By Stephen T. Watson, Buffalo News

Mark knew he had a problem. He constantly needed a fix. He tried to hide how often he did it from his wife.

Mark wasn’t addicted to alcohol. Or drugs. Or cigarettes.

He was hooked on an online video game.

“You’ll be doing other things, but you’ll be thinking about playing games . . . Other activities lose their appeal because you’re so used to this high level of adrenaline, and you will go through withdrawal if you’re away from it,” said Mark, an engineer in his 30s who lives in the northern suburbs.

He is in treatment and spoke on condition he not be fully named.

More people are spending more time than ever on the Internet. They pass hour after hour gambling on the Web, playing highly complex video games, creating virtual alter egos or viewing graphic pornography.

Most do so without any repercussions. But for some, their Web use is a serious problem that affects their relationships with others and their careers.

In an extreme case last month, a 30-year-old man in Southern China dropped dead in an Internet cafe, apparently from exhaustion, after playing an Internet video game for three days.

“It’s accessibility, certainly. It’s fantasy, and it’s a shared fantasy. And certainly it’s numbing to reality,” said Barbara Peters, director of addiction treatment for BryLin Hospitals.

Mental health experts disagree over whether this is an addiction in the formal sense or just a highly engaging habit.

But psychologists and college counselors alike say they are starting to treat people for this problem and they agree it’s a significant issue today.

“It’s sad that we haven’t thought about the ramifications of all this,” said Kimberly S. Young, a St. Bonaventure University professor and expert in online addiction.

The most comprehensive study, conducted by David Greenfield of the Center for Internet Studies in 1998, surveyed 18,000 visitors to the ABC News Web site. It found that 5.7 percent of those visitors met Greenfield’s criteria for online addiction.

What is it about the Web that makes it so appealing and so potentially addictive?

For some, it’s the visual stimulation, the rush of pursuing an activity such as online poker or the instant feedback they get from friends or strangers.

At Cyber Jocks, a facility in Amherst where players use the most up-to-date software and hardware to play video games, a couple of players on a recent Friday described their love of games as an addiction.

“Last summer, I used to stay here from when it opened to when it closed,” said Corey, a 12- year-old from Amherst.

He went through hundreds of dollars he’d been given by relatives and, after that, started taking money out of the change jar at home. He spent so much time there he earned special rewards as a V.I.P. player — until his parents grounded him.

“It’s, like, addicting. I don’t know,” Corey said.

Scott Turner runs Cyber Jocks with his partner, Aaron Kondziela.

“I’ve said to Aaron on a couple occasions that this is something a sociologist should study,” Turner said.

Of course, video games, gambling and pornography all exist in the off-line world and all have generated problems for people in some form well before the Internet came into being. But experts and users alike say the Internet versions are more potentially addictive.

A recent study by a Syracuse University psychologist found that volunteers who played an MMORPG — or massively multiplayer online role-playing game — played longer than those who played non-Web games and were more likely to find the game affecting sleep, school and their social lives.

The first popular MMORPG, “EverQuest,” was known as “NeverRest” or “EverCrack.”

In MMORPGs, players take on the role of a fantasy character and unite online with a team of other players as they fight their way through a semmingly endless number of levels.

“I know people who’ve failed a whole semester because of a game like this,” said Dave Logan, a junior University at Buffalo media study and sociology major, who made a documentary on MMORPGs, “Level Up.”

Mark, the engineer, got hooked on the online version of “Star Wars: Republic Commando,” spending up to 20 hours per week with the game. The interaction with other gamers kept him playing for hours. The fast pace also seemed to have a physiological effect, releasing adrenaline or seratonins.

Online gambling makes it easier for someone with a gambling problem to fulfill that need to wager, observers said.

“That’s pure gambling. You don’t have any of the experience. There’s no shows with washed-up entertainers. There’s no free buffet. It’s just you losing your money,” said John Welte, senior research scientist at UB’s Research Institute on Addictions.

Lawyers who deal with matrimonial and family law say they’ve seen a number of families broken apart by people spending too much time on the Web gambling, looking at porn or talking in adult chat rooms.

Attorney Paul Walier represented a woman in a divorce whose husband blew through their bank accounts and his 401(k) to feed a gambling habit. The husband would spend three to five hours a day wagering online, Walier said. “He was so addicted, almost like heroin, that he was going anywhere to get money,” he said.

For some Internet abusers, a mental health issue is a factor.

One woman said she first sought solace online after becoming depressed last winter.

“I used to be this really vibrant, bubbly kind of person in my real life. When I became depressed, I became very withdrawn,” said the stay-at-home mother, who is in her mid-30s and asked not to be named.

The woman said she would put her children to bed at 7:30 or 8 p.m. and stay in a Christian- themed chat room until falling asleep at 4 a.m. or so.

“I was able to be the person I really felt I used to be before I got depressed,” the woman said. In July, she started counseling and began receiving medication for her depression.

But is Internet abuse an addiction in the formal sense?

Certain online activities seem to cause a chemical reaction in the brain, said Carol Conklin, a licensed clinical social worker with City Gate Counseling Center who treats disorders including sex and Internet addiction.

For some, a new game or a new pornographic Web site acts as a stimulant. For others, entering an online world can act as a tranquilizer of sorts, relieving the stress or anxiety of life.

But the authoritative Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders does not list Web addiction as a disorder.

It most resembles an impulse- control disorder, such as pathological gambling or kleptomania, said Michael MacLean, a Buffalo State College associate psychology professor.

In treatment, mental health professionals have employed cognitive behavioral therapy with success, Conklin said.

Unplugging the computer is a start, but the patient has to make the commitment to do it.

Mark said healing his Internet addiction is difficult.

To keep away from Internet porn, his home computer has a filter for which he doesn’t have the password. And he avoids multiplayer video games.

“It took a long time to wean myself off of this,” Mark said. “I took up fishing. Basically, to get away from the temptation. To get away from the computer.”

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