Bonnie Miller Rubin
Chicago Tribune
September 9, 2009

Though the nation’s first residential treatment center for Internet addiction opened this summer near Seattle, local experts say they’ve been treating the problem for some time.

“In the last few years, I’m hearing from more parents who are very concerned,” said Jeanette Spires, a Lake Forest-based educational consultant who matches troubled teens with the right therapeutic setting. “Their kids have stopped going to school … because they are just obsessed.”

The center, called reSTART, opened in July and is designed specifically for people who can’t kick their cyber-habit — be it Facebook, video poker or “World of Warcraft.” The cost? $14,000 for 45 days.

While the American Psychiatric Association has yet to recognize the preoccupation as a separate disorder, mental health professionals usually treat it under the broader umbrella of impulse control disorders.

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