W.H.O. Seeks to Classify ‘Gaming Disorder’ as a Mental Illness

[Jito463]

Someone early on brought up the comparison to alcoholism, but I believe that's woefully inaccurate.  Alcohol and drugs are a chemical dependency type of addiction, those who game to excess (not just average gamers, but those who lose their jobs and their families because of it) are more akin to people who become absolutely obsessed with a particular TV show, specifically ones like soap operas.  There are people who become so engrossed in those shows, that they tend to find them more real than reality is.  Likewise, the excessive gamer becomes so engrossed in their games that reality no longer holds any appeal.

 

Conversely, the average gamer is no more mentally ill than people who spend a couple hours (or more) in front of the TV after work.  Gaming is just a hobby, and like any other hobby it takes time and money to maintain.

 

Basically, the WHO just needs to get their collective heads out of their collective posteriors and realize that indulging in hobbies (of any kind) is not a sign of mental illness, but they can attract the mentally ill who then become obsessed with them.  They're confusing cause and affect.

[JuNex03]

4 hours ago, FPSwithaWacomTablet said:

They say 100% of all people that have touched dihydrogen monoxide have been recorded dead.

I'll take this one step further and say all the people who breathe air is either dead or slowly dying. Stop breathing air people, you are killing yourself

[Valentyn]

6 hours ago, Kloaked said:

Do you actually play first person shooters with a Wacom tablet?

Dunno about him but one of the lead class designers on World of Warcraft plays the game with a tablet. 

 

It was painful to hear that, especially now that half way through an expansion they need to redesign some classes entirely, because they guy failed at it and didn't listen to player feed back over a year ago in Alpha and Beta.

[AlwaysFSX]

3 hours ago, Jito463 said:

Someone early on brought up the comparison to alcoholism, but I believe that's woefully inaccurate.  Alcohol and drugs are a chemical dependency type of addiction, those who game to excess (not just average gamers, but those who lose their jobs and their families because of it) are more akin to people who become absolutely obsessed with a particular TV show, specifically ones like soap operas.

Video games still work on the same chemical -> reward system in your brain than alcoholism, drugs, gambling, etc. does. So yes, it should be compared to alcoholism when you're at that extreme.

[Valentyn]

6 hours ago, Kloaked said:

They fail to report almost anything that is remotely positive about the "wrong" people.

This is why as an Irish man I only watch Info Wars for true,  and unbiased information regarding the USA

[Sauron]

8 hours ago, Wolther said:

I was referring to what the article had said, not what OP summarized. The article quoted about playing every single day, letting it get in the way of work/school, etc. If something has taken over a most of your life and gets in the way of daily important tasks then it is considered an addiction. Also, "playing a lot" is subjective, it can mean different things to different people. 

There are plenty of people who play sports every day for hours, to the point where you could say it has "taken over most of their life", but I don't see any sensationalist tabloids talking about "sports addiction". If there is a mental illness behind some of these behaviours it definitely can't be attached to videogames specifically and there's no reason to classify its videogame form separately.

[zMeul]

7 hours ago, Shakaza said:

For anyone curious, this is what my sister, who is a psychology major, had this to say about this attempt at the new classification: "...it sounds stupid, but I'd have to look it up some more." You heard it hear first, folks.

is as stupid as pathological gambling?! because pathological gambling is on the WHO's list of mental / behavioural disorders

[Senzelian]

Thats great. Free medicine from my insurance! 

[tlink]

8 hours ago, TorqueS said:

We do?!

I mean ok, I know severe addicts do receive treatment in a mental hospital...but it's this way because, alcohol can damage your body waaaaay worse than gaming I'd say.

 

I do game, and usually spend time in front of a computer for most of my day(and night <.< >.>), but I don't feel like I'm addicted. I consider it to become an addiction when it like...becomes an obligation...a self-imposed one. 

I can manage fine a few days without tech and don't usually lash out if someone interrupts me, so I believe I'm good. _Right?!!!

we don't treat addiction in hospitals because its damaging for the body. We treat them in hospitals because most people can't fight addiction on their own, treating their medical problems due to the addiction just is an extra. most of those addicts don't even end up in a real hospital but a psychiatric hospital or the psychiatric wing of an hospital (but in my country it's always a psychiatric hospital, we do have psychiatric wings integrated into hospitals but even those are its own functional hubs and only really meant for stabilization, not treatment). the reason why people with addiction get hospitalized is because it allows us to pick apart every aspect of their life, and completely rebuild it with healthy mechanisms.  the hardest part often isn't physical addiction but psychological addiction. physical addiction is often cured in a week or two. psychological addiction generally takes much longer. the physical addiction is often just the result of a psychological addiction. this is how it should be at least since that is the most effective treatment model.

 

and just because you do something a lot doesn't mean that you're addicted, its very much more nuanced. so yea you're really just fine as long as you don't feel like you have to use it to feel in control and such.

[TidaLWaveZ]

It's pretty stupid to join a thread discussing an article you admittedly refuse to read, then criticize it. Prime example of prejudice which is astounding coming from hard left ltt members when the left is so against discrimination.

 

For the TL;DR crowd, Breitbart is actually criticizing the W.H.O. for classifying Gaming Disorder as mental illness without having scientific evidence. So I'd assume most of you are in agreement with them. Don't shoot the messenger.

[Doobeedoo]

Meh this is garbage. Literally anything can be addicting it all depends how one works around it. 

If be it gaming or something else that's not like drugs and shit like it, starts ruining your life due how much time you spend then you have a problem that needs to be dealt with. For myself, I tend to game a lot, but I don't let it screw my life even how much time I put into it. If I need a certain break from it to take care of my shit I'll do it, until it's done and back to it with ease. Something like that, which is like a hobby, that tends to take a ton of time, if it fucks you, and you can't keep up, it's not for your.

[Crossbred]

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[Energycore]

On 4/4/2017 at 4:20 PM, the_spankles said:

I ran into an article on breitbart.com who which talks about how the W.H.O (world health organization) wants to classify people who game alot as mentally ill. here is a link

http://www.breitbart.com/tech/2017/03/31/who-seeks-to-classify-gaming-disorder-as-a-mental-illness-claims-enormous-stakeholder-pressure/

What do you guys think about this BS

Hey, please bring this post up to par with our Tech News and Reviews section guidelines. Once you do, mention me here @Energycore so I can move the thread back to TNR