Scientifically Blonde | Texting as an addiction is OMG nutz

Nicotine, heroin, alcohol … texting?

Believe it or not, some mental health experts are starting to consider text messaging as a pathological, addictive behavior. They make some good points, but after reading the evidence, I was left thinking … “OMG! :S R they nutz !?”

“Texting addiction” has started to get some real attention — not just from pissed-off parents and high-school teachers, but also from some real heavyweights in the field of mental health.

Of course, these psychologists and psychiatrists aren’t throwing around the label “texting addiction” blindly. In fact, they’re starting to diagnose texting addiction using the same criteria they use to diagnose a typical drug addiction:

Do you spend excessive time text messaging?

When you stop, do you experience physical or emotional withdrawal?

Do you have difficulty controlling the amount of time you text message, even when it prevents you from fulfilling more pressing responsibilities?

Have you tried to cut down, only to find you can’t?

When you start answering “yes” to these criteria from the Diagnostics and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition (a.k.a. the mental illness diagnostic bible), it’s not so hard to understand how someone might group text messaging in with other addictive activities.

Scientists might have a point there, but I’m less persuaded by the new array of experts who look at changes in the brain chemistry of excessive texters as proof that text messaging qualifies as an addiction.

In general, addictive behaviors are said to “short-circuit” the dopamine reward system in our brains, giving us a surge of dopamine (a happy chemical) whenever we engage in the addictive activity. In an interview with CNN, neuroscientist Michael Seyffert explained that “neuro-imaging studies have shown that those kids who are texting have that area of the brain light up the same as an addict using heroin.”

Wow. That sounds serious!

Then again, that very reward pathway is activated when people eat chocolate bars or kiss their boy/girlfriends. And I don’t think anyone would accuse those people of having mental illnesses.

Talk of texting addictions is the latest contribution to a larger discussion about whether certain behaviors should be labeled as addictions. Recently, things like “sex addiction,” “internet addiction” and “compulsive shopping” have got similar attention. And there’s also a good chance that “compulsive gambling” will earn a spot in the revised DSM-V section on addiction.

At first I was wary of the direction this was heading — frankly, because I’m bored of hearing that every new habit of teenagers is pathological and destructive. But it seems like College junior Alexandra Olsman, for one, has bought into this now-prevalent rhetoric. “I don’t think the act of over-texting itself is a neurosis, but I think it’s a symptom of people who often have obsessive and addictive personalities,” she said.

Still, it seems like everyone has failed to ask the most basic question of all when it comes to diagnosing an addiction: Is excessive text messaging actually dangerous? If you do too much crack, you’re probably going to die. If you text too many friends, you’re probably going to be fine.

The idea of texting addiction just adds to my greater concern that the field of psychology is taking on the role of the nagging parent: always on our generation’s case about our new-fangled ways. But nobody’s yelling at my grandmother for being addicted to Scrabble. (For the record, she’s tried quitting and is finding it hard. It’s been affecting her relationships with old-time friends.)

Think about it this way: whether over-texting is pathological or not, what I think it comes down to is that if over-texting is your major vice, consider yourself in good shape. I’d rather be addicted to texting than a whole lot of other things.

Sally Engelhart is a College junior from Toronto. Her e-mail address is engelhart@theDP.com. Scientifically Blonde appears on alternate Thursdays.

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