Internet Addiction

Are you unsure what Internet addiction is and whether your client has this disorder? Would you like to know more about how to help your clients? Then this concise, evidence-based guide for busy professionals is for you.

• Disentangles the debates on terminology and diagnosis
• Latest knowledge on the assessment and treatment
• Hands on guidance for carrying out group CBT
• Printable tools for assessment and treatment

This book examines how you can identify, assess, and treat Internet addiction in the most effective manner. Internet use has become an integral part of our daily lives, but at what point does Internet use become problematic? What are the different kinds of Internet addiction? And how can professionals best help clients? Internet addiction refers to a range of behavioral problems, including social media addiction and Internet gaming disorder.

This compact, evidence-based guide written by leading experts from the field helps disentangle the debates and controversies around Internet addiction and outlines the current assessment and treatment methods. The book presents a 12–15 session treatment plan for Internet and gaming addiction using the method and setting with the best evidence: group CBT. Printable tools in the appendix help clinicians implement therapy. This accessible book is essential reading for clinical psychologists, psychiatrists, psychotherapists, counsellors, social workers, teachers, as well as students.

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Praise for the book

“This excellent book is a pleasure to read. It provides up-to-date coverage of the research findings on Internet addiction, clarifies the areas needing further research, and offers valuable, practical information on the best-studied treatment approaches. At a time when clinicians are scrambling to learn what they can about the rapidly developing problem of Internet addiction, this book offers them an excellent place to start.”
Hilarie Cash, PhD, Chief Clinical Officer and Co-Founder of reSTART Life, PLLC, Fall City, WA – the first residential treatment program for Internet addiction in the US

“For the researcher, clinician, or anyone who has concerns about how the Internet is shaping our lives, this is an essential collection of the latest research evidence and thinking on Internet addiction. The refreshing lack of bias in consideration of our knowledge to date of this complex and controversial problem does not shy away from the reality that for some, their Internet activities are beyond their control. Exploring causation, assessment, therapeutic approaches, and prognosis, there is much to guide and inform both the health practitioner and academic researcher in our unprecedented times. Excellent!”
Dr. Richard Graham, Consultant Child & Adolescent Psychiatrist, Technology Addiction Service, Nightingale Hospital, London, UK; Clinical Director, Good Thinking – The London Digital Mental Well-Being Service; Executive Board, UK Council for Child Internet Safety (UKCCIS)

“Kuss and Pontes’ Internet Addiction provides not only a much-needed history of the evolution of Internet disorders and their global prevalence, but also teaches clinicians how to tackle their treatment. This is a book to include on the reading list for any mental health professionals wanting to know more about one of the ‘new’ addictions."
Dr. Henrietta Bowden-Jones, FRCPsych, BA(Hons), DOccMed, MD(Imperial), Royal College of Psychiatrists Spokesperson on Behavioural Addictions, London, UK

“This is an excellent overview of Internet addiction, one of today’s most exciting and pressing mental health issues. The emergence of the Internet and the accompanying developments in information and communication technology have impacted substantially on our everyday lives, bringing both new possibilities and new problems. This book provides a comprehensive overview of research done on Internet addiction and related disorders over the past two decades and, crucially, introduces therapeutic interventions that have been shown to work.”
Zsolt Demetrovics, PhD, Professor of Psychology at ELTE Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary; Editor-in-Chief, Journal of Behavioral Addictions