WHO to recognize gaming disorder as mental health condition in 2018

[AirPo]

So interesting debate in the article. But the fact that someone died from non stop gaming is an indication that it is something that needs more research.

Gentile argues that by the time gaming disorder has become a serious problem, it usually is connected to other problems. And those new ones start to make the original one worse and it all becomes a "jumbled mess."
In one study, he found that when kids stopped being addicted to games, their depression and anxiety got better.

Full story here -->

 

[JGG]

Sounds interestinf but i cant talk now plkayting Grandvthef tauto with my other hand.

 

[Shadow]

So interesting debate in the article. But the fact that someone died from non stop gaming is an indication that it is something that needs more research.



Full story here -->

I think it easily needs to be debated by the professionals. Compulsive Gaming is at least a symptom of other mental problems given it is such an easy way to get a high. Whether its an addiction in its own right I'm less sure about but doing more research can't hurt to find out.

 

[ThatRobGuy]

I'm assuming that this was the person being referred to?
Taiwanese man dies after three days of nonstop gaming

I would like to see the autopsy report for that to see if there were any signs of any heart defects.

He suffered cardiac arrest, and the local police chief attributes that to the non-stop gaming, but I don't think there would be any science supporting this theory.

For a 32 year old to have a heart attack, I would doubt that would be from the gaming itself. Seems like that's a pretty big assumption to make.

He was a regular customer at the internet cafe, and had multiple-day gaming sessions numerous times in the past it said where he would take breaks every couple hours for food, and put his head down and sleep for a few hours at various points through the day. So when he was slumped over, they just assumed he was taking one of his naps.

In all reality, what's being described sounds like a scenario of a person who had a faulty valve or an un-diagnosed aortic aneurysm (I've had two extended family members go down with that in their 40's...it's basically like ticking time bomb, they feel completely fine, have a day where they feel tired, then it ruptures and they go into cardiac arrest).


I don't doubt that it could be classified as a behavior-related addition...much like gambling for instance. ...but to suggest that it causes heart attacks is a pretty dubious assertion.

 

[Rion]

https://archive.li/Q6Epw

https://www.researchgate.net/public..._Organization_ICD-11_Gaming_Disorder_proposal

 

[super animator]

What about gambling addiction in the form of loot boxes!? Is no one talking about that!?

 

[Gadarene]

Sounds interestinf but i cant talk now plkayting Grandvthef tauto with my other hand.

A likely story

 

[Gadarene]

Sounds about as plausible as tv addiction. Another attempt to needlessly pathologise a relatively new and inadequately understood hobby

 

[Gadarene]

Seriously tho do we do this with any other hobby? Book addiction? Tv addiction?

‘In one study, he found that when kids stopped being addicted to games, their depression and anxiety got better.

"These are co-morbid conditions," he said. "If you just treat the depression and not gaming, the gaming is likely to come back." This suggests it's a unique condition, he said.’

The quote seems to suggest the opposite of what the article asserts, but the issue here is the depression and anxiety, not the gaming. Gaming at worst may be a distraction from getting proper help, but they’re often a symptom, not the problem.

I gamed way more before getting treatment for anxiety mainly because I didn’t know I had it and I was generally incapable of forging a direction for myself in life, largely because of said anxiety! Games weren’t the problem there, if anything they stopped me from throwing myself in front of a subway train.

Does Gentile run a ‘gaming addiction’ treatment centre I wonder? Wondering how useful the financial boon of WHO acknowledgement of this ‘disease’ may be to him personally.

 

[frettr00]

I used to play mmorpgs 12 hours a day some days, but after I got bored of a game I just walked away until I found another that caught my interest. I never had to go through any kind of treatment, I just got sick of gaming that much and it just fixed itself. In my case I just burned out and wasn't finding fulfillment in it anymore.

 

[Landon Caeli]

Even chess can be addictive.

Chess: managing the addiction - Chess.com

...Pretty much anything one enjoys can be when not applying moderation.

 

[AirPo]

Seriously tho do we do this with any other hobby? Book addiction? Tv addiction?

‘In one study, he found that when kids stopped being addicted to games, their depression and anxiety got better.

"These are co-morbid conditions," he said. "If you just treat the depression and not gaming, the gaming is likely to come back." This suggests it's a unique condition, he said.’

The quote seems to suggest the opposite of what the article asserts, but the issue here is the depression and anxiety, not the gaming. Gaming at worst may be a distraction from getting proper help, but they’re often a symptom, not the problem.

I gamed way more before getting treatment for anxiety mainly because I didn’t know I had it and I was generally incapable of forging a direction for myself in life, largely because of said anxiety! Games weren’t the problem there, if anything they stopped me from throwing myself in front of a subway train.

Does Gentile run a ‘gaming addiction’ treatment centre I wonder? Wondering how useful the financial boon of WHO acknowledgement of this ‘disease’ may be to him personally.

Really? The article does not assert anything. It states that the WHO made a decision, and that there is debate about it. How is that quote the opposite?

 

[Gadarene]

Really? The article does not assert anything. It states that the WHO made a decision, and that there is debate about it. How is that quote the opposite?

The quote of Gentile's is not saying "when kids stopped being addicted to games, their depression and anxiety got better."

He says that even if you treat the depression the gaming patterns return. That's not the the same thing. It's saying that even if the depression and anxiety gets better the gaming may still persist.

Not that I see any reason to take this hack seriously either which way. If the gaming comes back you likely haven't truly addressed the root cause of the depression or the person hasn't yet found sufficient fulfilment in the rest of their life.

 

[AirPo]

Gaming is behavioral, depression is not. They are two separate things hence the first part of the quote, "These are co-morbid conditions". In other word, one may reinforce and/or trigger the other.

 

[Gadarene]

Gaming is behavioral, depression is not. They are two separate things hence the first part of the quote, "These are co-morbid conditions". In other word, one may reinforce and/or trigger the other.

Either which way it doesn’t tie with the quote, which spoke of it as unidirectional. Comorbidity simply says they correlate.

Not surprising though really, this is obviously nonsense. Have these people learned nothing when all those “GAMES CAUSE VIOLENCE!” Moral panics came to naught? Can’t they just deal with the fact they don’t understand/like a new hobby - the whole thing comes across as “kids today and them vidya games” - and leave it alone?

When we start talking about reading, television and listening to music in the same terms, this might be worth taking seriously. I’ve no idea why games get singled out for all this Helen-Lovejoy-ish moralising when they are just a hobby like any other - it’s so tiresome. We’ve had satanic panics over D&D content, games cause violence, games cause misogyny. Now it’s games will turn you into an addict...somehow.

People like Gentile are in the same category as Jack Thompson and Anita Sarkeesian - they need to just drop it, and go away. Find some other hobby to harangue. Or maybe pick up an alternative hobby than bothering other hobbyists to make money.

 

[Gadarene]

World Health Organization’s Junk Diagnosis For 'Gaming Disorder' Trivializes Mental Illness | HuffPost

 

[Rion]

World Health Organization’s Junk Diagnosis For 'Gaming Disorder' Trivializes Mental Illness | HuffPost

I find it funny that some of the people who would lose it over labeling movies or books or music as addictive and or dangerous are not opposed to the same thing being applied to games.

 

[Gadarene]

I find it funny that some of the people who would lose it over labeling movies or books or music as addictive and or dangerous are not opposed to the same thing being applied to games.

I maintain it’s ignorance that causes this. Every new medium goes through this - to the point where some of these academics should really brush up on basic pattern recognition.

 

[loveofourlord]

this is one of those things that comes up from time to time, like inappropriate content, tv, gambling and such, I think ultimatly they arn't seperate things, but related.

I know some doctors don't think there is nescarily say a inappropriate content addiction, as there is something going wrong in their life that makes them find some comfort and way of coping.

though I am curious about the extreme levels some people take it too when it's gaming.

 

[Gadarene]

this is one of those things that comes up from time to time, like inappropriate content, tv, gambling and such, I think ultimatly they arn't seperate things, but related.

I know some doctors don't think there is nescarily say a inappropriate content addiction, as there is something going wrong in their life that makes them find some comfort and way of coping.

though I am curious about the extreme levels some people take it too when it's gaming.

But when the poor impulse control or mental health disorders lead to people overindulging in their hobby, the problem is the poor impulse control / mental health disorder, not the hobby

I tend to happen to engage in avoidant / impulsive behaviour in my house, that doesn’t mean I have “housing addiction”.