Video Game Addiction = Mental Disorder?

[Synth]

CHICAGO - The telltale signs are ominous: teens holing up in their rooms, ignoring friends, family, even food and a shower, while grades plummet and belligerence soars.

The culprit isn?t alcohol or drugs. It?s video games, which for certain kids can be as powerfully addictive as heroin, some doctors contend.

A leading council of the nation?s largest doctors? group wants to have this behavior officially classified as a psychiatric disorder, to raise awareness and enable sufferers to get insurance coverage for treatment.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19354827/
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I wonder if Jack Thomspon will jump on this bandwagon.

 

[vinay87]

Why wouldn't he?

But yeah it's kind of obvious isn't it? Gaming = good. Too much gaming = mad.
I had an online friend who would chat with me all day. The day he discovered WoW was tha last day we chatted.

I don't do online gaming, rather I can't what with my lousy net speed and dislike for gaming cafes, however I do play games in my house. But seeing as I regularily switch between the games that I play, I seem to get easily bored. A little of ESF, a little of Deus Ex, Diablo, Age of Mythology, Imperium Galactica, Spiderman 2, a little Fifa now and then, yeah I bore easily.


edit:

A support group called On-Line Gamers Anonymous has numerous postings on its Web site from gamers seeking help. Liz Woolley, of Harrisburg, Pa., created the site after her 21-year-old son fatally shot himself in 2001 while playing an online game she says destroyed his life.

WTF I ask you?

 

[frsrblch]

As powerful as heroin? That I doubt. It's just people who let the game take hold, when they could easily play less. Computer games don't got nothing on heroin, let alone nicotine. Either that or I just don't have an addictive personality...

 

[Chakra-X]

Too much of something is never a good thing.

People are addicted to television. The Internet. Reading. Working out.

Video games aren't an exception, but for god's sake they need to stop acting like it's the root of anti-social behaviour.

And the people who actually live and breath video games and nothing else need to stop.

 

[Kaination]

I seriously don't get most people on this.

Video games helped me a **** load in school, mainly English. I knew what Rendezvous meant in 1st / 2nd grade, only because Final Fantasy 7 (a game) used it and I figured it out.

Hell, it's mainly the parents. My mom said no games until homework was finished. What did I do? Finish homework, studied, etc. and played games.

It ain't that hard to be a better parent.

 

[PiXel]

First of it has to do with the Education of the Parents....
second is the area were you live

Its true that gaming ****s up the mind of a human, even abit. I mean, who didnt played a game for a short time and said: damn i want to play that again as soon i will come back.

Its just like a drug, you need it when you want it.
In the Teen age parents have to pay attention on that, afterwards you have to see yourself about that. Mostly people realize that to much aint good.

 

[Almighty_Gir]

i went out and bought the SF: Alpha Anthology yesterday. FUN!!!

 

[jp]

I seriously don't get most people on this.

Video games helped me a **** load in school, mainly English. I knew what Rendezvous meant in 1st / 2nd grade, only because Final Fantasy 7 (a game) used it and I figured it out.

Hell, it's mainly the parents. My mom said no games until homework was finished. What did I do? Finish homework, studied, etc. and played games.

It ain't that hard to be a better parent.

Same here, I'm dutch but I started to learn English at my 5th due to some Star Trek game, and we all know how Spock talks .

It is indeed the parents that make or break it, you can't allways blame things like video games, movies and more to be the source of all evil.

Its how we respond and deal with those things, that determines the outcome.

 

[-Origin]

I'd have to agree. I have several English friends who tell me I speak better English than they do. There's no doubt in my mind I learned from playing videogames and visiting forums.

About the whole parenting thing.. My view on this is, and this is not exclusive to videogames, that the more you forbid your kids to do something, the more likely they're going to do it. Myself, I have never ever been told to do my homework before I was allowed to play videogames, all my parents said was "If you screw up, it's on you." And I turned out fine. No homicidal tendencies whatsoever. I don't smoke, I don't do drugs. And yet I play videogames. Yeah, I'm a real menace to society. Ahem.

 

[Mountain Dewd]

I despise the "scientists" that do these "studies" about how this is a correlation to this, or how everything causes cancer, it's all buzz words and scare tactics.

They get their grant money, and we get another rubbish statistic vilifying whatever the media/housewife have already decided to denounce as evil.

I think parents just need to pay more attention to their kids, television and videogames end up baby-sitting, Parents need to be more firm, but at the same time more flexible, if you don't agree with what your son/daughter wants to watch/play, watch it with them!, I'm so sick of parents washing their hands of their child's actions, when they've just sat there and let the kid's attitude problem fester into a mental illness, just because they couldn't take the time to relate to them.

 

[DaRkOwNs]

in my opinion i think its that parents are choosing their careers over their children. which isnt really their fault, it seems that everyone in the U.S. is being programmed to only focus on succeeding in the business world rather than really leading a good life.

 

[-Origin]

in my opinion i think its that parents are choosing their careers over their children. which isnt really their fault, it seems that everyone in the U.S. is being programmed to only focus on succeeding in the business world rather than really leading a good life.

Of course that's their fault. If you have kids, you are responsible for them. I don't care if you feed the hungry in Africa for a living or working on a cure for AIDS - you are responsible for your own child and no career choice should be preventing you from raising your children to become responsible adults. If you choose your career over your own children, that's your own choice and not someone else's. Now you're gonna have to learn to live with the knowledge that your absence caused your kid to snap over a videogame and shoot 12 people because they stole his lunch money.

I'm going to grab one of these.. chill pills now.. yeah. Be back soon.

 

[csr8566]

hmm, i would agree that it is addicting like heroin. and i'm one of those addicts.
my dad took away my copmuter and stored it in his room. He always locked his door so i had no way of getting in. i was so desperate that i hammered off the molding on the door, unlocked the lock, took out my computer, and then played it until he got home. of course he then took away my alienware and sold it on ebay. Fortunetly for me, i have a couple thounsands saved up, and bought myself a new computer (without him knowing, its under my bed)

 

[vinay87]

Fortunetly for me, i have a couple thounsands saved up, and bought myself a new computer (without him knowing, its under my bed)

wait, wtf you hide a COMPUTER UNDER YOUR BED?!


I cant wait to see what you have hidden elsewhere.... lol.

 

[csr8566]

yep, its on its side, and i got a flat screen that hides on the side of it....the only thing is that its really loud, so if my dad walks in while i'm on it, theres going to be a fan noise coming from underneath my bed

"uhh, dad its a fan for getting all the dust out from underneath my bed"

offtopic: is anyones posts staying at 1 number

 

[-Origin]

I'm calling BS on this one. Sorry.

 

[ZeroNightmare]

At least we'll be covered with medical.

 

[Spunky]

At least we'll be covered with medical.

Yes. Please write us prescriptions that erase all love for video games, while still keeping the drool in our mouths. [/sarcasm]

 

[kam!]

I myself spend quite a lot of time in front of the computer, but it's not all gaming.
Most of the time I voice chat with friends that live further away or I browse the net.
But I also have a social live (outside the net) and a very active nightlife .
Sure I like using my PC, but not to the point where I neglect other things.

It sure can be an addiction, but I wouldn't compare it to heroin. AFAIK heroin makes psychically and physically addicted.
So gaming is more like smoking weed or other weak drugs, which get you addicted psychically.
And of course this is mostly the fault of bad parenting. You wouldn't blame alcohol if some 14 year old is addicted to it because his parents didn't care what he did in his free time.
Oh and to say gaming addiction does not exist is BS. You can get addicted to almost anything.

 

[Brim]

As ppl have said already, anything can be addicting, as I say it's not the substance but the person that abuses it. Bad parenting can be located as a source of the problems, a sinking of society in general can also be given a token of the blame. It's never just one thing, I'm sure the kid who shot himself "because of the video game" had a lot more on his plate than not being able to defeat the final boss. Close minded views on subjects and unwillingness to recognize the intertwining of many different causes to create one effect creates scapegoats.

Just another day in our ****ed up world