US doctors shelve game-addiction resolution

Listen guys. Game addiction is REAL. I have it. A lot of people I know have it. My best friend is, in fact, living proof of it. Every hour that he's awake, he's playing games. He doesn't have time for anything else during those hours that he's awake. The only reason why he gets away with it is that he's the only surviving child of his parents and they really care about him that much to have him do whatever he wants and get him whatever he wants. This is perhaps the true extent of game addiction. Gone unchecked long enough, it will isolate you from everything but the games you play. Me and many of my other friends have game addiction, but to a lesser extent. We actually have jobs or school to deal with. Any other time, most of it is spent playing video games. Sometimes I have trouble trying to fit everything into one day. Eventually, I get into a little funk that hits me into a huge depression because of the anxiety of the life I live in. And the worst news of all of this? It's not our fault. At least most of it isn't. Game addiction is just as real as alcohalism, smoking, or gambling. Telling us that it's all our fault is like saying that drinking, smoking, and gambling is completely the fault of the alcohalics, the smokers, and the gamblers. Anything that gives you that much pleasure can get you hooked. Laugh it all off as you may, but the bottom line is that game addiction is real. Games were ment to make people happy and entertained, and if games hit people hard enough with that much entertainment, they will come back for more. Before you tell us to get a life, put yourself in our shoes. At least I'm trying to get my life back, and it's not that easy. I deserve respect a little more than what you nay-sayers of game addiction give me. Please free feel to e-mail me for further discussion on this.

"There is nothing here to suggest that this is a complex physiological disease state akin to alcoholism or other substance abuse disorders" No duh; when it's a substance abuse-disorder, you can pretty easily get it from a guy in an alley, and not say...a Toys'r'us...

I'm not understanding where the cases with Manhunt 2 and Resistance come into game addiction?

NO! DON't FRY ME, IM JUST TRYING TO HAVE SOME FUN MOMMY! PLEASE LEAVE ME AND MY GAMES TO REST, DONT FRY US LIKE TAMPURA

Oh no! I have game addiction! This is just another part of the current trend to classify every kind of poor behavior as a new mental disorder. Ever heard of free-will?

Oh Great... now i am a lunatic.

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Video games can be addictive, look at some of the WoW players it's scary. But I don't want this to get political, they don't need to be involved..

What's a "kerfuffle"? Is using British slang from Dr. Who an addiction? But seriously... how are we even arguing this point? ANYTHING can be an addiction... at least anything that causes even a slight amount of pleasure in our brains. Are we really going to argue that something that causes seemingly intelligent, mature adults (like a doctor) to lose his job and have his wife and kids leave him is NOT an addiction? If you substitute "Everquest" into "something", can anyone reasonably say it is not an addiction? C'mon!!! Stop being so childish. The AMA or APA is not saying that kids playing video games on average a few hours a day is an "addiction". All they are trying to say is when someone shows classic symptoms of an addiction, video games are a possible source.

Of course it can be addictive. Just look at the MMO-players. Spending all day killing spawning monsters for XP seven days a week cannot be anything else but an addiction.

Good response from a doctor on the issue. Just have to see in 2012.

The media loves this stuff. They just eat it up. And whoever doesnt play videogames will believe these morons because they have no idea what its like. I say for all these "brilliant" doctors studying this "illness": HAVE YOU EVER TRIED PLAYING A VIDEOGAME? Walk a mile in my shoes. Play online. Make bonds with other gamers and play with them as if they were sitting in the same room with you. Gaming is an interactive experience. And we play games beacase *gasp* THEY'RE FUN.

toadblat true i have far to much free time but i can't get a job i'm disabled i can't work

i hope the APA will leave games alone.

Well there is a problem that can in some cases be serious... but I think it is more an obession and not a true medical addiction. Obsession compulsive disorder certainly could apply to gamers but it's less to do with the games themselves and more to do with the person. Llikely someone who is obsessed with video games may later become obssessed with another form of entertainment. I would however put it in exactly the arena as problem gamblers as to why they cannot quit despite many things in their lives going badly. I've known a few guys that have blown relationships and destroyed their careers from becoming obsessed with games. People can be compuslive and obssessed without being actually addicted to the activity.

good god, i agree with toadblat. i can barly sit there and play games for more than 2 hours. might still be fun but friggen eh i gotta do something else other than play games.

LOL. Working 10 hours a day until you die is the REAL mental disorder. And yet, everyone considers that normal and acceptable.

it's only an addiction if it interfere's with your the funtion of your normal day life!

Wow, my friend may be addicted to "secondlife".

Gaming addiciton sounds like me lol i know no other person who can side infront of a game and play it for 14 hours go to bed wake up and do it again @ Swift18 wants wrong with being bipolor

I think it very well could be a disorder based on some of the people I've seen get hooked on games such as Everquest and Online Poker. I've heard of people that have stayed up days straight, calling off of work, playing Everquest online. I've also heard of people ruining marriages because they gamble away all of their money on online poker, blackjack, etc. I wouldn't be surprised to see this become classified as a disorder in the near future.

Glad to hear. Now all they need to do is shelve all the other addictions that they've classified so far. All an addiction is is a mental weakness. Nut up and stop complaining!

lol thats my sickness

i dunno, gambling addicts can sit in front of slot machines for 12 hours straight while barely blinking..... i know i used to play the old school final fantasies for 6 or 7 hours straight.... looking back i think there was a problem there, i think after 4 or 5 hours you definately need a reality check, like fresh air and trees and sun n' stuff.

oh c'mon :shock:

Yeah i find it way more creepy to say every line from every fraking movie then it is to see somone really into a game UNLESS they are dressed as the character and run around saying that are a lvl 70 wood elf and that they just hit you with lighting and trying to figure out why your not dead

Gaming addicitons can be a problem sometimes and put a major emphasis on sometimes. As I see it, People who have a serious gaming addictions do need help and I have seen it happen with a few people when it comes to online games. I for one don't think its a serious mental disorder but merely as something along the lines obbessive compulsive. WHen you playa game for 4 hours straight, thats not a bad thing but if you play a game for several days straight and show a lack of hygiene then you have a serious problem. I think there needs to be more information in this but classifying it with Acoholism is too far.

nobody wants to admit that it's their own fault that they're fatasses, now there's always some convenient disorder they have that makes them the way they are. That's just bullcrap. gaming's as much an addiction as listening to music or watching a movie-it's not. It's your own fault that you've parked yourself in front of GTA or WOW for 11 hours straight, get a **** life.

Some people arnt supposed to play games plain and simple. If your Bipolor or Skitzo or have a family history of mental illness these are the thing parents should look for but as far as it being classified as a Addiction is futile it actually increases sences and promotes higher brain functions that other people that dont play games don't use so your actually using more of your brain hence its good for you also theyve done a study with a game that has you fight Cancer Cells and they have tested it on a wide base with children and have found that the kids that played actually had a high White cell count that helped slow down the progresion of the cancer cells and in some cases the bodies would be destroying some of the weaker cancer cells. So gaming as a addiction ehh i think if they make it into that they should do movies and kids who love boy bands because i think sitting and staring at a poster of your fav boy band for 8 hours is more of a addiction and more crazy then playing a game lol and yes there are kids who take thing to far or people but thats because they have other issues to its not caused by playing the game

Everything is a disorder nowadays everyone is fat and retarded...

Okay the people who would chose playing their WOW or FF11 over eating dinner with the family might really have a problem. I mean come on, lets all put it out there. It's people playing these MMORPGs that have this problem, not people playing madden or resistance. although I'm sure every game has their extreme cases. I think there is certain people who lack the respect in the real world so they pour hours of their lives into achievements in a video game which result in the respect of other people who also lack respect in the real world. Where actually they all could just go hangout at the gym and go to the beach and they'd feel much more satisfaction from REAL LIFE! I don't know if it should be considered a clinical disease, but if these people did have some sort of program they could join to help them realize what they're missing in real life, there would be less excuses for them to waste away doing nothing for society. This isn't classifying all gamers, I've played all sorts of games, including FF11 for a couple months and currently FF12. You all know who I am refering to...

Well, I think that's good news. I don't believe compulsive gameplay is a mental disorder. But then again, I also don't believe that compulsive gambling is a mental disorder either. Obsessions like that are due to an imbalance in the persons brain and don't really have much to do with the specific activity. So, instead of saying that video game addiction is another separate mental disorder why don't we just group all the "compulsion" disorders into one root disorder? Because if we don't we're going to have thousands of different disorders based on every activity people can't pull themselves away from. Even though they all stem from the same mental imbalance.

2012? And I thought I was a procrastinator.

All I can think about after reading this was that kid who died after playing World of Warcraft because he would not eat,sleep or drink. But I must agree with some of the others, if a game is not addicting why play it?

Delaying any study about how games effect peoples psyche just helps those that want to exploit the notion that games are responsible for a great number of societies ills. I'm sure crusaders against gaming are smiling at this announcement.

2012 we all be dead by then

Now if Manhunt 3 came out in 2012 that would be flat out funny.

It really should be classified as potentially addictive for some individuals. There's an awful lot of gamers who skip meals, social outings, or even showers simply because they want to play games instead. People have lost job, lost spouses, lost families and in a couple cases even their lives because they can't tear themself away from games.

smbius: Good. The APA has more important disorders/addictions to list other than video games lol well put.

lool .. so gaming slipped this time ... it will be interesting to see what they think again in 2012 ... at that time MMO will dominate the whole world ...lol

I have 4 years of addiction free life... ...mabye I should get addicted to something else until then...

sigh pointless

Addiction is a primary, chronic, neurobiologic disease, with genetic, psychosocial, and environmental factors influencing its development and manifestations. It is characterized by behaviors that include one or more of the following: impaired control over use, compulsive use, continued use and craving. Thats the definition of addiction I think some gamers do experience these symptoms.

See in order to link the two, you have to have proof and research. Just saying that doesn't make it so, and thats why I always liked science you need proof, not just hear say. Peace

I dunno, if you play so long that it kills you. like one of those Korean dudes, I think that could be a metal disorder, i can play madden for about 4-5 hours straight but that is about as long as i can go at any game

We can all rest now....until another group of doctors looking to make a name for themselves tries to cook up another scheme to make this "disease" official. It sounds like they are trying fit gamers into the same category as gamblers, drinkers and any other kind of sinner that needs to be treated with expensive therapy. I say this is far from over.

Good. The APA has more important disorders/addictions to list other than video games

Thank you US docters, i hope this issue never come up again.

lol, i cant beleive they said "kerfuffle".