Video games may look innocent, but they can be as addictive as gambling or drugs

[enquirewithin]

Drop the Joystick and Back Away

An addiction center is opening Europe's first detox clinic for game addicts, offering in-house treatment for people who can't leave their joysticks alone.
Video games may look innocent, but they can be as addictive as gambling or drugs — and just as hard to kick, says Keith Bakker, director of Amsterdam-based Smith & Jones Addiction Consultants.
Bakker already has treated 20 video game addicts, aged 13 to 30, since January. Some show withdrawal symptoms, such as shaking and sweating, when they look at a computer.
His detox program begins in July. It will run four to eight weeks, including discussions with therapists and efforts to build patients' interests in alternative activities.
"We have kids who don't know how to communicate with people face-to-face because they've spent the last three years talking to somebody in Korea through a computer," Bakker said. "Their social network has completely disappeared."
It can start with a Game Boy, perhaps given by parents hoping to keep their children occupied but away from the television. From there it can progress to multilevel games that aren't made to be won.
Bakker said he has seen signs of addiction in children as young as 8.
Hyke van der Heijden, 28, a graduate of the Amsterdam program, started playing video games 20 years ago. By the time he was in college he was gaming about 14 hours a day and using drugs to play longer.
"For me, one joint would never be enough, or five minutes of gaming would never be enough," he said. "I would just keep going until I crashed out."
Van der Heijden first went to Smith & Jones for drug addiction in October 2005, but realized the gaming was the real problem. Since undergoing treatment, he has distanced himself from his smoking and gaming friends. He says he has been drug- and game-free for eight months.
Like other addicts, Bakker said, gamers are often trying to escape personal problems. When they play, their brains produce endorphins, giving them a high similar to that experienced by gamblers or drug addicts. Gamers' responses to questions even mirror those of alcoholics and gamblers when asked about use.
"Many of these kids believe that when they sit down, they're going to play two games and then do their homework," he said.
However, unlike other addicts, most gamers received their first game from their parents. "Because it's so new, parents don't see that this is something that can be dangerous," Bakker said.
Tim, a gamer who is currently under treatment, agreed to discuss his addiction on condition of his last name not being used. He said he began playing video games three years ago at age 18. Soon he wouldn't leave his room for dinner. Later, he began taking drugs to stay awake and play longer. Finally he sought help and picked up other hobbies to occupy his time.
Symptoms of addiction are easy to spot, Bakker says. Parents should take notice if a child neglects usual activities, spends several hours at a time with the computer and has no social life.
Bakker said parents of game addicts frequently echo the words of partners of cocaine addicts: "'I knew something was wrong, but I didn't know what it was.'"

[Nature Boy]

Game addicts? What next, flying pigs?

[AntiAimer]

Originally Posted by Nature Boy

Game addicts? What next, flying pigs?

Pigs can fly, ever seen a police helicopter?

People really need to make up there minds...hooked on T.V...hooked on video games...hooked to there jobs...hooked on drugs..hooked on sex...hooked on the internet....meh.

[The Doors]

Well I don't think you can deny that video games can be addicting. It becomes an alternative to reality, just like when people get addicted to drugs.

What pisses me off in these kind of articles is that they always have to bring drugs into play like they're the major cause of every mental "disease".

[Powder_Reality]

I find it amusing that they have a "gateway" theory for video games: "It can start with a Game Boy, perhaps given by parents hoping to keep their children occupied but away from the television. From there it can progress to multilevel games that aren't made to be won."
Just replace "Game Boy" with "marijuana cigarette", and "multilevel games" with heroin and you've got a statement that sounds like they ripped it right out of "Reefer Madness".
SWIM never played video games much when he was a kid, and even to this day the only console he owns is an old Super Nintendo he bought for $30 from a going-out-of-business video store. SWIM knows lots of people who are huge into video games, and play them everyday, sometimes for hours on end. But SWIM wouldn't consider them physically addicted to video games. It's just something that they really enjoy doing and therefore do it as much as they can. But they don't put their life on hold and start popping Adderall to stay up all night and play. They get out with friends, are very social, have successful relationships, and lead productive lives. So maybe there are people out there that are physically or mentally addicted to video games, but in SWIM's experience, he hasn't met any yet.

[Nature Boy]

Originally Posted by The Doors

Well I don't think you can deny that video games can be addicting. It becomes an alternative to reality, just like when people get addicted to drugs.

Perhaps there are people who play them obsessively or simply too much, but to say that they are "addicting" is a crock of shit IMO. Addiction is physical by my definition. The media use it as a scaremongering buzzword in order to sell some more newspapers.

Reputation Comments on this post:

good post about addiction

[VincentVan]

Some weeks ago I read an article on a danish newspaper about some kids that supposedly were physically addicted to SMS messaging on their cell phones, suffering tremors, nausea and other symptoms if deprived of their mobiles.
Being in the media business too, however , I did´nt feel sorry for those kids but for the desperate journalist who found himself in the pityful situation of having to report such unsufferable bullshit to be able to pay his bills.
I could´nt help noticing that the "article" was signed only with his initials.
Poor guy. He made me feel a lucky man; and that´s not such a common occurence.
Most publishers and editors have started to care above all about the bottom line and that´s why we are seeng more and more copy about imaginary threats just behind the corner. For some reason people just love to read about these things. They are ready to pay anyone who is willing to alarm them and giving them some improbable reason to worry about.
The new drug nobody has heard of yet ( while alchool and tobacco kill every day more people that all illegal drugs ever did); The next epidemic likely to strike ( with pages of reports about two ducks dead in Tadjikistan); or (a classic since the beginning of the industrial revolution) the newly discovered evils of techno gadgetry.
As one of my old professors used to say, and now I say to my own students:
"The news are always the same; only the subjects change."
VV.

" Oh, wearysome condition of humanity,
Born under one law, to another bound,
Vainly begot and yet forbidden vanity,
Created sick, commanded to be sound.
What meaneth nature by these diverse laws,
Passion and reason, self-division´s cause?"
(Fulke Greville)

[Nagognog2]

Next Up! Department:

Children Given Coins As An Allowance Likely To Take Pills!

The National Institute of Neurotic Doctors has determined that adolescents who take pills to get a "high" likely did so by psychological conditioning from their parents who gave them coins as part of their allowances.

Dr. Spudwacker found that 87% of adolescents who took pills to get high had been given round, metallic objects to buy treats such as candy and sodas before reaching puberty. "It is quite obvious that these victims learned to associate pleasure with things that are round. Pills are round. Give children coins and they will likely take pills upon reaching adolescence..." warned Dr. Spudwacker. "The solution should be obvious. Pills must be made in irregular shapes to avoid this association. We will bring this matter up with the National Institute of Drug Abuse during the next general meeting."

In the meantime Dr. Spudwacker suggests that parents no longer give their children an allowance or permit them to have candy and sodas. "The less pleasure a child feels in their formative years, the better will the child be as they approach adulthood." Dr. Spudwacker then stressed the need for Remedial Measures to help foster a healthy adolescent that has already suffered the damage of round objects that gave them pleasure: "First off one must start by removing all round objects from the child's environment. For a boy this should be obvious. The penis must be the first to (rest of post removed due to possibly stimulating images that contain the letter 'O')

------------------------------------------------------------------------

I'll go away now...

[OccularFantasm]

Originally Posted by Nagognog2

Next Up! Department:

Children Given Coins As An Allowance Likely To Take Pills!

The National Institute of Neurotic Doctors has determined that adolescents who take pills to get a "high" likely did so by psychological conditioning from their parents who gave them coins as part of their allowances.

Swim finds this really really funny. Swim recalls being in the adolecent psych ward, where he was given pills everyday. These pills would melt right as soon as they hit your mouth, in fun fruit flavors. (Swim liked the redish pink one.) The pills were also heavy sedatives and antipsychotics. Swim thinks the pill was risperadal, for all of you pill buffs, but there are many more than just that one in production. if the person (swim) choose not to take the candy (pill) then all privleges would be taken from the person. This sounds far more damaging than coins as far as the article goes. Also note swim was one of those doctor shoppers and looking for the next fun pill.

[Bajeda]

Meh, fun video games are easy to play too much, but its the rpgs that are truly addictive.

Diablo II and the expansion completely owned my life for a while back in the day. Plus you can read some funny (and really sad) reports online of people who had their lives destroyed by Everquest, which I refused to touch for fear of my grades plunging.


I still find it surprising that this is news though. Anything you do for recreation can be addictive, get over it. The only report on a "new" addiction I'll be happy to see will have the headline below:

News Media Addicted to Reporting on Addiction!

[El Calico Loco]

Originally Posted by Bajeda

Plus you can read some funny (and really sad) reports online of people who had their lives destroyed by Everquest, which I refused to touch for fear of my grades plunging.

The stories are sad, but as a huge vidiot (remember that word? ) myself, I have to say: it's not the game that destroyed their lives; it was their lack of discipline and self-control.

I had Ultima Online hooked up to my vein for about a year. I went without sleep and ate little (like any addict), but I still went to work and paid my bills.

I think people just want an excuse for all their mistakes, these days. No one wants to take credit for a well-earned fuckup. "It's not my fault I lost my wife, kids, house, and job and flunked out of school - it was the cannabis, sex addiction, and Everquest. Someone owes me, big time!"


ECL

[Bajeda]

Hooked on monkey phonics?

[Woodman]

Man, I just wish they would bring back "Time Pilot".

i was a fucking ace, many times over.

[Bajeda]

http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?...97459334792260

^^^^^ An interesting take on this topic, specifically WoW. A bit cheeky, but a good watch.

[tayo]

Does he get paid to do that or was he tired of being scrutinized?

and if you're reading this you might like to post here.
http://www.drugs-forum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=34562