And reading through there, i still think there are underlying issues at work here, much more than him playing WoW.
For instance, not only is his mother a prime example of a bad parent ( she "tried" to take the computer away ), but where's the father? Why is this kid shutting himself in a room for weeks, ostensibly to play the game?
I'm betting what you have here is a kid suffering from depression over a broken home, feeling lonely and isolated who found 'friends" in an online game, who is not happy with what real life is dealing him so he gets what he needs from the game world.
I see this as less of an addiction than it being about a kid in a dysfunctional family situation with no support system and apparently no one who really cares. Again, she "tried" to take the computer from him? After he's been locked up playing it for weeks straight beforehand? She then decided to "give up trying"? She should be in jail, not whimpering like she's a good mom done wrong.
He wasn't addicted, he was escaping reality. Two different things, even though both are equally bad.
Everyone needs to look at this thread and realize this thread is EXACTLY the reason why the medical community is doing away with the term addiction.
It hasbecome too all encompassing to the point that it no longer means anything.
The medical community turning away from the term addiction and turning towards more specific definitions. Dependence or recepter disregulation refers to what we use to call chemical forms of addiction where the problem is a disregulating receptor.
And
Abuse, what we used to call addictions such as gambling and now internet or even gaming. Where there is no chemical problem, substance or receptor problem however the person is very abusing whatever the issue and it has become dangerously disruptive in their lives.
This also lets us give different treatments to reflect different causes.,
So please lets all stop calling it addiction it no longer means anything. Let be more specific. Gaming can be an abuse.
Venge Sunsoar
Just because you don't like it doesn't mean it is bad.
And reading through there, i still think there are underlying issues at work here, much more than him playing WoW.
For instance, not only is his mother a prime example of a bad parent ( she "tried" to take the computer away ), but where's the father? Why is this kid shutting himself in a room for weeks, ostensibly to play the game?
I'm betting what you have here is a kid suffering from depression over a broken home, feeling lonely and isolated who found 'friends" in an online game, who is not happy with what real life is dealing him so he gets what he needs from the game world.
I see this as less of an addiction than it being about a kid in a dysfunctional family situation with no support system and apparently no one who really cares. Again, she "tried" to take the computer from him? After he's been locked up playing it for weeks straight beforehand? She then decided to "give up trying"? She should be in jail, not whimpering like she's a good mom done wrong.
He wasn't addicted, he was escaping reality. Two different things, even though both are equally bad.
Lol, I've heard that before. "I'm not an addict, the drugs just make life easier to deal with." Classic justification.
A guy escapes reality by playing a video game. When he plays the video game, it makes him happy. He likes being happy, so he plays the video game a lot. When he's not playing the video game, he's sad and thinks about playing the video game. Addiction?
A guy really likes the taste of taffy. When he eats taffy, he becomes happy. So he eats taffy constantly to maintain his happiness. When he's not eating taffy, he's sad and thinks about eating taffy. Addiction?
Anything is psychologically addictive. Whether the "experts" realize it or not. Usually the people who can best recognize addiction are the addicts who have come to see the addiction within themselves.
And reading through there, i still think there are underlying issues at work here, much more than him playing WoW.
For instance, not only is his mother a prime example of a bad parent ( she "tried" to take the computer away ), but where's the father? Why is this kid shutting himself in a room for weeks, ostensibly to play the game?
I'm betting what you have here is a kid suffering from depression over a broken home, feeling lonely and isolated who found 'friends" in an online game, who is not happy with what real life is dealing him so he gets what he needs from the game world.
I see this as less of an addiction than it being about a kid in a dysfunctional family situation with no support system and apparently no one who really cares. Again, she "tried" to take the computer from him? After he's been locked up playing it for weeks straight beforehand? She then decided to "give up trying"? She should be in jail, not whimpering like she's a good mom done wrong.
He wasn't addicted, he was escaping reality. Two different things, even though both are equally bad.
Lol, I've heard that before. "I'm not an addict, the drugs just make life easier to deal with." Classic justification.
A guy escapes reality by playing a video game. When he plays the video game, it makes him happy. He likes being happy, so he plays the video game a lot. When he's not playing the video game, he's sad and thinks about playing the video game. Addiction?
A guy really likes the taste of taffy. When he eats taffy, he becomes happy. So he eats taffy constantly to maintain his happiness. When he's not eating taffy, he's sad and thinks about eating taffy. Addiction?
Anything is psychologically addictive. Whether the "experts" realize it or not. Usually the people who can best recognize addiction are the addicts who have come to see the addiction within themselves.
But the basic point is, it's not the game that is the problem. The game, or rather the abuse thereof, is only a symptom of the real affliction.
Doctors who actually studied people "addicted" to online games found not a single case were the game itself was the cause for the "addiction".
Its always reallife issues. Your life sucks, you have trouble finding friends, family is hell, you are in school stress ... the game itself is only your escape, but in itself it has zero addiction potential.
You simply cant get addicted to an online game, just like you cannot get addicted to, for example, chess, or football.
Euh?!
This most be the most ignorant post in history.
The doctors you are talking about ... where did they get their phd ... in SpringField?
He is correct, you do not know the clinical term for addiction. There is no evidence, period, you can be addicted to a video game.
I know the clinical definition for addiction, it's referred to as dependence in DSM IV T-R, and he's dead wrong. You can become addicted to video games, it's a documented psychiatric diagnosis. Someone who is suffering from an addiction reach for that addiction whenever they encounter life stressors. That's why addiction treatment programs emphasize teaching coping skills, so the person can overcome the influence to reach for a drink or drug, call a prostitute, or yes play a video game and instead do something constructive. The essense of addiction is that different people can find different things addictive. While it is unlikely that someone will become addicted to video games vs. standard chemical dependency, it does happen. And before you ask, my clinical expertisse is spelled LCSW, as in licensed clinical social worker.
Again, you're speaking of a different type of addiction, video games are not addictive. You can not be clinicaly addicted to an action. You can have underlying issues, yes, you can train yourself to become addicted to doing something, but that does not make video games addictive. Speaking on purely technical terms he is correct and you are wrong. Behavioral addiction is trained, it is not induced by the video game it was there prior to the video game and it may be expressed through the video game but that does not make a video game addictive. You should know that, or it may be out of your pay grade.
And you honestly believe that a behavorial addiction can be completely seperated from whatever behavior it is that the person becomes addicted to and every behavior is identical in its ability to draw in and get those addicts hooked? Please, thats like saying every drug in existence is just as addictive as every other drug, which we all know isnt true. The nature of games, especially MMORPGs with their extensive time sinks, are addictive. They start you off with a "light" drug by getting you in the game and making things fairly easy and quickly progressing at the start, and then by the time you get to the endgame (aka the "hard" drugs) youre hooked on the habit. The degrees of addiction vary from person to person, just like substance addictions. Hell ive tried several forms of drugs, several of those are known as being extremely addictive to nearly everyone who does them however i wa slucky enough to not be addicted, though i have friends who became complete fiends.
BTW, addiciton:
the state of being enslaved to a habit or practice or to something that is psychologically or physically habit-forming, as narcotics, to such an extent that its cessation causes severe trauma.
MMORPGs are designed to be psychologically habit forming.
None of that made a video game addictive, you have zero proof there is addictive qualities in video games. Again, in order to be "right" you are skipping logic and attempting to apply a gut feeling to a thing. I know a guy who used to stick paper clips in his arm, under the skin, fairly deep. He did it because of a behavioral addiction, not because some people are addicted to paper clips.
You just dont get much of anything about addiction do you. What do you think causes drug addictions? It is our body/mind reacting in a specific way to specific stimuli. The reactions vary from person to person and drug to drug, but it is still the way our body/mind interacts with that stimuli (such as certain feelings, or chemical changes to the barin & other organs) that causes the addictions. Our mind goes through quite a bit of chemical changes in reaction to outside stimuli from all of our senses, and gaming plays on several of those senses. Think about the feeling you get from crushing an enemy guild in an MMORPG. That "feeling" is the release of chemicals in your brain. The body is very very capable of becoming addicted to that release and seeks it out, and just like with drugs we become used to it and seek more and more of it.
Saying games are not addictive is like saying alcohol isnt addictive because a person might be predisposed to addictions because of genetics. Yes that addictive tendency/behavior may already be a part of that person, but the alcohol is the catalyst that triggers those addictions.
I can prove an addiction to a substance, for there are physical qualities and factors involved. You do not require a predisposistion to become addicted to crack, it only helps. Go ahead and post your last word on the subject, because honestly you think this is a matter of opinion so it's fruitless. The whole gut feeling should apply has you in it's sway so I will state it one last time and leave it at that; video games are not addictive in a clinical sense of the word. Period. There is no evidence supporting video games are addictive in and of themselves.
edit: Carriage return is my friend!
Youre the ONLY person here who thinks its a matter of opinion out of pure ignorance of quite a few topics. For one you keep insisting drug/substance addiction is the only addiciton that exists. There are tons of addictions in various categories having absolutely nothing to do with drugs or ingestion of any foreign substance. The word addiction does not solely pertain to DRUG ADDICTION. Thats the first thing you need to get through your head.
Seriously, go educate yourself on basic information before coming around spewing YOUR opinions as fact. Better yet ill do it for you since you seem to be incapable of even that much. Here is just one of SEVERAL definitions of the word addicted, pulled from the english language dictionary (im pretty sure the dictionary is more factual than your little self deluded opinions):
"To occupy (oneself) with or involve (oneself) in something habitually or compulsively:"
You should also look into something called (as i posted earlier in the thread) Process Addiction:
"A process addiction refers to any compulsive behavior that involves an action that, on its own, is not physically addictive - such as shopping or sex. The lack of a physical addiction separates this condition fromalcohol abuse and drug addiction, but process addictions can be still very harmful, and should not go untreated.
The list of process addictions is wide-ranging, and can include any day-to-day activity that has become overpowering and destructive in an individual's life. Some common process addictions are sex addiction,compulsive gambling, Internet addiction, shopping addition, and compulsive eating.
Is a process addiction a real medical condition? Shouldn't someone be able to stop this behavior on their own?
Yes, process addictions ARE a recognized psychological condition in the mental health community, and are treated as such. Unfortunately, society as a whole - while aware of the dangers of substance abuse - has yet to truly understand the seriousness of process addictions like compulsive eating or Internet surfing. These issues require immediate, professional intervention."
Games by definition are not addictive, but over the years some of them, especially MMORPGS have been putting features in place which are specifically designed to be habit forming (grab a thesaurus here, synonym for addictive = habit forming.... omg what a shocker!). Several developers have admitted to specifically putting such features into games to keep us playing & paying longer.
You can deny it all you want, but the facts are there, and have been researched & published in dictionaries, medical journals, etc and there are even treatment facilities which specifically deal with process addictions such as video game addiction. Are you honestly going to sit here and claim you know better than all the doctors, psychiatrists, researches, etc of the world? Please stop making yourself look like an uneducated fool.
Now im not saying that people like the guy in the OP arent idiots for letting an addiction to something like gaming ruin their lives. They should have more self control and be held accountable for their own actions, and nobody else. He could have stepped away from the computer at any point, but we could say the same of any drug as well. "he could have just stopped smoking crack", but guess what, thats not how addictions work. You can sit there and think to yourself "I should really stop doing this, its killing me", but the addiction overrides logic most of the time. Shit just look at cigarettes. Of course common sense tells us, they cause cancer, heart problems, theyre too expensive, etc, etc and we shouldnt smoke, but how many millions of smokers are there in the world?
And reading through there, i still think there are underlying issues at work here, much more than him playing WoW.
For instance, not only is his mother a prime example of a bad parent ( she "tried" to take the computer away ), but where's the father? Why is this kid shutting himself in a room for weeks, ostensibly to play the game?
I'm betting what you have here is a kid suffering from depression over a broken home, feeling lonely and isolated who found 'friends" in an online game, who is not happy with what real life is dealing him so he gets what he needs from the game world.
I see this as less of an addiction than it being about a kid in a dysfunctional family situation with no support system and apparently no one who really cares. Again, she "tried" to take the computer from him? After he's been locked up playing it for weeks straight beforehand? She then decided to "give up trying"? She should be in jail, not whimpering like she's a good mom done wrong.
He wasn't addicted, he was escaping reality. Two different things, even though both are equally bad.
Lol, I've heard that before. "I'm not an addict, the drugs just make life easier to deal with." Classic justification.
A guy escapes reality by playing a video game. When he plays the video game, it makes him happy. He likes being happy, so he plays the video game a lot. When he's not playing the video game, he's sad and thinks about playing the video game. Addiction?
A guy really likes the taste of taffy. When he eats taffy, he becomes happy. So he eats taffy constantly to maintain his happiness. When he's not eating taffy, he's sad and thinks about eating taffy. Addiction?
Anything is psychologically addictive. Whether the "experts" realize it or not. Usually the people who can best recognize addiction are the addicts who have come to see the addiction within themselves.
But the basic point is, it's not the game that is the problem. The game, or rather the abuse thereof, is only a symptom of the real affliction.
By that logic, drugs are not addictive. Its not them thats the problem, but our bodies, since our bodies react to the drugs in that way.
Anything which can trigger an addcition IS addictive.
ad·dic·tive
adj.
1. Causing or tending to cause addiction: an addictive substance.
2. Characterized by or susceptible to addiction: an addictive personality.
the only problem with online gaming is that it becomes an addiction to weak ppl.... what actually killed that person was being for so long in front of the computer (not in the game)...... sadly games are the most addictive computer softwares so far... it really doesnt matter how long u play a game, of course if its an mmo that u have to be in front of the computer all the time, that will affect ur health.... otherwise, for example a console is less harmful than a pc... why?, well.... when im playing WoW im stuck in front of my pc untill i decide to stop.... and while im playing 360 i put my stationary bike alil bit far from my tv (in my room) and spend hours and hours of non-stop playing assassins creed or SSF4 or whatever game i like while excersicing and drinking water/juice so yeah gaming is not that bad unless u are stuck in a chair infront of the pc
I'll bet some anti gaming group is going to use this to further their cause. What I can't stand is that when you're addicted to doing something that is socially acceptable, no one would say anything about it, and might even go as far as encouraging you further. Where I'm from, Badminton is a popular sport, but there had been cases where people died from heart failure for playing too much badminton. It's an acceptable sport, but no one bitches about it. Same goes for American football or cheerleading, which probably have a higher proportion of death/serious injuries, but parents encouraged that sport. When it comes to something that's new to these people, they would exagerrate the harm from excessive computer gaming, danger of paintball, internet addiction... Some kid went on a shooting rampage, he owns an xbox, thus computer game excourages voilence. Well...he probably eats cheese and breath oxygen too just like everyone else... Screw these people who makes false and unsubstantiated claims, blaming everything on gaming.
hi all, it is tragic to hear of somethign like this. although i doubt it was gameing alone. im ex forces and used to bounce guard duty's for weeks on end. would do 24 hour gaurds followed by a good solid 18-20 hour day of work before going back on guard again.
i can say if i was lucky i would manage a couple of hourse sleep a week. sure it messed with my head and gave me some really unsavory feelings inside lol. but it didnt kill me. unless it was because i was fit and healthy !!!
this isnt the first time ive read of some one dieing while playing games, a friend of mine from the states has a number of underlieing health porblems and she lost her life in 2007 and she used to game all day everyday well with me most of the time. it wasnt the games that killed her it was the whole in heart and some other very serious illness.
this guy must have had something else wrong with him. unless he wasnt drinking either. depends how long he had been tortureing himself for before he started gameing.
hi all, it is tragic to hear of somethign like this. although i doubt it was gameing alone. im ex forces and used to bounce guard duty's for weeks on end. would do 24 hour gaurds followed by a good solid 18-20 hour day of work before going back on guard again.
i can say if i was lucky i would manage a couple of hourse sleep a week. sure it messed with my head and gave me some really unsavory feelings inside lol. but it didnt kill me. unless it was because i was fit and healthy !!!
this isnt the first time ive read of some one dieing while playing games, a friend of mine from the states has a number of underlieing health porblems and she lost her life in 2007 and she used to game all day everyday well with me most of the time. it wasnt the games that killed her it was the whole in heart and some other very serious illness.
this guy must have had something else wrong with him. unless he wasnt drinking either. depends how long he had been tortureing himself for before he started gameing.
I am guessing when you were a soldier the things you did involved movement, guard duty and such. Lack of movement for prolonged periods of time is not good for the body. Sitting for 3 days alone could probobly affect your health.
Okay, final word. Human behavior is complex. Because treating people who are in need of help is so important, a large number of scientists have made it their lives' work to categorize the different ways in which someone can be mentally handicapped and how best to treat each of those disorders. There is a real danger in disregarding those categories and treating all peoples' problems the same just because the problems seem to be alike.
I can give you a really good example of this. Let's say that there's a child in 3rd grade named John who always acts up in class and gets poor grades. There are many reasons why this may be happening.
John has dyslexia, a learning disability. This contributes to his poor grades, which causes him to act out in order to draw attention away from his difficulty.
John has mild mental retardation. This contributes to his poor grades, which causes him to act out in order to draw attention away from his difficulty.
John has ADHD. This is the cause of both his poor classroom behavior and his grades.
John is very intelligent and is not challenged by working at a 3rd grade level. His boredom is responsible for the poor classroom behavior and his grades.
John was not raised in a disciplined setting. He acts out because it amuses him and he has not been taught how to behave.
John has a problem within school or outside of school that causes him stress, such as teasing, bullies, or parental abuse. He acts out as a way of coping with this stress, which causes his schoolwork to suffer.
John is autistic. He doesn't like school because the teacher and kids find his behavior disruptive and strange, so he stops trying and his grades suffer.
I'm no teacher, and this is not an exhaustive list, but you see where I'm going with this. There are many underlying causes for various things that all have essentially the same symptoms at first glance. And there is a real danger in ignoring the classifications and treating all of these different problems in the same way. You can't just take an autistic child and teach them as though they are mentally retarded, and you can't just take a kid who gets abused by his father and give him Ritalin to make it all better. You can't just take a dyslexic and tell them they'll just have to try harder, and expect results.
What I'm seeing here is that people in general are perfectly fine with taking a variety of compulsions and saying "they're all addictions, treat 'em the same way."
"I can't stop myself from snorting cocaine." Oh I see, that's an addiction.
"I can't stop myself from playing video games." Okay, that's an addiction.
"I can't stop myself from eating chalk." Also an addiction.
"I can't stop myself from washing my hands." Also an addiction.
"I can't stop myself from starving myself." Also an addiction.
"I can't stop myself from cutting." Addiction.
"I can't stop myself from gambling." Addiction.
"I can't stop myself from wearing women's clothing." Addiction.
"I can't stop myself from getting tattoos." Addiction.
With the exception of the first, these things are not addictions. Now, all of them are things that can cause problems in someone's life, all of them are things that people might want to quit and find themselves trying to get help because they feel unable to do so unaided. But it is (and I feel I have to keep stressing this) a real danger for us to pretend that the underlying causes are the same or even similar. There is a real danger in defining our laws and our social mores so that all of these compulsions are viewed the same way. There is a real danger in spreading the belief that treatment for one of these life problems is a suitable treatment for the others, exactly as I said above with the kid in a classroom. This is a danger that we face if we continue the trend of allowing common sense definitions to trump scientific definitions.
people continuiously mistaken the effect for the cause. Its true in so many matters and for so long, longer than the computer has been in our homes in fact.
Someone playing a game until death is not the cause, its the effect of something else. There is some other reason why reality for them is so frightening that they play in a virtual world until death. Want to find the real cause? start asking questions about his home life, people he knew, economic situation etc, not if he played an elf or not
Please do not respond to me, even if I ask you a question, its rhetorical.
people continuiously mistaken the effect for the cause. Its true in so many matters and for so long, longer than the computer has been in our homes in fact.
Someone playing a game until death is not the cause, its the effect of something else. There is some other reason why reality for them is so frightening that they play in a virtual world until death. Want to find the real cause? start asking questions about his home life, people he knew, economic situation etc, not if he played an elf or not
Exactly.
It's just like saying video games caused the Columbine shootings. No. No they didn't. Disturbed people that are disturbed enough to do such things were already screwed up BEFORE video games came into play. Millions upon millions of people play games without ever killing anyone or dying while they're playing for stupid amounts of time.
Curious why more americans dont die during extended gaming session...oh right...we eat food to stay alive.
Same way millions of people do various forms of drugs, yet some go for years/decades with no death/serious health issues and others die after jus short term use. Everyone reacts differently and there are tons of factors involved outisde of the specific thing theyre doing / drug theyre taking.
For example you cant sit there and say "smoking crystal meth 5 times will kill everyone" because some people might do it hundreds of times and live while others might die, or nearly die after just a few times.
At the same time you have people who exercise pretty hardcore for years and are in great shape, while others attempting to do the same routine have some sort of condition, such as a heart disease/malfunction that causes them to drop dead in the middle of working out.
We can all sit there and perform the same actions, take the same drugs, and no 2 peoples reactions will be completely identical. We're all "special little snowflakes". The same goes for addicitons, or doing addictive things. Some of us can sit there and do something, in this case gaming, pretty extensively for years and manage to stay fairly healthy and live normal lives outside of the game, while others become completely enthralled to a game and stop taking care of themselves in the real world.
As to the person above you (or 2 above, i forget) talking about the problems they had IRL being the real cause. Thats only partially true. Yes they may have those issues, but the reality is if they didnt have such an easy escape from that reality such as MMOs, its likely they wouldnt have wound up in this situation. On the other hand they may have just found another escape, such as drugs. Theres really no way of knowing.
The thing is much of this works similar to things like chemistry. You can take a chemical and isolate it from outside stimuli/catalysts, and that chemical will usually remain in that same state. But as soon as you introduce some sort of outside stimuli/catalyst, that chemical can have reactions that cause drastic changes.
Easiest example i can think of is metal & rust. A piece of metal alone with no outside stimuli (such as oxygen) will not rust, however its properties/make up give it the ABILITY to rust. Thats much like a person who has some sort of problem (mental, physical, genetic, whatever) that may lie dormant on its own, but once exposed to certain stimuli it triggers a reaction that results in that problem suddenly coming out in full force, much like exposing that piece of metal to outside sources that cause the rust.
I completely agree, that the games, music, tv whatever are not the actual cause of something like Columbine happening and those people were disturbed long before hand, however without that stimuli possibly enhancing just how disturbed they are we may not have had those killings. But again, its still not really the fault of the media (game, music, tv), but more the fault of the parents who should have been aware of their child's issues and done their job to protect them from such things happening.
Now that's just stupid. Just because they add something in the game doesn't mean he's not capable of taking a break. I mean honestly, when I play a game (and I mean ANY game) I'm able to get up, get a drink, use the restroom, etc.
Like the poster before you said, the game didn't make him do shit. We as people are capable of making our OWN decisions, the game didn't force him to do anything, and it didn't hypnotize him into playing for 3 days straight. He did that out of his own free will, simple as that. It's not the game's fault, it's the man's fault for being such a dumbass and not taking a well needed break.
A very ignorant and mindless response. In certain states of mind you are incapable of operating as a so called normal huamn being would.
Just because you are ignorant of the fact and you are so great that you can get up and function is irrelevant and very narrow minded.
The classic line is "Do you thing you are depressed?" , now if you can answer the question you generally aren't or are being treated and in remission.
The case above is sad and the game has contributed to his demise as well as lots of other factors..... Is this a major issue probably not , ceraain people have addictive natures they will always find something.
________________________________________________________ Sorcery must persist, the future is the Citadel
I like how, according to posters in this thread, you have to be mentally ill in order to game for three days straight.
If you game for three days straight, yes, there is definitely something wrong with you.
"Mr. Rothstein, your people never will understand... the way it works out here. You're all just our guests. But you act like you're at home. Let me tell you something, partner. You ain't home. But that's where we're gonna send you if it harelips the governor." - Pat Webb
I'm surprised at how many people are buying into the propaganda. I guess they want their government to hold their hand and severely restrict or flat out ban video games and online gaming.
If you game for three days straight, yes, there is definitely something wrong with you.
Which must be remedied because we all have to be like the majority. Diversion is a bad thing when it comes to social acceptance it seems.
- I suppose you have never been at any kind of LAN party.
Not for three days straight, no.
"Mr. Rothstein, your people never will understand... the way it works out here. You're all just our guests. But you act like you're at home. Let me tell you something, partner. You ain't home. But that's where we're gonna send you if it harelips the governor." - Pat Webb
I like how, according to posters in this thread, you have to be mentally ill in order to game for three days straight.
If you game for three days straight, yes, there is definitely something wrong with you.
Kind of like how theres something mentallyw rong with anyone who smokes cigs, does any form of drug, eats fast food, drives too fast, doesnt look before crossing the street, doesnt exercise enough, exercises too much, goes skydiving, rock climbing, hunting, gets a tattoo, gets a piercing, (see the pattern here yet?).
By your logic anyone who ever does anything unsafe / detrimental to their bodies is "mentally ill".
Have you ever done any such thing? Would you consider something to be "wrong" with you because of it?
BTW, one thing that, sadly, most people in this thread dont get is that yes he could have said "I should get up and go eat, drink, etc" but when you are addicted to something you are not in the proper state of mind. Those who arent addicted can easily make that choice, those who are addicted either a) are too addicted to act responsibly or b) just plain dont care about anything othe rthan feeding that craving.
I smoke cigarretes, i know theyre killing me and the signs are obvious, but when you get that craving for a cigarette that craving/need usually overrides common sense. Its not even a simple matter of will. Addiction CHANGES your brain and the way it functions. Your mind and/or body actually become dependant on things and while, for example with cigs, you might light up that cig and after a few puffs thing "shit i need to quit smoking" because your body got what it wanted and is satisfied, when your body is craving it it doesnt matte rhow much you tell yourself you dont need/want it, your body demands it regardless otherwise you go into withdrawls. As a result you see the "just 1 more pack/drink/hit/bowl/shot" result because that is the easier & quicker way for you to get over that craving rather than actually suffering through the withdrawls. That 1 more turns into 5 more, 10 more, a hundred more. In most cases it doesnt stop until something overpowers that craving, such as a craving for something else, or a traumatic experience, or a loss of someone/something important to you, or for the lucky ones a sudden refusal of your mind/body to give into those cravings and a decision to simply quit.
Comments
And reading through there, i still think there are underlying issues at work here, much more than him playing WoW.
For instance, not only is his mother a prime example of a bad parent ( she "tried" to take the computer away ), but where's the father? Why is this kid shutting himself in a room for weeks, ostensibly to play the game?
I'm betting what you have here is a kid suffering from depression over a broken home, feeling lonely and isolated who found 'friends" in an online game, who is not happy with what real life is dealing him so he gets what he needs from the game world.
I see this as less of an addiction than it being about a kid in a dysfunctional family situation with no support system and apparently no one who really cares. Again, she "tried" to take the computer from him? After he's been locked up playing it for weeks straight beforehand? She then decided to "give up trying"? She should be in jail, not whimpering like she's a good mom done wrong.
He wasn't addicted, he was escaping reality. Two different things, even though both are equally bad.
Everyone needs to look at this thread and realize this thread is EXACTLY the reason why the medical community is doing away with the term addiction.
It hasbecome too all encompassing to the point that it no longer means anything.
The medical community turning away from the term addiction and turning towards more specific definitions. Dependence or recepter disregulation refers to what we use to call chemical forms of addiction where the problem is a disregulating receptor.
And
Abuse, what we used to call addictions such as gambling and now internet or even gaming. Where there is no chemical problem, substance or receptor problem however the person is very abusing whatever the issue and it has become dangerously disruptive in their lives.
This also lets us give different treatments to reflect different causes.,
So please lets all stop calling it addiction it no longer means anything. Let be more specific. Gaming can be an abuse.
Venge Sunsoar
Lol, I've heard that before. "I'm not an addict, the drugs just make life easier to deal with." Classic justification.
A guy escapes reality by playing a video game. When he plays the video game, it makes him happy. He likes being happy, so he plays the video game a lot. When he's not playing the video game, he's sad and thinks about playing the video game. Addiction?
A guy really likes the taste of taffy. When he eats taffy, he becomes happy. So he eats taffy constantly to maintain his happiness. When he's not eating taffy, he's sad and thinks about eating taffy. Addiction?
Anything is psychologically addictive. Whether the "experts" realize it or not. Usually the people who can best recognize addiction are the addicts who have come to see the addiction within themselves.
But the basic point is, it's not the game that is the problem. The game, or rather the abuse thereof, is only a symptom of the real affliction.
Youre the ONLY person here who thinks its a matter of opinion out of pure ignorance of quite a few topics. For one you keep insisting drug/substance addiction is the only addiciton that exists. There are tons of addictions in various categories having absolutely nothing to do with drugs or ingestion of any foreign substance. The word addiction does not solely pertain to DRUG ADDICTION. Thats the first thing you need to get through your head.
Seriously, go educate yourself on basic information before coming around spewing YOUR opinions as fact. Better yet ill do it for you since you seem to be incapable of even that much. Here is just one of SEVERAL definitions of the word addicted, pulled from the english language dictionary (im pretty sure the dictionary is more factual than your little self deluded opinions):
"To occupy (oneself) with or involve (oneself) in something habitually or compulsively:"
You should also look into something called (as i posted earlier in the thread) Process Addiction:
"A process addiction refers to any compulsive behavior that involves an action that, on its own, is not physically addictive - such as shopping or sex. The lack of a physical addiction separates this condition fromalcohol abuse and drug addiction, but process addictions can be still very harmful, and should not go untreated.
The list of process addictions is wide-ranging, and can include any day-to-day activity that has become overpowering and destructive in an individual's life. Some common process addictions are sex addiction,compulsive gambling, Internet addiction, shopping addition, and compulsive eating.
Is a process addiction a real medical condition? Shouldn't someone be able to stop this behavior on their own?
Yes, process addictions ARE a recognized psychological condition in the mental health community, and are treated as such. Unfortunately, society as a whole - while aware of the dangers of substance abuse - has yet to truly understand the seriousness of process addictions like compulsive eating or Internet surfing. These issues require immediate, professional intervention."
Games by definition are not addictive, but over the years some of them, especially MMORPGS have been putting features in place which are specifically designed to be habit forming (grab a thesaurus here, synonym for addictive = habit forming.... omg what a shocker!). Several developers have admitted to specifically putting such features into games to keep us playing & paying longer.
You can deny it all you want, but the facts are there, and have been researched & published in dictionaries, medical journals, etc and there are even treatment facilities which specifically deal with process addictions such as video game addiction. Are you honestly going to sit here and claim you know better than all the doctors, psychiatrists, researches, etc of the world? Please stop making yourself look like an uneducated fool.
Now im not saying that people like the guy in the OP arent idiots for letting an addiction to something like gaming ruin their lives. They should have more self control and be held accountable for their own actions, and nobody else. He could have stepped away from the computer at any point, but we could say the same of any drug as well. "he could have just stopped smoking crack", but guess what, thats not how addictions work. You can sit there and think to yourself "I should really stop doing this, its killing me", but the addiction overrides logic most of the time. Shit just look at cigarettes. Of course common sense tells us, they cause cancer, heart problems, theyre too expensive, etc, etc and we shouldnt smoke, but how many millions of smokers are there in the world?
By that logic, drugs are not addictive. Its not them thats the problem, but our bodies, since our bodies react to the drugs in that way.
Anything which can trigger an addcition IS addictive.
ad·dic·tive
adj.
1. Causing or tending to cause addiction: an addictive substance.
2. Characterized by or susceptible to addiction: an addictive personality.
the only problem with online gaming is that it becomes an addiction to weak ppl.... what actually killed that person was being for so long in front of the computer (not in the game)...... sadly games are the most addictive computer softwares so far... it really doesnt matter how long u play a game, of course if its an mmo that u have to be in front of the computer all the time, that will affect ur health.... otherwise, for example a console is less harmful than a pc... why?, well.... when im playing WoW im stuck in front of my pc untill i decide to stop.... and while im playing 360 i put my stationary bike alil bit far from my tv (in my room) and spend hours and hours of non-stop playing assassins creed or SSF4 or whatever game i like while excersicing and drinking water/juice
so yeah gaming is not that bad unless u are stuck in a chair infront of the pc
I'll bet some anti gaming group is going to use this to further their cause. What I can't stand is that when you're addicted to doing something that is socially acceptable, no one would say anything about it, and might even go as far as encouraging you further. Where I'm from, Badminton is a popular sport, but there had been cases where people died from heart failure for playing too much badminton. It's an acceptable sport, but no one bitches about it. Same goes for American football or cheerleading, which probably have a higher proportion of death/serious injuries, but parents encouraged that sport. When it comes to something that's new to these people, they would exagerrate the harm from excessive computer gaming, danger of paintball, internet addiction... Some kid went on a shooting rampage, he owns an xbox, thus computer game excourages voilence. Well...he probably eats cheese and breath oxygen too just like everyone else... Screw these people who makes false and unsubstantiated claims, blaming everything on gaming.
i hope my mom won't read this hahaha
anyway yeah everthing can be addictive, from gaming to peanut butter...
it is ok to be addicted to something as long as it is kept to a minimum and should not reach any life threatening (or income threatening) results.
i think of myself as a hardcore gamer but if i can feel that my body cannot take any more of the abuse i give it i take time to rest and to sleep.
remember... you dont have extra lives in real life
hi all, it is tragic to hear of somethign like this. although i doubt it was gameing alone. im ex forces and used to bounce guard duty's for weeks on end. would do 24 hour gaurds followed by a good solid 18-20 hour day of work before going back on guard again.
i can say if i was lucky i would manage a couple of hourse sleep a week. sure it messed with my head and gave me some really unsavory feelings inside lol. but it didnt kill me. unless it was because i was fit and healthy !!!
this isnt the first time ive read of some one dieing while playing games, a friend of mine from the states has a number of underlieing health porblems and she lost her life in 2007 and she used to game all day everyday well with me most of the time. it wasnt the games that killed her it was the whole in heart and some other very serious illness.
this guy must have had something else wrong with him. unless he wasnt drinking either. depends how long he had been tortureing himself for before he started gameing.
(RIP]
I remember doing that in WoTLK WoW release. Never doing that again, well for now at least.
Philosophy of MMO Game Design
I am guessing when you were a soldier the things you did involved movement, guard duty and such. Lack of movement for prolonged periods of time is not good for the body. Sitting for 3 days alone could probobly affect your health.
Okay, final word. Human behavior is complex. Because treating people who are in need of help is so important, a large number of scientists have made it their lives' work to categorize the different ways in which someone can be mentally handicapped and how best to treat each of those disorders. There is a real danger in disregarding those categories and treating all peoples' problems the same just because the problems seem to be alike.
I can give you a really good example of this. Let's say that there's a child in 3rd grade named John who always acts up in class and gets poor grades. There are many reasons why this may be happening.
John has dyslexia, a learning disability. This contributes to his poor grades, which causes him to act out in order to draw attention away from his difficulty.
John has mild mental retardation. This contributes to his poor grades, which causes him to act out in order to draw attention away from his difficulty.
John has ADHD. This is the cause of both his poor classroom behavior and his grades.
John is very intelligent and is not challenged by working at a 3rd grade level. His boredom is responsible for the poor classroom behavior and his grades.
John was not raised in a disciplined setting. He acts out because it amuses him and he has not been taught how to behave.
John has a problem within school or outside of school that causes him stress, such as teasing, bullies, or parental abuse. He acts out as a way of coping with this stress, which causes his schoolwork to suffer.
John is autistic. He doesn't like school because the teacher and kids find his behavior disruptive and strange, so he stops trying and his grades suffer.
I'm no teacher, and this is not an exhaustive list, but you see where I'm going with this. There are many underlying causes for various things that all have essentially the same symptoms at first glance. And there is a real danger in ignoring the classifications and treating all of these different problems in the same way. You can't just take an autistic child and teach them as though they are mentally retarded, and you can't just take a kid who gets abused by his father and give him Ritalin to make it all better. You can't just take a dyslexic and tell them they'll just have to try harder, and expect results.
What I'm seeing here is that people in general are perfectly fine with taking a variety of compulsions and saying "they're all addictions, treat 'em the same way."
"I can't stop myself from snorting cocaine." Oh I see, that's an addiction.
"I can't stop myself from playing video games." Okay, that's an addiction.
"I can't stop myself from eating chalk." Also an addiction.
"I can't stop myself from washing my hands." Also an addiction.
"I can't stop myself from starving myself." Also an addiction.
"I can't stop myself from cutting." Addiction.
"I can't stop myself from gambling." Addiction.
"I can't stop myself from wearing women's clothing." Addiction.
"I can't stop myself from getting tattoos." Addiction.
With the exception of the first, these things are not addictions. Now, all of them are things that can cause problems in someone's life, all of them are things that people might want to quit and find themselves trying to get help because they feel unable to do so unaided. But it is (and I feel I have to keep stressing this) a real danger for us to pretend that the underlying causes are the same or even similar. There is a real danger in defining our laws and our social mores so that all of these compulsions are viewed the same way. There is a real danger in spreading the belief that treatment for one of these life problems is a suitable treatment for the others, exactly as I said above with the kid in a classroom. This is a danger that we face if we continue the trend of allowing common sense definitions to trump scientific definitions.
people continuiously mistaken the effect for the cause. Its true in so many matters and for so long, longer than the computer has been in our homes in fact.
Someone playing a game until death is not the cause, its the effect of something else. There is some other reason why reality for them is so frightening that they play in a virtual world until death. Want to find the real cause? start asking questions about his home life, people he knew, economic situation etc, not if he played an elf or not
Please do not respond to me, even if I ask you a question, its rhetorical.
Please do not respond to me
Exactly.
It's just like saying video games caused the Columbine shootings. No. No they didn't. Disturbed people that are disturbed enough to do such things were already screwed up BEFORE video games came into play. Millions upon millions of people play games without ever killing anyone or dying while they're playing for stupid amounts of time.
President of The Marvelously Meowhead Fan Club
Curious why more americans dont die during extended gaming session...oh right...we eat food to stay alive.
Same way millions of people do various forms of drugs, yet some go for years/decades with no death/serious health issues and others die after jus short term use. Everyone reacts differently and there are tons of factors involved outisde of the specific thing theyre doing / drug theyre taking.
For example you cant sit there and say "smoking crystal meth 5 times will kill everyone" because some people might do it hundreds of times and live while others might die, or nearly die after just a few times.
At the same time you have people who exercise pretty hardcore for years and are in great shape, while others attempting to do the same routine have some sort of condition, such as a heart disease/malfunction that causes them to drop dead in the middle of working out.
We can all sit there and perform the same actions, take the same drugs, and no 2 peoples reactions will be completely identical. We're all "special little snowflakes". The same goes for addicitons, or doing addictive things. Some of us can sit there and do something, in this case gaming, pretty extensively for years and manage to stay fairly healthy and live normal lives outside of the game, while others become completely enthralled to a game and stop taking care of themselves in the real world.
As to the person above you (or 2 above, i forget) talking about the problems they had IRL being the real cause. Thats only partially true. Yes they may have those issues, but the reality is if they didnt have such an easy escape from that reality such as MMOs, its likely they wouldnt have wound up in this situation. On the other hand they may have just found another escape, such as drugs. Theres really no way of knowing.
The thing is much of this works similar to things like chemistry. You can take a chemical and isolate it from outside stimuli/catalysts, and that chemical will usually remain in that same state. But as soon as you introduce some sort of outside stimuli/catalyst, that chemical can have reactions that cause drastic changes.
Easiest example i can think of is metal & rust. A piece of metal alone with no outside stimuli (such as oxygen) will not rust, however its properties/make up give it the ABILITY to rust. Thats much like a person who has some sort of problem (mental, physical, genetic, whatever) that may lie dormant on its own, but once exposed to certain stimuli it triggers a reaction that results in that problem suddenly coming out in full force, much like exposing that piece of metal to outside sources that cause the rust.
I completely agree, that the games, music, tv whatever are not the actual cause of something like Columbine happening and those people were disturbed long before hand, however without that stimuli possibly enhancing just how disturbed they are we may not have had those killings. But again, its still not really the fault of the media (game, music, tv), but more the fault of the parents who should have been aware of their child's issues and done their job to protect them from such things happening.
LOL
A very ignorant and mindless response. In certain states of mind you are incapable of operating as a so called normal huamn being would.
Just because you are ignorant of the fact and you are so great that you can get up and function is irrelevant and very narrow minded.
The classic line is "Do you thing you are depressed?" , now if you can answer the question you generally aren't or are being treated and in remission.
The case above is sad and the game has contributed to his demise as well as lots of other factors..... Is this a major issue probably not , ceraain people have addictive natures they will always find something.
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Sorcery must persist, the future is the Citadel
I like how, according to posters in this thread, you have to be mentally ill in order to game for three days straight.
Eleanor Rigby.
If you game for three days straight, yes, there is definitely something wrong with you.
"Mr. Rothstein, your people never will understand... the way it works out here. You're all just our guests. But you act like you're at home. Let me tell you something, partner. You ain't home. But that's where we're gonna send you if it harelips the governor." - Pat Webb
Which must be remedied because we all have to be like the majority. Diversion is a bad thing when it comes to social acceptance it seems.
- I suppose you have never been at any kind of LAN party.
Eleanor Rigby.
I'm surprised at how many people are buying into the propaganda. I guess they want their government to hold their hand and severely restrict or flat out ban video games and online gaming.
My theme song.
Not for three days straight, no.
"Mr. Rothstein, your people never will understand... the way it works out here. You're all just our guests. But you act like you're at home. Let me tell you something, partner. You ain't home. But that's where we're gonna send you if it harelips the governor." - Pat Webb
Kind of like how theres something mentallyw rong with anyone who smokes cigs, does any form of drug, eats fast food, drives too fast, doesnt look before crossing the street, doesnt exercise enough, exercises too much, goes skydiving, rock climbing, hunting, gets a tattoo, gets a piercing, (see the pattern here yet?).
By your logic anyone who ever does anything unsafe / detrimental to their bodies is "mentally ill".
Have you ever done any such thing? Would you consider something to be "wrong" with you because of it?
BTW, one thing that, sadly, most people in this thread dont get is that yes he could have said "I should get up and go eat, drink, etc" but when you are addicted to something you are not in the proper state of mind. Those who arent addicted can easily make that choice, those who are addicted either a) are too addicted to act responsibly or b) just plain dont care about anything othe rthan feeding that craving.
I smoke cigarretes, i know theyre killing me and the signs are obvious, but when you get that craving for a cigarette that craving/need usually overrides common sense. Its not even a simple matter of will. Addiction CHANGES your brain and the way it functions. Your mind and/or body actually become dependant on things and while, for example with cigs, you might light up that cig and after a few puffs thing "shit i need to quit smoking" because your body got what it wanted and is satisfied, when your body is craving it it doesnt matte rhow much you tell yourself you dont need/want it, your body demands it regardless otherwise you go into withdrawls. As a result you see the "just 1 more pack/drink/hit/bowl/shot" result because that is the easier & quicker way for you to get over that craving rather than actually suffering through the withdrawls. That 1 more turns into 5 more, 10 more, a hundred more. In most cases it doesnt stop until something overpowers that craving, such as a craving for something else, or a traumatic experience, or a loss of someone/something important to you, or for the lucky ones a sudden refusal of your mind/body to give into those cravings and a decision to simply quit.