Life takes a back seat to online addiction

HOUSTON, Oct. 17 (UPI) -- Work, relationships and even personal hygiene can suffer when people cannot control time spent in online virtual worlds, a U.S. researcher says.

Cindy Burkhardt Freeman of the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston School of Nursing, has written about massively multiplayer online role playing games and virtual worlds such as "Second Life."

Freeman says users should proceed with caution.

In "Second Life" users are able to create an image called an "avatar" by right-clicking and selecting everything from hair color to to muscle tone. The basic level of membership is free and includes training for the avatar to learn how to walk, talk and fly. Clothes, houses and furniture, even body parts, can be purchased using Linden dollars, which can be bought with real money. Avatars can also "marry" other avatars, Freeman says.

"You can become someone totally different from who you are," Freeman says. "If you don't like yourself, you can change that."

In her article published in The Journal of Nurse Practitioners, Freeman said one of her patients was suffering from depression brought on in part by his wife's addiction to "Second Life."

"She was carrying on an affair with a guy on another continent through the game," Freeman said. "It ruined the family."