Comment Maybe no mental health problems at all (Score 1) 306
The billing bible DSM-IV (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) they use is populated by popular vote. Not by any scientific conclusions. No blood work, etc.
If you read the items in it you quickly get the idea they are simply trying to cover everything we do, which then makes it a cinch to say you need our services, which always means drugs. Which for them means a lot more money.
According to the DSM jet lag is a disorder. So is it to be anxious, even bitter over loosing your job.
How about oppositional defiant disorder, caffeine intoxication disorder, mathematics disorder, sibling relational problem, and frotteurism, the "intentional rubbing up against or touching of another, usually unsuspecting, person for the purpose of sexual arousal.
Based on the DSM psychiatrists declare that their drugs and other treatments work to improve mental illness, even though psychiatrists admit that they do not know how or why these drugs “work.”
Which could explain why the side effects are often worse than the symptoms they supposedly handle. Can't fall a sleep -- take this drug! It might give you kidney failure and in rare cases kill you. But we think it's a good idea to sell you dangerous drugs because it won't kill us.
In the end I really doubt that the excitement and joy of overcoming the challenges in a game is a mental disorder. Which is not to say that you could not end up spending more time in front of it than you should. Affecting school work, job, spouse etc. But that's not a disorder, simply wrong priorities in life. Teaching people to strive for balance in life would be far better and it does not have bad side effects.