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WHO Gaming Disorder Listing a 'Moral Panic', Say Experts (bbc.com)
The decision to class gaming addiction as a mental health disorder was "premature" and based on a "moral panic," experts have said. From a report: The World Health Organization included "gaming disorder" in the latest version of its disease classification manual. But biological psychology lecturer Dr Peter Etchells said the move risked "pathologising" a behaviour that was harmless for most people. The WHO said it had reviewed available evidence before including it. It added that the views reflected a "consensus of experts from different disciplines and geographical regions" and defined addiction as a pattern of persistent gaming behaviour so severe it "takes precedence over other life interests." Speaking at the Science Media Centre in London, experts said that while the decision was well intentioned, there was a lack of good quality scientific evidence about how to properly diagnose video game addiction.
My God! They've stopped watching television commercials. Something must be done! Think of the childrens' revenue!!
When children play role-playing games, they aren't learning about real life.
Most children don't have fully competent parents, apparently. So there is no one to teach them.
We don't have even a basic mechanical model of consciousness. We understand physical disorders to a great degree, but we're not even beginning to understand mental processes. So the mind is still essentially a black box, and the causes for behavior are so much guesswork.
Not that I care at all for this listing, but it does seem like the very idea made the BBC protest a bit too much.
I'm not a doctor, don't have a degree in psychology or anything like that, but since when has that stopped anyone on the Internet from acting like an expert?
Anyway, I disagree with the idea that we do not have sufficient evidence to properly diagnose a gaming addiction. Addiction is basically the same no matter what it is you are addicted to. It's a compulsion to do something to the exclusion of everything else in its most extreme form. You can use the same diagnostic criteria you would for someone with an opiate addiction to diagnose someone with a gaming addiction. We don't need a whole new set of criteria to diagnose what is fundamentally the same as any other form of addiction.
The decision to class gaming addiction as a mental health disorder was "premature" and based on a "moral panic," experts have said.
This is a misleading sentence suggesting WHO had no experts working on it./p
I think that's more likely the real problem. It's folks finding something to do with their time besides work and have mountains of kids. If you're a member of the ruling class that worries you. You can't have your slaves cutting back on hours or babies because that's where all your power comes from.
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Why would this be so hard to diagnose compared to for example the diagnostic criteria from the DSM-IV for 312.31 (Pathological Gambling)?
A. Persistent and recurrent maladaptive gambling behavior as indicated by at least five of the following
1. is preoccupied with gambling (e.g., preoccupied with reliving past gambling experiences, handicapping or planning the next venture, or thinking of ways to
get money with which to gamble)
2. needs to gamble with increasing amounts of money in order to achieve the desired excitement
3. has repeated unsuccessful efforts to control, cut back, or stop gambling
4. is restless or irritable when attempting to cut down or stop gambling
5. gambles as a way of escaping from problems or of relieving a dysphoric mood (e.g., feelings of helplessness, guilt, anxiety, depression.
6. after losing money gambling, often returns another day in order to get even (“chasing” one’s losses)
7. lies to family members, therapist, or others to conceal the extent of involvement with gambling
8. has committed illegal acts, such as forgery, fraud, theft, or embezzlement, in order to finance gambling
9. has jeopardized or lost a significant relationship, job, or educational or career opportunity because of gambling
10.relies on others to provide money to relieve a desperate financial situation caused by gambling
B. The gambling behavior is not better accounted for by a Manic Episode.
Subcategories include...
Leeroy Jenkins syndrome
Ganking
Camping respawn points ...
The definition allows authorities to jail a gamer in a mental institute.
What about those who literally spend hours in front of a TV and refuse to move from there... Or those who are glued to their phones, unable to not be "connected" ?
If gaming is a disorder, everything else is, including those who enjoy driving a little too much.
My parents were told I was unhealthy, as I read too many books. I should get out and play soccer! (300 kids a side, slowly wandering up-field and down at recess. And only one ball. Bah, humbug, not fun at all)
Later, it was too much TV.
And too much internet.
Then too many video games.
So my dad decide to blow the pecksniffs away: he talked me into joining the local militia (Canadian Army Reserve) regiment. I got to play in the mud, and read about artillery. And the best thing? The panickers had to shut up!
For those who don't know the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders published by the American Psychiatric Association is a manual produced by an organization based on votes rather than science and at one time included homosexuality. It's basically this all over again rather than real science. I don't doubt that some people take things too far- but to create a fictional disease is just another means of having something for a psychiatrist to diagnose in order to steal from those who are suffering. That is to say some addictions are real, but the disease, diagnostics, and solutions are just fabricated for profit.
I'm always skeptical about psychiatry. The sad and pathetic reality is psychiatry started as a fraud to deceive desperate people into surrendering wealth and was at one point outlawed (a very long time ago, a hundred+ years ago). As the state became wise to the fraud the industry adapted with different techniques. This has happened each time the people have wised up. Each time the industry has claimed to have "solved" the problem of abuse. From the 1900-1950s lobotomies, electric shock, freezing people in cold water, blood letting, and other bull shit techniques. In reality they've only hidden the problem each time. Today we put people on seriously bad drugs which have all sorts of negative side effects while keeping the symptoms from appearing to the average person. To the outsider the mental disorders people have are resolved. But to those suffering from these disorders it's just another form of hell. Ever wonder why we have people offing themselves and others? People want to believe the drugs work including those who are taking em. Nobody wants to be locked up (outside of those with sexual fetishes anyway). The reality is very different.
What they are saying is not that gaming leads to addiction but rather some addicable people make gaming their addiction.
This is unquestionably true.
You can say the same thing about cleaning your ears with a Q-tip or sucking on a lollypop.
People who use drugs are not neccessarily addicts. People who abuse drugs often are addicts.
And so we need a category to describe, Q-tip fixation, drug addiction, and gaming addiction.
Unwanted compulsive behaviour is also different than compulsive behaviour. If it's unwanted but not under control it is a problem and so they classify it as such.
okay everybody can calm down now.
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
Spouting off so much bullshit as if he knows what he's talking about lol. People who work for LEGO lead much more enriching and fulfilled lives than Bill.
A man who believes he's really a woman and ends up mutilating his body is perfectly normal, but playing some video games a bit too much is a mental disorder.
I’ve been trolling slashdot for over 15 years.
That can be called a 'hobby', depending on how extreme we're talking.
Nothing wrong with boofooing your butt buddies at the gay night after three or four rounds of drinks though. I see why the al-qaeda sleeper cell units are tagerting them, or did ISIS claim responsibility for that? I can't keep up with fake TV news.
AE911Truth org
I don't play role-playing games, but I have young acquaintances who do. I agree that they do seem to feel a lot of freedom to think for themselves.
I agree with that.
The science is now settled: gamers are mentally ill. Round'em up.
That would be politics. Using a "consensus of experts from different disciplines and geographical regions" is a fail in science, unless strictly limited to qualified experts in actually strongly relevant areas. This mainly shows that the WHO does either not understand science or that the practice has been annihilated by politics within it.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
>It added that the views reflected a "consensus of experts from different disciplines and geographical regions" and defined addiction as a pattern of persistent gaming behaviour so severe it "takes precedence over other life interests."
What's wrong with prioritizing gaming over other life interests? How about we have a consensus of experts define holding a 9-5 job as a pattern of persistent behavior so severe it takes precedence over other life interests? Because that seems like a way more severe problem than my gaming habits, but society expects us all to do it, even when we don't want to. I also don't like the idea of other people deciding which of my life interests is the most important.
The problem is that there is a hundred disorders to represent every possible manifestation of what seems just to be all something like an obsessive disorders, the actual symptoms aren't unreasonable, if a kid dies because he doesn't want to get up from his computer as was the case of a kid in South Korea, that clearly unhealthy, its just you can take out the reference to video games and substitute any of the things that people get an unhealthy obsession with, what would the difference between video game addition, gambling addition, sex addition, hording, and a hundred things, the only reason there seems to be for breaking them out into a hundred specific conditions is for issuance coverage.
I also personally don't like addiction being used for anything that isn't an explicit biochemical addiction like opiates, caffeine etc, they should be labelled obsessive disorders or something like that, the general public certainly see its like this and when you use terms like sex addition, it invites cynicism. Though I guess the the argument against that is its ultimately all biochemical.
But biological psychology lecturer Dr Peter Etchells said the move risked "pathologising" a behaviour that was harmless for most people.
Well if that's the criteria for not being a disorder I guess we can cross off alcohol and opioids (ie, medical painkillers) off the list of medical addictions.
I stole this Sig
compulsive behavior that is legitimately harmful should be categorized by the severity and not by the topic of compulsion. Certainly a game addict would receive different treatment to a gambling addict. That does not mean that the media's pop psychology ought to construct an exhaustive list to scare people. And the difference in disorders does matter so that each individual should get individual treatment because the causes of the compulsion varies between individuals and what is effect in treatment also varies.
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
funny how Abrahamic religions are the overwhelming majority committing atrocities in name of their "God".
... of name calling a name calling? WHO labeled gaming whatever-it-is a "disorder" and "expert" labeled that labeling "moral panic"?
I do not believe in karma. "Funny"=-6. Do good and forbid evil. Yours, Oft-Offtopic Flamebaiting Troll.
So classify real life as a source of mental illness and start prescribing cures for it! Reduce competition and encourage learning until you get it right rather than awarding effort with failing grades, allow more flexible deadlines, no working late to get it done, teach politeness and charm, and much more. People avoid reality for a reason. Saying it is what is and you can't change it is stupid because reality is obviously infinitely malleable. Make reality fun!
defined addiction as a pattern of persistent gaming behaviour so severe it "takes precedence over other life interests.
That's the definition of a hobby. I have several hobbies in my own life that I strongly prioritize over other things I could be doing but that doesn't make them harmful. Quite the opposite actually. For it to be an addiction, with the negative implications one thinks of when using the word addiction, there needs to be some sort of measurable harm beyond mere opportunity cost.
I'm sure there are people who have a pathological interest in playing video games to the point where they start neglecting health, hygiene, relationships, work, bills, etc. Once you get to that sort of point then we can talk about addictions and mental health disorders. Not really different than any other sort of addiction in that regard. I'm not sure video game addiction is really measurably different from someone who simply watches WAY too much TV so I wonder if it is a pointless distinction.
Because if you drink 20 cups of coffee per day you're probably self-medicating for ADHD or depression, and suffering from massive side effect such as anxiety and insomnia.
Those games aren't moral unless you are advertising some products or government adds, then it's okay.
Seriously, the WHO needs to stick to HEALTH, and MORALS is not "health". Don't tolerate this at all. Don't tolerate police or anybody else (including the courts) trying to enforce it.
If you don't stand your ground then you might as well just accept being a slave.
APK has a major mental disorder. He is a spam addict and needs treatment so that he can stop spamming his ineffective security software.
Just ask the people that are around them. I would have been diagnosed as addicted at one point in time. All of my free time was spent in front of the PC playing some stupid MMO or another. I ate my meals there, I waved at the fam on my way through the house after work as I settled myself in front of the computer, I pretty much didn't do much else. I've since learned techniques to solve my MMO addiction, but unfortunately those techniques bleed over into everything else where I find it hard to be interested in much of anything for very long (that's good and bad). Anyway, family and friends know when a person is addicted (granted, like anything else, some will be diagnosed as such when really they aren't quite there yet).
WHO wants us to be slaves all of the time.
Just a sec I will post a comment, just after I level up...
Yes, and D&D was a problem, and before that rock and roll...
Though I will say, that some parts of video games have some addiction issues. But that has nothing to do with "Video Games" but rather gambling, and gambling addiction is already a thing. A lot of smart people have built into games various things now like "loot boxes" which is really just gambling for kids. The same way that you might call a video slots a video game. They got tricky about it linking it indirectly to other insidious things like micro-transactions rather than a direct, here is my money, now roll those dice!
So it isn't a video game issue, but there are certain video games that have gambling elements that might be addictive enough to cause concern.
What the UN is saying is that our lives would be so much simpler if we would just eject our morals and panic less
...
Maybe it is time to eject the UN
See subject: UNIDENTIFIABLE anonymous STALKER "ne'er-do-well"-ism (as BAD as FAKE NAME for a fake LIE of a "so-called 'life'" online disorder) BUT NO WORRIES - why? I.M. DaCure 4 ur ills/malady https://science.slashdot.org/c...
* "RoTfLmAo"...
APK
P.S.=> It's NOT easy being "World-Class" (like me) not only curing what "ails ye" & "your kind" the 'NOT-MEN" do-nothing JEALOUS "Lil' Jowies" (lmao) of the world WASTING THEIR LIVES 'gaming' & time STALKING/TROLLING/IMPERSONATING me!
(ME that also helps CURE the malware/tracking SECURITY & PRIVACY problem out there via APK Hosts File Engine 2.0++ 64-bit for Linux https://science.slashdot.org/c... which did well even amongst our /. PEERS https://science.slashdot.org/c... (& 100's of 1,000s worldwide that like & use it too)... apk
"Gaming disorder is characterized by a pattern of persistent or recurrent gaming behaviour (‘digital gaming’ or ‘video-gaming’), which may be online (i.e., over the internet) or offline, manifested by: 1) impaired control over gaming (e.g., onset, frequency, intensity, duration, termination, context); 2) increasing priority given to gaming to the extent that gaming takes precedence over other life interests and daily activities; and 3) continuation or escalation of gaming despite the occurrence of negative consequences. The behaviour pattern is of sufficient severity to result in significant impairment in personal, family, social, educational, occupational or other important areas of functioning. The pattern of gaming behaviour may be continuous or episodic and recurrent. The gaming behaviour and other features are normally evident over a period of at least 12 months in order for a diagnosis to be assigned, although the required duration may be shortened if all diagnostic requirements are met and symptoms are severe."
This means that 1, 2 and 3 are all related to "You are doing A when you should be doing B". Let A be gaming and B studies, work or other "chores". This means that A being gaming is not important. The important thing is that B is not done and A is trendy. Maybe the way of life is changing: people have less and less time to do some actual productive work or that the demands have increased, leaving less time for A. Some high demanding jobs/studies require more control over A, meaning the "disorder" is different for each person. People with the least demanding jobs/studies are least likely to "suffer from gaming disorder" (suffering being the ailment here, not amount of gaming).
The role-playing games I've seen people play have involved violence and acceptance of violence.
See subject: My "courageous stands behind his words" (not) now identified https://news.slashdot.org/comm... no longer anonymous STALKER (a bitch homo, jailbird, drug-addict recidivistic DELUDED LOON named Alex McQuown/Khyber).
Registered /.ers disagree w/ you https://science.slashdot.org/c... OUTNUMBERING you & me OUTSMARTING + OUT-THINKING you @ every turn (as well as out achieving you) - & OUTING You all in the same post- thanks!
* Couldn't do it w/ OUT your dimwitted ass (& best part is, you make it SO damn easy for me too, hahahaha) which I now totally "PWN", lol!
So - Get ON TOPIC you JEALOUS "Lil' Jowie" (lmao, I love calling you that as I KNOW it gets you "hot" hahaha) & get over your obvious loon OBSESSION w/ me there "Lil' Jowie" in STALKING ME (jealous jowie *snicker*) - it's really, Really, REALLY starting to SHOW you know, lol - see link above...
APK
P.S.=> I mean, come on - Did you *THINK* that UNIDENTIFIABLY anonymous STALKING me constantly isn't going to show from YOU & that folks WON'T SEE what a TOTAL do-nothing MERE "ne'er-do-well" LAZY waste of LIFE you are? Please, lmao - NOW, for SURE, they do you know - how could they NOT? Do something like I do per the link above - then, MAYBE, you'll have actually ACHIEVED something worthwhile vs. YOU being an obvious nutcase that STALKS me, freak... apk
There's nothing quiet or dignified about you. You're recycling Greek old man bitching. The only thing your post is missing are the words "hula hoops", "pop rocks", and "whippersnappers". You also failed to tell us to get off your lawn.
No, it isn't. "Other life interests" are not alternate recreational activities.
Yes it is. It's not JUST recreational activities but the term is sufficiently broad as to cover nearly every human endeavor. I understand that they probably mean the more critical life tasks but that isn't what they said. If "life interests" is some sort of secret code among researchers in addiction then they need to come up with a new term.
"Life interests" are things like going to your job or taking care of your children.
Life interests means a lot of things. Even for critical tasks like a job or caring for children there is a LOT of room for variation in performance before it really can be classified as an addiction problem. Let's not pretend that parents always prioritize their children over their own entertainment or that they always take their jobs seriously. I've had plenty of employees call in sick because they were out too late at a bar the night before. Lots of people are shit parents who value their own amusement over family.
Religion should also become a mental disorder. Either way gaming is turning into religion.