Internet Addiction Quiz

Do you feel tethered to your computer? Do you feel like you just can't pull away and unplug? Has your time on the Internet come to replace things or relationships you once loved? If you feel like your Internet use is affecting your health and overall well-being, take this quiz. Learn the warning signs of Internet addiction.

A Growing Epidemic

Studies on Internet addiction originated in the US by Dr. Kimberly Young, who presented the first research on Internet addiction in 1996 at the American Psychological Association’s annual conference held in Toronto in her paper Internet Addiction: The Emergence of a New Disorder. Since then, studies have documented Internet addiction in a growing number of countries such as Italy, Pakistan, Iran, Germany, and the Czech Republic. Reports also indicate that Internet addiction has become a serious public health concern in China, Korea, and Taiwan.

Treatment centers have emerged across the US and abroad. Dr. Kimberly Young has likened Internet addiction to addictive syndromes similar to impulse-control disorders not unlike drug addiction. She developed the Internet Addiction Diagnostic Questionnaire (IADQ) to diagnose the disorder. Meeting five of the following symptoms were considered necessary to be diagnosed.

Internet Addiction Quiz

1. Do you feel preoccupied with the Internet, think about a previous online activity or anticipate the next online session?

2. Do you feel the need to use the Internet with increasing amounts of time in order to achieve satisfaction?

3. Have you repeatedly made unsuccessful efforts to control, cut back, or stop Internet use?

4. Do you feel restless, moody, depressed, or irritable when attempting to cut down or stop Internet use?

5. Do you stay online longer than originally intended?

6. Have you jeopardized or risked the loss of a significant relationship, job, educational or career opportunity because of the Internet?

7. Have you lied to family members, therapist, or others to conceal the extent of involvement with the Internet?

8. Do you use the Internet as a way of escaping from problems or of relieving a dysphoric mood (like feelings of helplessness, guilt, anxiety or depression?)

Other Symptoms Include

• Failed attempts to control behavior

• Heightened sense of euphoria while involved in computer and Internet activities

• Neglecting friends and family

• Neglecting sleep to stay online

• Being dishonest with others

• Feeling guilty, ashamed, anxious, or depressed as a result of online behavior

• Physical changes such as weight gain or loss, backaches, headaches, carpal tunnel syndrome

• Withdrawing from other pleasurable activities

I know I'm in trouble when it comes to Internet Addiction! Especially the part about neglecting sleep to stay online. What about you?

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After Being Put Into A Coma I Haven't Felt Better

What Happens When Someone Is Put Into A Coma:

Sometimes someone is so ill they are put into a coma to save their lives. That is what happened to me. I had two seizures before getting to the hospital and my left lung was filled with puke and had collapsed. I was spiking a high fever and phenomena was setting in already. The Doctor's decided that a coma was the best way to save my life. I was put into a drug-induced coma. Luckily I never needed a ventilator after they cleared my lung out.

Someone who is in a coma is unconscious and will not respond to voices, sounds, or any sort of activity going on nearby. Not even intense pain will bring forth a response. The person is still alive, but the brain is functioning at its lowest stage of alertness. You can't shake and wake up someone who is in a coma like you can someone who has just fallen asleep.

I can tell you from first-hand experience that you can't hear people when in a coma-like some believe you can. Reading to someone in a coma from a book is just for your own comfort, not theirs. All I remember from being in my coma was my never-ending very strange dream that I had.

My dream was unlike any other dream I ever had while sleeping normally at night. The dream was probably based on my brain functioning at such a low level and all the drugs in me but it was very eerie. I dreamed about people in my life, and some that weren't yet. I wish I could have remembered the imagery it was very creepy and when I woke up I was totally freaked out until I realized I was awake and where I was.

My dream drove me to question what really happens when you die? If I would have passed away would I have dreamed until the very last brain cell gave out? And then what? For me, being so close to death was not an empty time that I couldn't remember and ever since then it's caused me to rethink my prior beliefs. But to what?

Then there's the way I have felt since being out of the coma and hospital. As soon as I came out of the coma and the doctors started telling me what happened it was hard to believe it was so serious because even with the tubes sticking out of every orifice and then some I felt surprisingly well. I even left the hospital faster then they wanted me to. I really shocked my doctors especially since they still can't find out what caused all this to happen!

I remember reading stories about coma patients who claimed that being in a coma 'reset' their brains and bodies in a new way that hadn't expected. I felt this way too and after having people who knew me tell me this I decided to look into it. Unfortunately for me I couldn't find much. Most of the articles were just about comas and were all very similar. People awakening from comas did not feel this way, often having to relearn even the most basic of functions. I was very lucky indeed!

People may emerge from a coma with a combination of physical, intellectual and psychological difficulties that need special attention. Recovery usually occurs gradually....patients acquire more and more ability to respond. Some patients never progress beyond very basic responses, but some can recover full awareness. Regaining consciousness is not instant: in the first days, patients are only awake for a few minutes, and duration of time awake gradually increases. In reality, the coma patient wakes sometimes in a profound state of confusion, not knowing how they got there and sometimes suffering from the inability to articulate any speech, and with many other disabilities.

This is unlike the situation in my life where I awoke from my coma and was instantly able to continue my normal life. Of course, I was not in a coma for a long period of time. When I woke up I was up for good and didn't relapse back into unconsciousness. I was anxious to walk, speak and do everything I could to go home from the hospital. The doctors were very surprised at my state after being on death's door. I was not confused in the beginning but I couldn't remember anything that happened to me and had to be told what transpired that week and why I was at the hospital.

This is a statistic that really freaked me out! The most common cause of death for a person in a vegetative state is a secondary infection such as pneumonia which can occur in patients who lie still for extended periods. For me I got pneumonia right away from swallowing my vomit and an ultra-high fever so I was very lucky I had the best staff working on me at Kaiser. They saved my life.

So what I found out after researching this is that I'm a lucky person to have come out of it like I did. It was very hard on my body and I took a month to recover from all of it fully. Even the day after I came home I felt so much better than I had in years! I couldn't put my finger on it but when other's noticed it too it confirmed what I had thought had happened. I was somehow a new person! I even looked better and I couldn't believe it.! A lot of my old pain was gone and my wrist that I had pinched a nerve in before had healed! The numbness was gone and I could move my fingers again. It was like a miracle! I felt so well that I was being more active than I had before this happened to me! (Bear with me on the use of "!".)

The odds were against me and I survived. The fact that I didn't go into a coma on my own and they induced one is like arguing apples and oranges. A coma is a coma and they are very dangerous. I had several medical problems that alone could have killed me, but no. I had my dream during these goings on that must of helped my brain deal and I really believe this! I also think that the coma reset my brain, not unlike an electrical circuit can be reset. Everyone knows the brain runs on electrical impulses. My brain got reset to a time before my injuries before I felt so bad, it went back to a happier mental pattern in my life and all I can say is I'm super lucky and it's very awesome! I'm thankful I'm not learning how to tie my shoes again or speak. I'm truly blessed and will not squander this new chance I have been given!

Thank you, my higher power!

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Back From The Dead

Let us pray....

By now most of you got the gist of what happened to me last week. I am one lucky woman to still be alive and writing this blog to tell you about it. To tell you the truth, I think it's finally sinking into my fevered brain just how gone I was before they got me back. Here's what happened in two weeks and why I disappeared without a word.

The week before last I wasn't feeling well. I was tired, wasn't hungry, didn't have much of an interest in anything and it was so unlike me. I just figured I was depressed since it felt so much like depression. I wasn't getting enough sleep. I kept wondering why I wasn't so happy with my move and why I felt so bad. Nothing stuck out that I could put my finger on but I was having some fluid retention in my my feet and hands. I gained 10 pounds before I knew it even though I eat healthy foods and watch my weight. I keep my weight around 138 and it soared upwards in a half a week. Still, I thought it would pass and didn't have a clue.

Last week I got up on the 12th , it was just like any other day but I was tired. I decided to go back to bed. James (my roommate) was getting ready for work. That's the last thing I remember!

I woke up in the hospital with tubes coming out of every opening and then some. Two days had gone by already. When I came to there was a tube down my throat and they had to remove it quickly because I was chocking on it. I didn't remember anything and this is what I was told by the hospital staff as they explained things to me.

They said I had been found in my bed by James. He had come into the bedroom to get his shoes for work. I was lucky that he did! I had puked and was choking on it. I was gurgling in the throat. My left lung was filled with it and I was having a seizure. I had bit my tongue and it was bleeding. My eyes were opened and rolled up in my head.

James dialed 911 and they got there within minutes. They bagged me and couldn't get the ambulance into our little parking lot so they ran out with me on a bed sheet. I was dying on the way to the hospital.

They induced coma to treat and save me. I had gotten pneumonia and my organs were failing. I was brought back from the dead in Intensive Care while in the coma. I was there a day.

After that they moved me to the Pulmonary Care Unit where they dealt with my organs malfunctioning. They had put a tube down my lung to take out the fluid and while in there I woke up. I was shocked to find myself in the hospital and that it was 2 days later! I was really freaked out when they told me what had transcribed. All very sobering!

I'm Alive!

Kaiser Permanente had saved my life! They were excellent and very professional the whole time I was there. All the personal were very nice and went out of their way to make my stay comfortable. They took good care of me when I was in the Coma.

I was taken out of Intensive Care and moved to a room in the hospital proper with another woman where I stayed for two more days. Then only 4 days later they released me to come home. I was never so happy to go home! I felt like the Bride Of Frankenstein, brought back to life.

I have to have an MRI next week and take it to Neurology but I was very lucky that they haven't found anything wrong with me as of yet. Still, I don't have a history of seizures like they thought originally so I don't know what is better. To have them find a reason for this, or not have them find a reason at all! LOL! Nice to alive and kicking indeed!

While there I was treated for:

♦Severe Sepsis W Acute Organ Dysfunction, Septicemia, Final ID Pending

Elevated lactate may be related to infection (left infiltrate) or possibly as a consequence of seizure earlier today.

♦Aspiration Pneumonia

♦Priority 1,HIGHEST Extensive left sided infiltrate associated with seizure and emesis in the ED. Major concern is for aspiration.

♦Seizure

Etiology not clear. Per report, there is a possible history of seizures, so this may be recurrence. No lesions on head CT. Would proceed with LP to r/o CNS infection.

♦Chronic Pain

What a lucky break for me to be home and relatively okay.

I'm glad to be back home and online. Thanx again for all your best wishes! I am doing really well now so no worries. See you around very soon!

Keep On Bloggin'!

Nerve Damage To My Left Hand

I fell asleep at my desk after a long night on the computer and woke up with a numb left arm. Thinking it fell asleep I tried to wake it up. My arm got feeling back but I couldn’t control my left wrist or hand. I was dumbstruck as to what was wrong.

I have fallen asleep at my computer a zillion times and never had a problem like this no matter if I woke up with keyboard lines on my face. (Which has happened before.) Why this time? I had no good answer.

As I continued to look at my new problem I kept trying to control what couldn’t be controlled. My wrist would flop around as I tried to lift my hand up and down. It looked awful! My fingers wouldn’t work and my wrist wouldn’t turn. I really did it this time.

I'm used to touch typing and right now I can't do it with my left hand so I have to do half and half. No using my finger to type either. It is really scaring me, this time I pinched my hand and it caused my wrist and fingers to lose some function.

I already have bad knees and now this! I have never been so scared in my life, only some function has come back...I'm trying to get into my Doctor's for tomorrow but they aren't known to be fast. We will just have to see I guess. I'm in God's hands now.

To do anything that takes any finesse with my fingers fails and my wrist flaps around like the boneless man at a freak show. I can move it only not very fast with some control. Losing even some hand/wrist motions is very sobering. I hope it’s not permanent!

I can’t write so that’s why I haven’t been posting much lately. I’m lucky to get this up and it took me awhile to do it. I’ll update you on this new problem as soon as I find something out. I can only pray that it will go away.

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