ENGL101: Mental Health and Internet Usage Problems

This essay, written for an ENGL101 assignment, investigates the correlation between internet usage and mental health, specifically addressing issues like anxiety and depression. The introduction highlights the increasing prevalence of internet addiction and its associated mental health problems, establishing the hypothesis that overuse of the internet leads to stress and anxiety. The body of the essay delves into the psychiatric disorders linked to internet addiction, with a focus on depression and anxiety. It presents evidence from research studies, discussing the impact on dopamine levels and the altered reward circuitry in the brain. The essay also examines the role of the internet in exacerbating anxiety, particularly through exposure to unrealistic content and health-related information. The essay suggests strategies for mitigating the negative effects of internet use, such as reducing overall usage, implementing meditation and mental relaxation techniques, and limiting smartphone usage. The conclusion reiterates the association between internet misuse and mental health disorders, emphasizing the effectiveness of lowering internet usage in reducing stress and anxiety. The essay follows APA style and includes references to support its claims.

Running head: HEALTHCARE
AVOIDING MENTAL HEALTH ISSUES RELATED TO INTERNET
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note
Table of Content

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s
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
Body...........................................................................................................................................2
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................3
References..................................................................................................................................4

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Mental health disorders have been found to engross a major section of the human
population. This section of health disorders comprises of a large group of health problems
associated with depression, stress and anxiety. This paper will discuss the effect of internet on
mental health condition of the users.
Introduction
Since the past few years, addiction towards the internet (IA) and IGD (Internet
Gaming Disorder) has become very frequent. These are the two main mental health issues
associated with internet usage. Associated people have become more exposed to psychiatric
and personality disorders which leads to low self-esteem, behaviour changes and mood
disorders including stress and anxiety (Yoo, Cho & Cha, 2014). The hypothesis statement of
this paper is that overuse of the internet leads to the development of stress and anxiety among
the associated people. The next section will discuss two problems associated with the
condition and one solution to the issue faced due to high internet usage among today's
population.
Body
Various psychiatric disorders have been found to have a high correlation with IA or
internet addiction. Among all these, depression and anxiety are the two major problems faced
by the users. This factor has been proved by various research studies performed in this field.
The first problem is depression which has been found to be higher in males than females.
This is because of the fact that males have been found to have more internet addiction than
females. Out of 1.3% individuals, 2% of males have IA and 0.6 per cent of females have IA
(Kato, Shinfuku & Tateno, 2020). Depression is mainly caused due to the problem associated
with dopamine transported in the brain. The level of dopamine transported as measured by
single-photon emission showed that individuals with IA had their brain scans altered. Neural

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imaging findings suggested the presence of depression among the individuals of internet
addiction.
The next problem associated with internet usage is anxiety. This is because of the fact
that most of the people use the internet for watching movies or playing games as a source of
their entertainment. In both cases, situations associated with sadness and curiosity are
encountered by the users. People start linking their lives with the unrealistic and fictional
visuals of the movie or game and start getting depressed which further leads to anxiety. This
disorder occurs due to the altered reward circuitry in the addicted brain. Anxiety is defined as
the natural response of the body towards stress (Ali et al., 2019). This is a feeling of
apprehension or fear of what is coming next in life. Researching one’s own health symptoms
has been found to cause anxiety at the highest levels. This is because of the fact that more the
person looks at his health symptoms on the internet, more he or she gets scared of their
situation.
The problems can be recovered by reducing the overuse of internet for all purposes.
Lowering the internet usage will reduce an individual’s exposure to artificial and external
factors of anxiety and depression. Meditation and mental relaxation exercises can be done in
order to reduce the depression and anxiety caused by heavy internet usage (Short et al.,
2016). Another synergizing factor, the overuse of a smartphone can cause stress due to the
same reason. Thus, reduction of the use of smartphones can be another great strategy to
control the mental health disorder.
Conclusion
Thus, it can be stated that mental health disorders have been found to be associated
with people who misuse the internet. Stress, anxiety and behavioural disorders have been
found to be associated with internet addiction. Brain circuitry disorders have been found to be

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caused by overuse of the internet. However, lowering internet usage can help in the reduction
of mental stress and anxiety among the people who overuse the internet. Thus, it can be stated
that the hypothesis statement chosen for this study is justified. This is the overall conclusion
of this study.

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References
Ali, I., Kalsoom, O., Kazmi, S. A. J., Munir, T. A., Qayyum, Z., Akhter, N., & Jan, A. A.
(2019). Effect Of Internet Addiction On Academic Performance And Mental Health
Of Medical Students.
Kato, T. A., Shinfuku, N., & Tateno, M. (2020). Internet society, internet addiction, and
pathological social withdrawal: the chicken and egg dilemma for internet addiction
and hikikomori. Current opinion in psychiatry.
Short, M. B., Wetterneck, C. T., Bistricky, S. L., Shutter, T., & Chase, T. E. (2016).
Clinicians’ beliefs, observations, and treatment effectiveness regarding clients’ sexual
addiction and internet pornography use. Community mental health journal, 52(8),
1070-1081.
Yoo, Y. S., Cho, O. H., & Cha, K. S. (2014). Associations between overuse of the internet
and mental health in adolescents. Nursing & health sciences, 16(2), 193-200.