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Gaming Fanatics Show Hallmarks of Drug Addiction
Game_addict writes "There's a story over at New Scientist saying that a new study has found that game addiction has the same effects on people as drug addiction."
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In the same way that you can train a dog to salivate at the sound of a bell, you can train people to react in certain ways to various stimuli. That's not drugs, that's Pavlov.
Gamers (and, dare I say it, many web surfers) have trained themselves to forego real work and real life in favor of a game. In fact, games are especially conducive to this kind of training. The reward/punishment system is more or less random which increases the players' propensity to keep at it in hopes of success.
Rats who are fed every time they press a button will only press the button when they are hungry. However rats that are fed sometimes and not fed other times when they press a button will press the button all day long.
Jesus saved me from my past. He can save you as well.
The reason people get addicted to substances is that their body adapts so that only that substance can trigger the release of dopamine (i.e. the chemical that makes you feel happy). The point of TFA is that psychological triggers (e.g. gaming) can cause the same adaptation. In this way, gaming addiction is no less "physical" than drug addiction.
"[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz
From my own experience, I believe this study to be true, but only for certain games. For instance, I've played and beaten DooM, and walked away. I've beaten D2X, but I still continue to play it. What's the difference? The open-endedness.
A "beatable" game, like DooM, is largely unaddictive. Once you've trashed it on Nightmare Mode, that's it, game over, endostory. Sure, there are timetrial and such, but they're the exceptiont hat proves the rule.
However a game like Diablo II, one that you can't truly beat, is addictive. Sure, you could kill Baal on Hell and call it a day, but who does that? Everybody keeps playing, building their characters up more and more and more, until you have a level 93 Hammerdin with all the trimmings- and like addicts, my brother and I kept playing.
(I should note here that I don't consider gaming with friends that you can see addictive behavior. What makes it less socially acceptible than dropping 10 bucks on a movie?)
I do have one issue with the study. Who's to say that the gamers had less ocular reaction because they were conditioned to having a sudden surprise from gaming itself? I hardly blink anymore when a baddie comes flying out from nowhere.
Well I know you were probably joking, but really after reading the article, they're talking about different mechanisms in the brain.
:/
The article talks about how stimuli related to an addictive game/substance can trigger strong desires and reactions in addicted people. However, if you show my mother (a devout Catholic and Sunday school teacher) a cross, she doesn't get the urge to suddenly go to chuch and pray.
On the other hand, if I watch a Japanese Guilty Gear match, I really do feel restless and end up firing up my Xbox for some sweet, sweet release.
Now if you'll excuse me I gotta go play some Guilty Gear
WARNING: If accidentally read, induce vomiting.
I remember for a couple years in high school I'd be able to log in about 50 hours over the weekend playing UO (there are ~64 playable hours between when school gets out on friday and restarts on monday.) By the time I went off to college I really felt like I had some social catching-up to do. It really did have about the same influence on my life as a drug addiction would have. I cut off most social ties which didn't involve game-playing, my school work went to sh*t, and it caused all kinds of friction between my parents and I.
Luckly, once I went off to college I started bartending... and it's hard not to make friends or get dates when you get people drunk for a living!
Any coping mechanism can easily become addictive (which, iirc, is exactly what the study says).
Nail biting.
Sex.
Reading slashdot at midnight listening to moxy fruvous and lou bega.
Dominoes.
Correcting people's grammar.
Shopping.
Auto-erotic asphyxiation.
The psychopathology of compulsive gambling has been studied in great depth and differs significantly from a drug addiction. I really don't see any basis for this group's outlandish claims. What they are describing is hedonism, not an addiction in the same context of drugs. Just because they may share symptoms does not equate them biologically.
From TFA:
...)? Gee, I wonder how evolution missed that one. In related news, the human body reacts similarly to getting hit by a baseball bat as getting hit by a cricket bat. No kidding ... the same mechanism! :)
Grüsser says that addictions stem from relying too heavily on one coping strategy, which eventually becomes the only activity that can activate the dopamine system and bring a person relief. "It's the same mechanism in all addicts," she says.
You mean the brain doesn't have completely separate mechanisms for addictions to video games and drugs (and gambling, and sex
Cheers,
IT
Power corrupts. PowerPoint corrupts absolutely.
I spent 6 months in rehad many years ago when I was 18. Any comparison between "gaming addiction" and drug addiction is silly, and moreso insulting. I have lost several friends to overdose and hiv as a result of drug abuse. I have lost no friends to "gaming addiction".... Chemical Dependence run in my family, and has impacted many lives within my family alone. Gaming addiction doesn't.
In our next article.... Studies Say, Trauma Cause By Paper Cuts Comparable To Road Traffic Accidents.
Wankers.
A repeat of the "Religion - Opiate of the Masses" bumper sticker slogan is +5 Insightful?
A belief or world view that includes beings of non-earthly origin, transcending the self-centeredness of secular humanism and corresponding to reality doesn't necessarily contain or lead to qualities of addiction.
Granted we've all seen so-called Christian churches do bizarre things to seek the Lord on high through emotional states of quasi-consciousness in the name of new testament worship.
Behavour is chemical. You can just as easily become addicted to natural chemical highs, like people who race cars or jump from plains and and buildings then you can to "chemical" drugs. Suprise suprise it creates a pleasureable chemical reaction in the brain.
Effective drugs tend to mimic natural brain chemicals, having enough of a similar structure to activate receptors in the brain.
Everything is a chemical reaction and in my mind addiction is not something to be scared of.
It's this natural reaction which has keept us going all these years.
It's pretty healthy to have an addiction to regularly eating and having sex, they both satisfy a chemical dependancy in the brain and both vital to the future of the human race. Look at how often men masturbate when they can't shag, it dosn't serve any purpose except for feeling good. It's an addiction to the chemical rush anything can become associated with, but is it bad? No.
Gaming for many modern people can simulate the rush of the hunt. It's just fulfilling the other half of you that wants to vanquish. Not something every person living in this modern crazy world feel they can't do in real life. Yes it may become a chemical addiction, should we be suprised? No. is it something to worry about? No.
Well, WoW charges $15/mo. No, it's not 1/10 of the income of a person who can afford a computer to play WoW, an internet connection to use to play it, etc., etc.
BUT... you can't argue that it's not similar...
It is very serious, I agree. I have two brothers, 25 and 26, and one at least goes out to work for 8 hours a day, but spends 12 hours a day on Everquest Online. My 25 year old brother spends 20-22 hours a day on EO. He only gets off long enough to eat one meal a day and sometimes passes out for an hour or two. They always lived with my mom, and the last two years ignored her completely. When she died at the hospital I was the only one with her, they never visited her while she was there and cried a little when they found out, and then went straight back to their game.
They are still living in the same house, somehow paying rent, but the 25 year old never leaves the house for any reason and will not get a job, and the 26 year old works and gets groceries, but that is it. I can't get them off for anything. When I come by to visit with my wife and two kids (I'm 27), they just sit down in the basement and ignore us. I finally am just leaving them alone, I visit once every couple of weeks just to see that they are still alive. It is so sad, and I can't get them to realize there is a whole world to explore outside if they would just take the time.
They have three XBox's (sp?) in the basement, and 3 27" tvs and a dvd player, and a Nintendo DS. I was addicted to Ultima Online for about a year, so I understand a little of what they are going through, but I wish they would somehow realize they have a problem and quit.
Sadly, I expect one day I'll come by and they'll have killed each other over some mistake one of them made in a game, or they'll just die from lack of personal care. They will scream like 5 year olds at each other for an hour if one of them makes a mistake on Everquest. I wish there was something I could do.