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Doctor Urges AMA To Classify Gaming Addiction
Doctor Mario writes "The AMA has issued a set of findings and recommendations (Word document) which follow a lengthy look at possible connections between gaming and violence, as well as gaming addiction. Ars Technica has a very good summary of the report, which suggests that gaming addiction is likely to be a subset of Internet addiction 'as it most frequently occurs in players of MMORPGs. In both of these addictions, the current definition is currently informal — the described symptoms actually most closely resemble pathological gambling, rather than an addiction. In either case, the report notes, "there is currently insufficient research to definitively conclude that video game overuse is an addiction."' The report also recommends that Internet and videogame addiction be included in a revision to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders."
Or is the percieved behavior actually the result of some obsessive compulsive tendency? I still find the idea of people being addicted to video games a stretch.
Oops, how did this get here?
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Does anyone know how non-accidental disabilities... like drug addictions... are handled in such cases? I've never been a drug addict, but surely you can't collect disability pay for it.
Like smoking a spliff, or listening to music, or getting laid. There's no physical dependancy. You might feel a bit pissed off if you can't have what you're used to, but that's about it.
Violent video games are a healthy outlet for the natural violent thoughts and feelings that occur in every human being. There IS a correlation between violent people and violent video games, but most people see this in the wrong light. It's a symptom, not a cause. Violent video games do not make people more violent, but one should be worried if observing an unnatural propensity to play violent video games that stretches beyond the game.
So I guess my point was that people, in general, have this completely backwards. It comes down to whether or not a person can see the difference between fantasy and reality violence. When one cannot tell the difference, it is indicative of something other than an overabundance of video gaming.
Ha! Have you seen how hard it is to be a doctor nowadays!?
There are many,many better ways to be affluent than being a doctor.
The problem is that people are addicted to lawsuits and blame shifting.
To boldly use to and too two times and get it right too! They're not gonna believe their eyes when they see it there!
I think the real issue here is that playing video games isn't something that is respected as a valid use of people's time. This realization makes much of the video game addiction issue unravel. If a person spent just as much time playing or watching sports it wouldn't be considered an addiction even if they neglected other aspects of their life. If a person sat around reading novels it wouldn't be considered an addiction but throw some pictures in there and some bubbles around the words (comics, manga) and suddenly its considered and unhealthy obsessive hobby. For every person that spends all their time playing video games there are many more that spend their time watching tv or movies. Video games are singled out because of lack of respect and the perception that only kids should play them. Work is another good example. People use the term workaholic but in most cases the practice is encouraged and respected, yet it is more likely to end a marriage or cause children to be emotionally neglected and it is much more common. Mentally none of these addictions are any different aside from public perception and what the feeble minded media decides to single out.
But we're still at the point of defining addiction. When are you an addict? When you do something for a certain time per day? When you don't want to stop doing this and do something else instead? When you start thinking that this thing is more important than your job? When you would, facing the choice between your loved one and this thing, would choose the thing? When this thing becomes more important than meeting your friends and socializing? When you miss critical appointments, maybe even with your doctor, to pursue this thing?
If so, I'm addicted to living.
Ok, that was a blatant one, but it should show that different "things to be addicted to" deserve different definitions. You can't just say "When you do something for X hours you're addicted to it, no matter what it is". When I drink for 3 hours straight I'm most likely on the floor. When I run for 3 hours I'm hopefully near a hospital. When I play for 3 hours I'm mostly relaxed.
Then there's very different kinds of people. I spend about 60 hours a week reading assembler code. Am I addicted to movs and nops? No, I'm employed. It's my job, and I like it enough that I do actually do the same after I go home. Could I stop? I do every year for a month, and I barely miss it. There's so much else to do.
Maybe if there's nothing else anymore that interests you could be a suitable definition. But then again, there are quite a few very healthy people who have a narrow field of interests. Otherwise, I am pretty sure there are millions if not billions of people addicted to TV.
The whole "addiction" theme already fails at its definition. Of course, the subject line is false. They WILL come up with some kind of definition. It will be as arbitrary, indifferent and false as pretty much every other definition of addiction.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2006/05/08
I'm not playing right now
In all seriousness games aren't an addicting substance. I've played games for a long time now, on and off. I've never found it difficult to stop playing, never needed any sort of help. I often find it hard to keep playing a game after playing it for more than a week or so. Maybe some people are getting addicted to game, and those are probably the same people who can get addicted to just about anything thanks to some deeper psychological problems. Last time I checked games don't put chemicals in your system that make you need to play them, they're simply an enjoyable past time that people want to partake in.
Next thing you know someone'll look at a bookworm and claim books are addicting because they were unhappy at being able to read their favorite book, or a moviegoer unhappy at being barred from seeing a movie, or, you get the idea...
There are two kinds of fool One says 'This is old therefore good' Another says 'This is new therefore better'- Dean Ing
I'm so sick of this "gaming addiction" crap. If they really want to understand the problem, perhaps they should stop labeling it as a disorder on such a surface level, lacking any insight or thought whatsoever, and really try to figure out why these kids decide that it's a better life to stare at a virtual world in a computer than to actually participate in society outside of the virtual world.
Maybe they'd discover something about humans: namely, that we've caged ourselves up in an over-regulated, overprotected society where all of the natural animal aspects of our existence are gone. We no longer hunt for our own food, we no longer are required to be physically active, we are no longer small groups of closely interacting people, but rather nameless figures in cages.
And they wonder why people get "addicted to gaming".
We're animals, and when animals are caged, they do crazy things - like gnaw off their own tails, or shake uncontrollably, or become overly violent.
Good thing we only cut ourselves, kill each other, and sit in dark rooms with nothing but a computer and an internet-based fantasy world.
How about playing in a cyber cafe until you die?
People predisposed to addiction CAN get addicted to all kinds of things you might not expect. Should we write them off?
People with addictive personalities can get addicted to anything that they find enjoyable. It seems a little crazy to me to make name a distinct medical condition for anything that is fun.
agreed.
it should be under a more general descriptor like "addictive personality disorder" or something rather than coming up with 2^n differant description for what is the same thing at the core.
upon the advice of my lawyer, i have no sig at this time
I think you are closer to the truth than you suspect. The medical establishment likes stupid things defined as diseases and addictions for a very good reason - once something is classified as a disease or an addiction, medical insurance coverage is triggered and they get paid. That's why you see a proliferation of human activities being reclassified as diseases and addictions when before we just considered these people fuckups.
There is a distinct difference between someone who is participating in escapist behavior and a particular substance or activity being addictive. In the first case, whatever the focus or expression of the escapist behavior is largely incidental. Take the video games away and the person will find some other way of escaping. That may turn out to be reading all day and refusing to interact socially, self cutting, huffing glue, or whatever else may appeal to their personalities. Further, it is very arbitrary in what we would term "destructive" escapism and "constructive" escapism. For example, the socially defunct or depressed teenager who chooses books is viewed as a studios bookworm even though the root cause of the behavior is not any different nor ultimately any more beneficial to the individual.
For anyone who cannnot clearly see the difference I have a case study. Take a completely average, well adjusted, completely within the bounds or normalcy guy or gal from the street. Now force them to injest considerable quantities of Nicotine, Alcohol, Cocaine or Heroin over an extended period of time. That "extended period" might only need to be a week or two. Now take it away. What happens? You got it, this completely well adjusted individual will go through severe withdrawal. It will be physical, it will be accompanied but not limited to a significant mental craving, and it will be extremely unpleasant and in some cases life threatening. Take the same well adjusted individual and force them to play Warcraft and nothing of the sort will occur. Nada, ziltch. Depending on his general disposition toward games they may even dislike it quite a bit and be very thankful and relieved when they're allowed to discontinue their doses.
I've known first hand a good amount of people with this so called "game addiction" and in every single case they were running from life not toward games. Conversely, I've interacted with people with real addictions and though many were running from life there was a not insignificant number who were just hard partiers who woke up one day and realized they had a monkey on their back that they couldn't shake without help.
If only these nut jobs who want to term anything and everything under the sun as "addictive" could be brought to realize the truth of this they'd see that not every negative human behavior can be blamed on an external cause.
The average american watches 4.5 hours of television a day.
Is that an addiction or a mental illness?
Or is that acceptable because the boomers grew up with it, but not with video games?
Doctor's salaries and lawsuits are both just scapegoats for the high cost of medicine in the U.S. It's the HMOs, drug companies, and insurance companies who deserve most of the blame.