The first man to experience an internet addiction disorder triggered by overuse of Google Glass is being treated by scientists, The Guardian reported.
The man only removed the gear to go to bed or take a shower, using it for roughly 18 hours a day. He started to report feeling irritable and argumentative without Google Glass. The addiction even permeated his sleep; the man said he started seeing his dreams as if he were looking through the device's window.
The question whether internet addiction exists or not has been passionately debated among psychiatrists. The 2013 updated Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, psychiatrists' official reference guide, includes the disorder as being clinically diagnosable.
The Google Glass patient is a 31-year-old U.S. navy serviceman, and sought treatment at the navy's Substance Abuse and Recovery Program for alcoholism in September 2013. In addition to asking patients to abstain from addictive behaviors like drinking, smoking and drugs, they also take away electronic technology.
The man began involuntarily tapping his right temple with his index fingers, mimicking the way the heads-up display is brought up on Google Glass.
"He said the Google Glass withdrawal was greater than the alcohol withdrawal he was experiencing," Head of Addictions and Resilience Research Dr. Andrew Doan told The Guardian.
The device helped expedite inventories of convoy vehicles at his job with the Navy and improved his performance at the work place.
But there may be good news for the patient. Over the 35 days he was in the residential program for his Google Glass addiction, he noticed a decline in irritability and involuntarily tapping of his temple in an attempt to turn on the device and more clarity in thought processes, along with improved short-term memory.
"For an individual who's looking to escape, for an individual who has underlying mental deregulation, for people with a predisposition for addiction, technology provides a very convenient way to access these rushes," Doan told The Daily Mail.
