Experts Oppose Classifying Gaming Addiction As Mental Disorder

News.com reports that despite earlier rumblings that addiction to videogames could be classified a mental disorder similar to alcoholism, experts have stepped back from that analysis. The decision by the AMA is that psychiatrists should make further efforts to study the phenomenon, while addiction experts strongly opposed the idea at the organization's annual meeting. "Even before debate on the subject began, the committee that made the proposal backed away from its position, and instead recommended that the American Psychiatric Association consider the change when it revises its next diagnostic manual in 5 years. The psychiatrist group has said if the science warrants, it could be considered for inclusion in the next diagnostic manual, which will be published in 2012. While occasional use of video games is harmless and may even help with some disorders like autism, doctors said in extreme cases it can interfere with day-to-day necessities like working, showering or even eating."

Comments

Gambling?

[NJVil]

If the uncontrollable desire to play games of chance (gambling) is classified as an addiction, how is an uncontrollable desire to play games of any other sort not? Can online gambling be considered an addiction?

The only meaningful difference is the money involved. And even then, between gold farming and monthly fees for WOW, is it really that different?

Re:Gambling?

[achilles777033]

Yes, there is a difference. Fees for WoW cost $15/month at worst. And if you don't break the Terms of Use, you won't be buying gold. And trust me, the true Addicts have no need for bought gold. On-line gambling can completely drain anyone's bank account if they are sufficiently addicted. WoW costs $15 a month... on-line gambling costs rent/food/gas/everything else money. Big Difference. Gaming isn't addictive by itself, not everyone who touches it get addicted. Not even a sizable percentage. Gaming gets a bad rap off of people who naturally have addictive tendancies, who also happen to play games. Every leisure activity has it's members who abuse them. The difference is that MMO's are finally getting a large enough following that people are starting to take notice of the abusers.

Re:Gambling?

[clifyt]

"it's probably got alot more to do with how the number of people that would be diagnosed would effect the economy."

Actually, you are right on track with this way of thinking. The DSM regularly accounts for items such as social and economic pressure...certain drugs that 'cured' certain 'illnesses' are pushed by big business, and thus if Big Pharm can get to enough psychologists to vote (and they aren't above paying people off), you get inclusion. It has happened more than once, and it will happen again.

This also works in the social aspects. The biggest example was that the DSM classified homosexuality as a deviance until the mid-70s (err...I think, I never paid much attention to the history aspects of abnormal psych). It was mostly the psychs from the US propped up by conservative Christians (err...one could argue in the 70s, even the liberal christians weren't too willing to go to bat for these people) along with rightwing politicians. Europe had long since stopped calling this a classifiable deviance. And even after it was stricken, there was a LOT of debate over physicians that refused to go by the revised edition because it didn't follow their moral ethics.

So yeah, economic, social and other pressures state what becomes diagnosable. Heck, and sometimes its right...its looking for deviance from the norm. If there are enough people away from the center, even though in another time, another place they'd have been perfectly 'normal' -- it occasionally merits inclusion, so this isn't a bad thing in and of itself. Most of psychology is trying to help folks fit in and understand themselves. Don't want to fit in, not causing any harm to others...then you are perfectly fine! I love my quirks and wouldn't do anything to change them (and all my studies in psychology have proven to me that I'm actually much more normal than most who think I'm some sort of deviant freak!)

Re:Gambling?

[furball]

Video game addiction is very different than gambling in my eyes. Video games are pursued by those addicted to it to fulfill a psychological. The players feel more powerful. They have a sense of impact on their world. They are the hero saving the world, doing something important. If you look at the games people are addicted to playing, they aren't likely to be Bejeweled. The players are more likely addicted to FPS or MMORPG.

People in general have a desire to feel effective within the confines of their world. Players addicted to video games aren't really addicted to video games. They're addicted to being successful. Video games just give them an avenue to feel successful while the rest of their life falls apart.

Re:Gambling?

[IanDanforth]

>>Video game addiction is very different than gambling in my eyes.

False. Gambling is a set of variable ratio reward schedules with an extremely potent reinforcer, money (and later after the rush is established, seratonin etc.) These same reward schedules exist in video games, particularly MMOs, and while they don't have quite as potent a reinforcer as cold cash pouring out of a slot machine, leveling can feel pretty close. However there is more ...

>>Players addicted to video games aren't really addicted to video games. They're addicted to being successful.

This is an additional hook, positive social interaction for some and negative social interaction (griefing) for others are extremely rewarding especially if your own self image or RL situation is less than perfect. What you call "being successful" is, in fact, a wide swath of needs which games can fulfill.

Should this be classified as an addiction? Yes, but if they use current guidelines far too many people would be diagnosed. There is a difference between being highly engaged (really fun hobby) and being addicted (all consuming and destructive habit).

For the unusually curious: http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1223917.1223 994

-Ian

Re:Gambling?

[Anonymous Coward]

All addictions come from "lack of self-control." "Willpower" is vastly overestimated as an influence to what we do. I'd almost go as far as saying it doesn't exist.

That's the excuse of a person with poor willpower.

Gaming addiction = Gambling addiction

[popo]

Push a button a hundred times... wait for the payoff.... DING. Yay!

If anyone thinks there's a difference between gambling and WoW they just don't understand either....

Re:Is the AMA turning neocon?

[Anonymous Coward]

Lovely, let's add another meaningless disorder to the DSM so that people can take real mental illnesses even less seriously.

The Health Care Industry / Gov't would fear this

[ringfinger]

Can you imagine suddenly having to provide coverage/counseling for people who spend all their time on line? It would cost a fortune. Besides, the last thing te government wants is to have all the people now addicted to gaming to suddenly wake up and start aying attention to what their doing? Imagine if they all started reading daily kos or something? In the book Brave New World, Aldus Huxley described the population as being quieted by a drug called SOMA - WOW and SL are not really that different.

Leave our games alone!

[godfra]

Is gaming flavour of the month or what? I can't wait for the wind to change so that the Morality Police can go back to picking on dangerous dogs, paedophiles, death metal or whatever.

Addicted to anything

[brunes69]

While occasional use of video games is harmless and may even help with some disorders like autism, doctors said in extreme cases it can interfere with day-to-day necessities like working, showering or even eating.

So can watching TV.

Or jacking off

Or mowing the lawn.

This definition is so broad it's useless. Anyone can be addicted to anything. Why the need for special categories?

Gaming addiction != Alcoholism, etc.

[dour power]

Gamers do not become physically addicted to their games of choice, so it makes no sense to lump their behavior with that of alcoholics or heroin addicts. Mental addiction? Possibly -- seems similar to gambling. Obsession? Sure. Physical dependency? Nope.

Re:The Health Care Industry / Gov't would fear thi

[Timesprout]

You must be joking. It's absolutely no coincidence that so many addictions and psychological disorders suddenly started getting diagnosed at the same time the pharmcos started churning out happy pills.

Re:Eating ...

[Himring]

I saw 'not eating' and nearly fell out of my chair. These guys have obviously never attended a LAN party. Not eating is obviously NOT a problem....

The South Park WoW episode depicts this fact very well....

just an excuse for bad parenting.

[sbate]

This will be one more way poor parenting will be explained away. Personally I would rather the kid be at home driving a stolen car than out with his friends driving my stolen car. Really I can see a rash of halfway houses devoted to curing kids of WOW going to the parks with their plastic bracelets and emo haircuts staring at me, drooling as I sit with my laptop writing slashdot posts.

Re:Eating ...

[PackRat Q. Winnebago]

True, but then at a LAN party you're also in the presence of other people, so the stock-standard argument about addictive gaming being anti-social doesn't hold either.

If this happens...how long before ADA protection?

[fudgefactor7]

Seriously, if gaming habituation becomes an addiction, and then a "disease", how long before the Americans with Disabilities Act protection kicks in so I can play my games at work without getting the ire of the bosses?
 
  But, it's a disease!
 
What you think is silly, is only the logical extent this is carried toward...or perhaps the illogical extent...but the result is often the same; and it won't be long before someone tries what I just mentioned.

It's the behaviour that's harmful, not the games

[neoshmengi]

People are missing the forest for the trees here. The point is NOT the substance/act itself being inherently harmful, but rather an individual's USE of something that is harmful.

Food is a wonderful thing, yet there are those individuals who's attitudes and behaviors with respect to food are destructive. It's the destructive behavior that's the 'disorder' not the food itself.

Using stimulants like amphetamines to treat certain medical conditions is appropriate. Using them to get high at the cost of your family and career is inappropriate.

Take a look at the DSM IV - the classification book for mental disorders. In order to qualify as a disorder, something usually has to have a significant negative impact on someone's function.

I see no difference between compulsive gaming that affects one's life, and compulsive hair pulling that affects one's life.

Re:Have there been any studies?

[The One and Only]

Yeah, and I can spend days and weeks drinking booze and not feel the slightest twinge the next week when I have to be a responsible human being. That doesn't mean alcoholism doesn't exist.

Re:Is the AMA turning neocon?

[sumdumass]

I am waiting for someone to claim they has an exercise addiction since it is proven that regular exercise releases various feel good chemicals, and that a lack of exercise and your body will start to fail. THAT would be genious...of coarse that means you have to exercise alot which would interfere with playing video games.

I know health nuts who claim they feel like crap if the don't get their exorcise in the routine they are use to having it. They don't skip eating or going to work in order to exorcise. And I don't think they claim it as an addiction as much as falling prey to brain washing. It is like all the Stop smoking and you will feel better, I did and I don't. But then again, I never felt bad when I smoked. It just sucked the first week or two of quiting cold turkey.

I think video game addiction is more of a mental cop out where they aren't willing to separate the fiction of the game from the reality around them. The are probably really suffering form some mild depression. It is almost the same as stopping everything, sitting and watching television instead of doing what you should in life. Except the game is more rewarding because you get to accomplish something and end up with a sense of self worth from it. It might be the same thing with the health nuts I know, except it probably isn't as bad. It seems that the health nuts spend quite a bit of time around other congratulating each other and bragging about how good they feel after doing hard workouts then the others.

Sure, ther might be a mental disease here, But I doubt it is anything new, rather a rehash of something old (depression).

Re:Have there been any studies?

[Anonymous Coward]

You sound like any drug addict or alcoholic: "I can quit any time I want." One of the signs of addiction is denial. I just love comments like this. Yes, denial is a sign of addiction. Know what else it's a sign of? Not being addicted. I watch TV sometimes but have no problem stopping for weeks at a time (or indefinitely if my girlfriend didn't bug me to watch things with her). However, I've made the claim that I can stop so I must be addicted to TV right? I mean if I weren't addicted I would obviously say "I can't stop". Seems just slightly simplistic to me.

It's time to cut the crap already.

[shaitand]

Addiction experts know but won't come out and say it directly. There aren't 4,000 different types of addiction, there are basically two, Physical and Psychological. Although technically you are addicted to chemicals either way, with psychological addiction your own body is producing them.

With physical addiction a substance is introduced into the bloodstream that either makes a direct chemical conversion into a substance the brain forms a dependence on or is already a substance the brain becomes dependent upon. Heroin is a physically addictive substance. Alcohol is another.

With psychological addiction the substance, behavior, or activity is NOT the bad guy, the person is. ANYTHING you enjoy can cause a psychological addiction. When you enjoy an activity your brain rewards itself with addictive substances. It is those addictive substances you then become addicted to. Marijuana addiction, Gambling, Video Game addiction, girl chasing, and thrill-seeking are all examples of psychological addiction. Alcohol is another.

There may be a genetic predisposition to some forms or all forms of addiction.

What difference does it make? It makes a great deal of difference. Beyond the term adrenaline junkie there is no other recognition of the fact that psychological addiction is a broken function of the human brain. Everywhere people want to blame the substance or activities for psychological addictions but the substance or activity is irrelevant, lack of moderation is the reason for addiction. Why would we blame the substance or activity; simply because they were an enjoyable activity our brain failed to moderate? Every time lots of people start getting psychologically addicted to something it might be worth mentioning on the news but it certainly isn't anything new medically. In fact, there are probably millions of undiagnosed addicts who sink hours everyday doing things they enjoy. Maybe they paint miniatures, maybe they work on cars, maybe they Slashdot.

P.S. Yes, alcohol is on both lists. Some are born with a brain chemistry that converts alcohol directly into a highly addictive substance in the brain. Others simply enjoy being drunk and have psychologically addicted. Someone who drowns their sorrows would be psychologically addicted. Someone who picked up their first beer in high school and never put it down is probably physically addicted.

Re:Eating ...

[walnutmon]

I think that I have seen many people build relationships in clubs where you can't hear a god damn thing. Just because you can't do it, doesn't mean it can't be done.