The Restart Addiction Center is nondescript by design. The modest, five-acre compound, just a short drive from Microsoft’s campus in Redmond, is not marked by any signs. The main house is set far back on a private drive. With wide lawns, a communal dining room and an away-from-it-all atmosphere, Restart resembles hundreds of similar retreats where people escape their everyday lives and work to re-center themselves.
But Restart’s clients are not working out drug or alcohol issues. Restart is the first Internet addiction treatment center in the United States. And, if current research on the issue is any indication, it’s the first of many.
When I arrive at Restart, a delegation from the Chinese government has just left. Hilarie Cash, psychotherapist and Restart co-founder, explains that Internet addiction is a growing problem for China. The delegation came on a fact-finding mission. "They’re very worried right now,” says Cash. “Whatever they’re doing isn’t working, and the situation is getting worse.”
Many professionals in the psychology community remain skeptical about whether so-called Internet Use Disorder (IUD) is real. Maybe Internet overuse is simply a symptom of other problems, such as social anxiety, agoraphobia or depression. For those who subscribe to its existence, however, IUD is a mental health epidemic unlike any the world has ever seen.
While not officially recognized by the American psychological community, some regions of Asia have already deemed IUD a major threat to their societies. Young people are losing complete interest in school and work, they believe, and reports of parents neglecting their children and teenagers becoming violent when separated from their tech are starting to appear in the press.
