Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by martyb on Monday June 18 2018, @05:16PM   Printer-friendly
from the doritos-and-mountain-dew-brain dept.

The World Health Organization (WHO) will officially classify "gaming disorder" as a mental health condition:

The World Health Organization is set to announce "gaming disorder" as a new mental health condition to be included in the 11th edition of its International Classification of Diseases, set to release Monday.

"I'm not creating a precedent," said Dr. Vladimir Poznyak, a member of WHO's Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse, which proposed the new diagnosis to WHO's decision-making body, the World Health Assembly. Instead, he said, WHO has followed "the trends, the developments, which have taken place in populations and in the professional field."

However, not all psychologists agree that gaming disorder is worthy of inclusion in the International Classification of Diseases, known as the ICD.

What are the characteristics of gaming disorder?

"One is that the gaming behavior takes precedence over other activities to the extent that other activities are taken to the periphery," he said. The second feature is "impaired control of these behaviors," Poznyak said. "Even when the negative consequences occur, this behavior continues or escalates." A diagnosis of gaming disorder, then, means that a "persistent or recurrent" behavior pattern of "sufficient severity" has emerged, according to the ICD. A third feature is that the condition leads to significant distress and impairment in personal, family, social, educational or occupational functioning, Poznyak said. The impact is real, he said, and may include "disturbed sleep patterns, like diet problems, like a deficiency in the physical activity."

Overall, the main characteristics are "very similar" to the diagnostic features of substance use disorders and gambling disorder, he said. Gambling disorder "is another category of clinical conditions which are not associated with a psychoactive substance use but at the same time being considered as addictive as addictions."

Also at NYT.

Previously: World Health Organization Will Recognize "Gaming Disorder"


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by frojack on Monday June 18 2018, @05:39PM (33 children)

    by frojack (1554) on Monday June 18 2018, @05:39PM (#694599) Journal

    How much of this is a disorder, vs simply difference between generations that annoys older people.

    With jobs and careers becoming harder to find and keep (and probably more so in the future), gaming seems to be a good a way to pass the time as anything else. Probably better than opiod addiction.
    And probably provides much more social interaction than twitter or Facebook.

    The whole description seems like such a judgment call, not only by the "doctors" but by people around the gamer.

    Do gamers themselves ever go to the doctor complaining that they just can't kick the addiction? Or do they just turn it off and walk away?

    --
    No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
    Starting Score:    1  point
    Moderation   +2  
       Insightful=1, Interesting=1, Total=2
    Extra 'Insightful' Modifier   0  
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   4  
  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 18 2018, @05:44PM (5 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 18 2018, @05:44PM (#694602)
    In other news "real life" is so bad for some people so they prefer to play games instead.
    • (Score: 4, Informative) by VLM on Monday June 18 2018, @06:18PM

      by VLM (445) Subscriber Badge on Monday June 18 2018, @06:18PM (#694622)

      There's a "classic" 1982 movie called "The Toy" which opens with Richard Pryor having nothing better to do all day than play the card game Spades with his equally unemployed buddies, so its not like this is new or strictly video game related.

    • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Monday June 18 2018, @07:55PM

      by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Monday June 18 2018, @07:55PM (#694677) Journal

      What you describe also fits for the previous SN topic on opioids.

      --
      People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 19 2018, @03:13AM (2 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 19 2018, @03:13AM (#694808)

      I just want to ask one question: why was watching TV all day long never classified as a gaming disorder, since for the majority of people it was held more important than doing household chores.

      • (Score: 2) by takyon on Tuesday June 19 2018, @03:37AM (1 child)

        by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Tuesday June 19 2018, @03:37AM (#694821) Journal

        The TV isn't exactly interactive. Games are. That means that you have reward mechanisms at work, similar to gambling disorder.

        Basically, gaming is more addictive than TV. Unless you're super lazy.

        I can't wait for the Virtual Reality Disorder.

        --
        [SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 19 2018, @06:12AM

          by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 19 2018, @06:12AM (#694853)

          Sure it is. Which is why a lot of people did and do sit around watching TV for hours. Sounds like TV addiction to me, if we're going to go by the logic that doing anything you enjoy longer than some people think you should is an addiction.

  • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 18 2018, @05:56PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 18 2018, @05:56PM (#694609)

    I can walk away any time I want.

  • (Score: 5, Interesting) by BsAtHome on Monday June 18 2018, @06:01PM (1 child)

    by BsAtHome (889) on Monday June 18 2018, @06:01PM (#694613)

    Once a behavior becomes compulsive you start talking about a disorder. It is unimportant whether the drive is conditioned by a physical or a psychological source. They have both a trait of obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) and traditional addiction. However, the treatment always depends highly on all the sources and causes that are involved.

    A disorder is a problem, regardless source, once it has consequences for your life up until becoming completely self-destructive. That means that at some stage "using social media" can become an OCD problem. Certainly, computer gaming has the potential for all the classic psychological and physiological markers of a disorder. Not being able to leave your phone/computer, or "online life", for a moment is just one more manifestation of a similar underlying problem.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 18 2018, @06:16PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 18 2018, @06:16PM (#694620)

      Can we mod this up to +5 please? I'm a big gamer myself and dislike the negativity associated with my chosen hobby, but any hobby can be taken to unhealthy levels.

  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by c0lo on Monday June 18 2018, @06:10PM

    by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Monday June 18 2018, @06:10PM (#694617) Journal

    And probably provides much more social interaction than twitter or Facebook.

    You haven't seen the poker machine zombies, I think.

    --
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by VLM on Monday June 18 2018, @06:25PM (7 children)

    by VLM (445) Subscriber Badge on Monday June 18 2018, @06:25PM (#694624)

    The whole description seems like such a judgment call

    Politics and signalling, too. Check out some stuff on the WHO site.

    Trans is good and normal and healthy, not a mental disorder at all, and everything else has to change to fit that way of looking at biology and psychology, but too many right wing video gamers mean video gaming is a disease, a scourge to be eradicated.

    The point is they're not in the political business of absolutes, but in relatives, and they have an agenda to push such that a guy feeling an uncontrollable urge to chop his dick off is a normal and healthy holy act to be supported and cherished as superior and more important than all other ways to relate to a dick, but a guy who wants to play Fortnite after a long day at work is obviously mentally ill.

    • (Score: 0, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 18 2018, @06:31PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 18 2018, @06:31PM (#694627)

      Why do you insist that the brain is not a gendered organ and that gender is nothing but a social construct?

      I think you are wrong. Men and women are different, regardless of what you want to be true.

    • (Score: 5, Insightful) by DeathMonkey on Monday June 18 2018, @07:22PM (3 children)

      by DeathMonkey (1380) on Monday June 18 2018, @07:22PM (#694664) Journal

      Check out some stuff on the WHO site.

      Done! Nope, I don't see anything you claim to be there.

      Why don't you provide some citations for your claims?

      • (Score: 5, Informative) by DeathMonkey on Monday June 18 2018, @09:13PM (2 children)

        by DeathMonkey (1380) on Monday June 18 2018, @09:13PM (#694713) Journal

        Is the blatant lying from this lot getting worse or am I just noticing it more?

        • (Score: 5, Insightful) by digitalaudiorock on Monday June 18 2018, @09:56PM (1 child)

          by digitalaudiorock (688) on Monday June 18 2018, @09:56PM (#694721) Journal

          Is the blatant lying from this lot getting worse or am I just noticing it more?

          I think it is getting worse, and it seems to be coming from the top down. It's clearer every day that Trump's degenerated to where most of what he says is provably false to the point of being almost comical, and is clearly aimed only at those who'll believe anything/everything he says. And yea...this fabricated WHO trans stuff or whatever it is...bullshit to perpetuate some myth that anything from any "World" organization or the U.N. or anything un-MAGA must be pure commie-euro-libtard-don't-bother-me-while-I'm-eating-my-freedom-fries bullshit...I guess. All getting really really old, and a bit scary seeing as it works on so many.

          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 19 2018, @12:57AM

            by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 19 2018, @12:57AM (#694772)

            It must be the R team's Trump Derangement Syndrome reaching critical mass.

            This timeline may yet see riots in every major city come late August.

    • (Score: 5, Informative) by ben_white on Monday June 18 2018, @08:14PM (1 child)

      by ben_white (5531) on Monday June 18 2018, @08:14PM (#694685)

      but a guy who wants to play Fortnite after a long day at work is obviously mentally ill

      This is not remotely what they are talking about. From TFA: " the condition leads to significant distress and impairment in personal, family, social, educational or occupational functioning." Blowing off some steam after work playing video games doesn't even come close to meeting the definition, and frankly is perfectly healthy behavior. Missing work, getting fired, divorced, and becoming homeless because of playing video games is pathologic behavior and should be studied and when appropriate, treated like other compulsive, destructive behaviors.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 19 2018, @03:20AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 19 2018, @03:20AM (#694810)

        All those things apply to TV, an entertainment medium consumed mostly by women. You know, "missing household work, getting fired = divorced and becoming homelessalimony dependent".

        I know, Trump [time.com] is the last refuge your blind dogma has left. Carry on in your blind stead. Those who are secure enough to see it for what it is, are not going away.

        It is going to get worse and the blame lies with you.

  • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Monday June 18 2018, @07:52PM (8 children)

    by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Monday June 18 2018, @07:52PM (#694676) Journal

    simply difference between generations that annoys older people.

    Years ago I heard something insightful about the music kids listen to.

    Q. In any generation. What will kids listen to?

    A. Whatever is most shocking to the older generation!

    --
    People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.
    • (Score: 2) by takyon on Monday June 18 2018, @08:11PM

      by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Monday June 18 2018, @08:11PM (#694683) Journal
    • (Score: 5, Insightful) by PartTimeZombie on Monday June 18 2018, @08:29PM (6 children)

      by PartTimeZombie (4827) on Monday June 18 2018, @08:29PM (#694693)

      Whatever is most shocking to the older generation!

      I don't disagree with the basic premise of your comment, but the thing that shocks me about pop music of today is how bland it is.

      I was subjected to several pop songs yesterday including a song by Lady Gaga and the thing that struck me most was how uninteresting they all were. Sort of like the aural equivilant of a big mac.

      • (Score: 3, Insightful) by DannyB on Monday June 18 2018, @09:04PM (4 children)

        by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Monday June 18 2018, @09:04PM (#694710) Journal

        Sort of like the aural equivilant of a big mac.

        Do you think it is for the exactly same reason that the Big Mac is bland?

        Corporate, frozen, prepackaged, pre-determined checkbox list of ingredients. Rapidly prepared using high tech automated tools to remove both manual labor and creativity from the production process.

        Nailed it in one Mr. Garibaldi.

        --
        People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.
        • (Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Monday June 18 2018, @09:28PM (3 children)

          by PartTimeZombie (4827) on Monday June 18 2018, @09:28PM (#694717)

          Do you think it is for the exactly same reason that the Big Mac is bland?

          Yes, I think you're quite correct.

          Corporate, frozen, prepackaged, pre-determined checkbox list of ingredients...

          That's exactly right. Just an endless lineup of prepacked, disposable garbage.

          It's very sad, but I'm sure there are plenty of talented creative musicians all over the world making great music that will never get a major label contract, but will still have a rewarding career. I hope so anyway.

          • (Score: 2) by jasassin on Monday June 18 2018, @11:05PM

            by jasassin (3566) <jasassin@gmail.com> on Monday June 18 2018, @11:05PM (#694733) Homepage Journal

            It's very sad, but I'm sure there are plenty of talented creative musicians all over the world making great music that will never get a major label contract, but will still have a rewarding career. I hope so anyway.

            I highly recommend "Electric Six". I find their music more addicting than most video games.

            --
            jasassin@gmail.com GPG Key ID: 0xE6462C68A9A3DB5A
          • (Score: 3, Touché) by DannyB on Monday June 18 2018, @11:07PM (1 child)

            by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Monday June 18 2018, @11:07PM (#694734) Journal

            But consider the flip side.

            Making music once required labor. Perspiration. Inspiration. Planning. Teamwork. And something in short supply today: Talent.

            The tools for scoring, recording, editing and mixing music were shockingly primitive. Analog tape? The tools for performing music were also typically old inventions dating back possibly centuries.

            Consider the improvements today. We have amazing synthesizers for performing. And other tools for recording, editing and mixing.

            But finally, we also have a modern answer for that missing thing I mentioned: Talent.

            Today's talent: add a bass line and drums on top of modem noise and you've got music!

            Could it get any simpler or cheaper?

            --
            People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.
            • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday June 19 2018, @12:23AM

              by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday June 19 2018, @12:23AM (#694761) Journal

              I should have mentioned AutoTune.

              --
              People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.
      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 19 2018, @11:51AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 19 2018, @11:51AM (#694933)

        "Pop music" isn't what the kids listen to these days. They listen to rap. So-called "Trap music". Your teenage daughter isn't going to play that for you though, she will show you the safe and bland BS.

  • (Score: 5, Interesting) by edIII on Monday June 18 2018, @08:05PM (5 children)

    by edIII (791) on Monday June 18 2018, @08:05PM (#694679)

    An interesting question. I think there are two people being conflated here:

    1) A gamer. Somebody who actively chooses video games, and those genres of entertainment (Twitch), versus other past times that involve "IRL", people, and the outdoors.
    2) People addicted to gaming to the extent their infant child dies horribly in the same room with them. Imagine the scene from Trainspotting when the woman finds the dead baby, except in this case, the gamers didn't even bother to check what the smell was (true story).

    The real distinction here is whether or not there is:

    significant distress and impairment in personal, family, social, educational or occupational functioning>

    I knew somebody that was impairing their personal life (girlfriend leaving over MMO), but was otherwise doing just fine with work and education. Social did decline a bit because it was difficult for us to get him involved as much in our activities, but it was still a choice. He had new friends online that he was grinding with. I want to say this was Everquest?

    I think there are people that just choose to spend their free time playing video games. That's okay too. Forgot where I heard it, but adults in America are becoming more and more isolated anyways. Perhaps it's just part of a larger issue? Maybe excessive time spend playing video games in indicative of a need for some therapy?

    --
    Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
    • (Score: 3, Informative) by takyon on Monday June 18 2018, @08:13PM

      by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Monday June 18 2018, @08:13PM (#694684) Journal

      except in this case, the gamers didn't even bother to check what the smell was (true story).

      It helps when you are drenched and caked in your own bodily emissions. Submersed in unreality.

      https://www.hardocp.com/news/2018/06/10/girl_9_in_rehab_after_getting_so_addicted_to_fortnite_she_wet_herself [hardocp.com]

      --
      [SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
    • (Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Monday June 18 2018, @08:19PM

      by PartTimeZombie (4827) on Monday June 18 2018, @08:19PM (#694686)

      Stop it! I don't come here for well reasoned responses. I want ill-informed rants.

    • (Score: 4, Interesting) by maxwell demon on Monday June 18 2018, @08:35PM

      by maxwell demon (1608) on Monday June 18 2018, @08:35PM (#694697) Journal

      Maybe excessive time spend playing video games in indicative of a need for some therapy?

      Not necessarily. Rather, if you continue to spend excessive time after you noticed (or someone else noticed to you) that you do, then you need therapy.

      Case in point: At some point in time, I was playing some free-to-play online game excessively. But when I noticed that I'm putting more time in than is healthy for me, I stopped playing it, and had no trouble to do so. Which demonstrates that despite excessive playing, I wasn't addicted.

      --
      The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
    • (Score: 3, Touché) by acid andy on Monday June 18 2018, @11:25PM

      by acid andy (1683) on Monday June 18 2018, @11:25PM (#694742) Homepage Journal

      girlfriend leaving over MMO

      Man. She could at least have left him over the phone!

      --
      If a cat has kittens, does a rat have rittens, a bat bittens and a mat mittens?
    • (Score: 2) by cubancigar11 on Tuesday June 19 2018, @03:28AM

      by cubancigar11 (330) on Tuesday June 19 2018, @03:28AM (#694813) Homepage Journal

      significant distress and impairment in personal, family, social, educational or occupational functioning

      Which doesn't have any clear scientific definition. It is purposefully left for interpretation by both the doctor and patient. It is slightly more sophisticated way of saying "it is bad". It is designed to open 1 door: how to sell you something medication.

      But my personal beef is that in a time when family doesn't mean jack-shit, and we know gamers are primarily men, what measures are there in defining this "disorder" that take into account a man going through divorce and taking stress out through video games? How easy it is to turn a stressful marriage being coped with video games into stressful marriage because of video games?