Running head: Communication Addiction Communication Addiction Disorder: Concern over Media, Behavior and Effects

Recent attention to Internet Addiction Disorder (IAD) raises concerns about conceptualization and etiology of such a syndrome. An alternative syndrome, Communication Addiction Disorder, is proposed. Research describing symptomatology and deleterious effects of too much talking are reviewed which parallel IAD characteristics in several respects. These disorders are then critiqued, as a means to identify problems in the reification of new addiction classifications that, despite their utility in clinical settings, are as yet inadequately conceptualized, theorized, or measured. Communication Addiction