Editor’s note: This article was first published in February 2013. The “next decade” it forecasts, roughly 2013-2023, has now passed, and its references to the crisis and job hunting reflect that period.
We live in the perfect environment for all kinds of disorders and addictions to develop. The internet, the economic crisis, stress, worries and even boredom make up an incubator of addictions that, according to Dr. Robert Weiss, will create one of the most profitable industries around these problems. The addictions and problems he refers to are extremely varied and affect every social class.
Consumption of anxiolytics and antidepressants has soared at a worrying rate. The fact that these drugs require a prescription doesn’t mean they can’t cause addiction and long-term harm. The crisis has driven millions of people around the world to turn to this medication, and many of them will end up completely “hooked”.
Erectile dysfunction is already a very profitable industry, because stress and money worries (the psychological side) and poor eating habits (the physical side) have increased by more than 25% the number of men who overcome their embarrassment and admit the problem to a professional. As men lose this “fear”, a truly worrying real figure will emerge, and it will need treatment. Sexual dysfunction isn’t only a male issue, though: more and more women are seeing specialists for various problems related to sexuality.
The internet causes collateral damage that opens the door to other problems
On the one hand, there’s the addiction that technology is creating, as the number of hours we spend in front of a computer screen keeps growing. We already spend more time on the internet than watching television. The crisis has also meant that, at first, we need new technologies more to look for work, and later (once we haven’t found work) we have enough time to browse and browse.
On the other hand, the internet has fueled another kind of addiction, related to sex: porn is just one click away online, and more and more people realize they can no longer live without it. More and more young people are falling into this kind of addiction, and cases have even increased among minors.
According to Robert Weiss, excessive use of the internet in general, and porn in particular, is wrecking people’s social and family lives, and they only realize it when they already need ongoing treatment. What’s more, social networks are doing the opposite of what their name suggests, shifting the idea of “real social” to “virtual social”.
Addiction to cocaine and alcohol has also increased. The new profile of the person seeking help to recover from alcoholism tends to be middle-class men and women badly hit by the crisis who turned to this addiction to escape their problems. At the other end of the scale, upper-class people are increasingly turning to professionals to help them quit their cocaine addiction.
The problem with most of the addictions mentioned (especially internet and porn addiction) is that people rarely realize they are addicted. Sitting in front of a computer screen for six hours seems perfectly normal to us these days, but according to Dr. Weiss it isn’t normal at all, just as he doesn’t consider it normal to walk into a bar and see a table of five friends, each of them “fiddling” with their phone.
In the same way, having porn at our fingertips, when it used to be harder to get hold of, leads many people to overdo it, which can push them toward becoming what is commonly called a “pervert”, with all the problems that brings, not only for the addict but for the people who deal with them.
That’s why businesses and franchises dedicated to breaking bad habits (smoking, alcohol, cocaine, sexual dysfunctions) will have a growing clientele over the next decade. According to Dr. Weiss, in the United States wealthy people pay up to 50,000 dollars a month to check into rehab facilities, above all for cocaine and sex addiction, and in many cases clients arrive with both addictions.
Featured image: NIAID, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
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