After an all-nighter in her favourite chat room, followed by a small nap, she would head to college, get home, take another nap and wake up red-eyed for another marathon session online.

This continued for four months. "I was tired all the time, but couldn't keep away. If I didn't get online, my hands would start sweating and I would get irritable." Today, Neeta keeps her surfing down to just over two hours daily.

Not all Net addicts accept their addiction so easily though. Bhaskar begins by refuting the allegation. "My parents and friends say I'm addicted, but I don't think so." This despite the fact that he has, "often woken up at 3 am, gone to the loo and checked his mail on his way back."

According to psychologists, the mania begins with email and moves to instant messengers or chat rooms. Suddenly, someone's addicted. Dr. Young, who offers counselling for email, chat and Internet addictions, says her respondents described being anxious and irritable when offline, and unable to log-off even when their Net use -- some reported spending up to 10 hours daily -- began harming their personal and professional lives.

Withdrawal symptoms differ from person to person. Despite 24-hour free connectivity, Abhinav Singh begins text-messaging friends, calling and exchanging emails when his instant messengers fail him. Niraj Bhosle reboots his PC a couple of times, while Jayesh Mansukhani has gone in for an Internet cable connection to avoid being disconnected. Other symptoms include headaches, anxiety attacks or bouts of complaining. Abhinav laughs at how his peers are up in arms even if connection speeds are slow: "The IT representative gets his butt kicked if he fails to get the Internet up and running."

Managers at cyber cafes have other tales to tell. Rajesh Changrani at Cyber Millenia in Mumbai watches students hanging around for hours if their messengers aren't working. Mehak Sawhney of Cyber's Log Inn in Pune recounts an amusing incident with a regular: "Anish dates women daily after meeting them at local chat rooms or using the services of blind date sites. If he can't connect, he rants about how we are ruining his social life." For people like Anish, the Internet becomes the only route to social interaction with peers.

Stop and ask yourself: are you an addict? This quiz or this indicator may help. If you are, the yahoo! club for net addiction allows you to post messages and chat with like-minded souls. The centre of online addiction can also tell you more about the causes, symptoms and consequences of Internet Addiction Disorder.

The irony is this: Addicts have to log on even while looking for a remedy.

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