Full ArticleThe telltale signs are ominous: teens holing up in their rooms, ignoring friends, family, even food and a shower, while grades plummet and belligerence soars. The culprit isn't alcohol or drugs. It's video games, which for certain kids can be as powerfully addictive as heroin, some doctors contend.
A leading council of the nation's largest doctors' group wants to have this behavior officially classified as a psychiatric disorder, to raise awareness and enable sufferers to get insurance coverage for treatment.
In a report prepared for the American Medical Association's annual policy meeting starting Saturday in Chicago, the council asks the group to lobby for the disorder to be included in a widely used mental illness manual created and published by the American Psychiatric Association. AMA delegates could vote on the proposal as early as Monday.
It likely won't happen without heated debate. Video game makers scoff at the notion that their products can cause a psychiatric disorder. Even some mental health experts say labeling the habit a formal addiction is going too far.
Video Games an Illness
Video Games an Illness
Jonas
Focused, hard work is the real key to success. Keep your eyes on the goal, and just keep taking the next step towards completing it. If you aren't sure which way to do something, do it both ways and see which works better. - John Carmack
Focused, hard work is the real key to success. Keep your eyes on the goal, and just keep taking the next step towards completing it. If you aren't sure which way to do something, do it both ways and see which works better. - John Carmack
Jeez they'll be having us all sectioned and locked away for life soon.
I know I'm very synical but haven't you noticed that anything anyone enjoys is frowned upon by the so called ruling classes.
Pity they've nothing better to do with their miserable dull lives. Perhaps they should take up gaming themselves LOL.
take away my computer and ps2 would i have withdrawal symptoms then, lol, gona go crazy... i dont think so, i have other things to do aswel, i like radio controls mocomputersdels, take the pc away and ps2 i would just go do that (and be out of a job) my guess is that no one is adicted to computers as much as tv's are adictive, thinking about it now having hand held portable gaming systems children realy dont get away from it.
how many people have made friends over the net playing against them? you win some and you lose some games, teaches children how to cope with loosing and that its not the end of thw world, a picture can say a thousand words, so a video game can tell a whole story in 10 min does this mean its broadening childerns imagination.
seriously theres as many good points as bad points, nothing is just purly good, so they should stop their complaining and thank video games from taking them off the street and causing halm to each other and being in a safe envioronment whith them being happy.
how many people have made friends over the net playing against them? you win some and you lose some games, teaches children how to cope with loosing and that its not the end of thw world, a picture can say a thousand words, so a video game can tell a whole story in 10 min does this mean its broadening childerns imagination.
seriously theres as many good points as bad points, nothing is just purly good, so they should stop their complaining and thank video games from taking them off the street and causing halm to each other and being in a safe envioronment whith them being happy.
*GD*
Jeez......ain't they got better things to do with their time?I know people who rides horses every day.is that an addiction?I know people who absolutely have to listen to music every single day.....and poeple who jabber away on those danged cell phones for hours on end....are those addictions as well?
It looks to me as just another ruse, along with a.d.d., a.d.h.d and other behavioral problems that have been "diagnosed" in the past 20 years as something to get more people on more pills.
I am old enough to remember pre- a.d.d days....and almost old enough to remember pre-video game days.
We had atari 2600, nintendo original system, and a t.v. and a v.c.r..I had an original Sony Walkman,a Texas Instruments TI-99 computer, and a Timex Sinclair, a miniature Pac-Man arcade game, an old handheld football game that I spent hours playing.
Back then(late 1970's early to mid 1980's) me and my brother played outside a lot.This was before people would kidnap any kid they saw on the street.You were as likely to get whipped by old Mrs. Jackson down the road if you did something bad as much as by your own mom.
Now, if you see kids on the street, they're likely to be up to no good....and no neighbor gives a hoot.And the perverts...........if they see one of you on the street, their likely to follow you around...and attempt to get you.
We just had 3 kids, ages 13-16, get arrested for breaking into the school they went to, and trashing it to the tune of 15,000 $.And another school was broken into not long afterwards.
We also had a a couple of them go missing as well, after they were spotted playing in the streets.
I'd rather you kids played video games, computer games.It's a whole heck of a lot safer than the alternatives out their today.
It looks to me as just another ruse, along with a.d.d., a.d.h.d and other behavioral problems that have been "diagnosed" in the past 20 years as something to get more people on more pills.
I am old enough to remember pre- a.d.d days....and almost old enough to remember pre-video game days.
We had atari 2600, nintendo original system, and a t.v. and a v.c.r..I had an original Sony Walkman,a Texas Instruments TI-99 computer, and a Timex Sinclair, a miniature Pac-Man arcade game, an old handheld football game that I spent hours playing.
Back then(late 1970's early to mid 1980's) me and my brother played outside a lot.This was before people would kidnap any kid they saw on the street.You were as likely to get whipped by old Mrs. Jackson down the road if you did something bad as much as by your own mom.
Now, if you see kids on the street, they're likely to be up to no good....and no neighbor gives a hoot.And the perverts...........if they see one of you on the street, their likely to follow you around...and attempt to get you.
We just had 3 kids, ages 13-16, get arrested for breaking into the school they went to, and trashing it to the tune of 15,000 $.And another school was broken into not long afterwards.
We also had a a couple of them go missing as well, after they were spotted playing in the streets.
I'd rather you kids played video games, computer games.It's a whole heck of a lot safer than the alternatives out their today.
yknow, i can kinda see where they are coming from, but its still stupid. its not a mental illness, its immaturity. my friend is obsessed with World of Warcraft, and doesn't seem to want to do anything else. but that doesn't mean he has a disease. kids are the same way about cartoons, trading card games, toys. adults are the same way about work.
society wants to classify everything as a mental illness. i'm having serious stomach problems, and my doctor tried to tell me that it was just because i was depressed over breaking up with my gf and he tried to put me on anti-depressants. my sister got in a car accident, and before they even gave her pain meds, they prescribed anti-depressants. its stupid, because the first thing people assume is that there has to be 'something wrong with you', they refuse to look at the whole issue.
society wants to classify everything as a mental illness. i'm having serious stomach problems, and my doctor tried to tell me that it was just because i was depressed over breaking up with my gf and he tried to put me on anti-depressants. my sister got in a car accident, and before they even gave her pain meds, they prescribed anti-depressants. its stupid, because the first thing people assume is that there has to be 'something wrong with you', they refuse to look at the whole issue.
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It is most likely that just like with the alchol, cigerette, and drug companys who have to pay out of there pockets each year to pay for rehab for those who abuse these things, the game designers, now that this extra light has been put on them, will eventually have to pay out of there pockets to rehab those who have sucum to the "mental illness" of video games. I think if doctors and politicians spent more time on IMPORTANT things like finding a cure for cancer, or diabetis, and not the mental illness of gaming..........
just my thoughts,
just my thoughts,
Those who have all the answers, are never up to date on the questions.
What do we got to do start making really boring games so everyone gets bored, then goes out and becomes drugie? Its a lot better to have your mind turned into a raisin for playing a video game for 24 hours solid, then to go burn your brain cells smoking a joint. I realize some probably do both drugs and video games. But then in this case is it the drug dealers fault that this person is mentally ill or is it the video game companys fault? Neither, when it comes down to it, its the gamers fault. Its his choice not to get up and do something different. These politicians need to go get a life, leave us and our video games alone. If they really want to go mess with somebody or something go after the drugs/dealers, that's what causes people problems.
My little spill
probably repeating what some of you guys had to say already. 
My little spill
probably repeating what some of you guys had to say already. Jonas
Focused, hard work is the real key to success. Keep your eyes on the goal, and just keep taking the next step towards completing it. If you aren't sure which way to do something, do it both ways and see which works better. - John Carmack
Focused, hard work is the real key to success. Keep your eyes on the goal, and just keep taking the next step towards completing it. If you aren't sure which way to do something, do it both ways and see which works better. - John Carmack
Well said.
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