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

Re:Gambling?

[Aladrin]

Alcohol isn't addictive by itself. Not everyone who touches it get addicted.

In fact, most 'addictive' drugs can have the same thing said about them. You have to abuse them before you get 'addicted'.

Gaming can also drain someone's bank account. You talk about 'gaming addiction' as if it only applies to World of Warcraft, and the only costs are the $15/month. You completely forget the entire gaming hardware race, and the cost of consoles and other games. And it's not as if you could just drain the account once and be done, no. There are new games released constantly. More than enough to keep someone broke, especially if they've already lost their job to the addiction.

I admit it. I'm addicted to gaming. There's nothing I'd rather be doing. When I can manage to do -nothing- else but play a game, preferably a new exciting one, I'll do it. This means not showering some days, eating quick unhealthy meals, and occasionally skipping work because I just -have- to play that new game.

Do I think I need help? No. I don't even -want- it classified as a disorder that the government will help with. Normal obsessive-compulsive disorder probably covers this well enough anyhow, for those that take it far enough to warrant help.

But don't dismiss this problem simply because you don't have it yourself. And don't make fun of it, either.

Re:Is the AMA turning neocon?

[morgan_greywolf]

Actually, my wife is, interestingly enough, a psychologist. The main reason that they've taken to adding so many disorders to the DSM is not that they've found new ones per se but that they have found that within certain disorders, like the autistic spectrum of diseases, that there are many more subtypes. At one point, anyone with a pervasive development (autistic-like) disorder was slapped with the label of 'autism'. Now they have identified specific types of autism, everything from 'classic' autism to Asperger's to multiple-complex developmental disorder.

As for video game addiction, my wife happens to also be a specialist in addiction studies and she was actually one of the first people to write about video game addiction as a disorder back in the late 80s/early 90s. It was not widely-accepted at that point that video game playing could be addictive -- but now that it's becoming generally-accepted to be so, she's feeling vindicated.