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Please help a Mac internet addict with his problem

I

inocen1

macrumors member
Original poster
Dec 3, 2003
32
0
Hi Everyone,
It is hard for me to say this... I am an internet addict. I'm also a law school student. My addiction has led me to many sleepless nights of attempting to get caught up with work, but never being able to. Honestly I can't seem to help myself from searching the internet for hours and hours on end.
So I've decided to take action, but I need your help. Here is what I would like to do:
Cut off my internet access except for two websites www.lexisnexis.com (a law research aid) and my school website
Not allow access to any internet games (MMORPG's and the like).
I NEED the use of iChat
I NEED the use of Mail
I would like the use of limewire
I would like the use iTunes over Airport express and the use of the iTunes music store



I would like for full access to be password protected (the password to be set by someone else of course) but if this isn't possible, just having it turned off completely is fine too.

Thats it... and sad to say I have no idea how to go about doing any of that

I know some of you might think all of this is extreme, but the severity of this problem in my life has become far reaching.

Thank you and I sincerely appreciate your help.
Matthew
 
I did a search on Google for "Internet addiction".

This is the first site that popped up: http://www.netaddiction.com. Take a look at that because you probably need counseling. You will find a way to defeat any restrictions on your browsing (i.e. what would stop you from going to the computer lab?)

According to this website, you have Internet Addiction Disorder, if three or more of these syptoms are present for 12 months or more:

1. Tolerance: This refers to the need for increasing amounts of time on the Internet to
achieve satisfaction and/or significantly diminished effect with continued use of the same
amount of time on the Internet.
2. Two or more withdrawal symptoms developing within days to one month after
reduction of Internet use or cessation of Internet use (i.e., quitting cold turkey) , and these
must cause distress or impair social, personal or occupational functioning. These include:
psychomotor agitation, i.e. trembling, tremors; anxiety; obsessive thinking about what is
happening on the Internet; fantasies or dreams about the Internet; voluntary or involuntary
typing movements of the fingers.
3. Use of the Internet is engaged in to relieve or avoid withdrawal symptoms.
4. The Internet is often accessed more often, or for longer periods of time than was
intended.
5. A significant amount of time is spent in activities related to Internet use ( e.g., Internet
books, trying out new World Wide Web browsers, researching Internet vendors, etc.).
6. Important social, occupational, or recreational activities are given up or reduced because
of Internet use.
7. The individual risks the loss of a significant relationship, job, educational or career
opportunity because of excessive use of the Internet.
 
You could take out the DNS's (delete them from the config) and put the websites you need to visit in
/etc/hosts

take a look here
now use your internet addiction to get more info on that :p

ichat and others should work unless they use DNS ( :confused: ). You could also enter the servers they need in the /etc/hosts file.
Enabling surfing would be as simple as re-entering your DNS's.

Not sure but it could work (for you).

Good luck.

EDIT: mail definitely uses domain names (your pop and smtp servers) you will have to add them in /etc/hosts as well
amongst others probably
 
Maybe you need something else...

You sound like a drunk who is asking someone else to lock up their liquor cabinet with the exception they let you take a little sip once in a while.

Maybe you should just turn it all off and if you need to use the Internet for work go to a library or something. (Break your habit/routine) You may have other issues that cause you to deal with it by wasting time on the Internet. I suggest addressing those first…

PS What does a law student need limewire for?! I hope you are not using it for illegal activities, if so, you are doing a fine job perpetuating the lawyer stereotypes/jokes!
 
I am kinda like you, i send endless hours on World of warcraft, i spends hours watching movies/tv shows on my mac. There is one thing you have to keep in mind, that is if you have to do something you have to stop. I forced myself to do my work/school stuff before everything.

I got to the gym 5 times a week, i force myself to go. Just force yourself to go, when you have to do something just force yourself to do it.

Its all about forcing your self.
 
I was not sure whether I should laugh or be serious. This can really become a problem though, and I do not think that any of us should be laughing. I would just go "cold turkey" and turn of the computer completely tomorrow. If you have an iPod (I hope you do), you can still listen to music which is calming. If anyone cannot completely stop using the computer at any point in his life, then he has a problem - bottom line (unless one must use it for his job of course). :eek:
 
This is hilarious, sorry if that is mean. I hope this thread keeps going.

jon
 
You can gauge how serious your problem is by voluntarily restricting your usage. If that doesn't work you probably do have a more serious issue which could require some help to get through. I had what I considered a serious addiction to online gaming and had to find a way to control it.

Now I only game after 10:00 PM and I try to be done by midnight. If I go over a few times here or there it doesn't bother me. Break your pattern by setting a new one.
 
I understand where this guy is coming from.

When I got laid off a couple of years ago, I got pretty heavily addicted to the Internet as well.

I just had to go see what the responses to my threads were, and I had to see who was on (at the time) AIM. I spent 10-12 hours a day just sitting in front of the computer. Maybe it was just a distraction...I got some counseling and it turned out I was avoiding life altogether after such a devastating lay-off. My Net use is down to about 2 hours a day now when you combine it all up.

The best thing I can recommend for you is to get some counseling. You most likely have some other issues that are causing you to repeat this behavior - at least you know it's unhealthy. You may have OCD or anxiety or something else.

Best to get yourself checked. If you can't afford to go this route, sell your computer and use the school's computer labs to do all of your work.

Good luck! :D
 
Hi Everyone,
To those with actual advice, thank you. For those who laugh, FU, its real and not all that far off from alcoholism honestly. To redeye, thank you for the possible solution. If anyone else has possible reasonable solutions I would appreciate hearing them. I will look more into that. I'm considering just turning it off completely, which will take me taking out my wireless card from the powerbook. Counseling is an option too, but more of a last resort. What kind of counselor would I go to? For me this is one step in controlling a chronic procrastination problem as well.
Unless I find a reasonable solution in a week I'm just going to have to go cold turkey.
To answer a few question: Course I have an iPod and enjoy the hell out of it, of course :) Yeah I use limewire to download illegal songs, I'm a law student not a cop, just because I know the law doesn't mean I ALWAYS abide by it.
Oh and yeah, I had WoW for about two week just recently. That game was like sitting vodka in front of an alcoholic. I uninstalled it a couple of days ago. That wasn't easy.
You guys should check out this very recent article from Slashdot on internet addiction. http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/03/10/1436220&tid=186&tid=10

Thanks,
Matthew
 
I don't really know anything about addiction but I wanted to wish you luck, know that not all of us think this is comical, I hope your road to recovery is relatively painless, I'm sure it will be worth it! Keep us updated. :)
 
Honestly, you don't need to seek professional help for your problem. You need self-discipline and a change of mental state. Saying it's an addiction is just an excuse. If this sounds harsh, it's because it's a wake up call for you.
 
Lacero said:
Honestly, you don't need to seek professional help for your problem. You need self-discipline and a change of mental state. Saying it's an addiction is just an excuse. If this sounds harsh, it's because it's a wake up call for you.
Click to expand...

Or you may be suffering from a medically treatable psychological disorder, which has simply manifest itself through an "internet addiction."

A lot of serious conditions such as depression can disguise themselves when only professional help will do.
 
Lacero said:
Honestly, you don't need to seek professional help for your problem. You need self-discipline and a change of mental state. Saying it's an addiction is just an excuse. If this sounds harsh, it's because it's a wake up call for you.
Click to expand...

And you're qualified to make this statement how?
 
Lacero said:
Honestly, you don't need to seek professional help for your problem. You need self-discipline and a change of mental state. Saying it's an addiction is just an excuse. If this sounds harsh, it's because it's a wake up call for you.
Click to expand...

:rolleyes:

You live in a van by the river sheltered from reality?
 
A simple way to limit you web usage would be to install one of the browsers that are tailored for kids. These are typically used by parents to limit or block children from bad sites.

You'd have to have someone else set up the Admin password. Then you create a "whitelist" of sites that you are allowed to access.

These browsers look silly because they are designed for kids, but it may solve part of your problem.

http://freeverse.com/bumpercar/

http://www.app4mac.com/kidsbrowser.html

I'm not sure if other browsers like OmniWeb or Firefox can do this...anyone?

another link:
http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/internet_utilities/contentbarrierx3.html

Good luck.
 
buryyourbrideau said:
just take out your airport card and fill the modem and ethernet slot with peanut butter!!!
Click to expand...
Does Peanut Butter conduct electricity? If so, they may need to find a different substance to fill the ports with.
 
Bear said:
Does Peanut Butter conduct electricity? If so, they may need to find a different substance to fill the ports with.
Click to expand...

this may be but it is very imperitive that it is filled with any sort of sandwich topping....haha my teacher just walked by and read this and was like WTF?
 
i fail to see why internet addiction is funny... i mean, not that i wouldn't laugh at others' misfortune, but it really doesn't contain any humor or irony (you could say it's ironic that he posted on the net about it, but you'd have never met a drunk guy at an AA meeting). But whatever.

Seek professional help. Can you overcome this yourself? Probably. No, definitely, with enough time and energy. Can you also watch your life ruined while you're trying? Certainly. Just like compulsive gambling, eating, and drug use, you've only got so long to fix the problem before you're out of money/food/drugs/work/spouse/home whatever.

To put it another way, would you rather seek a professional now, or be proud that you didn't when you've flunked out of school?
 
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