This training offers mental health professionals a clinical framework for identifying, assessing, and treating problematic screen use, including gaming, social media dependency, pornography, and online gambling. As screen time rises across age groups, compulsive use is increasingly linked to anxiety, depression, attention issues, and isolation.
The treatment literature typically hasn't paid much attention to "gateway drugs" other than nicotine and cannabis. But often, early experimentation with altered consciousness and intoxication involves substances we don't necessarily think of. Especially for persons too young to access more common drugs – or living in areas where they are not readily available – these atypical substances may be a wide open door to intoxication.
