Facing Internet Technology and Gaming Addiction: A Gentle Path to Beginning Recovery from Internet and Video Game Addiction

International technology addiction experts, Cash, Rae, and Carnes collaborate in a cutting-edge workbook designed for individuals with problematic technology use such as gaming addiction, compulsive internet, and social media use.

Some of the country's leading experts in technology addiction have adapted the groundbreaking "Thirty Task Model" used by thousands of therapists worldwide to treat technology and internet addiction. Using innovative tasks and exercises, the reader can engage in a plan designed to defeat addiction and restore lifestyle balance. This book is designed to be used as an adjunct to therapy, and works well with the twelve step programs, or other programs such as SMART recovery.

Accessing the online world provides new, exciting, and disturbing things. You probably discovered porn, gaming, social media, and endless information on any subject that interests you. Soon you learned that with a smartphone in hand, you were granted Internet access 24/7, anytime, anywhere.With all this saturation of digital media, it is not surprising that people get hooked so easily. When we are overexposed to anything that overstimulates the pleasure centers of the brain, there is great risk for addiction. Many people do not think about activities as being potentially addictive, but they can be.

Dr. Cash is the co-founder and Chief Clinical Officer of reSTART Life, PLLC (www.netaddictionrecovery.com), the first residential and transition program in the USA or Canada to treat adult Internet and video game addicts. reSTART opened an adolescent program in 2017. Dr. Cash is one of the early pioneers in the treatment of Internet addiction, having recognized the problem in 1994. In 1999 she co-founded an outpatient clinic to work with this population. It was in this arena that she was able to develop her expertise in the assessment and treatment of Internet and video game addiction. She became a Certified Sex Addiction Therapist and Certified Problem Gambling Counselor to better serve the Internet-addicted population. When few experts were writing about how to address these problems, Dr. Cash teamed up with counselor and parent coach Kim McDaniel, MA, to write a practical guide for parents. Video Games and Your Kids: How Parents Stay in Control was published in 2008 and is still sold in the USA and Poland. Dr. Cash has also co-authored three peer-reviewed journal articles. Through her work she has become known locally, nationally, and internationally. She has been brought as a speaker and trainer to Spain, Poland, and China. She was particularly honored to be invited to attend the psychiatric conference in Beijing, in 2008, at which the psychiatric community was presented with the proposal to adopt Internet Addiction Disorder as a fully legitimate psychiatric disorder. The country had already declared Internet addiction their #1 Public Health Threat. Dr. Ran Tao had been doing research for several years and had the first treatment program for Internet addicts in China. At his invitation she, along with Dr. Jerald Block and Dr. Charles O'Brien, were asked to make presentations at the conference. Among other activities, they toured Dr. Ran Tao's treatment facility in Beijing. It was shortly after this trip that Dr. Cash met Cosette Rae, MSW, and began the rapid journey to open reSTART. The opening of reSTART created a huge media stir, clearly touching a societal nerve. Since their opening, Dr. Cash has been interviewed by over 700 media outlets, including the New York Times, ESPN, CNN, PBS, NPR, ABC, NBC, CBS, and many others both in the USA and abroad. She and reSTART are featured in several documentaries, including "No Time to Think", "Screenagers", "Screened Out", and, from Werner Herzog, "Lo and Behold: Reveries of the Connected World". In 2019 the World Health Organization decided that the body of evidence was strong enough to add Gaming Disorder to its ICD-11, the code book used around the world for diagnosing diseases. Dr. Cash, and other leaders in this emerging field, are now waiting for the American Psychiatric Association to provide a similar diagnosis in their next version of the Diagnostic Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.

Cosette Rae, MSW, is the Co-Founder and Chief Executive (Excitement) Officer of reSTART Life, the first residential and outpatient treatment facility in the Western Hemisphere designed specifically for adolescents and adults struggling with an out-of-balance, out-of-control relationship with digital technology and co-occurring mental health concerns. Cosette's first career was in the field of computer science, specifically computer programming and web development. These experiences have given her a deep understanding of how alluring digital technology can be, and, therefore, the struggles of our clients. She was CEO of several companies that she started and owned and was able to bring her years of experience as a CEO to reSTART (which began during the Great Recession of 2009), guiding reSTART into becoming the world-renowned program that it is. Today, reSTART's welcoming invitation assists individuals struggling with dependence back to wellness and meaningful purpose with multiple intensive residential facilities, independent living programs, and an intensive outpatient center for both adolescents and young adults in Washington state. Cosette leads both her company and the field of behavioral addictions through a profound desire to help the community around her, leading to consistent innovation and reinvention. She weaves clinical knowledge, research, and business acumen into innovative solutions applied to today's fast-paced and growing digital problems. Cosette's philosophy of community and connection, as the antidote to addiction shines through as the heart and core of reSTART and her beliefs surrounding health and healing. During ReSTART's eleven-year history, she has discovered the effectiveness of experiential learning, not only with the clients at reSTART, but with individuals, youth and families, while getting to know their hearts, thinking outside the box to challenge them personally and professionally, and allowing them to grow and thrive in their pursuit of meaningful life connections. Recalling the lessons learned by being on her own at 15 and navigating the perils of life, "adversity is the birthplace of resilience and creativity," she shares. And she would know. It is not too many that survive being a crew member on a 143-foot crab boat that loses its steering cable in the middle of a storm in the Bering Sea. "I promised if I survived, I would live a life of meaning. I intend to honor that commitment." Her interest in research has led to her co-authoring several published studies related to Internet addiction and Gaming disorder. She presents at conferences, speaks to the media, and seizes opportunities to educate parents and young people, alike, about healthy digital technology use. She regularly questions the role augmented reality, artificial intelligence, robotics, and the Internet of things will play in human connectedness and looks for partnerships with those seeking connection to what matters most - life.

Patrick J. Carnes, Ph.D., is the founder of the International Institute for Trauma and Addiction Professionals (IITAP) and Gentle Path Press. His extensive background in the field of addiction therapy led him to develop multiple cutting-edge recovery programs. Dr. Carnes' most recent endeavor is the Founder of Gentle Path and Senior Fellow at The Meadows, in Wickenburg, Arizona. With more than 30 years in the field of sexual addiction treatment, Dr. Carnes is an internationally recognized expert, presenter, and interview subject. His assessment tools and 30-task model treatment methodology deliver an unprecedented approach to addiction recovery for practitioners of trauma, sexual addiction, and co-occurring addictions. In 1966, Dr. Carnes graduated from St. John's University in Collegeville, MN, with a Bachelor of Arts degree. He earned his Master's in 1969 from Brown University in Providence, R.I., and a Ph.D. in counselor education and organizational development from the University of Minnesota in 1980. His achievements include the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Society for the Advancement of Sexual Health (SASH), where they now award an annual "Carnes Award" to researchers and clinicians who have made exceptional contributions to the field of sexual health. He has published numerous articles and books on the subject of sexual addiction and trauma as well as contributed to Kaplan and Sadock's Comprehensive Textbook of Psychiatry.