I’m sure a few of us in the blogisphere have already figured this out but …

A study released earlier this week suggests that the United States could be rife with Internet addicts as clinically ill as alcoholics.

Researchers at Stanford University School of Medicine in Stanford, California, said that their telephone survey indicated that more than one in eight US residents showed at least one sign of “problematic Internet use.”

Most disturbing was the discovery that some people hid their Internet surfing, or went online to cure foul moods in ways that mirrored the way that alcoholics use booze, according to the study’s lead author, Elias Aboujaoude.

According to preliminary research, the typical Internet addict is a single, college-educated, white male in his 30s, who spends approximately 30 hours a week on non-essential computer use.

• What kind on internet user are you? Are you only on the internet for an hour or so each day, or perhaps even less?
• Do you use the internet while your spouse is out, before you spouse comes home from work, or after he or she has gone to bed at night? And does your spouse know that you are on the internet when he or she is not home or sleeping?
• Do you think that you are on the internet too much and that it might be becoming a problem?

Maybe we should start a group – Internetaholics Anonymous?