How does one with Aspergers fight Internet Addiction?

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I am 19 years old, and talking with others gives me more anxiety than public speaking, along with the fact that I feel like I can't cope with reality and the expectations of others. As a result, I feel trapped in my own body and spend 15+ hours a day on the Internet making memes, watching YouTube Videos, and playing Minecraft, and I feel extremely depressed and angry that it has to be so hard for me to just act "normal" and be able to cope with stress, anxiety, and other things people take for granted. I just got my report card back from my first semester at CC, and I feel pissed with a 2.7 GPA; My dad says I'm too hard on myself, but I am angry that I didn't push myself to study on my own despite the fact that I participate more than anyone else in class. I read about how competitive the job market is and often feel worthless and that I will never be successful like everyone else, despite the fact my psychologist and father say I will do "fine". I want to take the first step and make friends by fighting Internet Addiction, but I feel like it's too hard (Completely blocking it hasn't helped, it just made me sit around all day).

What if you spent half an hour tomorrow studying?

Conscious effort. Baby steps.

Spend a week logging your daily thirty minutes of studying.
Then add fifteen more. Or thirty more.
Or as soon as you're done, walk around the block two times and say hello to anybody you pass who makes eye contact and doesn't look like they will serial kill you.

Change is hard.
But it doesn't have to be impossible.

Hi. I have a lot of experience with addiction/obsessive behaviours and also anxiety and fear.

It seems to me that your biggest issue is maybe not so much internet addiction as it is fear of the outside world. In my experience the only way to deal with any fear is to expose myself to what it is I’m afraid of. This is not easy but then growth never is, and like the previous poster said, baby steps.

If however you are addicted to the internet – which is entirely possible – then there is no easy solution to this. For any addiction I’ve had/have I need to really want to stop before anything will change, and that normally involves me going through a lot of pain first. Eventually I can see and accept a situation for what it is, but this always takes me a long time.

After that I’ve needed to try and deal with the real problem…me. It’s not that I’m bad or weak, just that I’m wired up wrong. I engage in all kinds of addictive behaviours to try and fill a ‘hole in the soul’, a gap, an unease about myself and/or my life.

Minecraft... lel. I feel your pain. I made myself skip it this whole week, the first 2 days I had such anxiety.

I do not kick myself on being so much on the internet. I am currently living somewhere I just short of hate everyone, even more than when I was in this region as teen. No job prospects. My broadcasting equipment was stolen for Christmas and I am homebound with an invalid mother I was never connected with, and a non verbal 11 yr old. My fiance is about 7,800 miles away in Poland. I am 2000 miles from my chosen comfort zone and my circle of friends and family there.
My only social outlet for now IS the ether. I get my news from independent sources in You Tube and the like, as well as mainstream. My facebook is where my gaming friends, physical acquaintances and family can be cooked together for easy digest.
I have always liked RPGs and am far less addicted to the online versions than tabletop. I can have temporary game addictions because OCD and that same gross gorging on the new thing, like any kid does; but my internet addiction is non existent when I am at home in Arizona. I normally working steady and have the most lifelong physical friends there.

My Hunny was closer to addiction. He botched the last portion of his Bachelor's while immersed in LoL with his friends.


Making sure you have a "bedtime". Making sure that you discharge any of your duties in the day, then really it is not worse than vegging in from the boobtube or hanging for whole day at skate park or mall. Outside is healthier usually but really a hobby or time filler is equal in essence, it is only acceptance socially that makes one guilty for spending 6 hours on computer rather than 8 hours out fishing. You do have to make sure study time isnt cut

I have a blackberry that hs alerts... for EVERYthing. Waking, dog, waking my boy to eat, his homeschool lessons, when my fiancee is home, dinner, gametime. It is not that I can't do anything else, I personally find a schedule a good default

Internet addiction arises from the "hits" provided to the Dopamine reward system in both ASD and NT populations. It may be (I am speculating) that ASD people generally have lower baseline dopamine levels in the brain; lower levels are correlated with higher levels of both process addictions and substance addictions.

In breaking addictions, it is very true that "nature abhors a vacuum". It's not enough to stop doing something, you have to find a substitute activity that works for you, it has to be one you enjoy, whether it is something like walking or a hobby or listening to music, going to movies or whatever; the key is that the new activity must be one you enjoy. A sense of achievement in something can also boost to dopamine levels, as can some amino acids (L-Tyrosine, DLPA) For me that would be gardening, listening to music and walking by the sea.

You could try googling "breaking process addictions" and see what comes up.

Find things to do in real life, I spend so much time online because I don't have much else to do or people to connect with. There was this commercial some years ago, I don't know for what, where somebody 'finished' the internet and that always stuck with me since I've felt that way for so long. It's BORING! That's why I write walls of texts nobody reads or cares about, it's just your brain needs some level of stimulation and interaction.

I similarly have trouble with distractive addictions, no doubt not helped by the combination of focus and chronic depression. Lately though I've been reading an interesting popular psychology book called The Marshmallow Test by Walter Mischel, some interesting summary of research into delayed gratification and addiction.

May be of interest.

I'm going to make an alternative suggestion: you could change your course of study to something that synergizes with long periods of time on the internet. Learn programming and web and/or game design. You'll probably still have to cut back on the Minecraft, but you can spend that time making websites, internet tools, games, whatever you like/can get paid for. Turn your passion into good grades and eventual profit.