Video game addiction, a mental illness?

[azathoth777]

This is from a recent newspaper story:
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The telltale signs are ominous: teens holing up in their rooms, ignoring friends, family, even food and a shower, while grades plummet and belligerence soars.

The culprit isn't alcohol or drugs. It's video games, which for certain kids can be as powerfully addictive as heroin, some doctors contend.

A leading council of the nation's largest doctors' group wants to have this behavior officially classified as a psychiatric disorder, to raise awareness and enable sufferers to get insurance coverage for treatment.

In a report prepared for the American Medical Association's annual policy meeting starting Saturday in Chicago, the council asks the group to lobby for the disorder to be included in a widely used mental illness manual created and published by the American Psychiatric Association.

AMA delegates could vote on the proposal as early as Monday.

It likely won't happen without heated debate. Video game makers scoff at the notion that their products can cause a psychiatric disorder. Even some mental health experts say labeling the habit a formal addiction is going too far.

Dr. James Scully, the psychiatric association's medical director, said the group will seriously consider the AMA report in the long process of revising the diagnostic manual. The current manual was published in 1994; the next edition is to be completed in 2012.

Up to 90 percent of American youngsters play video games and as many as 15 percent of them — more than 5 million kids — may be addicted, according to data cited in the AMA council's report.

Joyce Protopapas of Frisco, Texas, said her 17-year-old son, Michael, was a video addict. Over nearly two years, video and Internet games transformed him from an outgoing, academically gifted teen into a reclusive manipulator who flunked two 10th grade classes and spent several hours day and night playing a popular online video game called World of Warcraft.

"My father was an alcoholic ... and I saw exactly the same thing" in Michael, Protopapas said. "We battled him until October of last year," she said. "We went to therapists, we tried taking the game away.

"He would threaten us physically. He would curse and call us every name imaginable," she said. "It was as if he was possessed."

When she suggested to therapists that Michael had a video game addiction, "nobody was familiar with it," she said. "They all pooh-poohed it."

Last fall, the family found a therapist who "told us he was addicted, period." They sent Michael to a therapeutic boarding school, where he has spent the past six months — at a cost of $5,000 monthly that insurance won't cover, his mother said.

A support group called On-Line Gamers Anonymous has numerous postings on its Web site from gamers seeking help. Liz Woolley, of Harrisburg, Pa., created the site after her 21-year-old son fatally shot himself in 2001 while playing an online game she says destroyed his life.

In a February posting, a 13-year-old identified only as Ian told of playing video games for nearly 12 hours straight, said he felt suicidal and wondered if he was addicted.

"I think i need help," the boy said.

Postings also come from adults, mostly men, who say video game addiction cost them jobs, family lives and self-esteem.

According to the report prepared by the AMA's Council on Science and Public Health, based on a review of scientific literature, "dependence-like behaviors are more likely in children who start playing video games at younger ages."

Overuse most often occurs with online role-playing games involving multiple players, the report says. Blizzard Entertainment's teen-rated, monster-killing World of Warcraft is among the most popular. A company spokesman declined to comment on whether the games can cause addiction.

Dr. Martin Wasserman, a pediatrician who heads the Maryland State Medical Society, said the AMA proposal will help raise awareness and called it "the right thing to do."

But Michael Gallagher, president of the Entertainment Software Association, said the trade group sides with psychiatrists "who agree that this so-called 'video-game addiction' is not a mental disorder."

"The American Medical Association is making premature conclusions without the benefit of complete and thorough data," Gallagher said.

Dr. Karen Pierce, a psychiatrist at Chicago's Children's Memorial Hospital, said she sees at least two children a week who play video games excessively.

"I saw somebody this week who hasn't been to bed, hasn't showered ... because of video games," she said. "He is really a mess."

She said she treats it like any addiction and creating a separate diagnosis is unnecessary.

Dr. Michael Brody, head of a TV and media committee at the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, agreed. He praised the AMA council for bringing attention to the problem, but said excessive video-game playing could be a symptom for other things, such as depression or social anxieties that already have their own diagnoses.

"You could make lots of behavioral things into addictions. Why stop at video gaming?" Brody asked. Why not Blackberries, cell phones, or other irritating habits, he said.
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But is it really the games themselves that cause the 'addiction' or that people that get 'addicted' are pre-disposed to it, people with addictive personalities to begin with? If it wasn't video games it would be something else.
I think it's just a sign of other bigger problems, but not the problem itself.
All I can say is: R2, R2, L1, R2, LEFT, DOWN, RIGHT, UP, LEFT, DOWN, RIGHT, UP

[Freak]

I do believe there are people who are addicted to video games.But wouldn't label ita metal disorder or give them insurance for treatment.Alot of these people are younger kid's who's parent's need to step in and take them away from them if it's becoming a problem.

I seen a news speacial on this 16 year old kid who was addicted to WoW and his mom didn't know what to do.Well for starters she could stop paying for it cause the kid didn't have a job and she could take the computer from him.

[Kane_Hodder]

I would not say an addiction, unless one wants to make it an addiction.
There are millions of sane people around the world who enjoy playing video games too.
It does not make all of them lunatics or schizophreniacs does it?

[X¤MurderDoll¤X]

Originally Posted by Kane_Hodder

I would not say an addiction, unless one wants to make it an addiction.
There are millions of sane people around the world who enjoy playing video games too.
It does not make all of them lunatics or schizophreniacs does it?

maybe you should actually read the original post.

[Fred Krueger]

What's next? How many new mental issues are they going to fabricate, blaming everything and anything they can? Some things they consider mental illness are ridiculous enough, now its not the neglectful parents, its that the kid is mentally challenged because of his video games?

This is the same as blaming movies and music for kids shooting each other. The PARENTS are the ones at fault and the ones that need to claim responsibility for this stuff.

[Demonique]

The PARENTS are the ones at fault and the ones that need to claim responsibility for this stuff.

Absolutely! It is not an addiction but a lack of discipline. People are so quick to blame external forces rather than themselves or their children. I too have done the occasional 12 - 24 hour video game binge. It was me - not the game that was responsible. IMO, unless they can actually prove that video games cause changes in the brain structure - then it is not a physical addiction.

[azathoth777]

I agree that parents are a part of the problem, but I wouldn't say the whole problem.
I think kids could develop a type of psychological addition to video games, but it's not the games themselves that cause it. The kids probably have some sort of emotional problems to start with. The addiction isn't the problem, rather it's a symptom for the problem. It's an escape for a reality they don't want to deal with.
Maybe if the kid had a beer instead of playing WoW first he'd be a drunk.

[Kane_Hodder]

I think I did read it, and I re-read it again. Video games cannot be blamed for any sort of abnormal behaviourial patterns shown by kids or grown-ups.
It's high time parents took some responsibility of neglecting their children for the more "pleasant social bonds" they persist to pursue. How many parents out there actually spend some quality time with their children out of the 24 hours of their daily lives? Less than 25%.
Moreover, studies have shown that video games actually help in sharpening the intelligence of many. So it is surprising that such an allegation arises.
I have seen people who played video games for 20-22 hours at a stretch, now abandoned it and look for a more purposeful life.
So trust me, it can be done by an individual, if he toughens himself mentally, and gets the full support of his family, friends and close ones.

[Fred Krueger]

It seems more and more that movies, video games and music and being attacked as the cause of mental problems and all sorts of other behavior issues. I wouldn't be surprised if this continues that the government didn't start to censor things even more than they are. Its bad enough that television is so strictly watered down just because parents don't want the responsibility of paying attention to what their kids watch, now video games are evil and who knows what else. Our society really is turning into one big whiny baby.

[Doc Faustus]

I think what needs to be blamed is the fact that there is nothing more stimulating in their life than World of Warcraft. It's rough. It can be an addiction, but addiction is born of a need to escape reality and a lack of stimulation. There are lots of towns where everything closes at 9 o clock and there's no place for teenagers to go. It's pretty sad that if you're driving around at 11 and you want to go somewhere you end up at Denny's or a bar. If you don't have the option to go to a bar, that puts you at Denny's. Given a choice between videogames or Denny's, I'll take videogames. Videogames don't charge me 6 bucks for pancakes I'm not actually sure I want to eat at midnight. Give teenagers options, and maybe they'll stop playing videogames. Yeah, many do have friends that they neglect hanging out with, but their friends often have nothing better to do either. Communities need to institute things like free midnight Friday movies for teens (R rated even). In my hometown of Wenham, MA you could either go out for fast food or you could drink, or you could play videogames. Every town in a fifteen mile radius rolled itself up in a carpet at 8 o clock. If this weren't the case, maybe people would leave their room. The nearest mall to the town I'm living in now closes at 9 on weeknights. The Best Buy closes at 10. Nothing is really open but restaurants. And for SOME reason the kids have big drug problems. Go figure.