Gaming Detox Center Opens In Netherlands

Edge Online reports on the opening of a gaming detox center in the Netherlands. The Smith and Jones center's 12-step program for a gaming-free life is set to start accepting patients next month. From the article: "[The center has] concluded that the truly game-addicted have no other option than to give up the gaming ghost entirely, by means of replacing those 'time warp' hours with real-life high-adrenaline replacements."

But

[ZakuSage]

Gaming > Life.

Oh dear god.

[Pichu0102]

I'm sure Jack Thompson will bring this "detox" center up in trying to prove that video games are as harmful as cigarettes or alcohol. And people will believe him, mainly the loudest people. We don't need to give them more ammo to shoot us with.
Hell, were there comic book detox centers, or did that ever get this far?

Re:So in essence....

[twistedsymphony]

Yeah but trading one addiction for another is how things are usually done... just look at all the drug addicts who weened off the drugs and became addicted to Jesus.

I don't think gaming is a drug perse

[SmallFurryCreature]

But gaming does stimulate our pleasure centers. It is perhaps a bit like that rat wired up to an electrode that when it does something stimulates its brain. It will then prefer this artificial stimulant over real life activities like eating.

Gaming is like this because it allows us to shorten the path between activity and reward. MMORPG's are an excellent example. For all the complaints about grinding you can level up an awfull lot faster then in real life. Just you try to become master in any craft in a month or two. In WoW this is no problem.

I don't think gaming itself is addictive but rather this rush of a quick fix. After a long day at work where you didn't get anything done and were even the remotes chance of a promotion is years away you can simply go into a game and achieve a level, complete a quest in a night with the game telling you are the best player ever.

We all like to be complimented and when I am on a rampage in Unreal Tournament I feel good. Oh sure it is shallow over a real life promotion in my job or being told you are loved by your partner BUT I can go on a rampage a dozen times in a night. Being told I am the best by my gf I max out at maybe 2-3 a night.... okay week.... year....alright I am happy if I can get a cat to pur, happy?

In a way I think games are like soaps are for women. There certainly is an element of addiction in how some of them follow soaps. The point is that soaps to speed up the action -> reward cycle. A soap family can go through more stuff in one episode then most people have in their entire life giving you the rush of their artificial life quicker then you could ever get yourselve.

Yes offcourse it is artificial but so is masturbation. However when masturbation is a locked door away and sex with another person means at minimum finding a desperate person with a drinking problem it becomes a question of what you prefer. Quick fix now or possible good fix after lots and lots of hard work.

Games allow us to be heroes, that is a hard drug to resist.

Re:Oh dear god.

[tcphll]

Hell, forget comic books, plain old novels can dominate some people's time. My wife has been known to read for 12 hours straight, foregoing sleep, to finish a good book. The only reason she stops is because she runs out of pages. Where's the detox center for that?

All or Nothing?

[Sponge Bath]

Grrr... the whole 12 step, give it up completely concept
just strikes me as so wrong. I've seen a couple of people
try this with AA, where they end up being too damn fragile.
Any exposure the the forbidden activity (even being around
others doing it) becomes a personal crisis.

People need to learn to live with these things instead of hiding from them.

hrm...

[manJerk]

sounds like they want to substitute one addiction for another...
nice and counter-productive.

Re:I don't think gaming is a drug perse

[Sylver Dragon]

All entertainment is escapism. We turn to games, movies, TV, books, etc. as a way to escape the drudgery of real life. Like all forms of recreation it can be taken to an extreme and become destructive. Fact is, just about any activity can be taken to an extreme. Even working can occur at a level which causes disruptions to sleep and health. Does this make an activity "bad"? No, it just means that we need some level of self control to prevent problems. Is a 12 step program the answer? Well, as long as you are willing to forego free-will, then yes it's a great idea. Of course, if you have a problem with becomming addicted to stuff, you don't have much free-will anyway, so you might as well.

An interesting problem

[urikkiru]

IANAS (I am not a shrink)

Okay, so I've seen quite a few comments to the effect of, 'Games are just another way to spend your free time'. This is true, and people can quite frankly become addicted to pretty much anything. Most addictions to games, movies, books, trying to take over the world, happen because the person in question isn't really.. well, grounded in life. They start to view their hobby(games for example) as the way deal with things, rather then really deal with them. Generally, they were probably unstable to begin with, and then they turned to games.

Another comment I see, is that games ala mmorpgs, can be highly social. This is true, however it's actually a serious problem. Interaction with people online is a very different animal from in person interaction. If someone who is incredibly socially inept suddenly attempts to have a social life through an mmorpg... well, they are in for a surprise when it comes to real life relationships/interaction. People can 'put their best foot forward' in a game, a virtual environment. This is much harder to do in person.

This doesn't mean that online relationships are doomed to fail or anything. I've known several people whom met online and are very happy together. But, they were usually fairly stable people to begin with, and met each other as soon as possible. Also, they preferred real life interaction over a virtual/long distance one. This is an important point I think.

Regardless, trying to expose people to real life things they've never experienced before could probably work, as they will realise there is life after that last round of counter strike. On the other hand, the 12 step programs seem kind of iffy. I don't think gamers need to permanently give up their fun. Rather, they just need to realise other types of fun as well, and try to lead a more balanced life.

Anyway, that's just my 2 coppers on the subject. Sorry if it's a bit rantish.

Re:All or Nothing?

[grammar fascist]

Any exposure the the forbidden activity (even being around others doing it) becomes a personal crisis.

People need to learn to live with these things instead of hiding from them.

Have you ever overcome an addiction?

A real one? A compulsion so strong you can't control it on your own?

No? Then don't knock it. At least they're not doing it anymore.

Well in the case of alcohol

[Sycraft-fu]

It's kinda the way it has to be. Alcoholics just can't stop drinking, it's just how they are. The "only have one drink" thing doesn't work for them. They have an overpowering urge to keep drinking. That's why it's called an addiction. Hard for peopel who don't suffer from it to understand. But it really does have to be an all or nothing. If they dirnk, they will do it to an excess since they can't control themselves. The only answer is to stop drinking entirely.

For gaming, I dunno. There's not the chemical component, I don't know if it's the same kind of addiction or not. Perhaps gaming is just an escape from life, and it's the issues in life that need to be dealt with, not the gaming. There's less research on this since it's a newer topic.

However don't assume that something can be done in moderation by everyone. Some peopel just lack the ablity. As an example of something that can be done in moderation by almost no one, take heroin. You can't really be an "occasional heroin". It is exceedingly addictive and you have major withdrawl symptoms that can be fatal. There's no using it socially or anything, you have to choose all or nothing. If you start using heroin with any regularity you WILL become addicted and if you are addicted, it will start controlling your life to a large degree. The only other option is to just not use it.

It's the same sort of thing for alcoholics. Though it's not as severe as heroin, they can't jsut stop. There are symptoms to alcohol and yes, you can die from them although it's much more rare. Most people don't duffer form alcohol addiction, they can use it or not use it as they please, but for the 10% that do it's an all or nothing proposition. Either you use it, and you'll find your use increasing, it dominating more of your life, and eventiually ruining it in all likelyhood, or you accept that you just can't have any alcohol at all, ever.

I'm not saying it's the same for gaming, I'm saying you shouldn't disdain what alcoholics have to go through. If you haven't battled an addiction or known those who have it can be hard to understand, but it's very real.

Re:Before the trolling really begins...

[PhoenixOne]

>If someone here in the states went to a 12 step program to try and kick a destructive gameing habit I think they would be laughed right out of the clinc.

Only if they were lucky. There are plenty of quacky 12-step programs in the states to "treat" damn near anything you can think of. And by "treat" I mean take your money and time while feeding you BS and catchy slogans.

You're right, OCD can be a real problem. A problem that should be treated by a real expert, not something you should "give to god" (she's got enough to deal with).