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Russia is not without its own anti-Internet gambling zealots, similar to the USA.....and then there are those who - for better or for good - want the entire Internet cleansed .
The national newspaper, Pravda, recently highlighted some of the horrors brought on by general Internet addiction.
"The symptoms of Internet addiction disorder may include: cybersex, online love affairs, porn-viewing and excessive gaming, of course."
Yes - of course!
Medical centers specializing on the rehabilitation on Internet victims are springing up like mushrooms throughout Russia apparently.
"Many people use the Internet like alcohol and do not develop an addiction to it. Afterwards, they may lose control over themselves and develop something similar to alcoholism.
"Internet addiction disorder (IAD) is a hypothetical disorder originally made as a satirical hoax by Ivan Goldberg, M.D., in 1995. He took pathological gambling as diagnosed by the DSM-IV as his model for the spoofed description."
"All sins tend to be addictive, and the terminal point of addiction is damnation," expressed Gambling911.com Operations Manager, Payton O'Brien.
Supporters often divide IAD into subtypes by activity, according to the Pravda report. These includes pornography, overwhelming and immoderate gaming, inappropriate involvement in online social networking sites or blogging, and Internet shopping addiction.
Reverend Trask, a Spiritual Advisor for the Gambling911.com website cited Rom. 6:12-13: "Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God."
In essence, the World Wide Web should not take control over us, Trask advises.
While there is mixed agreement about whether Internet Addiction is a legitimate, simultaneously, self-proclaimed sufferers are resorting to the courts for redress.
Pravda pointed to one recent American case (Pacenza v. IBM Corp.), the plaintiff argued he was illegally terminated in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act owing to his Internet Addiction triggered by Vietnam War-related Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. The case is pending before the court in the Southern District of New York (case summarized in Glaser & Carroll, 2007).
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Jagajeet Chiba, Gambling911.com
