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If shows like TLC’s My Strange Addiction have taught us anything, it’s that human beings can be addicted to almost anything — tanning, cat-licking, dressing up as an adult baby…
Thus it should come as no surprise that a Pennsylvania hospital has just announced plans to open the country’s first-ever inpatient treatment program for Internet addiction.
See also: How to Escape Social Media with JustDelete.Me
On September 9, the Behavioral Health Services at Bradford Regional Medical Center will open its doors to adult patients with severe web addiction. Operated by treatment specialists in the field of more mainstream vices such as alcohol and drugs, the voluntary 10-day program will require patients to undergo an initial 72 hour “digital detox,” removing themselves entirely from computers and other internet devices.
Currently the program is only designed to accept up to four patients at a time. And since insurance companies are unwilling to foot the bill for users’ addictions to Facebook updates, Youtube videos, and cat memes, each patient will have to cough up a whopping $14,000 out of pocket.
Fortunately for the severely addicted Internet user, that 14K loss is nothing a consecutive 12 hours of online poker can’t fix.
