Compulsive gaming a social problem, not a medical one |
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Keith Bakker is the founder and head of the first and only clinic that treats video game addiction in Europe so he should know what he's talking about when he says most "videogame-addicted" gamers aren't actually addicts.
According to him, using the conventional abstinence-based treatments for drug or alcohol dependencies only affects about 10 percent of his patients whereas ordinarily, the success rate should be much higher.
He and his clinic have come to the conclusion that the compulsive gaming is a social rather than a psychological problem. As such, they now focus treatments involving activity-based social and communication skills to help his patients rejoin society.
Bakker mentioned to the BBC during an interview,
This gaming problem is a result of the society we live in today. 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.
He also called for more commitment from parents and other care givers to help draw young people back from the virtual world and into the real one by genuinely listening to what they have to say.
"In most cases of compulsive gaming, it is not addiction and in that case, the solution lies elsewhere," he said, noting that by insisting to call it an addiction, we take away the element of choice from the equation.
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Comments [refresh]
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well at least now its clarified that gaming is not a psychological disorder rather its a social one
thanks
that's sick
for someone to not compare games to drugs or alcohol...
games are more like sports, cars, etc... people's passions NOT addictions.
while people need to learn balance, that doesn't mean being a big gamer (or even obsessive at times) is a bad thing...
if someone is happy sacrificing alot of the "normal" things in life and devoting most of their free time to gaming, who is anyone to judge?
now if they genuinely aren't happy, then yes they have a problem and they need to address it...
"This gaming problem is a result of the society we live in today. 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."
What is this!! only about 5% of kids are "rejects". And he's saying they got 80% on their stury on the compulsive gamers? LOL. He's living in another world....
They are not taking it the right way. Compulsive gaming have only one important word, and it's "compulsive". You take that out and it's normal. Compulsions are common and can be treated with any good psychologist (I'm studying psychology a the University of Montreal and I'm also a member of the CPA "Canadian Psychological Association" by the way). They are normally seen like a symptom of anxiety. You can treat that easily. You can be obsessed with anything, it's not important on "what". I mean, you're not better because you're obsessed by checking non stop if your door is really closed, if you forget to close the lights, and more instead of gaming, lol.
"eighty per cent.."
when that is written that way, i read it that way.
someone should fix..