Slashdot Mirror
Game Addiction Clinic Swamped
Via the Gamers with Jobs Press Pass, an article on The Australian site claiming that the Dutch gaming addiction clinic is swamped with fearful parents and glaze-eyed children. From the article: "Although experts are still debating whether excessive game playing counts as an addiction, Mr Bakker has no doubt that the symptoms are the same. 'If we see a car burning outside, we don't sit around wondering what to call it,' he said. 'It is not a chemical dependency, but it's got everything of an obsessive-compulsive disorder and all of the other stuff that comes with chemical dependency.' Tim, a 21-year-old from Utrecht, said he had hardly left his bedroom for five years because he was so obsessed by his computer games. "
... To get parents in a tizzy and ensure votes for your next election.
If it's dead, you killed it.
Great now they can all get together and form their own guild..........
I am not a number. I am a free man!
... I'm busy training to be a professional gamer.
It's not so much that the building's swamped, they just didn't want to spawn the keys to the 2nd floor immediatly on release.
Seriously.
His parents were frightened of him because, weighing more than 130kg, he was too strong for them to confront. Eventually they threatened to kick him out unless he enrolled for a month of therapy.
You're the parents, you make the rules. Pull the plug, take the computer away, do something, anything. You'd probably hit the roof if you caught your kid with a joint, but when he wants to wrap himself up in computer games you just fucking sit there and let it happen. That shit pisses me off. I hope this clinic is working with parents too to make sure they can control their child's behavior.
and I'm a gameaholic.
I may be 21 but sometimes I feel like an "old fogey" -- what happened to self control?! This isn't crack or nicotine or anything physically addiction, it's a video game. I play a LOT of video games when I have free time, but all it takes to stop is a little thing called will power. I don't understand why so many people can't just put down their damn controllers. You know, while they're in the game clinic, they should at least ship me their game library.
A computer once beat me at chess, but it was no match for me at kick boxing.
It was actually a mix of workplace burnout and World of Warcraft addiction, but I quit my well-paying job ($70k per annum) to play WoW full time.
I think for the most part it's a result of overreactive parents, combined with what I like to call "baby sitter syndrome" ("Why won't the public school teach my kids morals?!?! Why won't the gov't baby sit my kids?!?! Oh my, my kids are playing video games all the time, and I can't turn it off because they cry and scream and make a scene! I need a Gaming Clinic/Baby sitter to fix my kids for me!")
Disclaimer: I don't have kids of my own so the above is probably warped by views of other people who don't have kids of their own, not to mention stereotypes are rarely all-encompassing. Don't take it too personally. I was, however, at one point a kid, and I did have parents (who restricted my video gaming and computer time) so I think I still have some things to say on the matter.
Gaming for me was a phase. I always have enjoyed a good game, but it's not the same as it was when I was a kid. I would play games for hours on end, but now it seems my standards are higher or my attention span lower, because games don't tend to "hook" me as often as they used to.
I still enjoy a good game of course, but I think I'm still largely "gamed out" from when I was a kid.
I personally have met someone who was addicted to World of Warcraft- he stopped going to classes to play, would fall asleep at his chair while his characted rested, and unless he's changed since I graduated, has probably flunked out of college by this point.
However, for all that, I don't think that gaming addiction is all that common- compared to alcholism or compulsive gambling the number of gaming 'addicts' are trivial. Also, gaming is less physically harmful than alcohol or drugs, and much cheaper to indulge in than compulsive gambling.
I suspect that the same people who are susceptible to compulsive gambling are also the compulsive gamers, so research on the larger, more important issue (compulsive gambling) might also help compulsive gamers.
You are reading a copy of my copyrighted post.
I can quit anytime I want. Really, I can! In fact, I was going to quit after I hit level 60. But now, I've decided I'm going to quit after I get all my Epic gear. That's right! After I get all my Epic gear, I'm really really going to quit. I promise!
Oh, come on. Either he was playing video games all the time, or he was too strong to confront.
He had a fearfully strong grip and thumbs that could kill with a twitch!
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Swamped with big fat white nerdboys that only have muscles in their opposable thumbs. Must be easy to manage. Although I would like to see them fight over the single computer standing in administration. Images of House on Haunted Hill come to mind...
Custom electronics and digital signage for your business: www.evcircuits.com
"Where are the parents?" "The parents are to blame!!"
Which is insanely funny because the majority of slashdot are a bunch of virgins. Do you blame your parents for your virginity? "Why didn't my father teach me about sex?!?"
Not everything is the parents fault you know. Hell you should give credit to some of these people for manning up, realizing they have a problem and doing something about it.
There's more and more research emerging to support the hypothesis that any addiction to a substance without physically addictive qualities (i.e. crack and its ilk) are all rooted in the same dopamine reactions. http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1669601/p osts is a short synopsis of a story I read in long form in Chicago magazine about a woman who took a drug that affected how her brain handled dopamine and ended up with a massive gambling addiction. Stopping the meds brought back her original problem but allowed her to almost effortlessly quit gambling.
All of these non-chemical addictions seem to have the same core symptoms. People do something that makes them feel good. They do it often and begin to notice other things don't feel good anymore, then they notice they need to do this new thing more and more to keep the good feeling coming. Just because our brain makes a chemical doesn't mean it won't acquire a tolerance to it.
> 'If we see a car burning outside, we don't sit around wondering what to call it,'
I do. That one looks like Ian the inferno, but last time Steve Scorchup seemed more appropriate.
Are these "addicts" getting the Dutch equivalent of disability payments for this bullshit?
-Eric
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
I have been playings games since I was 5 years old. I played everyday because my asthma at the time prevented me from playing sports. I don't understand what has come over this generation of gamers. Games are not even that great anymore. Most are just re-hashing old concepts with a new face. There are very few that I could play for that long. Wait till these kids get to college (if they do). They will see that all that gameplaying has gotten them nowhere. As for the parents, they need to stop letting their kids do what they want. My parents would have hit me if I talked back to them about playing video games. We need to teach our kids self-control.
That's an interesting point. But shouldn't some of the "addictive behaviour" be attributed to some folks who are obsessive-compulsive who have worked in video games into their pattern? Psych isn't my thing so I don't know it well, I'm just guessing and wondering out loud.
Oops, how did this get here?
09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0
Hell with that. I don't have time to be addicted...I have a raid schedule to keep.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
From TFA:
Am I the only one who finds that metaphor a bit puzzling? Maybe it works better in Dutch or something.
And the brethren went away edified.
The reality you deal wih inside a virtual world can be much better than the one you have to deal with in the "real" world. This is why the games are attractive. One gets to control much more inside virtual environments, and the metrics for success are much easier to attain.
Last week, Mr Bakker took his first group of "gamers", as he calls them, on a parachuting trip to take their minds off their computers.
Ohh! gamers huh? Thats a pretty good name that you just came up with Mr. Bakker!!! (In his defence, I'm sure its the fault of The Australian and their staff)
-Bill
Probably so, however my guess (and its just that, also not being a psych or neuroscience guy) is that the obsessive-compulsive behavior is fueled by dopamine (or other chemical) mishandling by the brain. Not sure if this would also cover true OCD, way outside my knowledge.
I do know that as someone who is highly susceptible to addictive behavior I hope to see a lot more research in this area. Behavior control is damn hard, and its frustrating to sometimes have to abandon things early to avoid letting them run my life.
Medical condition. Before the self obsessed BabyBoomers started raising children the majority of young boys didn't have A.D.D.. This is all just one more "What about me!" from the BabyBoomer generation. "My kids aren't perfect! Fix them!" This is coming from the people who invented, "Turn on. Tune in. Drop out." "Free love" and your classic 1960's 1970's do it if it feels good self absorbed generation. As my hero George Carlin put it, "From cocaine to rogain". ""These are perfectly decent kids whose lives have been taken over by an addiction," said Mr Bakker, a former drug addict. "Some have given up school so they can play games. They have no friends. They don't speak to their parents."" Giving up school? Normal. No friends? Normal. Who didn't feel isolated in high school? Not speaking to parents? Normal. Sounds like the kids aren't watching TV all hours of the day and night and the new technology is frightening mummy.
Thanks to eating disorders most chicks are reasonably good looking these days.
Never played Civ when it first came out, did you?
None of them can see the clouds; The polished wings don't care.
We used to call this neurosis. The actual neurotic behavior isn't really all that important. What is important is addressing the underlying causes, which often have little or nothing to do with the resulting behavior. This guy obviously has a problem, but obsessive gaming is just the symptom. He could equally well be compulsively plucking his eyebrows or watching TV.
Proud member of the Weirdo-American community.
Could form the game in the Simms Online version eh?
Like having AA meetings at a bar during Happy Hour!
I only look human.
My mother is a halfling and my dad is an ogre, so that makes me an Ogreling
If it has all the conditions of obsessive-compulsive disorder, then guess what it might be? It might just be, gasp, obsessive-compulsive disorder!
Blaming a videogame on something which they admit, looks like OCD, is very irresponsible, not to mention downright stupid. It's like a person blaming high blood loss from a cut gotten while mowing the lawn on the lawnmower, when they have a condition that makes it hard for cuts to heal fast enough to stop high blood loss. The lawnmower didn't cause the condition that caused you to lose a lot of blood due to your cut, so why should videogames be blamed for obsessive-compulsive? Sure, it may have dragged the OCD into the open, but if it wasn't videogames, then something else would have dragged it out. Better to become obessed with videogames than something like, say, obessive gambling.
that is all, mod me off-topic. They haven't given me mod points in years :(
Of course this isn't funny.
http://www.civanon.com/
"a condition that makes it hard for cuts to heal fast enough to stop high blood loss" == haemophilia
Well, for the most part. Anti-clotting medication can induce a similar condition...but it might save you time to use the actual names of medical conditions (and save me time as well!).
I may make you feel, but I can't make you think.
The /. summary makes it sound like there's rampant gaming addiction brought on by game-manufacturers. I think the odds are that the patients of these clinics have some other kind of physical or psychological problem which just so happens to rear its ugly head when some other form of activity is introduced, specifically gaming. The same can be said of gambling, drinking, drugs, sex, tv-watching, etc., but somehow this is so much worse because children are at stake? Cmon! Parents, be thankful you caught your child's substance-dependency issues, or social anxiety/anti-social issues early, where you can treat them. Treating video games as the problem isn't solving anything.
Hades, PoD: Official Advocate
If the parent(s) cannot take care of their own child (or children) then they should not have been parents in the first place. Period.
I am so tired of seeing parents that will not discipline their children because they fear what other will think of them. Or they feel that it up to others to tell them what to do? If you have a child with a mental disorder (and gaming is NOT A mental disorder), then there are tests that can determine that. Then take the appropriate action based on the results of those tests. Being addicted to gaming, golf, or anything besides drugs (alcohol and cigarettes fall into this group) is very easy to fix. Stop that activity. Addicted to games, stop playing the game. What is so hard about that? If the kid keeps on playing behind your back, then throw the game away. If it is a computer, then remove something from the computer so it will not start. There are many ways to stop you own kid from playing a game you do not want them to play. If your kid is playing at a friends house, call the friends and make sure those parents know what is going on.
As parents, it is YOUR responsibility to make sure YOUR kid(s) are not out of control. If you cannot do that, you should be fixed and your kid(s) should be taken away.
Anyone for adopting a bunch of gaming kids? I am looking at you video game makers.. think of all the game testing that can be done on the cheap
Not only is it just another form of recreation, but it is much more stimulating than watching TV. With the weather as unbearably hot as it is now, 4-6 hours of gaming is much healthier than most other forms of recreation. Especially if you play with real-life friends.
-yash
"Haven't you ever heard of the Emancipation Proclaimation?"
"I don't listen to Hip-Hop!"
Just pull the plug and sell your console. Problem solved. There's nothing to "treat" here.
According to some/many, there is a technique that is common with all addictions,
.10 more steps in here,
and a for some successful technique for dealing with it:
for drinkers its AA,,,,modify their 12 step program and apply it for gamers.
The program does not work for me, as i like to drink...anyway here is the lingo of the first and 12th step just to give you an idea.
1. We admitted we were powerless over ((Our Gaming Addiction)) that our lives had become unmanageable.
.
.
12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried (i think they ment try) to carry this message to ((Gaming Addicts)), and practice these principles in all our affairs.
IT works if you work IT a favorite line, what i disliked most about their program, was their preface statement, something like there are those who are hopeless, and will continue to drink (Game) i always thought that gave an easy out.
Alternative to the AA program is Rational Recovery, i'm sure there are others.
Regards,
... or basketball, soccer, or any other countless things that kids "waste" their time doing? These things are arguably even detrimental: the kids could be learning a marketable trade instead of spending their time learning a skill that has little to no value in the real world.
I question the validity of any "science" that assumes that computer-gaming habits are inherently different from other things kids waste their time doing, without proper evidence-backed arguments supporting such differentiation.
http://outcampaign.org/
is becasue our parents dont let us do anything fun, but if we sit in our room all day what does it matter to them if we end up 40 yeasr old in their basemnt(lol), im 19 im a HUGE gamer, i moved away halfway across teh US 6 months ago, i now rent a top floor of a house(on that note room available for rent from a rentee rofl), i just broke up with a girlfriend of two years because her mom was a bitch, and am recovering from that while getting highly drunk every night, i play probably 50 hours a week in games HOWEVER unlike living at home, NOW i can go out with freinds without being badgered and confronted(a reason that made me not socialize), so i find time for a 40 hour a week job 40 hours of gaming, and time for freinds, and maybe a new girlfreind on the way after a few months, if you want them to live, heres what you do(it worked for me personal experience here):
Dont send them to counseling thats like saying you rode teh short bus on a GOOD job background check
give them 10,000 over 3 months to live on their own, after that they should have a job and a place to live(i do)
make them pay for rent and all that
also it helps if you move them a distance they cant come back, in my case form Missouri to New Jersey, a fresh start is great with everyone(i wish i hadnt brought my girlfreind =/ lol)
if my mom had sent me to a game clinic, id have isolated even more, i have a social life, i have a steady job, i have freinds who i can relax and talk with, and i have my games on the side, i also had to buy a new computer, i gave it to my mom when i left so i would have to work for it to keep myself motivated
frankly, if you want your kid to get off the computer, ill take a guy in for a few weeks till he can support himself, ill even nab him a job so he can be self sufficient, if he blows it on video games, make him fix it, he may go in debt, but hell finally understand that thats not impossible, in the end its not gaming clinics who will help a gamer, its just freinds and comradery, im devestated that my girlfriend left, but now that im on my own, i still have to go to work and not let it consume me
-Noc
When I was a kid my parents didn't put up with this behaviour. Playing too much video games? Cut power to my room! Harsh? I hardly think so.
I blame a lot of this kind of trash on pussy foot parents.
Parents have to be involved with kids. You can't raise a good kid though this bullshit of purely peace, love and happiness and "non aggression". Not to be confused with hitting children. Parents can't just let kids get away with things and think pills or avoidence will solve it.
I am completely addicted to doing nothing for at least an hour out of every day. I wonder if they have a clinic for that.
Why do people think it's 'not real' if it's conducted primarily on a computer?
Before Everquest existed, I 'was somebody' online - ran a guild on a MUD (although not as big as yours), and eventually even ended up running the MUD itself. There were definitely some stretches where I'd often spend 16 hours a day on the computer.
But I've also 'been somebody' in real life too. I have a real job with real responsibilities and most of the people I work with I have met once, or no times at all, and interact with almost entirely via computer. I'm also the president of one national non-profit organization with a few thousand members I never see, and run another business with 30,000 customers I don't see either.
And I find that I often spend 16 hours a day on the computer.
Now, most people would consider my job, my non-profit, and my business to be 'real life', and I enjoy them. So why are people who enjoy spending 16 hours a day doing something else on the computer not doing 'real life'? I really can't think of anything that's much different between the 16 hours a day I spend playing networked computer games and the 16 hours a day I spend doing various forms of (enjoyable) work. And while you may have felt compelled to play more everquest because people were depending on you, how is that any different than me feeling compelled to go to work for the same reason?
Computer games are certainly no less productive than the time I've spent shooting pool at the bar. But somehow going out and shooting pool at the bar is OK while playing games at home is not - why? Also, why is someone who spends 16 hours a day reading books and/or watching TV considered to be doing 'real life'? All you're trading is a networked screen with a non-networked screen or page.
Playing on the computer a lot, in and of itself, isn't an addiction. It's only natural that you're going to do the things you enjoy doing as much as you can, and playing computer games isn't any different than reading or anything else, except people who do those other activities want to pretend their life is more meaningful than computer gamers I guess.
People need to understand what an addiction really is. If you are COMPELLED to do something so much that it interferes with your ability to pay your rent, feed yourself, or maintain relationships that are important to you, that's an addiction. If it consumes all of your free time, that's just recreation. And I think it's a tragedy to try and label someone an 'addict' just because of their prefered form of recreation.
Anyway, the time you spend on EQ was real life. And it wasn't because you were 'addicted', it's because you enjoyed it. Not playing anymore wasn't an addiction-ending event; you just stopped enjoying playing so you stopped playing. Simple as that.
paintball
my pareants simply said no when i had played games to much and they stuck to it and if i kicked up a fuss i got a clip accross the ear.
taking your kid to clinic becouse you cant enforce some discipline is pathetic.
I Predict A Riot
People do something that makes them feel good. They do it often and begin to notice other things don't feel good anymore, then they notice they need to do this new thing more and more to keep the good feeling coming. Just because our brain makes a chemical doesn't mean it won't acquire a tolerance to it.
Some people do not have this tolerance, there are people out there who never get bored with certain depth of repetition.
Boredom is survival function, but in some people it simply does not work in the same way or it is completely broken, or overcome by the chemical stimulation the mind provides. Think about sex for a minute, is there anyone who would truly give it up? I doubt most sane people would.
There's more and more research emerging to support the hypothesis that any addiction to a substance without physically addictive qualities (i.e. crack and its ilk) are all rooted in the same dopamine reactions. You know, a lot of obsessive-compulsive people havev multiple mental "addictions." I wonder if OCD is linked to those dopamine reactions - it'd make a lot of sense, wouldn't it?
Goo goo g'joob.
Right now Joe Camel and the Marlboro Man are welcoming Mario and Luigi into the "deadly products blatenetly targeted to childern" club. I can only hope they are handing out candy cigarettes for party favors...
I'm not a lazy slob and I fit in a part time job, full load uni, tv, several hours (2-4 min) of gaming a day, and I even manage about four hours sleep a night. So bah to your claims!
I ate your fish.
To drop this far. I can understand a afflication with drugs, alcohol or tobacco. But if I saw someone who said they were addicited to 'computer games' I would slap them and laugh.
I heard about a friend of a friend who had a problem with her kids being constantly glued to the TV. She got so annoyed that one night after the kids had gone to bed she picked up the TV and put it out on the street. By morning it was gone and boy where the kids shocked!
The problem is letting it get that far. I see far too many parents who have the "Well there's nothing I can do" attitude about a child's behaviour. Actually, yes there is. Nobody said it will be easy or fun, but you do have the power to make them do as you say. In extreme cases there's things like boot-camp schools and such. Either way the point is that if your child has a problem behaviour that you let develop to chronic levels, you are to blame for that. While you shouldn't be controlling and overbearing, you should know a problem when you see one and intervene, even if that intervention causes conflict and unhappiness.
My parents had to go through something like that. I wasn't a video game addict, just lazy. I had a computer and TV in my room and starting in high school I just kinda played computer and watched TV and didn't do my homework. My parents weren't aware of it right away since they assumed I was up in my room working (I took my books and such up there). Well, first progress report came home and I was doing poorly. So the TV and comptuer left my room, there was a very uncomfortable conference between my parents and all my teachers and I didn't get to have much fun until I got my grades back in line.
I sure wasn't happy about all this and it caused a big fight but in the end, it worked out. I accepted that I couldnt' goof off all the time and started doing well in school without needing much supervision, my parents allowed me to play when I was done with my work, etc. I'm sure they didn't want to cause conflict, but they knew they had to deal with this before it became a real problem and that is, after all, what being a parent is about.
So while I highly encourage parents to seek professionals to help, I think every teenager would benefit from a few sessions with a psychologist that specalises in teens, I will scold them if they wait until the problem is just out of control before doing something about it.
You think it's excessive just because you don't do it. However I'd bet I can find something you spend near as much time on, maybe more. Most people have something in their life that they spend more time on than anything else. Might be a hobby, might be watching TV, might be a sports league, whateve.r Few people really balance a ton of activities equally.
There's nothing wrong with having the one thign you like doing, the only problem, the time when it starts ecomming an addicton, is when you do it to the exclusion of other thigns you need to do like work, sleep, spend time with family, etc.
For example suppose someone joined a socer league. For this they decided to go to the gym every day for an hour to keep in shape, which uses 2 hours considering transit and warm up/down time. Their team meets to practise 3 night a week for 2 hours, again another hour is wasted in getting there and setup, and they play a match every other week that takes up an entire saturday. Here you've got someone who is spending over 20 hours a week on a sport for fun. Are they addicted? No they are just doing what they like.
Looking down on someone just because they choose to spend their free time plaing games instead of whatever you do with your is stupid. They have different priorities than you and that doesn't make them addicted,and it doesn't make it bad. It's only a problem when it interferes with other parts of life, as this guy's WoW gaming did.
I know 2-3 people who failed out of school because of WoW, and more who have had their grades severely impaired -- and this isn't at some state school (probably why they're gameaholics and not alcoholics) WoW is scary... you think there isn't anyone else throwing their future away for the game, but the problem is pretty common...
Computers can make otherwise intelligent people stupid, much like slashdot.
You see a clinic full of "addicted" gamers. I see the building blocks of the greatest guild that will ever live!!
He said, "Curtains drawn, pizza boxes, empty bottles and junk food wrappers everywhere ... I didn't even get up to use the bathroom but peed in a bottle while I kept playing."
So what's the problem?
It could have been worse, he colud hvae ben d/l'ing pr0n 24/7 lkie me....oops, dam, now I messd up teh keybrod agian.
[quote]I may be 21 but sometimes I feel like an "old fogey" -- what happened to self control?! This isn't crack or nicotine or anything physically addiction, it's a video game. [/quote] Addics don't have any self control. That is why they are called "addicts". I've seen Mr. Bakker on TV a couple of times (I live in Holland) and he puts it like this: "You are not addicted to crack, or heroin, or booze, or whatever, you are just addicted to MORE". That makes sense. Especially now with things like MMORPGs. It's always more gear, just one more level, more gold, yada yada. Just like the heroin addict who is always looking for his next fix. The self control is long gone by then. [quote] I don't understand why so many people can't just put down their damn controllers. [/quote] Ofcourse you don't understand. You have to be an addict (or have been one) to understand that. [quote] You know, while they're in the game clinic, they should at least ship me their game library. [/quote] Hmmmm, CD keys. :D
A bit of my background: I played WoW for about a 1.5 years (just recently quit). WoW took up way too much of my time and I neglected other things in my life to focus on WoW. It was a fun diversion and I enjoyed playing a lot. However there were times when I simply hated it also. For myself, MMORPGs are something I shouldn't do. I tend to be pretty goal oriented so in a regular game once I beat it I'm done with the game and move on. In fact in the past two weeks I've finished two games and have no desire to play them again. The problem with WoW (which was my first MMORPG) was that there is always something else to go for...
I could never run out of goals so I would keep playing. I even leveled cooking, fishing, and first aid to 300 at a time when only very few guilds were in MC since I was looking for things to do. One of the reasons I stopped was because I really couldn't progress anymore unless I was with 39 other people in some high-end instance for 6 hours and then if I had enough dkp I may get a drop for the night. The time vs rewards was way too much out of proportion so I ended up selling my account and have found myself with much more free time.
So my theory on why games (WoW in this case) are addictive: I think most people continue to play or play excessively due to the power or recognition they receive from the game. This is what I think is addicting. Because WoW tends to award players for grinding and spending a ton of time the people in the best gear will be the ones that play the most. These also tend to be in the best guilds and if you are one of them you will have opposing faction members run from you by just your guild tag. You will also have same faction players constantly whispering you or inspecting you in awe as they remark on how leet your gear is. This makes the players feel good so they continue to do what it takes (mainly time) to keep at it. If you don't play as much, others will advance past you and you just won't be as "cool" anymore. If you quit you become a regular joe again doing the same stuff as everyone else. Sure your fame is only virtual but it's fame nonetheless and since you probably won't get it in real life you might as well somewhere.
You can relate this to games, sports, academics, whatever. People tend to do things for power and recognition. Once you get it is is addicting (varies depending on the person). I'm sure this causes chemical reactions or whatever to happen in the brain/body so that you could explain it in some scientific way, but I can't so I won't.
I'm guessing if the researchers at the clinic rigged the games the patients used so that they could only lose or the players couldn't interact with others (for example chat is garbled or not allowed) then the players would very soon lose interest in playing and would look for other activities to spend their time doing.
Sometimes when a teenager or young person plays computer games excessively, there is another problem hidden underneath. Usually when a young boy (not that females are not affected, but the majority of the cases are male) stays in and plays computer games all day, it is because he finds it easier to beat the game than confronting society and his problems.
My advice to parents is to pay attention to their children and what the messages their children send. It is really important to be able to tell what's bugging your kid and deal with it.
im only on slashdot cause flyff servers are down... 10 more mins till they are planned to be up though... so im off to the land of fairytales!!! (just kidding, i am waiting to play, but im 17 and have no homework... and its dark outside... and i live in the country... GOD it gets boring.. so games are a good backup)
As with pretty much any addiction, there's something below it that caused it.
Nobody goes and gets wasted every day 'cause it's so funny to "drink yourself away". Nobody even thinks about touching heroin when everything's fine in his life. Addictions have a trigger. When somebody heads for an addictive behaviour or substance, they don't do it because that behaviour/substance is so good for them, but because it is a substitute for something they cannot get anyway else.
Now, let's look at the person in question: 21 years old, 130kg heavy, compulsive gamer for 6 years. Can anyone here, or everyone, answer the question why?
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
1) No! Games are not addicting! Or, when someone is addicted, it comes from something else! Or the parents are to blame! Or at least it's not the fault of the games, right? Anyways I am not addicted, I just like to play.
2) Yes, I was addicted once. It was bad.
Trust me, I work for the government.
A lot of the comments so far have been about parents not enforcing enough discipline on their kids' gaming. Some games (i.e. WoW) have mechanisms to enforce strict gaming schedules. Parents simply enter the kid's account and set the weekly hours on which the account is active and playable.
This won't help anyone who's flunking out of college, but at least it's useful in high-school and below. Actually, it is tell-tale sign of young players (well, apart from immaturity that is). They tend to suddenly disconnect at sharp hours.
Of course, good parents will discuss the matter with their kids, and try to set the times to correspond to raid schedules and the like. Really strict (and IT-savvy) parents could of course set restrictions for just about anything on their router, but something tells me that that is a sign of bad communication between parents and kids.
I work in tech support, and the biggest mistake new agents make is trying to troubleshoot parts when they should really be troubleshooting symptoms. The same applies here.
Gaming addiction is no different that drug abuse, youth violence, sexual misconduct, disobedience.. they all point to the same root cause: ineffective parenting. To hell with this clinic for game addiction; I say open a clinic for bad parenting. Prescribe therapy, dictate behavioral changes, heck just bend the parents over and give them the strap for all I care, they have failed. The latest fad is "helicopter parents", the ones who give their kids cell phones so they can check up on them ten times a day. I can tell you that if one of my students, I don't care if they're 8 or 18, whips out a phone during class to answer his pea-brained mother, I'm picking up the phone and giving a lesson on four letter words. There is no greater shame than seeing a young adult who can't do anything for themselves and has no authority, no independence, are living under mommy's skirt after high school. Heck I remember thinking 18 years was too long a wait for me to become legally independent.. a fifth of my life gone already and I hadn't yet seen the forest for the trees.
In a world where technology is bringing information to the masses, I would expect people to learn faster, to be more versatile and successful, to waste less time on childhood and more time doing interesting things. Instead we're seeing people age 25 who still can't hold a full time job, don't know what they want to do for a career, can't drive, can't cook, can't clean.. oh they can read the fuck out of a textbook though.. then a year later they're having kids and polluting the earth with yet more failed humans. Where the hell did humanity go wrong ?
-Billco, Fnarg.com
Well, time for somebody who has actually done some serious research on this to show up. First of all, my background - I wrote a book titled "The EverQuest Companion" for Osborne/McGraw-Hill (NOT a strategy guide), and one of the chapters was on game addiction and its issues. The research for this chapter was around 450 pages, including several psychology papers, and interviews with people like David Greenfield and Nicholas Yee, who had done the most statistical work on the subject.
First of all, there IS such a thing as computer game addiction. It does exist, and it is not a case of poor parenting. It is also not something simple, there is no single cause of computer game addiction, and I recall the research showing that about 10% of players on online MMORPGs are addicts (based on Nicholas Yee's research, although I may have the number wrong - it's been about three years since I did this research).
The addiction is a cycle, and this is how it works. If you want to try to simplify it, it's a coping mechanism gone horribly wrong, but even there it is complicated.
First of all, there is a trigger of some sort. This can be something big (like a major family crisis), or it can be something small (like an overdue school assignment) - it depends on the person, and what puts them under pressure. Rather than deal with the problem, the addict runs away into the game for a few hours.
At this point, when the addict comes back out, the issue that drove him/her in is still there, and probably worse, so they go back into the game. And this is the basic cycle. Everybody's trigger is different, but the actual manifestation becomes devastating. The more the addict plays the game, the more s/he leaves his/her life on hold - the game becomes the way that the addict deals with life, to the exclusion of everything else, including family, friends, school, and work. And, because the life is neglected, it gets emptier and emptier, causing the addict to go farther and farther into the game, since the game is now the sole coping mechanism the addict has.
It's a psychological addiction, and it can have tragic consequences. It's also, unfortunately, not something generally researched and studied - when I wrote my chapter, you could count the number of people in North America who actually worked in earnest on this on two hands - and Shawn Woolley (the person who famously committed suicide while playing EverQuest) had been turned away from clinic after clinic as his family tried to get him help over the course of over a year (that's one of those things you don't find out from the news stories - I had to interview Liz Woolley to get that tidbit).
It is a question of balance, though. Simply running into a game for a bit to get away from the world doesn't an addiction trigger make - after all, we all do it sometimes. Having a game make you lose track of time because it has you gripped does not mean it's addictive. It's when the game starts to unbalance and eat your life and you come to rely on it just to cope that you've got a problem. And once you've got that problem, it can't be solved just by good parenting - it's an addiction, a real addiction. Just because it's psychological doesn't mean that it is any less severe than an addiction to heroin.
Quite frankly, I'm very glad that somebody out there is finally taking this seriously enough to open a proper clinic for it. There are tens, if not hundreds of thousands of people who well and truly need the help.
Robert B. Marks
Author, Demonsbane in Diablo Archive
1. Get a clock, either onscreen or right next to your computer. World of Warcraft does not show the clock by default - you can install Titan Panel to get a taskbar with a clock.
2. Solo. Don't go on big group raids or group dungeons more than once a week. When you're soloing, you can log out any time, and all your quests will be right there waiting for you when you get back. If you've reached level 60 and all that is left are group dungeons, start a new character.
3. Don't become a guild officer. Join a guild, enjoy the camaraderie, but don't take a position of responsibility in a guild.
The complusive TV watching was what this immediately reminded me of. I know people (I'm sure you do too) that have gone so far as to have a mini TV or wall mounted TV in their kitchen or bathroom that they leave on even when they are not in the room. How many people do you know that turn on the TV as soon as they get home from work/school, eat dinner in front of it, and watch it right up until they go to bed? I'm not refering to doing it once in a while, but every day.
Ummm, Jon, aren't you supposed to be dead...? - Otter(3800)
Just replace their consoles and PCs with big exercise wheels like in hamster cages.
It is by the juice of the coffee bean that thoughts acquire speed, the teeth acquire stains. The stains become a warning
"Think about sex for a minute, is there anyone who would truly give it up? I doubt most sane people would."
Having a a girlfriend in college who was very good in bed almost ruined me academically. Go to class or stay in bed? I guess I was a bit addicted to the sex. I have much fonder memories of her than of my classes though!
It is by the juice of the coffee bean that thoughts acquire speed, the teeth acquire stains. The stains become a warning
All right then, picture this if you will. A kid pulls 14 hour days selling his loot from WoW or FFXI or even Runescape on eBay, and uses some of that time to move and shake on Second Life, and winds up making more in a month than his parents do in a quarter. Is he an addict? These "addicts" have remarkable skills of data retention and networking, and so many other skills, and if and when they find a way to apply them, they would shine.
That's why I say that (and I don't know the terminology, I don't really play that many games outside of 1 player console games) significant achievements should be applicable on resumes! Managing a guild? What invaluable management experience! Manage to grind a skill to max with a group of people? Put them in HR! Do they mod, thinking outside the box? That opens up a whole new realm of job opportunities. Hell, they all do. Don't make a clinic for gamer addicts, make a job center that can gauge their skills and show them fields that they could excel in. Most of the time, even they don't realise what skills they posess.
Information overload can make people introverted to fantastic degrees and believe you me, introversion is very hard to overcome, and the feeling of always having someting to do is hard to find irl when this is your life. Just imagine this large group of people profiteering online and succeeding at their jobs offline, because they could equate their skills to careers.
Still, for the time, even impressive achievements don't count on resumes, even if they require feats of skill and communication. Then again, I might just be a damn fool.I haven't seen your book but did you contact Maressa Orzack at McLean Hospital in Belmont MA who is doing reseach on game/internet related addictive behavior? Her work might be of interest to you.
It is by the juice of the coffee bean that thoughts acquire speed, the teeth acquire stains. The stains become a warning
Unfortunately they were all Battlefield 1942 addicts and they immediately started running around looking for a flag after they landed.
It is by the juice of the coffee bean that thoughts acquire speed, the teeth acquire stains. The stains become a warning
People here keep arguing that gaming is no different than playing sports, reading books or watching television. There are some fundamental differences.
Television is the most passive of these activities. The mind essentially shuts off watching television, which is probably why it isn't particularly addictive. There's no feedback and stimulus is minimal.
Gaming is another story. It provides positive feedback when the appropriate actions are taken. It can boost a player's confidence, enhance their ego, make them feel important, at least while they inhabit that game world. On the otherhand, gaming is still an extremely passive activity. During the initial learning period the mind is stimulated but there's a point when gameplay becomes repetitive and the mind essentially shuts down.
Obviously some games are better than others, RTS's require more mental involvement while MMORPGs are particularly mindless. Those games are all about repetitive, addictive gameplay that requires little thought. Sure there's some planning, especially for raids. But when it comes down to it raids consist of a lot of waiting punctuated by power spamming. Most players aren't doing much of anything. Needless to say humans tend to choose the path of least resistance. And the brain isn't going to do any more work than it needs to. And when it comes down to it, even when interacting with other gamers this is still an anti-social activity. An interface is being made with a computer, not a physical being.
This is where the fundamental difference lies between gaming and doing sports or reading books. Those activities require active participation to work. Sports require physical exertion, among other things. Reading requires an active mind to comprehend and visualize what's being read. I'll concede that reading is a solitary activity, but obviously sports require strong social interactions.
I'd much rather have my kids reading books and outside playing sports than indoors playing games all day. This leads me to one last point. Ultimately, gaming addiction among kids is the fault of the parents. If they cant identify that their kids are gaming too much they're being irresponsible.
The solution is simple. If your kid doesn't stop when you tell them to stop toss their computer in the trash. Then find constructive activities to fill their lives. It's as simple as that. The problem is too many people today what the government to be responsible for everything. Too many parents are too busy selfishly focusing on the materialistic aspect own lives to properly care for their kids. No wonder these kids have problems.
obsessive-compulsive behavior is fueled by dopamine
It is caused by an excess or inadequate supply of a neurotransmitter (depending on who you ask), with the most commonly cited culprit these days being Serotonin, although it is not known with 100% certainty. It is known that SSRI drugs (Zoloft et. al.) do produce positive results in many OCD sufferers, which lends some credence to Serotonin being at least partially responsible.
OCD sufferer who refuses to take his meds posting...
Denial is one of the early signs, ya know...:-)
They have no friends, don't wanna go to school and don't wanna leave their room... well what are they gonna do? Play videogames, of course. But tha 'gaming addiction' seems more like an effect than a cause to me.
Appended to the end of comments you post. 120 chars.
Yeah, dear friend of mine has OCD and has been bounced from med to med with each helping her for a period of time and then the side effects overtaking the benefits.
I'd be shocked if both seratonin and dopamine weren't both involved, along with several other factors we've probably yet to figure out. The thing I'm most sure of is that the brain is way more complex than we yet comprehend, and it'll be a long time before we have a decent handle on why it doesn't work the same all the time.
So these fuknut parents get riled up enough to drag their kids in there, yet they didn't have the balls to JUST FUCKING PULL THE PLUG when their kid was playing too much?!
JEEZ
I actually find it pretty amazing that we still don't know for a fact what causes it. It's clearly chemical, but there's no single answer that's accepted across the board. Damnit, where is Bones with his tricorder when we need him?