http://www.dailygazette.com

Quoted Text

Doctors pushing to recognize video-game addiction
BY ALEX PHAM Los Angeles Times

   LOS ANGELES — Dave Taylor always knew his lust for playing “Fallout” and “Total Annihilation” bordered on the pathological.
   The video games would hold the West Hollywood software programmer in such a vice-like grip that he often would play for 24-hour stretches, forestalling sleep, skipping meals and twisting himself in knots to delay bathroom breaks.
   “It’s super unhealthy,” he said, “but man, I’m just so swept away in another world and so focused on my goals that I don’t care. It hurts to be away from the game.”
   Now some doctors are lobbying to give his condition a formal medical diagnosis — video-game addiction.
   The American Medical Association is scheduled to debate such a proposal in Chicago on Sunday, then vote on it early next week. Backed by the Maryland State Medical Society, the proposal advocates that the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, considered by many psychiatrists to be the final word for assessing mental illness, include video-game addiction.
   The proposal also would have doctors exhort parents to curb their children’s use of the Internet, television and video games to two hours a day. In addition, it would have the AMA, which has 250,000 members, lobby the Federal Trade Commission to improve the current system for rating video-game content.
   Getting the AMA to deem videogame addiction worthy of its own psychiatric disorder is the first step in a process required to create a mental health diagnosis. The ultimate arbiter is the American Psychiatric Association, which publishes the authoritative DSM guide, currently in its fourth version. Getting APA approval could take years. Game industry executives say the measures are unsupported by scientific evidence. “The American Medical Association is making premature conclusions without the benefit of complete and thorough data,” said Michael Gallagher, president of the Entertainment Software Association, a trade group that represents video-game publishers.
   But doctors in favor of the proposal say the condition needs to be recognized by the medical establishment so it can be properly treated.
   It’s already happening in South Korea. In 2005, government offi - cials there sent psychologists into Internet gaming cafes to warn players of addiction dangers after a man died of heart failure brought on by exhaustion and dehydration after a 50-hour binge playing “World of Warcraft.” A spokesman for Blizzard Entertainment, the game’s Irvine-based creator, declined to comment.
   U.S. physicians are concerned about the exposure children have to media violence, particularly in a medium as engaging as games. They’re also alarmed by the growing popularity of risque fare such as “Grand Theft Auto: Vice City” and “Manhunt 2.” The latter, which features a mentally ill patient on a killing spree, was recently banned for sale in Britain and Ireland, with officials citing “unremitting bleakness and callousness of tone.” In the U.S., the game received an “Adult Only” rating from the Entertainment Software Rating Board, a designation that would make the title unavailable at major retailers including Wal-Mart Stores Inc., which refuses to carry adult titles.
   Take-Two Interactive Software Inc., the game’s New York-based publisher, said Thursday it was temporarily suspending the game’s release, which had been planned for July 10.
   But addiction also can be triggered by casual games that don’t involve anything more frightening than a “game over” message, said Maressa Hecht Orzack, director of the Addiction Studies Center at McLean Hospital in Belmont, Mass., and an assistant clinical professor at Harvard Medical School.
   Orzack diagnosed herself as being addicted to solitaire in 1995. Her husband, since deceased, would find Orzack draped over her keyboard, fast asleep in the middle of a game. Lacking sleep, she sometimes turned up late for her appointments or missed them altogether.
   Now Orzack, a clinical psychologist, treats a half-dozen patients for video-game addiction and fields several requests each day from others seeking treatment.
   “They’re desperate for help,” Orzack said. “They drop out of school, they lose their jobs, they don’t get to meals. Often, they lose sleep because they’re up late playing games. They also jeopardize their relationships with their family and friends. It can get so out control.”  

  
  
  

Okay then....now we should have a 'video annonymous' program. And of course paid for by the beloved taxpayers!!

And how about one for bloggers and people who sit reading bulletin boards on the internet.

Guilty as charged.

No No No....the 'industry' that is making all that 'dough' will have fork up $$ to help their supporters of their lifestyles.....the government will make sure of that----especially in NYS.....

Let's face it....American's can become addicted to just about anything. THAT'S WHAT WE DO!

As for myself...I am addicted to everything. Why you might ask...Because I am addicted to life. I love life and everything it has to offer. Family, friends, good food, good wine, good conversation, holidays, church, kids, animals...you name it and I AM ADDICTED (not obsessive) TO IT ALL!!!!

So it appears that I'll need one of those government rehab programs too, huh?

Let us know where you find a good one, bumble.  We might all just have to check in.