Slashdot Mirror
The WHO May Recognize Excessive Video Gaming As Mental Health Disorder (cbsnews.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from CBS News: The World Health Organization is poised to classify "gaming disorder" as a mental health problem in its 2018 update of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD). Gaming disorder could be diagnosed if a person's video game habit "is of sufficient severity to result in significant impairment in personal, family, social, educational, occupational or other important areas of functioning," according a tentative draft of WHO's 11th update to the ICD. Licensed marriage and family therapist Paula-Jo Husack said common symptoms for children and adults include social isolation, trouble transitioning from one thought to another, reduction in empathy, loss of appetite and loss of sensory perception. The WHO said those symptoms generally need to persist for at least a year before doctors diagnose a case of gaming disorder, but added that a diagnosis could be made sooner if symptoms are severe.
AKA “The Kids Aren’t Alright”.
#DeleteChrome
Who! The! Fuck! Are! You!
I mean, while we're at it, could we add clinging excessively to "social" media and constant gawking at your damn phone? I mean, the latter has a good chance of sorting itself out when you do it in halfway decent traffic, but the former does become an issue.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
"Smart" phone addiction. These pathetic retards can't put them down for even 2 minutes.
The same busybody politicians that said reading novels was a vice in the 1700s or watching too much TV was an addiction in the 60s have now moved on to video games (in the 1990s, it started in earnest with Mortal Kombat, thank you Midway) and more recently, social media. While your mother was right (whether it was 1965 or 2005) to say "Moderation in all things." video games are no more or less a problem than any other hobby. If you let any one thing consume your life, it can become bad for you and cause problems. If too many people do this it creates a problem for society.
From personal observation, I think that social media (Facebook, etc.) is much more likely to do this than video games, but there are certainly kids and adults who don't learn how to moderate and control their passion for gaming and it causes issues with other parts of their lives. There have been numerous studies that show that video games improve reflexes, problem solving skills and keep the brain flexible, teach kids to work out problems (and believe that every problem has a solution to find) and even help reduce the onset of dementia in the elderly. There are now numerous good quality video games that are effective teaching tools, teaching kids math, grammar, spelling etc. OTOH, social media is systematically radicalizing society, and being iteratively designed to be addictive for monetary gain with little to no value or return to the individual user or society, besides causing depression and feelings of increased isolation.
If you disagree, please post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like
Now that deaf, dumb and blind kid also has a mental disorder? It's tough being a Pinball Wizard.
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
And making over $100K a year. Then it's okay.
I always took as part of F60.7 - Dependent personality disorder. Its a spectrum of disorders where someone needs something to fill a gap or create an escape in their life.
I started playing a fairly popular online PvE game about two and a half years ago. Said game has hooks that keep you involved in it- namely, the chance to win potentially valuable items in-game by completing a certain set of missions every day (note that you're fighting two layers of RNG here- the first is to get that item to drop, and the second is to have that item drop with usable stats).
I started out playing it for 30 or so minutes every night. That soon turned into an hour, then two, then four, until all I did on my off days was to sit around playing this damned thing even though I wasn't particularly enjoying it (it's a huge grind fest, so you do the same thing over and over and over again). Eventually my productivity began to suffer as a result. If I wasn't playing the game, I was literally sitting around either thinking about the game or looking up strategies and builds online. My sleep began to suffer because I literally couldn't stop thinking about optimizing one little stat or figuring out some other clever way of getting the most out of another item.
Eventually this began to eat into my freelance work career, to the point that I'm probably making about 1/20th the amount of money that I could if I just sat down and dedicated myself to something other than this idiot game. My friends started to tell me that I was changing (not for the better), and seemed more "distant", like I was always preoccupied with something else. Empathy went right out the window, because I basically stopped giving a shit about anything other than the game. When a friend's cat died, I tried to be a good friend and comfort them, but I no longer knew how. Meeting up with people quickly become a zombie-like routine where I'd only be just barely paying attention to what they were saying so as not to be completely lost in the conversation, but otherwise literally sitting there thinking "holy fuck can we hurry this up because I need to get back to farming!"...
I can't tell you what changed in the past two weeks, but something finally snapped. Whereas my life normally generally felt grey and dull and the video game did not, suddenly the video game started to feel just as dull and lifeless as everything else around me. It was like I finally started to see all the inner game mechanics for what they actually were- a series of bullshit layers of randomization, designed to hook you and keep forcing you to come back for more. I started to realize that the company who wrote this game didn't actually care about me as a player- not so long as I was playing their game. They are not my friends. They don't care if I'm hurt or suffering. I can't call any of them and ask them for help on a project or invite them over for a nice BBQ. I don't know any of these people, and they don't know me- I'm just another number stuck in some massive SQL database with a giant blob of character persistence data attached to it.
So I had them delete my account a few days ago (along with everything in it- not like they care, they've already got my money). I uninstalled the game, and now I feel like I'm going to lose my fucking mind. I feel tense, and anxious, like something should be happening but it's not. My entire body feels restless, even though I'm in such poor shape there's not much I can do about that (when you sit in a computer chair playing a game for 8 hours a day, you get fat and ugly). I can't imagine I'm going to get any more sleep tonight than I did a day ago (which is to say, almost none, since I've spent the past few nights fighting the urge to create a new account and go buy back all the shit I used to have). I have no fucking clue how I'm going to get through this, but I know I have to because my life has pretty much stopped and I need to get it going again.
Anyways, this has probably turned into a bit of a ramble and a rant.
The point I was trying to make is that these companies know exactly what they're doing. They've got people on their payroll telling them exactly how to maximize the impact of the game and gambling m
How about excessive 8 hour FoxNews viewing?
We already know that such people are demented.
Hmm... Some of those symptoms (especially the social problems) certainly remind me of periods when I was spending too much time playing computer games, but I rarely played any games that I would describe as "video games". I remember a period with rogue (or hack?) and another period where I was split between a game called Backbone on Ubuntu and a Windows game whose name I can't remember just now... I'm also remembering another game called larn? I feel like it was somehow a reverse version of rogue?
Was loss of memory one of the symptoms?
Then again, there is evidence that I'm not that afflicted after all. I can't remember why I quit playing rogue. Maybe I just solved it and got the big prize? I do remember that I quit playing Backbone (and Freecell, the other game was called Freecell!) when I moved a few years ago. Didn't make any big effort to quit, but just stopped for no particular reason that I can specify now and haven't felt like playing since then. (Moved again this year, but still no interest in the computer games.)
Freedom = (Meaningful - Coerced) Choice != (Speech | Beer^2), and sad sock puppets' bad mods avail them naught.
recognized Pinball Wizard since 1969
the Botley boys strike again
the ADA covers the deaf and blind already
Isn't loner already covered?
Just another day in Paradise
is religion, especially religious extremism & religious fundamentalism, now those kinds of people prove to the world they are crazy everyday and most the world turn a blind eye to it, afraid to acknowledge the insanity these people display everyday
Politics is Treachery, Religion is Brainwashing
"...social isolation, trouble transitioning from one thought to another, reduction in empathy, loss of appetite and loss of sensory perception."
depends on the people and the day, check, neg, check, neg. 2.5 for 3 means i'm fine, right?
Right guys?
Is excessive gaming any different from any other excessive _____ situation? I think they have a name for that... addiction
social isolation (responsibility), trouble transitioning from one thought to another (moral backbone), reduction in empathy (reduction in sympathy for those whom lack empathy), loss of appetite (weight loss?) and loss of sensory perception. (Extrasensory Perception)
Imagination was meant for simulation purposes. Emulation the opposite of simulation is the root of all evil. When people stop playing house thinking they are adults and act like one then maybe other people will stop needing to draw up plans on how to game and psychoanalyze them through gaming simulations.
Those symptoms sound an awful lot like Asperger's... Have to wonder if the gaming is actually the effect rather than the cause in some cases.
Reading.
Watching TV.
Playing Golf.
Football.
American Football.
Board Games.
Hobbyist Mathematics.
Pretty much anything that takes your time away from "productive" (for someone else, most likely) labor.
Because the only sane position is to spend your life in the endless pursuit of wealth. Any other value assignment is madness!
I've been addicted to Slashdot for 20 years... I am still in denial and post anonymously to hide my addiction.
Bet the PRC is pushing this. They need yet another pretext to lock up government dissidents.
On the other hand, I have seen some marked changes in mental state after some people become addicted to their smartphones and social media, And not positive changes
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
And what, pray-tell, do you suggest to do to treat it, or to at least manage it? How does such classification help anyone?
You can't deprive a person of their religion like you can deprive them of alcohol, smartphones, or any thing else that has a material existence.
And just think about it for just a second... how do you imagine it might make things any better if it was classified as a mental illness? What good do you imagine it might do? I mean, if you think that they WHO should classify it as a mental illness, then you personally probably already treat it like one yourself, so what difference does it make if the WHO were to acknowledge it as such other than perhaps to justify your own feelings?
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
Loot Boxes. Yes, it's just addiction. But there's a new(ish) method to exploit those addicts using gambling techniques.
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
surprised nobody here mentioned it yet. If you're wondering why we're suddenly talking about gaming addiction again there's your answer. The game industry noticed the addicts and is exploiting them. And a lot of those addicts are kids.
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
In any case, religion is an adaptive trait. They do reproduce more. They may not believe in evolution, but evolution favors religion. It is the easiest route for people to give meaning to life. Religious people don't ever question the meaning of life. They endure and reproduce. If this creates some contradictions with a rational view of the world, so be it. It is clear that this contradictions reduce evolutionary fitness less than the lack of religion.
Religion isn't the problem. The Holocaust was purely secular in nature.
Am I the only one who feels like the W.H.O. is more of a political organization with an agenda than it is anything to do with actual medicine and health?
And what, pray-tell, do you suggest to do to treat it, or to at least manage it? How does such classification help anyone? You can't deprive a person of their religion like you can deprive them of alcohol, smartphones, or any thing else that has a material existence. And just think about it for just a second... how do you imagine it might make things any better if it was classified as a mental illness? What good do you imagine it might do? I mean, if you think that they WHO should classify it as a mental illness, then you personally probably already treat it like one yourself, so what difference does it make if the WHO were to acknowledge it as such other than perhaps to justify your own feelings?
We have many psychological conditions like say Alzheimer that can't be meaningfully treated, that's not a prerequisite for a diagnosis. Classifying something as a sickness is something that can be used and abused in many contexts though. For example until the 10th revision homosexuality was a disorder, it's no more concrete or treatable than belief in the supernatural. Your assertion that it wouldn't matter seems blissfully naive and ignorant of history.
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
If I game for X hours a day it's a Mental Disorder ?
People do many things to escape reality, often for hours at a time. ( Game, read, watch a movie, hobbies, etc. )
When the world is as fucked up as it is, I can't say I blame anyone for wanting some time away from it for a while.
Most gamers are male. Most of those escape reality because reality is very shitty alternative. Gaming addiction is not problem, its more of a symptom. It's like constipation. Bad on it's own, but not caused by itself. We need to solve problems of society before even trying to approach to tackling this issue. It's like trying to cure person of depression, where all things that caused depression are still there. Lack of jobs and relationships due to Feminazzi society of western world - is easily the cause here. I am transgender male presenting lesbian.
The Holocaust was purely secular in nature.
No, the Holocaust was about 1.5% secular, as that's about how much of the German population declared themselves as non-religious. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_Nazi_Germany)
Last I checked the predominately (over 90% from the wiki link) Christian German people didn't all suddenly disavow their religions when Hitler took power. The Nazis even made up their own brand of Christianity that tried to mix Nazism with Christianity.
I wager that when Nazis were doing all that genocide, more of them were thinking they were doing God's good work (be it the Christian God or otherwise), than snickering to themselves that they're giving the nonexistent almighty the finger.
It also worth noting that the definition of secularism is the principle of separating church and state. "Church" doesn't just refer to any specific religion. Nazi Germany, similar to many Communist and dictatorial regimes, had leaders and figureheads who had a cult of personality and worshiped like a god, with the government having a heavy hand in creating and organizing, with official symbols (swastika, originated as a religious symbol), hand gestures (the salute), and the like.
In other words, a religion is created by the state to worship the leader. Ergo, Nazi Germany and those other regimes aren't actually examples of secularism at work.
Husack said common symptoms for children and adults include social isolation, trouble transitioning from one thought to another, reduction in empathy, loss of appetite and loss of sensory perception.
Trouble transitioning from one thought to another.....so basically if you *don't* have ADHD now you have another mental health disorder.
Loss of appetite...how about in the midst of a childhood obesity crisis, it's a good thing to have the kids do something they enjoy more than snacking for fun.
The mental health industry today is where the physical medicine industry was in the 18th century. It's really sad because many people do have serious mental health issues, but the mental healthcare business just has no interest in doing any real good.
In mainstream medicine, you identify symptoms, attempt to identify the cause, run diagnostic tests to confirm the cause, and then treat the cause.
In the mental health scam, you identify symptoms, apply a pseudo-latin label to the symptoms, and prescribe psychoactive drugs regardless of the symptoms. And you never even try to guess the cause.
Draining, socially isolated, unhealthy, and obligated to stay in that state for most of your useful day (once you discount overhead), day after day, week after week.
We treat it the same way we treat everything else: fuck your brain with psychotropic medication until you shut the fuck up.
And what, pray-tell, do you suggest to do to treat it, or to at least manage it? How does such classification help anyone?
I'll get to suggestions below, but to answer the second question, it'll help a lot of people even if we do nothing to treat it or manage it.
For example, if we declare religion as a mental illness, it's one less way for politicians to pretend they have something in common with the voters, or that they have some kind of authority on the issues.
When a politicians says "as a [religion X] I believe in [value]", it should be treated as if he just said "as a [video game addict], I believe in [value]". I mean, it's nice that you are religious, but that has as much to do with the merit of your position on [value] as you being addicted to video games (that is, none at all)
You can't deprive a person of their religion like you can deprive them of alcohol, smartphones, or any thing else that has a material existence.
Who said anything about depriving it? As above, we can reap benefits even without any intervention.
But if you insist that religion is that harmful, we can regulate it, like alcohol which you brought up (if both alcohol and religion were responsible, they could have self regulated like the gaming industry has with ESRB ratings). We know alochol can mess up your mind and your body, but recognizing it doesn't mean we completely deprive society of it.
There are laws in many jurisdictions to restrict alcohol to minors. We could do something similar, where children are not to be exposed to religion until they're older, so they could think for themselves and make the decision themselves whether they'll be religious.
Of course Alzheimer's can be treated... it jujst can't be cured. Currently, we treat it by putting the people with the most severe cases in specialized care facilities so that they do not harm themselves or others. Such care is not cheap.
Who would be willing to pay for such facilities to treat a case of "being religious"?
And if nobody is willing to pay for the necessary care to treat the disorder, then what good does it do to classify it as one?
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
How do you you propose to regulate religion, exactly? Even ignoring laws allowing freedom of religion, what a person believes is something entirely in their own head. There's no possible way to regulate beliefs, legally or no.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
Freedom of religion is guaranteed under the UN convention of human rights. Did you forget that one, Adolf? Or maybe you just wanted to exercise your vile islamophobia in public. Either way, back to your hole, disgusting troll.
Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
That adolf guy has a good point.
i knew i didnt like that band
That's because it is gambling addiction, not gaming addiction. The WHO just lost a bunch of credibility in my books. Is gambling a form of gaming? Well yes, but not all gaming is gambling either.
I'd often wondered if I play so much Ability Draft in DOTA2 because I like the random element and drafting the best "hand" so to speak. If I'm not rolling the dice and gambling each game and that is what keeps bringing me back... Or maybe it is just fun and I enjoy it, I dunno.