Is Your Internet Use a Problem?
A free clinical self-assessment from a Licensed Professional Counselor specializing in Internet Addiction — with a version for adults and a version for parents of teens and young adults. Twenty questions, fifteen minutes, your results on screen instantly.
Who This Assessment Is For
This assessment was designed for two kinds of people. The first is an adult who wants a structured, clinical answer to a question that has been quietly building — whether your relationship with your phone, gaming, social media, or screen time has crossed a line. You may already know something is wrong, but not have a way to measure or name it.
The second is a parent or caregiver watching a teen or young adult disappear into screens — the slipping grades, the conflict over limits, the gaming that has replaced everything else — and wondering whether what you’re seeing is normal adolescence or something more serious. The parent version asks the same 20 questions, rewritten to reflect what you actually observe in your child.
Whichever brought you here, this assessment can help. It is not a diagnostic instrument — diagnoses require a full clinical evaluation — but it is a structured screening tool of the kind a clinician would use in an intake. It can tell you, in fifteen minutes, where on the clinical spectrum the patterns of internet use actually fall, and what kind of response the patterns at that level typically benefit from.
What You Get
The assessment is an interactive tool that scores itself and shows your results on screen the moment you finish. It includes:
- Two versions — one for adults answering about themselves, and one for parents and caregivers answering about a teen or young adult. Same twenty questions, same scoring; only the wording changes to fit who you’re assessing.
- Twenty items organized around four domains drawn from the clinical literature on behavioral addiction: preoccupation and salience, tolerance and loss of control, functional impairment, and withdrawal and mood modification — the same domains used to evaluate substance use disorders and behavioral addictions like gambling.
- A five-point scoring system producing a total from 0 to 80, with a breakdown showing how your scores cluster across the four domains.
- Four scored interpretation bands — Low Concern, Emerging Pattern, Significant Concern, and Severe / Clinical Range — each with a full clinical interpretation of what scores in that range typically mean and what kind of response tends to help.
- Specific next-step guidance based on your result, including when self-directed strategies are appropriate and when therapy is indicated.
- Complete privacy — your answers and your score stay in your browser. Nothing you answer is transmitted, stored, or seen by anyone, including me.
Taking the assessment honestly takes most people between eight and fifteen minutes.
Why I Created This Assessment
Internet Addiction is personal to me. It robbed years of my life and directly caused health issues that took me a long time to undo. I became a therapist, in part, because of what those years cost me — and because once I was on the other side of it, I wanted to give other people the path I didn’t have when I needed it.
Most of what’s available on Internet Addiction treats it as a willpower issue. It isn’t a willpower issue. It’s an addiction, and it behaves like one — and the people I’ve worked with clinically need a structured, honest way to look at themselves before they can decide whether to do something about it. That’s what this assessment is.
I have practiced as a Licensed Professional Counselor in Texas for over sixteen years and specialize in the treatment of Internet Addiction and High Functioning Autism. I wrote the book Internet Addiction: Kicking the Habit, a 30-day self-directed program for people working alone. This assessment is offered freely — there is no catch and no upsell. The work I do is most effective when people come to it on their own time, not when someone pushes them into it.
I also wrote Is Your Child Addicted To Electronics? for parents fighting this battle at home — because the addiction I treat in adults almost always started in adolescence, when someone could still have intervened.
What to Expect
The moment you sign up:
You’ll be taken straight to the assessment in the version you chose — adult or parent. Answer the twenty items honestly, and your score and full clinical interpretation appear on screen immediately. The hardest part is the honesty — but doing it honestly is the entire point. You’ll also receive a welcome email with a link back to the assessment, so you can return to it or share it any time.
Over the next two weeks:
I’ll send four follow-up emails over the following ten days. One on how to read your score beyond just the total. One about why I created this assessment in the first place. One about what treatment for Internet Addiction actually looks like, in case your score suggests it might be useful. And a final one introducing my ongoing newsletter for people who want to keep thinking about this.
After that:
You’ll only hear from me when I have something worth saying. My newsletter, Spectrum & Screens, covers research and practical guidance on technology and mental health. It is not aggressive. If it is not for you, the unsubscribe link is always at the bottom of every email.
Frequently Asked Questions
How Long Does the Assessment Take?
Most adults complete it in eight to fifteen minutes. Taking longer to think through your answers carefully is fine — there’s no timer and the goal is honesty, not speed.
Is this Assessment Confidential?
Yes — more so than before. Your email address is collected only for the follow-up sequence and newsletter. Your answers and your score exist only in your browser: the assessment scores itself on your screen, and nothing you answer is ever transmitted, stored, or seen by me unless you choose to discuss it during a consultation.
What if I Score in a High Range?
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Your result includes a full clinical interpretation for your score range, with specific guidance about what tends to help at that level — shown on screen the moment you finish. A high score doesn’t mean you’re broken — it means the patterns you have are the patterns that respond to intervention. The follow-up emails go into more detail on what treatment actually looks like, and if you’d like to talk through your results with me directly, I offer free 15-minute consultations to Texas residents. |
I'm Not Sure I Have a Problem. Should I Still Take It?
Yes — and a low score is genuinely informative information. Many people take the assessment expecting a high score and find their use is actually within normal range, which can be a relief. Others take it expecting reassurance and find a pattern they hadn’t fully recognized. Either outcome is useful.
Can I Share this with Someone I'm Worried About?
Yes. The assessment is designed to be self-administered, but it also functions as a structured starting point for a difficult conversation. If the person you’re worried about is your teen or young adult, take the parent version yourself first — it’s built for exactly this. If it’s another adult, share the link to this page; they’ll sign up for themselves and their answers stay private to them, which often makes an honest attempt more likely.
I'm Not in Texas. Is this Still Useful?
Yes. The assessment is freely available to anyone, anywhere. My clinical practice is licensed only in Texas, so I can’t see you as a client outside the state. But the follow-up emails include guidance on finding a clinician in your area, and my books cover the same principles I use clinically: Internet Addiction: Kicking the Habit is a 30-day self-directed program for adults, and Is Your Child Addicted To Electronics? is its counterpart for parents.
Which Version Should I Take?
There are two versions. The adult version is for anyone assessing their own internet use. The parent version is for parents and caregivers assessing a teen or young adult — every question is rewritten around what you actually observe in your child, and the results guidance is written for you as the parent. You’ll choose your version when you sign up, and you can switch between them on the assessment page at any time. For younger children, my book Is Your Child Addicted To Electronics? remains the better starting point, since the assessment’s questions assume an adolescent or older.
Take the First Step
The hardest part of any change is the moment of honest assessment. The assessment doesn’t make you do anything — it just helps you see, in fifteen minutes, where you actually stand. Whatever you decide to do with that information is up to you.
Enter your email above, choose your version, and you’ll be looking at your first question within seconds.