Ben Alexander spent nearly every waking minute playing the video game World of Warcraft. As a result, he flunked out of the University of Iowa.
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Alexander, 19, needed help to break an addiction he calls as destructive as alcohol or drugs. He found it in [a] suburb of high-tech Seattle, where what claims to be the first residential treatment center for Internet addiction in the United States just opened its doors.
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The center, called ReSTART, is somewhat ironically located near Redmond, headquarters of Microsoft and a world center of the computer industry. It opened in July and for $14,000 offers a 45-day program intended to help people wean themselves from pathological computer use, which can include obsessive use of video games, texting, Facebook, eBay, Twitter and any other time-killers brought courtesy of technology.
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We’ve been doing this for years on an outpatient basis, said Hilarie Cash, a therapist and executive director of the center. Up until now, we had no place to send them.
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Internet addiction is not recognized as a separate disorder by the American Psychiatric Association, and treatment is not generally covered by insurance. But there are many such treatment centers in China, South Korea and Taiwan — where Internet addiction is taken very seriously — and many psychiatric experts say it is clear that Internet addiction is real and harmful.
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The five-acre center in Fall City, about 30 miles east of Seattle, can handle up to six patients at a time. Alexander is so far the only patient of the program, which uses a cold turkey approach. He spends his days in counseling and psychotherapy sessions, doing household chores, working on the grounds, going on outings, exercising and baking a mean batch of ginger cookies.
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Whether such programs work in the long run remains to be seen. For one thing, the Internet is…