Detox Clinic Opening for Video Game Addicts

Blue6 writes "An addiction center is opening Europe's first detox clinic for game addicts, offering in-house treatment for people who can't leave their joysticks alone. Video games may look innocent, but they can be as addictive as gambling or drugs, and just as hard to kick, says Keith Bakker, director of Amsterdam-based Smith & Jones Addiction Consultants." I'm pretty sure the amount of time I've spent in the world of Azeroth in the past year counts as addiction. Someone tell my parents I still love them, while I mine this ore.

Comments

DUPE

[ClamIAm]

A whole three days ago...

Re:I think the editors need to go to a clinic

[fatduck]

I went to this "gaming addiction rehab clinic" and they told me that it doesn't matter if I'm addicted to World of Warcraft and sacrifice my relationships with family, friends, co-workers, fellow denizens of planet earth, as long as I think about Jesus all 24 hours of playtime per day.

Re:addictions

[Random Destruction]

Annual causes of death in the US:
Tobacco 435,000
Alcohol 85,000
Sexual Behaviors 20,000
Marijuana 0

Well it may be debatable, but I think its a pointless debate. I know more people do these other things than smoke pot, but let's multiply the pot number by five trillion to make up for the difference. Oh look, pot is still safer than sex.

*Taken from drugwarfacts.com, original sources:
Source: Mokdad, Ali H., PhD, James S. Marks, MD, MPH, Donna F. Stroup, PhD, MSc, Julie L. Gerberding, MD, MPH, "Actual Causes of Death in the United States, 2000," Journal of the American Medical Association, March 10, 2004, Vol. 291, No. 10, pp. 1238, 1241.
and
Source: Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN), available on the web at http://www.samhsa.gov/; also see Janet E. Joy, Stanley J. Watson, Jr., and John A. Benson, Jr., "Marijuana and Medicine: Assessing the Science Base," Division of Neuroscience and Behavioral Research, Institute of Medicine (Washington, DC: National Academy Press, 1999), available on the web at http://www.nap.edu/html/marimed/; and US Department of Justice, Drug Enforcement Administration, "In the Matter of Marijuana Rescheduling Petition" (Docket #86-22), September 6, 1988, p. 57.

Re:addictions

[Flaming Babies]

People don't lose their spouses, jobs or house due to a tobacco addiction.

I would be amazed to hear that no person has ever left his or her spouse because they refused to give up smoking.

4 people at Weyco lost their jobs for refusing to take a urine test for nicotine.
Alaska Airlines tests applicants for nicotine.
Union Pacific stopped hiring smokers.

Back in college when I still smoked, I would scrounge through the couch for change and pawn CD's to get enough cash to buy cigarettes.
Smoking can be a very expensive addiction. I'm certain that people have been unable to make mortgage payments because they smoked away their paycheck. If I hadn't had lenient landlords and patient parents, I would definitely have "lost my house." (not technically, but I would've been "homeless".)

These may not be normal situations, but I think you may be underestimating the effects nicotine can have on some people.