There could be several, deep causes of your addiction. The more obvious one to me, is confidence. Before I continue, I would just like to say that if you're confident, ignore this, if you aren't I feel this shall benefit you - mind you, even if you consider yourself confident I still think it could come in handy. Confidence is a huge aspect of life. Without confidence, you would struggle to do the simplest of tasks/activities/etc. Even tiny, simple things such as walking to the shops to pick up a loaf of bread can cause unwanted stress, all from confidence, or, the lack of it. A very dear friend of mine used to have serious confidence issues. At times, it would get to the point where he wouldn't socialise, he wouldn't chat, communicate, or anything. From what I have read thus far, I think his scenario could be similar to yours. My friend (we'll call him "Benny" for this purpose only), Benny, would spend large amounts of time on his computer, all because he wasn't confident.
Benny was a very confident young man. He was captain of several sports teams, had tons of friends, had laughs, met with the girls, and so on. When he hit puberty, this all changed. He became a lot hairier than people his age. Due to this, people at his school were bullying him. Since he was getting picked on, he wouldn't hit the town, or go out at all. He then came across the internet. The internet was a great way for Benny to socialise, but at the same time not get picked on. His avoiding behaviour progressed from one step to another. Using the internet, Benny could chat, discuss, talk, communicate, without the unwanted pressure of his "mates". He was using his computer as an opportunity to "socialise". Actually, he wasn't socialising, however in his mind that's what he thought. But then, as he became part of communities, got hooked into games and so on, it was becoming worse and worse. So actually him being "social" was actually causing a huge "domino" effect on his life. One thing would lead to another, all because he was avoiding one thing.
In your case, I doubt it is as severe as Benny's. However, I can assure you that there will be certain aspects of what I've just said which apply to you. If you want to, have a read over what I've just explained and gone through, and hit me up with a PM or reply here what - if any - parts apply to you, and then I can help you out.
As for some of the posts above regarding "full addiction" and whatnot; there isn't really a scale of addiction. At the end of the day, if you're addicted - no matter how minor you consider it - it will gradually progress to something more extreme.
Finally, I would just like to say that several symptoms of addiction are an aggressive attitude when told to come off, or "stop", for no particular reason you feel the need to spend vast amounts of time on, in this case, the computer. The second symptom, as stated in your original post, applies to you. I think that it's great that you've had the confidence to express how you feel, and ask for some assistance. As for the resolution, it really depends on what's happening when you're on the computer, when you're off it and your personal issues and confidence. You may not have confidence or pyschological issues, therefore we would need to address this in a different way. If you would feel you need me to run over anything I have said, I would be more than happy to. Also, it would help out a lot if you could reply saying if you're genuinely bored and thus you feel that the computer fixes your boredem, and also if you think you have confidence issues. Even if it's as minor as you can not sneeze in public (this is just an example), or even if it's fairly severe, it would help me, and any one else wanting to lend a hand in regards to your situation if you could state if or not your feel confident.
