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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
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.
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 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
...It's just a shame nobody seems to want to go after these corporations for the mess they're creating, because I think this is going to become a very serious issue in the near future and I doubt any of them are going to be held responsible for the things they know they're doing to their players.
Cigarettes and alcohol kill millions of humans every year, and yet both are legal products. Smartphone addiction and distracted driving creates deaths, and yet we continue with slap-on-the-wrist punishments to essentially dismiss it as a problem. Social media and streaming services create millions of addicts, and society accepts marketing these products to children.
Making a product highly addictive is always justified because of Greed.
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!
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.
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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/
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?
If you can make it a week or two, you'll probably be in the clear. You're breaking yourself of a habit. Long-repeated behavior has trained you that the game is what you did, or what you turned to when nothing else was going on. Now you're training yourself that the game isn't something for you to go to. Probably the best suggestion is to intentionally come up with a list of other projects and activities for you to do, so that you're actively putting your mind and body to use. If you can give it enough time and counter-training, the reflex will fade naturally.
If you're interested in more detail, look into decision-making theory, particularly System 1 and System 2. System 1 is largely unconscious, but can be trained by System 2, to generate your urges and impulses, the things that become habits, addictions, and automatic reactions. System 2 is conscious, but takes more energy and effort, so it often cedes the floor to System 1. You spent years having your System 2 tell your System 1 to default to "the game" and now you're retraining it. Every "I feel like I should be doing something that's missing" moment is just System 1 squawking about its old training, and System 2 is still teaching it "I'm tired of the game." It just takes a while to learn.
There's more, like the fact that there's sort of a pool of energy that System 2 has for being able to resist System 1, and it can be depleted by making too many tough decisions. Which I take to mean, if you're trying to quit the game (or ditch any other habit) it's probably best to do one at a time. If you're trying to kick cigarettes, go on a diet, and improve your posture all at the same time, you're asking for a breakdown or relapse somewhere. Let the rest of your life run on habit or even give in to minor impulses in other areas while you tackle this one thing.
I could have some of this wrong. I'm just coincidentally listening to an audio lecture on the subject (How You Decide: The Science of Human Decision Making from The Great Courses) and have been analyzing and trying to tackle some of my own habits and addictions. Learning to recognize a compulsive itch as System 1 just repeating its training really helped me understand that I didn't have to listen to it, even though it felt like I "wanted" something. It wasn't a want, it was just a habit.
The same thing applies to a lot of the other comments about smart phone addiction scattered around this article. The audio lecture mentioned something there, that most of us create a "what do I do when I'm not really doing anything?" reflex. For some, that might be reading a book, or singing a song, or tidying up, or turning to the nearest person and talking, but a lot of people have trained themselves so that "if I'm not doing anything, pull out the phone and see what's on it." And then of course you're "doing something" and stay engrossed in it.
The Quirkz Handbook of Self-Improvement for People Who Are Already Pretty Okay
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.
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!
And Greed justifies making them illegal if they're not paying the lawmakers. Last I checked there was no specific tax on video games, so the fact that they're addictive is a bad thing. As soon as some lobbyist from Electronic Arts or Activision or Tencent decides to whisper in a senator's ear about taxing them pretty much all talk about video games being bad will be kiboshed.
That trick doesn't work for every product out there. Video games are a multi-billion dollar industry, and lawmakers know the capitalist hand that ultimately feeds them. Lawmakers should also realize the power of the internet, which allows a major game maker to take their entire operations (and revenue) offshore. One can download a game from any country rather easily.
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.