type of schizotypal traits or what. I have been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and anxiety already, I just feel like I keep getting worse.

Any thoughts, comments, or opinions would be appreciated. I feel completely isolated and disconnected from the world.

There are various types of internet anxiety in my opinion.

1. Email anxiety. Lots of people report this because they know when they open their email there are going to be tons of emails waiting for them. And like bills arriving in the post they tend to be negative instead of positive. Someone complaining, money to be refunded, problems which need sorting. All this waiting for you when you log on. You hope to find something nice, but your pulse races when you open your email and see 50 unread emails, all needing attention.

Some people love email and check every 10-15 minutes because they think they might miss something. This can be fear of something bad waiting, or fear of missing something nice.

2. Internet forum anxiety. Many people who are part of internet forums have feelings of trepidation after posting. They look at threads in which they have contributed time and time again, hoping that someone said something nice, and fearing that someone might ridicule them for whatever reason. They tend to post, then edit and then sometimes delete posts and threads in the hope that no-one has read them and judged them negatively.

3. Internet addiction. This is as old as the internet which is relatively new. Internet addicts get anxiety when forums are down which they cannot access, other websites which are down which provide them with their daily fix. They also tend to get anxiety when having to be off the internet in order to complete some real life tasks, anxious to get back as soon as possible.

Is there anything you would like to add, and what your experiences regarding this.

**Frigga** · 06-18-2012, 07:44 PM

I admit that three years ago I was hugely addicted to the internet. I would be on for hours and hours, and it pissed my husband off immensely. But I did it because of unhappy circumstances in my life back then that dealt directly with him, so it was a way of rebelling I guess. But it was very difficult to get offline and to do real life tasks.