Detox Clinic Opening for Video Game Addicts 210
Blue6 writes "An addiction center is opening Europe's first detox clinic for game addicts, offering in-house treatment for people who can't leave their joysticks alone.
Video games may look innocent, but they can be as addictive as gambling or drugs, and just as hard to kick, says Keith Bakker, director of Amsterdam-based Smith & Jones Addiction Consultants." I'm pretty sure the amount of time I've spent in the world of Azeroth in the past year counts as addiction. Someone tell my parents I still love them, while I mine this ore.
Newspeak (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Newspeak (Score:2)
Re:Newspeak (Score:2)
Joysticks (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Joysticks (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Joysticks (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Joysticks (Score:2)
Re:Joysticks (Score:2)
H.
Re:Joysticks (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Joysticks (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Joysticks (Score:2)
So what if you eat until you're diabetic and obese? "You're only hurting yourself"
So what if you OD on recreational drugs, die alone, and nobody finds your body for 2 months? "You're only hurting yourself"
So what if you jerk it to porn all day, stay home and lose your job? "You're only hurting yourself"
For all of the above:
- even if you're only hurting yourself, you're not helping anybody either. You consume
Re:Joysticks (Score:2)
- even if you're only hurting yourself, you're not helping anybody either. You consume the worlds resources and health care/rehab services, but don't contribute much value in return. We can't afford to have many of these people in the world; we should help them get over their problem and into a life that is fulfilling to themselves, and contributory to the world."
Hello, I am not your worker ant, I don't need to contribute anything to be considered worthy in your eyes. You aren't paying
Quaking in my boots (Score:4, Funny)
Comment removed (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Quaking in my boots (Score:2)
Re:Quaking in my boots (Score:2)
Re:Quaking in my boots (Score:2)
People on slashdot should be aware of that abc truth of life
Re:Quaking in my boots (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Quaking in my boots (Score:2)
DUPE (Score:3, Informative)
Re:DUPE (Score:2)
Re:DUPE (Score:2)
Re:DUPE (Score:2)
"My name is CmdrTaco... I am a dupe poster addict..."
Slashdot: "Hi Taco!"
I think the editors need to go to a clinic (Score:2, Redundant)
Seriously. You'd think they'd try their own search or something
Re:I think the editors need to go to a clinic (Score:5, Insightful)
Why would they do that? It gives us the opportunity to repost smart things someone else said in the other discussion without getting modded Redundant.
For instance, I might state:
- I'm sure Jack Thompson will use this to leverage his arguments
- It'll be sandwiched between two hash-bars on Main street
- They'll just be trading a gaming addiction for another kind of addiction, like AA does swapping alcohol for Jesus
- Most "12 step" programs are quacky and don't work
- That if you're in Amsterdam and you can't find anything more interesting to get addicted to than games, you really do need help
- Gaming isn't a "drug," but it does stimulate pleasure centers and thus can be addictive (like sugary foods, I guess)
- You could probably pay Chinese and Korean powerlevelers to shoot you right up through that 12-step program for a small fee
But I'd just be karma-whoring.
Re:I think the editors need to go to a clinic (Score:4, Funny)
Gaming is a gateway drug to MURDER ADDICTION!!!!
Re:I think the editors need to go to a clinic (Score:2)
No wait, I'm not adicted. From the article:
But I still have my goed friends at slashdot, so I'm okay.Re:I think the editors need to go to a clinic (Score:4, Informative)
Re:I think the editors need to go to a clinic (Score:2, Funny)
Re:I think the editors need to go to a clinic (Score:2)
Re:I think the editors need to go to a clinic (Score:1)
Re:I think the editors need to go to a clinic (Score:1)
I don't know, maybe that Dutch shit is different, or the truckers have got it all wrong.
KFG
Re:I think the editors need to go to a clinic (Score:2)
addictions (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:addictions (Score:2)
Why don't we, and then just open some generic "addiction centers" where they'll help you get over anything?
"Hi, I'm Josh, and I'm addicted to trolling Slashdot..."
Re:addictions (Score:3, Funny)
H.
Re:addictions (Score:3, Insightful)
An if my undergrad psyc classes serve me correct, it is absolutely possible to become addicted to something that is not an ingested chemical of some sort. It's not like you experience a video game, sex, passively. You're brain released serotonin, dopamine, etc through experiencing things.
That said, to become addicted to something like a game or sex you usually have some other problems in your life. You usually
Re:addictions (Score:3, Funny)
Next thing you know they are multiplying their time spent on line, dividing their family and significantly subtracting from their overall quality of life.
Sorry, I'll put the pun vehicle back in the garage were it belongs.
Re:addictions (Score:2)
My girlfriend warned me about that, but I hate using rubbers.
The best definition of addiction.. (Score:2)
detrimental to their physical and/or mental wellbeing and also they would find
it very hard to stop the activity if they tried because of withdrawal symptoms.
This could be drug taking, sexual addiction, extreme sports , lots of things really...
Re:addictions (Score:2)
This is the former rather then the latter, and I personally think we should stick with the latter.
Re:addictions (Score:2)
Re:addictions (Score:2)
Within the brain there is ultimately no difference between a crack addict and a ArmageddonMUD addict, you personally are no longer in control (and probably think otherwise in either case) and the effect is negative either w
Re:addictions (Score:2)
Re:addictions (Score:5, Insightful)
I read recently that the concept of addiction is not a well defined one. One persons addiction is anothers mild indulgence. Frequently addiction is only applied to socially undesireable or prohibited indulgences. For example, despite its frequent use to excess, users of alcohol are rarely described as "addicted", and are instead given a specific label of "alocoholic".
The argument I read traced the origins of the concept of addiction back to the the Enlightenment. Essentially, the author argued that the concept of addiction was a direct successor to the concept of demonic possession. Where previously someone was regarded as being posessed as an explanation for their behaviour, now in the new, rational world, they were described as being "addicted" to a substance or behaviour.
People often tell me I'm addicted to video games. These same people can spend up to six hours a night, three nights a week, consuming alcohol and other substances. Some smoke, some watch an hour of football seven days a week. Some buy dozens of specialist magazines, spend hours on hobbies, go to car shows. Most watch ten times the amount of television I do.
There's always been a question of when an avid interest ends, and an addiction begins. In my expierience, nine times out of ten, it begins in the eye of the beholder.
health detriment (Score:2)
Re:addictions (Score:2)
Anything can b
Blah Blah Blah (Score:2)
I started playing an MMORPG about a month ago in order to "medicate" the bad feelings of a recent breakup. It works wonders. Some people would consider my gaming habits to be addictive and dangerous. I say they can go screw themselves. I work my 8 hours a day, I pay my taxes, I still hang out with my friends. I just watch less tv and play more on the computer. And I have something fun to look forward to during the day, instead of feeling all mopey about the breakup. When the next semester starts I'll go to
Re:Blah Blah Blah (Score:2)
My wife plays because she has Fibromyalgia and it is an escape from chronic pain. She is no longer able to work but is only a few years shy of normal retirement age. She earned better than average inc
Re:addictions (Score:2)
Re:addictions (Score:3, Informative)
Tobacco 435,000
Alcohol 85,000
Sexual Behaviors 20,000
Marijuana 0
Well it may be debatable, but I think its a pointless debate. I know more people do these other things than smoke pot, but let's multiply the pot number by five trillion to make up for the difference. Oh look, pot is still safer than sex.
*Taken from drugwarfacts.com, original sources:
Source: Mokdad, Ali H., PhD, James S. Marks, MD, MPH, Donna F. Stroup, PhD, MSc, Julie L. Gerberding, MD, MPH,
Re:addictions (Score:2)
Yah it's easy to stand by a statement that isn't based in fact but just a random assumption.
Many auto accident's are caused by talking on cell phones, let's ban them! (because i think so)
Re:addictions (Score:2)
Actually studies are finding that it's not, which is aggrevating because the fed government won't even allow funding for STUDIES to see what the effects of Pot actually are.
Anti-pot propaganda is one thing, but suppresing science so that propaganda can't be refuted really pisses me off..
Re:addictions (Score:2, Informative)
I would be amazed to hear that no person has ever left his or her spouse because they refused to give up smoking.
4 people at Weyco lost their jobs for refusing to take a urine test for nicotine. [latimes.com]
Alaska Airlines tests applicants for nicotine.
Union Pacific stopped hiring smokers.
Back in college when I still smoked, I would scrounge through the couch for change and pawn CD's to get enough cash to buy cigarettes.
Smoking can be a
Re:addictions (Score:2)
Addiction is when it causes harm (Score:2)
Non-
Re:addictions (Score:2)
Re:addictions (Score:2)
More detox programs coming soon: (Score:1, Funny)
Re:More detox programs coming soon: (Score:2, Insightful)
Step 1: Get laid.
One million reasons to hate the world...
Re:More detox programs coming soon: (Score:2)
Last time, I had decided I could manage to have it for lunch when I went out and it'd all be okay. I was wrong. I was up to 4 cans a day again within weeks.
So I'm off again. For almost a week now. -sigh-
And no, this isn't meant to be funny. Soda really IS addictive. (W
Re:More detox programs coming soon: (Score:2)
funny (Score:4, Funny)
Detox? Come on. (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:Detox? Come on. (Score:2)
There's a fine line there, with the major implication being that not everyone becomes addicted to games.
However, are you saying none get addicted to games, but it's simply the environment that cause them to sacrifice a social life and career on trying to get the next Druid to level 60? What environmental traits are you talking about in that case that leads to this behavior in some persons, and not others? Becoming isolated wit
Re:Detox? Come on. (Score:2)
Your argument could just as well be used to pretend alcoholism or drug abuse isn't and issue.
Our Loyal Gaming Industry... (Score:3, Insightful)
Ask big-pharma how this concept works:--)
Best way to cure the game addiction. (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Best way to cure the game addiction. (Score:2)
Re:Best way to cure the game addiction. (Score:2)
Addiction Isn't Pretty - Behind the Shines (Score:2)
Great... (Score:2, Funny)
Why focus on gaming "addicts" (Score:2)
If I wanted to make money selling quack medicine, that's what I would do. Not only would parents be sending me their kids who are doing crappy in school, but companies their low productivity workers (in some parts of Europe, where this clini
Pedantry alert (Score:4, Interesting)
You can't "detox" from a non-chemical addiction. A detox clinic is somewhere you go to make it nigh-on impossible to obtain whatever chemical it is that your body is used to and, thus, craves.
While clinics do also have programs and counsellors to help deal with the underlying cause of the addiction - eg emotional stress, habit or associative behaviour - these are to help prevent addicts from returning to their chemical addiction. These services are also available outside of a detox clinic.
For a purely habitual addiction - whether it be sex, gaming, work or anything else without a direct chemical impact - you can only provide the counselling. Detoxing, making the object of your obsession unavailable, is just a way of providing a stop-gap for weak-willed people to break their habit while they're in counselling, and calling it a detox clinic is a way for those same people to legitimise their pathetic behaviour. I really don't have much sympathy, and I wouldn't expect any if I were in that situation.
Don't talk to me about adrenaline highs or any of the self-induced psychosomatic hormonal impacts of addiction; that's just the physiological aspect of a neural, habit-forming process. It's a million miles from chemical addiction. They really can't be compared.
Re:Pedantry alert (Score:2, Insightful)
A detox clinic is somewhere you go to make it nigh-on impossible to obtain whatever chemical
Not true. The body becomes dependant on the drug (homeostasis etc), and therefore stopping taking the drug can be dangerous, as the body has become adapted to the constant supply of the drug. Not being able to obtain the drug in Detox is irrelevent. Benzodiazapemes probably _would_ be available in a detox for that drug.Th
Re:Pedantry alert (Score:2, Insightful)
Damn man, it's really funny when a self-confessed pedantry post is completely wrong. If "detoxing" means making it impossible to obtain whatever you're addicted to, it's pretty damn logical to consider a place helping people get over a non-chemical addiction as a "detox" clinic.
And non-chemical addictions can most definitely be as strong or stronger than chemical ones. Just because it is different, does not mean it is "a million miles" away.
Re:Pedantry alert (Score:2)
You think you can't become addicted to neurotransmitters? You do realise that people who become addicted to exercise are addicted to the endorphin high [ufl.edu], right?
Just because you're not explicitly shovelling drugs into your system doesn't mean they're not in there.
Re:Pedantry alert (Score:3, Insightful)
However I think the chemical addiction you refer to is where a person is addicted to a foreign chemical substance. Yet the only difference between addiction to a foreign substance and a foreign stimuli is the external contributing factor which changes brain chemistry. The root of addiction lies in the change of brain chemistry.
Heroin is addictive because of the change in brain chemistry that results f
Re:Pedantry alert (Score:2)
Addiction to gaming, exercise, anorexia, work or other 'habitual' things cause the same things to happen in the brain as do nicotine, heroin, cocaine etc - as, indeed, you say yourself. The reason it is hard to get out of eg. heroin addiction is not because of the cold turkey, but because of the strong habit that is formed because of the things that happen in the brain as a result of the addiction. Addiction to games makes it feel terrible, fundament
Re:Pedantry alert (Score:2)
Re:Pedantry alert (Score:2)
People have addictions for all kinds of reasons, but usually there is some kind of psychological problem behind the addiction. If you can't empathi
internet (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:internet (Score:3, Interesting)
Put 90% of all households without tv for a week...
It should prove quite interesting as people will have on average 3 hours extra time, when nearly everyone feels they have "no" time.
I don't own a tv myself anymore, it's dead time. Sleeping is more efficient way to rest and living a life yourself is more forfilling then projecting yourself into an emulated life watching these "reality"-things then gazing into a lightbox.
There are more things lik
Re:internet (Score:2, Interesting)
I don't think that it was actually the lack of internet use that was causing it though, at the same time I'd given up smoking (after about 5 years of smoking heavily), and was under the impression that 1) there was a computer somewhere with internet access in the hospital and 2) I'd be able to find an internet cafe.
Neither worked out and I ended up being given the runaround by hospital work
Re:internet (Score:3, Interesting)
In regards to smoking, that's great! I quit for a few years, but then I stupidly started back up (I won't try to justify why, either, because there is no good reason, really.) Quitting this second time is proving to be a lot harder than the first, t
We should rather take up Gambling or Drinking ? (Score:2, Insightful)
So playing billiards, cards, golf and so at every opportunity does not count as addiction, but gaming does ?
Watching tv passively for 8 hours like an empty bag does not count as an addiction but playing games instead does ?
Ooooooh. Well. Then we better take up gambling or drinking. Then at least, the term addiction will have a meaning for meaning's sake.
I recommend... (Score:2)
FRAG!
'Frag is a computer game without a computer. It's a "first-person shooter" on a tabletop. Move your fighter and frag your foes; draw cards for weapons, armor, and gadgets; move through the blood spatters to restore your own health! If you die, you respawn and come back shooting!'
http://www.sjgames.com/frag/ [sjgames.com]
UserFriendly Had it Years Ago... (Score:2)
you tube link (Score:2)
http://youtube.com/watch?v=xAc_MQgFEds&search=ata
"A QUARTER AT A TIME"
Leave 'em alone (Score:4, Interesting)
What's the problem? That he becomes "anti-social", that he "has no life", that he "wastes his time senselessly"? If that's the concern, why do we still have TVs?
If you're a "concerned parent" (read: worried that your neighbors might think you're a bad parent), you can't simply take away something and not replace it. It's like pulling the pacifyer out of your baby's mouth and wonder why the child's screaming while you walk away to return to doing whatever you prefer doing instead of spending time with your kids.
I think it's the usual "I don't understand it and especially not why it's fun to do it for a lenghty period of time, I can't enjoy it for a longer period of time, so the conclusion is it must be an addiction and they don't really WANT to do it" bullshit.
If you want your kids to turn away from computer games, give them a reason. Don't only pull the plug, or you could be REALLY dealing with addiction problems soon when they're looking for substitutes.
Re:Leave 'em alone (Score:2)
(sigh)
Re:Leave 'em alone (Score:3, Insightful)
"Of all tyrannies a tyranny exercised for the good of its victim may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated, but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience."
Now that the "War on
The concern is when people let it ruin thier life (Score:2)
Re:Leave 'em alone (Score:2)
That roommate was later diagnosed with ADHD and w
Addiction or Alternate Reality? (Score:2)
72 hours . I shit you not.
That's hard core. But, is it addiction or a hobby? Does he like reality? Apparently, he'd rather spend his free time trinkin' and spellin' than with his wife or anyone or doing anything else. I thought "Ever-crack" was bad. Maybe there's a lesson to be learned by TNG Episode 106: The Game [wikipedia.org].
I finished Call of Duty 2 in less than a week--my wife says that I have
another instance of absolution of responsibility (Score:2)
I personally stay away from the "self help" sections of book stores. Who knows what new "disease" I might find that I have, lol.
Re:errrr... Am I qualify for this? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Proposed tag: 'moredollarsthansense' (Score:1)
Re:Twelve-step programs are rumored to work well. (Score:2)
Re:Theropy the answer? (Score:2)
Question: What are children supposed to do?
They cannot play football - their soccer mom would berate them for not "trying hard enough" when they are already leading by 12 points.
They cannot socialize with others - for obvious reasons. Naturally, those symptoms are fallbacks because they don't need to worry about the other child abusing peer