缘起：来自美国的资深华德福主课、体育课老师WHITNEY MACDONALD近期来到花婆婆学园教学指导，关于孩子对当今时代数码产品的使用是我们众多讨论议题中的一个，他有非常多的相关观察经验，特别是对上瘾（ 视频）症孩子方面的感触颇深，当天晚上WHITNEY老师特地将此链接发邮件给我；学园的朝霞老师利用闲暇时间将此文翻译出来，希望如此有力量的文章能传播给更多的家长朋友看到，意识到。

在儿子约翰六岁一年级的时候，苏珊给他买了一个iPad。“当时我想，为什么不买来让他试试呢。”在给儿子治疗期间，苏珊这样说道。约翰的学校已经开始给越来越低年级的孩子配备iPad之类的电子设备，而且他的技术课老师也对电子产品的教学益处赞不绝口。所以苏珊想在教育上为这个喜爱阅读与打棒球的棕色头发孩子做更多事情。

她开始让约翰在iPad上玩不同的教学游戏。最终，约翰发现了Minecraft这款游戏。约翰的技术课老师向她保证，这个游戏就像电子版的乐高玩具。回想起自己小时候堆砌拼装塑料组装积木时获得的无穷乐趣，苏珊也就让儿子整个整个下午去玩Minecraft。

起初，苏珊还很高兴。当约翰探索充满立方体的游戏世界时，他似乎在从事创造性的玩耍。苏珊也注意到，这个游戏和她记忆中的乐高并不一样。在乐高游戏中，她不需要杀死动物并找到稀有矿物才能生存并晋级。但约翰似乎真的很喜欢玩，学校甚至还有一个Minecraft俱乐部，所以它能有多糟糕呢？

当然，苏珊不能否认她看到了约翰身上的一些变化。他越来越将精力集中在游戏上，对棒球和阅读开始失去兴趣，并拒绝做家务。有时候早上醒来，他会告诉妈妈在梦中看到了游戏中的立方体。

虽然她对此有些担忧，但她想这可能只是儿子想象力的积极表现。随着儿子行为的持续恶化，她试图把游戏拿走，但约翰大发脾气。他的爆发是如此严重，让她只能放弃，并一遍一遍告诉自己要理性，“这是教育”。

一天晚上，她突然意识到哪里肯定出了问题。

“我走进房间去看他。这个时候他应该睡觉了。我当时很害怕……”

她发现他坐在他的床上，瞪大着眼睛，那布满血丝的双眼盯着远方，发光的iPad躺在他身边。他看起来精神恍惚。苏珊惊慌失措，不停摇晃他，想把他从恍惚状态中拉出来。她悲痛欲绝，不明白为什么一个曾经健康快乐的小男孩已经变得如此沉迷于游戏，以至于患上紧张性木僵。

对技术持最谨慎态度的父母往往是技术设计师和工程师，这其中是有原因的。史蒂夫·乔布斯是位有名的提倡低技术的家长。 硅谷高科技公司的高管和工程师们会把孩子送入没有高科技的华德福学校，Google的创办人Sergey Brin和Larry Page，以及amazon创始人Jeff Bezos和Wikipedia创始人Jimmy Wales，则把孩子送入没有科技的蒙特梭利学校。

许多家长直觉地认识到，无处不在的发光屏幕对孩子有负面影响。当电子设备被拿走时，我们看到了孩子们具有侵略性的怒气。当孩子不能一直接受电子设备的亢奋刺激时，他们就开始神游。更糟的是，我们看到，当没用电子产品的时候，孩子们会变得无聊，冷漠，无趣和不感兴趣。

事实比我们想象的更糟糕。

我们现在知道那些iPad、智能手机和Xbox游戏机是一种电子毒品。最近的脑部成像研究显示，它们和可卡因的作用方式一样，会影响大脑额叶皮层，而大脑额叶皮层控制着大脑的执行功能，包括冲动控制。科技是如此的令人兴奋，它提高了多巴胺水平。多巴胺是一种让人感觉良好的神经递质，在很多上瘾的条件下都会刺激它的分泌，例如性生活。

这令人上瘾的效果就是加州大学洛杉矶( 专题)分校神经科学主任Peter Whybrow博士把电子屏幕称为“电子可卡因”的原因，中国的研究人员则称为“数字海洛因”。事实上，为五角大楼和美国海军研究成瘾问题的负责人Andrew Doan博士一直在研究“视频游戏成瘾”，他把视频游戏和电子屏幕技术称为“数字巫术”（希腊语pharmakeia）。

就是这样。孩子在玩Minecraft时的大脑，就像吸毒一样。难怪我们很难把孩子从屏幕前拉开，并会发现当小家伙们看屏幕被打断时，他们会非常躁动。此外，数以百记的临床研究表明，屏幕会增加抑郁、焦虑和攻击，当玩游戏的人与现实失去连接的时候，甚至可以导致类似精神病的症状。

过去15年对1000名青少年诊治的临床经验告诉我，在技术成瘾问题上，“一盎司预防等于一磅治疗”的格言尤为正确。当一个孩子进入了技术成瘾的状态后，治疗就会变得非常困难。事实上，相比迷失在视频游戏或 Facebook社交媒体依赖成瘾，我发现治疗海洛因和冰毒成瘾要更容易。

根据美国儿科学会的2013年政策声明，8至10岁的孩子每天花8小时使用各种数字媒体，而青少年则在屏幕前呆11个小时。三分之一的孩子在学会说话前，就开始使用平板电脑或智能手机。同时，KimberlyYoung博士的《网络成瘾手册》指出，美国18%的大学年纪的上网用户患有技术成瘾。

一个人一旦对某样东西完全成瘾，例如毒品、电子或其他别的东西，在其他任何一种疗法可能生效之前，他需要先去戒毒。拿电子成瘾来说，意味着完全的电子隔离，没有电脑，没有手机，没有平板电脑。极端的数字隔离甚至会消除电视。治疗的时间大概是四到六个星期，这是一个过度兴奋的神经系统来重置自己通常所需的时间。但在我们这个充满科技、屏幕无处的社会里，完全隔离不是件容易的事情。一个人的生活可以没有毒品或酒精，但对于技术成瘾，数字诱惑却无处不在。

所以如何才能让我们的孩子不越界呢？谈何容易。

关键的一步在于阻止4，5，8岁年龄段的孩子不被屏幕钩住。这就意味着要用乐高替代Minecraft，书籍替代iPads，自然和运动替代电视。在必要的时候，甚至要求学校在孩子10岁前（有的说在12岁前），不能给他们平板电脑和电子书。

和孩子诚实地交流，告诉他们，为什么你要限制他们使用电子产品。和乔布斯所做一样，同孩子共进晚餐时，不要在餐桌上放任何电子设备。不要让孩子成为“分心父母综合症”的牺牲品，正如我们从社会学习理论中所知道的那样，孩子会“有样学样”。

当我和我的9岁双胞胎儿子交流时，我如实告诉他们为什么不给他们买平板电脑，不让他们玩视频游戏。我向他们解释，有些孩子很喜欢玩他们的电子设备，以至于他们很难停止或控制自己玩多少。我让他们明白，如果他们像他们的一些朋友一样沉迷于屏幕和Minecraft，他们生活的其他部分就可能遭罪：他们可能不想打棒球，不常看书，对科学和自然项目提不起兴趣，和现实世界的朋友越来越脱离。令人惊讶的是，不需要太多的理由去说服他们，因为他们亲眼目睹了他们的一些小朋友因为过度的屏幕时间所经历的变化。

发展心理学家了解到，儿童的健康发展包括社会交往、充满创造想象力的游戏以及与真实的自然世界相接触。不幸的是，虚拟的和令人上瘾的屏幕世界影响和阻碍了这些发展过程。

我们还知道，当孩子感到孤独、异化、无目的、无聊的时候，他们更容易逃到让他们成瘾的世界里。因此，解决方法往往是帮助孩子们连接到有意义的现实生活经验和真实的血肉关系中。与创造性活动及家庭生活链接紧密的孩子是不太可能逃入数字虚幻世界的。然而，即使是得到最好的爱和支持的孩子，一旦他们体验了催眠的屏幕及其成瘾效应，他们也可能堕入虚拟世界。毕竟，有10%的人有上瘾倾向。

最后，我的案主苏珊拿走了约翰的平板电脑，但是恢复的路程还很漫长，很坎坷。

四年后，经过大量的支持和加强治疗，约翰现在的状态比以前好多了。他学会了用更健康的方式使用台式电脑，并在生活中找到了某种程度的平衡。他在棒球队打球，在中学里有一些亲密的朋友。但他的母亲仍然保持警惕，对约翰的电子产品使用仍保持积极主动的限制。因为，与任何成瘾一样，复发往往发生在脆弱的时刻。确保他的卧室有健康的布置，没有电脑，以及没有电子产品的餐桌都是治疗的一部分。

＊病人姓名已更改。

Nicholas Kardaras博士是国家顶级康复中心DunesEast Hampton的执行主任，前Stony Brook Medicine的临床教授。他的著作“发光的孩子：屏幕成瘾如何劫持了我们的孩子-以及如何打破恍惚症”（St. Martin’s）现已出版发行。

It’s ‘digital heroin’: Howscreens turn kids into psychotic junkies

Susan bought her 6-year-old son John aniPad when he was in first grade. “I thought, ‘Why not let him get a jump onthings?’ ” she told me during a therapy session. John’s school had begun usingthe devices with younger and younger grades — and his technology teacher hadraved about their educational benefits — so Susan wanted to do what was bestfor her sandy-haired boy who loved reading and playing baseball.

She started letting John play differenteducational games on his iPad. Eventually, he discovered Minecraft, which thetechnology teacher assured her was “just like electronic Lego.” Remembering howmuch fun she had as a child building and playing with the interlocking plasticblocks, Susan let her son Minecraft his afternoons away.

At first, Susan was quite pleased. Johnseemed engaged in creative play as he explored the cube-world of the game. Shedid notice that the game wasn’t quite like the Legos that she remembered —after all, she didn’t have to kill animals and find rare minerals to surviveand get to the next level with her beloved old game. But John did seem toreally like playing and the school even had a Minecraft club, so how bad couldit be?

Still, Susan couldn’t deny she was seeingchanges in John. He started getting more and more focused on his game andlosing interest in baseball and reading while refusing to do his chores. Somemornings he would wake up and tell her that he could see the cube shapes in hisdreams.

Although that concerned her, she thoughther son might just be exhibiting an active imagination. As his behaviorcontinued to deteriorate, she tried to take the game away but John threw tempertantrums. His outbursts were so severe that she gave in, still rationalizing toherself over and over again that “it’s educational.”

Then, one night, she realized thatsomething was seriously wrong.

“I walked into his roomto check on him. He was supposed to be sleeping — and I was just sofrightened…”

She found him sitting up in his bed staringwide-eyed, his bloodshot eyes looking into the distance as his glowing iPad laynext to him. He seemed to be in a trance. Beside herself with panic, Susan hadto shake the boy repeatedly to snap him out of it. Distraught, she could notunderstand how her once-healthy and happy little boy had become so addicted tothe game that he wound up in a catatonic stupor.

There’s a reason that the mosttech-cautious parents are tech designers and engineers. Steve Jobs was anotoriously low-tech parent. Silicon Valley tech executives and engineersenroll their kids in no-tech Waldorf Schools. Google founders Sergey Brin andLarry Page went to no-tech Montessori Schools, as did Amazon creator Jeff Bezosand Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales.

Many parents intuitively understand thatubiquitous glowing screens are having a negative effect on kids. We see theaggressive temper tantrums when the devices are taken away and the wanderingattention spans when children are not perpetually stimulated by theirhyper-arousing devices. Worse, we see children who become bored, apathetic,uninteresting and uninterested when not plugged in.

But it’s even worse than we think.

We now know that those iPads, smartphonesand Xboxes are a form of digital drug. Recent brain imaging research is showingthat they affect the brain’s frontal cortex — which controls executivefunctioning, including impulse control — in exactly the same way that cocainedoes. Technology is so hyper-arousing that it raises dopamine levels — thefeel-good neurotransmitter most involved in the addiction dynamic — as much assex.

This addictive effect is why Dr. PeterWhybrow, director of neuroscience at UCLA, calls screens “electronic cocaine”and Chinese researchers call them “digital heroin.” In fact, Dr. Andrew Doan,the head of addiction research for the Pentagon and the US Navy — who has beenresearching video game addiction — calls video games and screen technologies“digital pharmakeia” (Greek for drug).

That’s right — your kid’s brain onMinecraft looks like a brain on drugs. No wonder we have a hard time peelingkids from their screens and find our little ones agitated when their screentime is interrupted. In addition, hundreds of clinical studies show thatscreens increase depression, anxiety and aggression and can even lead topsychotic-like features where the video gamer loses touch with reality.

In my clinical work with over 1,000 teensover the past 15 years, I have found the old axiom of “An ounce of preventionis worth a pound of cure” to be especially true when it comes to techaddiction. Once a kid has crossed the line into true tech addiction, treatmentcan be very difficult. Indeed, I have found it easier to treat heroin andcrystal meth addicts than lost-in-the-matrix video gamers or Facebook-dependentsocial media addicts.

According to a 2013 Policy Statement by theAmerican Academy of Pediatrics, 8- to 10 year-olds spend 8 hours a day withvarious digital media while teenagers spend 11 hours in front of screens. Onein three kids are using tablets or smartphones before they can talk. Meanwhile,the handbook of “Internet Addiction” by Dr. Kimberly Young states that 18percent of college-age internet users in the US suffer from tech addiction.

Once a person crosses over the line intofull-blown addiction — drug, digital or otherwise — they need to detox beforeany other kind of therapy can have any chance of being effective. With tech,that means a full digital detox — no computers, no smartphones, no tablets. Theextreme digital detox even eliminates television. The prescribed amount of timeis four to six weeks; that’s the amount of time that is usually required for ahyper-aroused nervous system to reset itself. But that’s no easy task in ourcurrent tech-filled society where screens are ubiquitous. A person can livewithout drugs or alcohol; with tech addiction, digital temptations areeverywhere.

So how do we keep our children fromcrossing this line? It’s not easy.

The key is to prevent your 4-, 5- or8-year-old from getting hooked on screens to begin with. That means Legoinstead of Minecraft; books instead of iPads; nature and sports instead of TV.If you have to, demand that your child’s school not give them a tablet orChromebook until they are at least 10 years old (others recommend 12).

Have honest discussions with your childabout why you are limiting their screen access. Eat dinner with your childrenwithout any electronic devices at the table — just as Steve Jobs used to havetech-free dinners with his kids. Don’t fall victim to “Distracted ParentSyndrome” — as we know from Social Learning Theory, “Monkey see, monkey do.”

When I speak to my 9-year-old twin boys, Ihave honest conversations with them about why we don’t want them having tabletsor playing video games. I explain to them that some kids like playing withtheir devices so much, they have a hard time stopping or controlling how muchthey play. I’ve helped them to understand that if they get caught up withscreens and Minecraft like some of their friends have, other parts of theirlives may suffer: They may not want to play baseball as much; not read books asoften; be less interested in science and nature projects; become moredisconnected from their real-world friends. Amazingly, they don’t need muchconvincing as they’ve seen first-hand the changes that some of their littlefriends have undergone as a result of their excessive screen time.

Developmental psychologists understand thatchildren’s healthy development involves social interaction, creativeimaginative play and an engagement with the real, natural world. Unfortunately,the immersive and addictive world of screens dampens and stunts thosedevelopmental processes.

We also know that kids are more prone toaddictive escape if they feel alone, alienated, purposeless and bored. Thus thesolution is often to help kids to connect to meaningful real-life experiencesand flesh-and-blood relationships. The engaged child tethered to creativeactivities and connected to his or her family is less likely to escape into thedigital fantasy world. Yet even if a child has the best and most lovingsupport, he or she could fall into the Matrix once they engage with hypnoticscreens and experience their addicting effect. After all, about one in 10people are predisposed towards addictive tendencies.

In the end, my client Susan removed John’stablet, but recovery was an uphill battle with many bumps and setbacks alongthe way.

Four years later, after much support andreinforcement, John is doing much better today. He has learned to use a desktopcomputer in a healthier way, and has gotten some sense of balance back in hislife: He’s playing on a baseball team and has several close friends in hismiddle school. But his mother is still vigilant and remains a positive andproactive force with his tech usage because, as with any addiction, relapse cansneak up in moments of weakness. Making sure that he has healthy outlets, nocomputer in his bedroom and a nightly tech-free dinner at the dinner table areall part of the solution.

*Patients’ names have been changed.

Dr. Nicholas Kardaras is executive directorof The Dunes East Hampton, one of the country’s top rehabs and a formerclinical professor at Stony Brook Medicine. His book “Glow Kids: How ScreenAddiction Is Hijacking Our Kids — and How to Break the Trance” (St. Martin’s)is out now.

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