First Detox Center for Internet Addicts Opens In Washington State

Video Game and Internet addicts can now find solutions to the addictive behavior that is devastating their marriages, careers, schooling, family life, and health with the opening of reStart: Internet Addiction Recovery Clinic in Fall City, Washington, ironically just a few miles from Redmond, Washington, home of Microsoft.

It is the first of its kind in the U.S. reStart is a 45-day program designed specifically to help internet and video game addicts ovecome their dependence on gaming, gambling, chatting, texting, and other aspects of Internet Addiction. Co-founded by Cosette Rae, MSW, and Hilarie Cash, PhD, this 6-bed facility provides a "family-style retreat" where its participants can have an internet and video-game-free therapeutic experience.

According to Dr. Cash, current research suggests that anywhere from 6% to 10% of the online population is dependent on one or more aspects of cyber technology and the internet. Among gamers, those playing multi-user games (like World of Warcraft) appear to be addicted at much higher levels. Both China and South Korea have designated Internet Addiction as their #1 public health danger and have responded by developing multiple treatment programs. The United States, by contrast, has been slower to recognize and respond to the problem, but now in beginning to take some active steps. This program is part of that process.

The mission of the reStart innovative program is to help people detach from their high-tech distractions, find balance, and reconnect to the real world, according to Dr. Cash. It is structures to include individual and group therapy, life-skills coaching, cooperative living, physical and nutritional education, mindfulness training, and 12-step meetings.

Hilary Cash, PhD, is a psychotherapist who in co-author of Video Games and Your Kids: How Parents Stay in Control. Cosette Rae, MSW, has been at the forefront of developments in computers and the internet, and brings this understanding to her work with cyber addicted individuals.

reStart reports they already have their first patient and a substantial number of applications.