Here’s How to Tell

The Scenario
You come home form work and he first thing you do is check your mail. You want to know if you have gotten a message form the online dating site you joined a while back. It’s all you seem to think abut lately, in fact. From the minute you get up ion the morning until you close your eyes for the night, online dating seems to be the only thing that is on your mind. even more so than eating and sleeping, sometimes. So what are you supposed to do about it? And how do you get out of the cycle? Read on for some ways to tell if you are going over board-and what to do about it.

The Perpetual Dater
Do you find that even though you have a boyfriend/girlfriend that you are still checking your inbox for that next message that “Someone has a crush on you!” or “You have an admirer?” If so, you may be addicted to online dating. Do you make dates with people only to cancel them in favor of a date online with someone? This is another sign that you are getting in over your head when it comes to online dating. There are great things that online dating can do for you, but if it gets to be too much, it can take over your world and actually interrupt or worse-be the end to your once productive life.

Online Dating Can Be As Addictive As Anything Else
Because when you make a connection with someone online, it makes the same chemicals in your brain react as if you had taken a drug. The same thing happens to runners and drug addicts. It’s how they become addicted. You aren’t addicted to the online dating, per-se, but you are addicted to the feeling it produces. The endorphins that are released, the feel good chemical, can take control of your life and make you continue doing what it was that released the chemical to begin with. Just in this case it happens to be online dating and not Pot.

Some Other Signs
There are other signs to look for. If you are addicted to online dating, it can have its consequences, just like being addicted to drugs. It also has many of the same symptoms. Do you find yourself doing or feeling any of the following?

• Breaking up with people over and over again, even though they were perfect
• Blaming others for your problems
• Running out of money because you spent it on dating site memberships
• Having to borrow money all the time for the same reason as above
• Are you sad when you can’t get to a computer
• Are you ecstatic when you can get to a computer
• Do you get angry if the site is down for maintenance
• Have you missed work because on online dating
• Have you lost your job because of online dating
• Do you have frequent mood swings

If you have answered yes to at least two of these questions, chances are you might be addicted to online dating and need help.

What To Do About It-Where to Turn For Help
There are people who can help. Just like a drug, there are centers with professionals that can help with an addiction to online dating. As you can probably guess, people can suffer the same consequences with an addiction to online dating as with an addiction to any drug. Both physically and mentally. But there are ways to stop and feel better.

Over the coming weeks, I will be adding resources and other information about online dating addiction and where to go for help, should you feel you or someone you know might need it. For, as much as we promote online dating and dating in general, we want all our readers and members of the SixSingles site to be healthy and have fun. And if quitting online dating to get the help you need is what you need too do, then we will do what we can to help. Even if it includes giving up SixSingles, we would rather have healthy people than unhealthy members on our site.

Dating is a beautiful thing and online dating was creative to help facilitate it. It was not created as an easy out, or as a drug or to ruin people’s lives. If you or someone you know needs help with an online dating addiction, please feel free to contact us here for help, or we can direct you to someone in your area for help. Thoughts On Dating Will NEVER give out any information you may give us and we will abide by the same confidentiality as any other professional legally bound by the law. While we are not doctors and do not propose to have all the answers or the legal certification of counselors, we would like to help wherever possible.

So, go ahead and date, live and have fun. Because before you know it, your next date may just be your last.