Many of these comments are incredib

Many of these comments are incredibly naive - however I understand these comments because it's hard to really understand the habits and helpless feelings of an addict unless you are one, regardless of the substance of addiction (gambling, drugs, alcohol, internet, shopping, etc.)
First off - I'm 29, very well educated, fortunately have a very close family and a small core of friends I've had for years. I have a wonderful romantic relationship that has lasted years even through what I'm going to describe. My point in describing this is that many addicts aren't the so called obese unattractive losers that many of these commentors have unfairly generalized.
I've been struggling with an sexually based internet addiction for the past 10 years of my life (I'm 29 now) that has alienated me from existing and potential friendships, severely dampened my love life, and affected my professional career. I can only thank my lucky stars that enough interventions took place by my loved ones that I've started to seriously participate in therapy to recognize the underlying personality issues and self conscious qualities that kept leading me back to the computer over and over again.
I've wasted so many hours and entire nights on the computer that it makes me sick to think how much of my life has gotten sucked away by this issue. I could write a novel about how my personal internet addiction has continually threatened to wipe away everything I've worked to achieve in my professional and personal life, but I'm keeping this brief in the hope that other people read my entire post.
Bottom line... any type of addiction can become so powerful that it can overtake someone's life so severely that they feel so hopeless that taking their own life is the only way out. It's happened to countless people, while others have been lucky enough to recognize that there's still hope to turn things around and taken the necessary steps. I hope everyone that reads this pauses to give so called internet (or any other kind) addicts benefit of the doubt, and comments like "These are just social losers who don't want to work or just suck at it" or "These people are addicted to laziness and self absorption" show an unfair judgement without truly knowing some of the personal struggles some people go through with this. Thanks.