Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by Fnord666 on Monday August 19 2019, @07:50AM   Printer-friendly
from the today-I-learned-that-gaming-disorder-is-real dept.

Increase in gaming disorder in UK forcing people into private treatment at home or abroad

Jan Willem Poot, 40, a former addict turned entrepreneur who set up the clinic, said it was seeing a 20-30% annual increase in people – mainly young men – coming in with gaming dependency. "Also, in the beginning it was eight to 10 hours of playing but at this moment we have got kids who game 18-19 hours a day. They sometimes go weeks without showers and are not eating."

Gaming disorder is defined by the World Health Organization as a pattern of persistent or recurrent gaming behaviour so severe that it takes "precedence over other life interests". Symptoms include impaired control over gaming and continuation or escalation of gaming despite negative consequences.


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This discussion has been archived.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, Touché) by Rosco P. Coltrane on Monday August 19 2019, @08:17AM (10 children)

    by Rosco P. Coltrane (4757) on Monday August 19 2019, @08:17AM (#882030)

    Addictions that don't lead to disease or death should NOT be covered by the national insurance. Gaming addition certainly fits in the category of non-life-threatening idiotic lifestyle choices. I mean what next? Gambling? Nose picking?

    I would rather the NHS used their limited resources to fight alcohol, tobacco or cocaine addiction, because those addictions end up being costly to society when the addicts get cancer, or start committing robberies to get the money for their fix. Game addicts can jolly well sell their expensive gaming PC to fund their own rehab, is what I say.

    Starting Score:    1  point
    Moderation   +2  
       Interesting=1, Touché=1, Total=2
    Extra 'Touché' Modifier   0  
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   4  
  • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 19 2019, @08:28AM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 19 2019, @08:28AM (#882032)

    The gaming addict needs to steal to fund the electricity for their gaming rig, new games, parts, food, property tax, etc.

    • (Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 19 2019, @09:24AM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 19 2019, @09:24AM (#882044)

      Their parents just need to stop enabling them. If they had the guts to take away the game system, internet or electricity then this wouldn't be a problem.

      • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Monday August 19 2019, @03:32PM

        by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Monday August 19 2019, @03:32PM (#882163) Journal

        If that person living in their basement is a legal adult, then should the parent have a right to take away their games? Or their electricity?

        NHS could recommend that a good thearapy, for both the parents and the poor unfortunate gamer, would be for the parents to furnish the gamer with a separate and continuously restocked basement refrigerator.

        --
        People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.
  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 19 2019, @08:54AM (3 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 19 2019, @08:54AM (#882040)

    I think this aligns more with a mental health disorder. We help people with those, so why not this.

    I'm not big on medicating people, but this sort of obsessive compulsive stuff supposedly can be treated with medication. Literally, something is wrong... and needs to be fixed.

    I'm not talking about "playing nightly", but this 20 hour, no showers for weeks" stuff is definitely a medical, mental issue.

    • (Score: 2) by VLM on Monday August 19 2019, @12:42PM (2 children)

      by VLM (445) Subscriber Badge on Monday August 19 2019, @12:42PM (#882080)

      I'm not big on medicating people, but this sort of obsessive compulsive stuff supposedly can be treated with medication.

      I'm not an expert on this stuff, but I don't understand the point of pretending plain ole OCD is a different disease if the root cause seems the same as does the treatment.

      It would be like having entirely separate budgets and treatment programs for alcoholics based on if they drink scotch or kentucky bourbon.

      Or for the standard SN car analogy, its like having a separate emergency room treatment protocol and paperwork for people needing stitches from a "ford" car accident vs a "GM" car accident resulting in an identical wound. Insert snarky comment here about Tesla car accidents needing specialized Tesla burn treatment, although its frankly not that funny. Its true however that any EV car battery fire would result in very similar skin burns.

      • (Score: 2) by Magic Oddball on Tuesday August 20 2019, @05:57AM (1 child)

        by Magic Oddball (3847) on Tuesday August 20 2019, @05:57AM (#882501) Journal

        Addiction-based behavior is completely different from OCD. In an addiction, the person engages in a pleasurable activity in place of healthy coping skills for daily life stress, often due to an undiagnosed mental illness.

        In OCD, the person can have healthy coping skills for stress like anyone else, but experiences obsessive distressing thoughts or severe anxiety, and compulsively performs neutral or even harmful behavior (e.g. checking knobs on a stove every 20 minutes, excessive skin picking) that temporarily alleviates the anxiety. (The Wikipedia entry [wikipedia.org] describes it much better than I do.)

        • (Score: 2) by VLM on Wednesday August 21 2019, @01:21PM

          by VLM (445) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday August 21 2019, @01:21PM (#883099)

          Well, OK. I guess I always kinda think of popular named "gaming addiction" as being stuff like checking your farmville every 15 minutes to make sure the tomatoes haven't rotted that would seem to be a OCD like illness. I have a relative who was like that, otherwise very normal but got extremely weird for a couple years about checking her farm even at holiday parties and stuff, exactly like your stove knob checking example. She seems normal now and doesn't farmville so like many addictions or OCD stuff sometimes it just goes away?

          In an addiction, the person engages in a pleasurable activity

          The FPS players get an adrenaline hit once in a while, which should be fun, but aren't most "conventionally styled as gaming addicts" really bored and unhappy while playing grind games? They seem that way, in the few I've seen and met.

          There probably are many "conventionally styled in the media as gaming addicts" who are OCD or addicts. I bet theres more OCD victims than actual addicts, although there seems to be little to google for because I'm not sure self reporting and self treatment reflects the overall population.

  • (Score: 2) by AthanasiusKircher on Monday August 19 2019, @03:07PM

    by AthanasiusKircher (5291) on Monday August 19 2019, @03:07PM (#882153) Journal

    Addictions that don't lead to disease or death should NOT be covered by the national insurance. Gaming addition certainly fits in the category of non-life-threatening idiotic lifestyle choices.

    Except they do cause disease and health problems [sciencedaily.com]. People who play lots of games tend to be more likely to be obese, to have cardiovascular health issues, etc.

    I mean what next? Gambling?

    Gambling can be a serious addiction, and the NHS has some advice about that [www.nhs.uk]. It's probably less likely to have direct health consequences than gaming, I'd imagine. But in some cases it indicates (or is a consequence of) serious mental health problems.

    I would rather the NHS used their limited resources to fight alcohol, tobacco or cocaine addiction, because those addictions end up being costly to society when the addicts get cancer

    As noted above, compulsive gaming tends to contribute to higher rates of obesity, worse cardiovascular health, more sleep disorders, etc. Obesity has serious health costs for society (including things like diabetes, etc.) and treating heart disease isn't cheap either. Sleep disorders tend to contribute to overall health problems that lead to things like obesity and other illness. As for your concern about "death" expressed at the beginning of the post, note that heart disease actually tends to be the most common cause of death in adults (greater even than cancer). And gaming addiction coupled with these problems has other costs for society (like general illness, missed work, decreased productivity, etc.).

    Note that I am NOT claiming that gaming addiction should necessarily be a high priority. I'm not claiming that I know the best way to allocate resources. But pretending that it doesn't contribute to significant health problems that could lead to "disease or death" is just not looking at what it actually does. "Gaming addiction" isn't just playing games a little each day -- it's playing them to a point that it's disrupting a normal lifestyle, leading to neglect of common things (like reasonable eating and sleeping and exercise habits) that could otherwise keep you healthy.

  • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Monday August 19 2019, @03:29PM

    by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Monday August 19 2019, @03:29PM (#882161) Journal

    Gaming addition certainly fits in the category of non-life-threatening idiotic lifestyle choices. I mean what next? Gambling? Nose picking?

    This shows an astonishing lack of empathy and compassion.

    Next, you'll say that offended "Social" "Media" "Influencers" should not be eligible for healthcare to treat their deeply offended condition. (please note that it is strictly necessary to separately quote each word of social media influencers.) When a business rejects a "proposal" to give the SMI free goods or services in exchange for the SMI accepting those goods or services, the amount of harm can be great enough to require hospitalization. And some means of transport to said hospital.

    And what about Professional YouTubers who get demonitized and can't exercise their God Given Right to make money on YouTube -- which is a free public platform that dropped out of the heavens fully formed, intended for professional youtubers to build a successful career that is more profitable than skateboarding of gaming? Shouldn't they also be eligible for national healthcare?

    What is the world coming to? What about the poor professional Internet Meme Creators? And Professional Career Students For Life?

    --
    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 Monday August 19 2019, @04:47PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 19 2019, @04:47PM (#882210)

    Yes, Virginia, gambling disorder is a real thing in DSM-5 too. [psychiatry.org] No realli! [ncpgambling.org]
    Nose picking might be.... but Skin Picking Disorder is [bfrb.org].

    Behavior addictions, like substance addictions, share the commonality that adverse consequences have to be occurring because of the behavior. They have to rise to the level of causing actual dysfunction. The disorders are generally seen as a problem of impulse control. It also shares treatment commonalities in using both forms of talk therapy (often cognitive behavioral therapy) and in some cases medication. And other anxiety disorders are often comorbid.

    Why not just tell alcoholics, tobacco users, or cocaine addicts to just say no, or just give it up? Tobacco users these days are fully conversant with the future damage they are causing to themselves and others and it's usually only their defense behaviors that prevent action.