Help me, I'm addicted to games!

News from CVG

July will witness the launch of a detox programme in Amsterdam that aims to help gamers hopelessly addicted to videogames to kick the habit, it's being reported.

The programme is being headed up by Amsterdam-based Smith & Jones Addiction Consultants, whose director Keith Bakker has been working with the videogame addicted since the beginning of the year. He reckons that videogames can prove as addictive as narcotics or gambling.

"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 commented. "Their social network has completely disappeared."

In case you're concerned that you may be suffering videogame addiction, apparently the signs to watch out for include spending hours gaming - duh - poor social life and neglecting normal day-to-day activities.

The detox programme will be a course that runs four to eight weeks, during which time 'patients' will, among other stuff, undergo sessions with therapists and be encouraged to participate in activities of a more social nature.

Kick the habit? Sod that, I may hit all those symptoms, but I'm not addicted, I just don’t have a lot else to do! That's my excuse. ;p

I can see where video games might be addictive. Sometimes when I play I just want to get a little further... just a little further.... then before I know it another hour has gone by.

I'm not sure if "withdrawal from society" can be also labeled as video game addiction, though. That, to me, seems to indicate some other level of disturbance that would need to be addressed.

But the one dude in Korea that played 50+ straight hours and then keeled over and died probably should have had some kind of help.

Better watch out though. Once video games are labeled "addictive" they'll be regulated like cigarettes and booze.

Korean dude? ...... Died? Playing games? .... How? Why? ...... Can you tell me the story? Or point me to a link.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4137782.stm

Yah im a-DICK-ed to games too

To bad I don't live close to Amsterdam or I would go over and go do an interview for you all ;).

I say better addicted to games than drugs or other stuff that'll mess with your body and soul.....sheesh!

I could see where this would be of use, like the Korean dude posted about above, or the Chinese girl who died of playing World of Warcraft untill she starved to death (google Chinese girl dies from WoW for the story)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Apoklepz

or other stuff that'll mess with your body and soul.....sheesh!

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Yeah... Like videogames.....

People are so stupid, they think just because "they" can handle it, there should be no restrictions. I, just like you guys, am addicted to games and the internet. There's nothing inbetween, the only difference is that I admit it. And I'd say that most of you are worse than I am. We live in a very ****ed up society and we make up all kinds of stupid excuses in order not to change it. But just as everything it automatically and naturally strikes back at us in the end. It's like all funny christians who think they're going to heaven because they believe in God, yet they don't by any means whatsoever act upon the bible's guidelines. I act much more christain than most of my christian friends, yet I couldn't give a ****. You people will always make up excuses and never admit to yourselves the problems you've got... until it's too late.

Just the fact that we sit 5-8 hours on the internet everyday on a chair giving non stop information to our brains, says everything. The human body is designed to go out hunting and moving most of the time, the last 50 years have been a catastrophy for the human body from an evolutionary point of view.

Yet, you will continue to give your excuses again and again and again. (If you wonder about my excuse it's because I've got a severe leg injury since four years, and a very severe neck injury since 5 months). My dream is to get back on the football-pitch(soccer that is), and start living a "normal" life, away from this ****ed up digital world. Unfortunately, I've come to love all of it.

oh man i hit 1 out of 3 play video games like 5 or 6 hours a day lol

Lol if yall think 5-6hrs of gamming a day is alot, you should check out some of those MMOs other then WoW that are popular. Such as ROSE online and SEAL online and even good ol Ragnarok online. Peeps in those games including myself have no problem playing them 15hrs strait, with few brakes, (food, bathroom, phone, other).

I must admit that games can be addictive, but only if you allow them to. When it comes down to it, its all your choice.

Heck i even know people who dropped outta school to play games, end up poor just thinking on how they can make enough money to play the game! People like that need the help.

Now for other out there like myself who have some measure of control, if ya like playin games 10+hrs a day knock yourself out... Just remeber you need to exercise in some way or fasion... whether it be going to the gym or jogging or yard work, do somthing physical at least for 30min each day.

Also on another note remeber to blink often when you are on the comp for extended periods of time. Sometimes people can be so drawn into somthing they dont blink as often as they should, and that leads to eye problems.

If you notice a feeling of nausia, dizzyness, and such symptoms its time you take a break, and one thats at least 10min.

Good luck and game on.

I wouldn't say I'm addicted............. ok maybe a little ;) The most I've played was about 30hrs stright on GTA: San Andreas for the PS2, and about 20hrs stright on Paper Mario. I did take a few breaks here and there to eat. But, some people do have a real problem with video games. Take that Korean guy for example. 50hrs stright is a bit too much. Another person who was badly adicted to video games was some chinense guy who loved to play a MMO (I think it was WoW). His parents said he was playing too much and limted his play time to 1hr a day. The next morning they found him lieing on the floor dead, with a note saying "give my computer to a good home". What he did was take some wire, wrap it around his neck, arms, ect, and stuck the ends into an outlet. It is people like this who needs help.

The problem also lies in the fact we become lazy and convenient and therefore forget and don't understand that other things had similar or even better stimulance for our brain(everything is actually about "drugs" in one way or another, positive stimulation on our brain). If you guys went out with a few guys and played soccer or some other sport (I'd strongly encourage soccer though), you'd most likely realize that it affects your brain in a different, yet very nice way. And when you do it more you realize that your body feels better both mentally and physically, and eventually you look better and the result may be a girlfriend. I encourage TEAM sports, hovewer yoga, as gay as it may seem, is something of the most amazing I've ever done. I did it every morning for one week, and my ****ing god did I feel good!!! I'm very untrained because of my injuries, but the difference in my strength and firmness was astonishing. People however need very quick results in order to keep going, so I reckon most of you wouldn't do it anyway. But the girls doing it(and the ratio is 5 girls on every guy) are damn hot. One of them want a geeky little brainy. You may be considered gay by your friends doing yoga, but thenagain, you're already considered gay, and most of your friends nowadays are just as gay, so you would only end up positively changing that by getting a girl, otherwise you'll just stay gay. So worst case is status quo.

(A lot of rambling I see) My conclusion would be that I'm absolutely positive that there's much healthier and even more fun brainstimuli-substitutions, such as soccer. And even if you may agree, you'll switch to the next page in order to download the latest game and completely forget about it. That's the way we work in the 21-century, extreme stimulation otherwise instant boredom. Try Buddhism, it actually works.

Question Gronne: this is obversely a forum for people who are so hooked on gaming that they actually program stuff for their favorite consoles. What made you want to join here, with that speech in mind? None of my bussiness but, you know..just interested.

Best go to the next and download some games~! Hurr hurr.

holy crap about that guy who killed himself because he could only play for 1 hour a day! I would be lucky if a game held my attention for 2 hours. I guess im not like all of you guys, I'd rather be fooling around with some girl or something active most the time. thats why I wait till the sun is about set till I start. (but I was playing X-men Legends 2 all night the other night)

The max time I would spend on a game is about 1 1/2 hours, and usually that's something more like Sega Marine Fishing with the fishing controller or Samba De Amigo with the maracas recently, so its not all just about sitting on your arse ;p

this is bullcrap if I ever heard it, Video games arent addictive, they are just a cure to being bored :p and I see how this "Doctor" can accualy cash in, and make some big buks starting a new fad in wrecking a few teenagers lives...

parents have always had a problem with their kids staring at a screen for hours on end, and never getting anything done, this is a method in which they can finaly justify their annoyances by calling it an "addiction"...

I myself am what most would consider an "addict" I have played since I got my first system (the good ole' Nintendo Game Boy, with 3 games) and I never took breaks, (people always tell me to take a 15 miniute break every hour... *pfft* I play games from 8AM to 4 AM some weekends, only breaking to get food and come back.. or for a cigarette.. either way, I dont even take breaks)

and I think its strange that it took so long for video games to become somthing that even another front can profit from...

I have watched in the last month video game and system claims that state that gaming in general is bad..
I heard about the porn on psp..
and the constant claims of violent videogames and their effect on people...

and it now seems that the world of video gaming is being attacked, all of the sudden.. out of the blue everyone is cashing in on video games being bad...

if I can go off subject for a moment.. (and this will contain some information about drugs that nobody knew before...
back in about 1953 there was a case of someone attacking another person, killing them.. and they claimed that it wasnt their fault, they were on drugs (marijuana to be exact) and this was not the cause of them attacking the other person, but it got them off the hook, and they were allowed to spend a month in rehab, and get back out to the world... because they were just addicted to smoking pot, and hurt someone (while sober) and claimed they were on drugs when he did it... so from that day on, there were hundreds of cases of the so-called "Marijuana insanity defence" allowing hundreds of people to get off the hook for what they did.. this eventualy ended in the illegalization of marijuana in the United States..
now I been thinking about the video gaming insanity defence, and how lately I have heard of people "copying" a GTA style take down, and harming other people and claiming that it was the fault of videogames, now if you ask me, this whole thing has nowhere to go but to outlaw games in general, and make systems for nothing but "E" rated games, and little to no other services on system... (to take off movies, and pictures, and music from all video games...)

I dont know if this could happen.. I dont want it to happen.. and I realy dont want any more of this release somthing with full function, and limit it over time.... (the psp, with homebrew on 1.0 F/W and nothing on 2.7 and up.....)

I do hope someone reads this and has somthing interesting to say back :D

Quote:

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Originally Posted by GagaMan

Question Gronne: this is obversely a forum for people who are so hooked on gaming that they actually program stuff for their favorite consoles. What made you want to join here, with that speech in mind? None of my bussiness but, you know..just interested.

Best go to the next and download some games~! Hurr hurr.

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I think I made it perfectly clear when I stated I'm addicted. Maybe your glasses are outdated.

hey this article is in the west australian paper

All this recent news about gaming being bad for you is just coming from people that didn't grow up with video games around them, so their nick-picking at everything they can because they don't understand it. I bet there was a lot of stuff like this about TV when that first came around too. Mind you, TV really does feel like it rots your brain a lot of the time, since you are doing nothing but using your eyes. Mind you, I find it hard to be addicted to TV when most of it is so rubbish to me anyway XD

Gronne: Sorry, I missed that first post of yours *adjusts dodgy glassies*

Perhaps gaming is addictive, but for you to be completely anti-social I think there's a different underlying cause. Games aren't really the addiction, more of the release. Example? Most alcoholics (that I've met) have had other reasons than to just get drunk (with the exception of the college crowd). They can't handle the life they have to they do what they can to avoid it. I think games are the same thing. The only question is should they be regulated or should the public be better educated? I remember not too long ago when a certain game (Doom) was blamed for alot of teen-age violence. And before gaming got big it was all blamed on TV. And before TV got big, it was all blamed on movies. And before movies got big, it was all blamed on cocaine. Ok, maybe that last one might be true, but you get my point.

People need to blame something for their troubles because they can never accept the fact that it may be them. True, I play alot of games, but I wouldn't say that I'm addicted. When my GF wants to, uh, you know, the game is turned off, FAST. When my bud calls and say "hey, wanna hit the gun range?" Again, the game gets turned off (just not as fast).

And (slightly off topic) there have been alot of studies that say gaming may be good for mental development (depending on the game). Alot of RPG style games include extensive puzzle solving, and FPS style is proven to improve hand-eye coordination. And before you ask, no I don't have links to these stories anymore (My HD died about a month ago and all my good stuff left :( ). But I'm sure with a bit of google searching you can find these articles.

So if you think you are addicted to games take a good long look at why. If you have severe leg and neck injuries, then I wouldn't call gaming an addiction. It may actually be a way to connect socially with the outside world. And if forums like this aren't a social meeting place, then what the hell are they?

Hope that helps put this in a different light.

EXCACTLY! exactly! I have tried to explain that to people before, the human persona seems to be, blame everything on someone (or somthing) else! like you said robotdevil, people have been blaming violence on whatever they can for hundreds of years.. and if you honestly think about it, our poorly thought ideas of exsistance rely on blaming creation on another being...

from what I have noticed, people need to blame their hardships and problems on somthing else (I think you know who I'm speaking of)
all of religion is people asking for more, when people pray.. its not to say how happy they are, its to ask for more.. just in general, church is where you learn about a book, and ask for anything and everything....

I know I have gone off subject, but I say this because I agree, people will always need to blame someone (or something) else for the problems they have..

consider this if you will.. almost all parents I know would rather sit down and watch TV then do anything consctructive, (or do anything with their kids for that mater) and yet this is not considered "addictive" ??

its just another complaint, and as i said yesterday, the way a person can get rich by exploiting the parents of video gaming kids into thinking that their kids arent just having fun, its a mental illness.....

Even worse, the criminality in like the 14th century was worse than now, even more violence, as I've come to understand it. But so what? Does that mean it's OK to stimulate negative behaviours, just because it may have been worse 7 hundred years ago? Does that mean we've got some "buffer" to take from or something?

The problem today, when we apparently are so civilised, is that our society is so far away from what the evolution has made us into, that we in _NO_ possible way can cope with it. When I'm in asia, in the poor parts of e.g. Thailand(I'm in Malaysia now though), I realize that these kids, who have never even heard of a videogame-console, live so much more "natural" than we do. In my country we've got heaps of people with various mental issues, and it's getting worse by every year. The poor kids over here sleep in the same bed as their parents when they're having sex, and get to live under very (for us) harsh conditions, yet you don't see any mental problems here. Why? Because they're still humans. 100 years ago, people in my country were heavy farmers(roughly 95%), today only 3% are farmers(they do produce more than when we were 95%, though). If you can put two and two together, you'd pretty fast realize that it's an impossible equation. The human body can under no circumstances adapt to this change from working hard on the field for millions of years to instantly change that with sitting 8 hours straight infront of a computer every day. That means that we've CHOSEN not to accept the reality. It's like with alcohole, everyone who drinks, can with no problems "handle it", yet every year we get an increase of alcoholists in our society. Which means that some refuse to believe in the reality. JUST LIKE US ADDICTED TO GAMES. But it's very convenient to play games so we chose that infront of dealing with our boredom. All of these problems you now refuse to admit you have are most certainly cureable, but the more you refuse it, the harder it gets to come back. I'm not here to promote any philosophy, but meditation and Buddhism(non theistic "religion", you pray to the nature - Dhamma) has the answers. Meditation is something quite amazing, and I have no idea why it's not a big thing, like yoga became.

Idiots, the lot of them. ANYTHING can be an addiction. You could be addicted to Marmite or sport or brushing your teeth. It doesn't matter. The only thing that bugs the hell outta me is now, once again, gaming is given the negative press treatment.

Someone is always trying to attach a negative stigma on gaming, "addiction" is just today's catch phrase lure the uninformed to the subject, so that someone can press their point home. "What, my kids are gonna get addicted? How much money can I pay you Mr psychiatrist/therapist to make my kid better? Oh, you say there's a book?" You get the idea.

Some people... waaaay too gullable.

So now we get seen in the same light as the drug addicts? I tell ya, everytime I think I'm going nuts, I just read something like this and I feel sane again.

I heard about the starcraft thing years ago.. but i didnt think it was true! anyway i find that interesting because i had a friend who was OBSESSED WITH SC!