Compulsive gamers 'not addicts'

PostCompulsive gamers 'not addicts' by **Cal** » Tue Nov 25, 2008 12:31 pm

Compulsive gamers 'not addicts'

Ninety per cent of the young people who seek treatment for compulsive computer gaming are not addicted.

So says Keith Bakker the founder and head of Europe's first and only clinic to treat gaming addicts. The Smith & Jones Centre in Amsterdam has treated hundreds of young gamers since the clinic opened in 2006. But the clinic is changing its treatment as it realises that compulsive gaming is a social rather than a psychological problem. "This gaming problem is a result of the society we live in today," Mr Bakker told BBC News. "Eighty per cent of the young people we see have been bullied at school and feel isolated. Many of the symptoms they have can be solved by going back to good old fashioned communication."

For Mr Bakker the root cause of the huge growth in excessive gaming lies with parents who have failed in their duty of care. But he is quick to point out that 87% of online gamers are over the age of 18 - and once they cross that line, help is something they need to seek for themselves because parents no longer have the legal right to intervene. For younger gamers, intervention may be the only way to break the cycle. That means stepping in and sometimes literally taking a child away from a computer, removing them from the game for a period of time until they become aware of their habits and begin to see there are other choices. "It's a choice," he says. "These kids know exactly what they are doing and they just don't want to change. If no one is there to help them, then nothing will ever happen."

Full story: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7746471.stm

They ought to get Zammo and the cast of Grange Hill circa 1986 to do an updated version of their hit 'Just say no'.

Isn't videogame addiction just made up by the nanny state who want to get us outside and raped? videogame addiction is hardly a disease where you can't stop playing, the vice is hardly as bad as drugs, alcahol or tobacco.

I bet the 90% of people that og to this centre in amsterdam just want to get a little high, and maybe a hooker! It's all a front.

Drug addicts, sex addicts, gambling addicts, telly addicts, system addicts and now GAME ADDICTS. When will the madness end?

Porn addicts...

Humans are addictive by nature. Show me a human that isn't addicted to something.

The centre is in Amsterdam? Do they wien them off onto a healthy diet of sex and drugs?

Mockmaster wrote:Humans are addictive by nature. Show me a human that isn't addicted to something.

everyone is addicted to air!

JiggerJay wrote:
Mockmaster wrote:Humans are addictive by nature. Show me a human that isn't addicted to something.

everyone is addicted to air!

Fabulous stuff.

Mockmaster wrote:Humans are addictive by nature.

Absolutely. I remember the time I had my first human. Now I just can't stop...

Dandy Kong wrote:
Mockmaster wrote:Humans are addictive by nature.

Absolutely. I remember the time I had my first human. Now I just can't stop...

IRON NAN wrote:
Dandy Kong wrote:
Mockmaster wrote:Humans are addictive by nature.

Absolutely. I remember the time I had my first human. Now I just can't stop...

They're a buncha mucher cruncher human!

Compulsive gamers 'not addicts'

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