#iadhd

Ever close your laptop and put it away, only to realize that you didn't actually do the one thing you meant to to accomplish? You got your computer out to check the weather, but instead, you checked your email, updated your facebook status, read the latest headlines, checked the sports scores, watched a youtube video, and then checked your email again. You look at the clock and notice that twenty minutes have elapsed. You walk away from your computer without any idea of when Hurricane Irene will arrive (not that the weather report provides forecasts anyway). This has been happening to me a lot... With the next next revision of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, currently on its fourth edition (DSM-IV), I anticipate a new disorder on the list. Internet attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, abbreviated at iADHD, features persistent patterns of inattention when using the internet, manifested by people who do not typically display behaviors typically associated with an ADHD diagnosis. Symptoms can be so debilitating as to interfere with successful performance of planned online tasks in social, academic or occupational settings. Symptoms may lead to hours of lost time and temporary amnesia, with those individuals meeting criteria for iADHD may often have little to no recollection of what they did, read, or learned during that time.