R u addicted 2 txt?

By Marion Simpson Edinburgh

London psychiatric clinic, the Priory, has extended its addiction programme to treat text message addicts. People with this 21st century condition are reported to spend up to seven hours a day sending texts, risking repetitive strain injury as a result of constant messaging.

The clinic, best known as the favoured detoxification facility of the rich and famous, has noticed a large rise in the problem over the past 18 months. Along with compulsive internet surfers and computer game addicts, these patients form a new wave of "contact addictions," reflecting big changes seen in the nature of addictive behaviour.

Symptoms of text addiction include an overwhelming compulsion to send text messages, taking precedence over all other activities, and withdrawal symptoms of irritability and agitation when the compulsion is denied. Secondary complications include sleep deprivation, eye strain and thumb injuries.

RU texting ur life away m8? :-(

Dr Mark Collins, the head of the Priory's addictions unit, said that texting provides people who have problems forming relationships with a safe, artificial means of contact through which they can feel in control. Like dependence on alcohol and drugs, addictions to technology reflect a desire to escape from underlying emotional problems, depression, or anxiety. And, like alcohol, texting in small quantities does not pose a problem. Only when texting becomes the focal point of a person's life must it be tackled in the same way as more traditional forms of addiction.