Fighting the Scourge of Gaming Addiction

speby writes: "With the growing popularity of LAN parties and other such channels to game (which the article at Wired doesn't mention) is it possible that gaming has become a real addiction? How can a person become addicted? And why?"

Comments

gta3

[vaxtor]

Grand Theft Auto 3. Need I saw more.

making money off disease.

[Alien54]

Currently there are 374 "disorders" listed in The American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic And Statistical Manual For Mental Disorders (DSM-IV) These include mathematics disorder, nicotine use, caffeine intoxication, conduct disorder, opposition defiant disorder, and the catch-all "Phase of Life Problem." Anyone can be labeled mentally ill based on opinion since there is no true diagnostic test similar to physical dieases.

Now like any other industry, in this business people want to make money. The cynical will point out that one way to nake more money is to find more things to treat. Think of your typicasl consultants who keep trying to come up with news services that you might "need". That being said, imagine this is mental health.

Thus while there are many conditions that do need to be addressed, like why do people kill other people, abuse the rights of others, etc. it is easier to go after the easier fish like the soon to be listed Gaming Addiction Disorder. In most cases a diagnosis like this is junk science.

Very simply there are bazillions of things that can give a person pleasure. You can then get stuck into some sort of a positive feedback loop, especially if there other sources of pleasure are lacking in your life. To then name each one as a separate disease is with a matching chemical imbalance is short sighted at best.

To phrase it in electronics terms, there are un-implemented communications protocols in the human interaction interface. The missing protocols may include things like "Shake Hands", "Smile", "Show interest", "Flirt", etc. These are skill sets, not chemical imbalances. The Brain is a software/wetware combination that is capable of reconfiguring itself, sometimes with weird results. But you can bring things back in line if you get the correct items.

All these things are the equivalent of Software issues, not Hardware Issues. And they keep identifying the problem as hardware (chemical imbalances).

That they keep making money off it is merely extra brownie points for them.

To sum up, I think "Gaming Addiction" is not really an addiction in the classic sense of the term.