Gaming disorder is to be recognized by WHO in 2018 as a mental disorder

[DisobeyedCargo]

In 2018, the World Health Organization will recognize Gaming Disorder as a mental health disorder. It is defined as:

"persistent or recurrent" behavior pattern of "sufficient severity to result in significant impairment in personal, family, social, educational, occupational or other important areas of functioning."

The new ICD-11 entry will only include a clinical description, with no treatments to it.

Personally I feel that while there are some cases of Gaming addiction, there are going to be way too many people over exaggerating their child's gaming hobby as an addiction. 

Edit: link is here:

http://www.cnn.com/2017/12/27/health/video-game-disorder-who/index.html

Edited December 28, 2017 by DisobeyedCargo

[Anacybele]

...Seriously? What ridiculous BS. It isn't like video games are drugs or alcohol or gambling clubs/casinos. They don't potentially threaten your life or anything. :/

And yeah, this is going to make way too many parents think their kid has a gaming "problem" and take away their games or not allow them to play games. Video games are not so awful. Sheesh.

[redlight]

33 minutes ago, Anacybele said:

...Seriously? What ridiculous BS. It isn't like video games are drugs or alcohol or gambling clubs/casinos. They don't potentially threaten your life or anything. :/

And yeah, this is going to make way too many parents think their kid has a gaming "problem" and take away their games or not allow them to play games. Video games are not so awful. Sheesh.

There have been cases of people dying while playing games. There was kid who played DotA 22 days straight stopping only to eat, going to the toilet and sleep. He broke his legs and because of that he stayed home for 22 days. He died at the end cause he wasn't moving around at all during that time. Plus staring at the computer screen doesn't help. There are worse cases such as neither sleeping nor eating at all ending with death (quite often 3 days is the time they spent doing that). It's rare, but there are people who have these kinds of problems

Edited December 28, 2017 by silveraura25

[Anacybele]

3 minutes ago, silveraura25 said:

There have been cases of people dying while playing games. There was kid who played DotA 22 days straight stopping only to eat, go to the toilet and sleep. He broke his legs because of the length of time he sat and died at the end. There are worse cases such as neither sleeping nor eating at all ending with death. It's rare, but there are people who have these kinds of problems

I don't believe you. You don't die from breaking your legs. People have broken their legs all the time and are still alive. Hell, some people lose their legs entirely and live.

Now if you don't eat or sleep, that's due to not eating or sleeping, not video games. And like you said, that's very rare. And people can be addicted to other habits to the point of doing the same thing. It's not the fault of video games or whatever the habit is. It's people not being responsible.

Edited December 28, 2017 by Anacybele

[DisobeyedCargo]

4 minutes ago, silveraura25 said:

There have been cases of people dying while playing games. There was kid who played DotA 22 days straight stopping only to eat, going to the toilet and sleep. He broke his legs because of the length of time he sat (I guess his legs were weak from not moving at all) and died at the end. There are worse cases such as neither sleeping nor eating at all ending with death (usually 3 days is enough). It's rare, but there are people who have these kinds of problems

That's what I was referring too in my original post. There are genuine cases of actual addiction to video games and those people do need help, and I'm glad that those people will be able to get the help they need much easier in the future. 

 What I'm aso worried about is a bunch of parents over exaggerating a hobby of their child and calling it an addiction, when in reality, it's just a hobby.

[redlight]

8 minutes ago, Anacybele said:

I don't believe you. You don't die from breaking your legs. People have broken their legs all the time and are still alive. Hell, some people lose their legs entirely and live.

Now if you don't eat or sleep, that's due to not eating or sleeping, not video games. And like you said, that's very rare. And people can be addicted to other habits to the point of doing the same thing, I'm sure. It's not the fault of video games or whatever the habit is. It's people not being responsible.

Oh sorry. I read the article from a long time ago. Just reread it. He broke his legs and because of that he stayed home for 22 days.

I think it's just not that talked about and parents don't do much to stop it. Normal people know when to stop playing, but some just don't. That's why these kinds of victims show up.

Edited December 28, 2017 by silveraura25

[John Denver Fan]

I am a avid gamer, but that as a mental disorder is bullshit. Video Game addiction and mental health disorders is different things. Playing Video Games all day is NOT a disorder, it is a addiction. Shit, I think that the WHO needs to look up the definition of disorders AND addictions because playing Video Games all day is a addiction.

Edited December 28, 2017 by John Denver Fan

[Anacybele]

10 minutes ago, silveraura25 said:

Oh sorry. I read the article from a long time ago. Just reread it. He broke his legs and because of that he stayed home for 22 days.

I think it's just not that talked about.

I see.

And I guess, but as an avid gamer, I suppose I also just get tired of people blaming video games for things they should not be blamed for or hating them for dumb reasons, like calling Pokemon satanic or saying video games will make you fat because you're not moving around.

Video games cause violence? No, stupid people cause violence. Obviously, kids shouldn't really be playing M-rated games, but that's up to the parents to be good parents and up to salespeople to be responsible and not just carelessly sell those games to underaged kids. It's also up to the kids themselves to be mature enough not to try stupid shit.

Pokemon is not satanic at all. It's a harmless and fun kids game that many adults also enjoy.

Video games will not make you fat. Sitting around all day and not getting any exercise or not eating healthy will make you fat. You can still play video games and be healthy. I play a lot and I'm actually classified as underweight. It's all about your diet and how much exercise you get. I don't exercise a whole lot, but I do make sure I eat enough healthy stuff to compensate for the junk I do sometimes eat. And I've started to stay away from stuff that has a lot of sugar since I get heart flutters on occasion and I don't want to make them worse. I also prefer eating organic and natural stuff. Not much artificial junk.

Hell, there's also a video game franchise called Wii Fit that actually HELPS you exercise! Games like Just Dance will get you moving too!

Edited December 28, 2017 by Anacybele

[carefreejules]

Literally the primary reason why video games get such a bad rep is because people are too afraid to admit or blame an individual for their actions so video games are brought up as a scapegoat. People will find every other reason to blame because they don't want to face the fact that there might be something wrong with the person themselves. It's a cowardly way or dodging responsibility. 

I remember reading an instance of someone who played Final Fantasy 14 so much that they've neglected their wife and kids, he hardly spent time with them anymore, and he would spend WAY more money on the game than on his family to the point where he's in debt now. The fact that he admitted to everything that was wrong and what he wanted to do to change is him coming to terms with the fact that he wants to recover from his addiction to the game. Saying that he could have 'Gaming disorder' is stretching it a bit tooooooooo much I think because in the end, how the heck are they going to PROPERLY diagnose someone with this 'disorder'? This kind of issue is not black and white at all. 

They would have to pin point the reason why people are playing video games so excessively in the first place because besides just wanting to have fun, there's more to a person's life that contributes to their habits. Once you pin point that, I feel like at that point, the problem isn't about video game anymore. In my opinion, video games are just an outlet of how people choose to cope with their own struggles and anxieties.

Edited December 28, 2017 by carefreejules

[redlight]

42 minutes ago, Anacybele said:

I see.

And I guess, but as an avid gamer, I suppose I also just get tired of people blaming video games for things they should not be blamed for or hating them for dumb reasons, like calling Pokemon satanic or saying video games will make you fat because you're not moving around.

Video games cause violence? No, stupid people cause violence. Obviously, kids shouldn't really be playing M-rated games, but that's up to the parents to be good parents and up to salespeople to be responsible and not just carelessly sell those games to underaged kids. It's also up to the kids themselves to be mature enough not to try stupid shit.

Pokemon is not satanic at all. It's a harmless kids game.

Video games will not make you fat. sitting around all day and not getting any exercise or not eating healthy will make you fat. You can still play video games and be healthy. I play a lot and I'm actually classified as underweight. It's all about your diet and how much exercise you get. I don't exercise a whole lot, but I do make sure I eat enough healthy stuff to compensate for the junk I do sometimes eat. And I've started to stay away from stuff that has a lot of sugar since I get heart flutters on occasion and I don't want to make them worse. I also prefer eating organic and natural stuff. Not much artificial junk.

Some people (the victims of gaming to death) just don't know when to stop playing is what's wrong. They don't have the self control to stop themselves or family to restrict their playing time for their well being. I'm no medical nor psychological expert, but I think it just might be a case of lacking a sense of self-preservation. Living in comfort dampens your sense of danger.

When playing a game I want the experience to be fun. Because of the addicted mentality of troubled gamers I don't know how they view gaming.

Not the best idea to mentioning this because of the example, but the South Park movie carries a message that instead of parents trying to get things banned because they pose a risk to their children, parents should pay more attention to their kids to ensure kids won't for example play gta or watch south park (I find it funny that they spend time protesting when they could use that time to raise their kids). Also, people dig too deep into things and find things that really aren't there (that pokemon being satanic by adults' views you mentioned).

I have relatives who really do believe playing video games makes you fat, but that's because they're ignorant when it comes to many things. They lived a majority of their lives in Soviet times so I would't really blame them because they were deprived of some of the things we experience today. They're old as well.

I recall teachers at my school blaming school violence on video games when it was just a case of bullying leading to self defense.

Edited December 28, 2017 by silveraura25

[Dismissed]

Wow, this is just complete Bolshevik. By this same logic, TV addiction and Literature addiction and whatnot should also be a thing.

[Florete]

Don't read this as "If you're an avid gamer, you have an addiction." This is about the cases where things get literally life-threateningly bad. Take this article's examples: "Over the past decade, we've seen several tragic stories of addicted gamers make international headlines. Seungseob Lee, a boiler repairman in South Korea, played StarCraft for more than 50 consecutive hours at an internet café before suffering a fatal heart attack. In China, a man named Xu Yan died after playing an online game persistently for two weeks. And in America, a woman named Rebecca Christie was sentenced to 25 years in prison after she allowed her daughter to starve to death while Christie was preoccupied with World of Warcraft."

As for me, I'm unsure what to think for now. On one hand, it could be great for the people who really do need the help. But if things go wrong, it could revert gaming back to the awful stigma it once had (which is still somewhat here, but far less prevalent).

[DisobeyedCargo]

3 minutes ago, Florete said:

Don't read this as "If you're an avid gamer, you have an addiction." This is about the cases where things get literally life-threateningly bad. Take this article's examples: "Over the past decade, we've seen several tragic stories of addicted gamers make international headlines. Seungseob Lee, a boiler repairman in South Korea, played StarCraft for more than 50 consecutive hours at an internet café before suffering a fatal heart attack. In China, a man named Xu Yan died after playing an online game persistently for two weeks. And in America, a woman named Rebecca Christie was sentenced to 25 years in prison after she allowed her daughter to starve to death while Christie was preoccupied with World of Warcraft."

As for me, I'm unsure what to think for now. On one hand, it could be great for the people who really do need the help. But if things go wrong, it could revert gaming back to the awful stigma it once had (which is still somewhat here, but far less prevalent).

Exactly, for the people who genuinely have this problem, im glad they can seek treatment more easily. I would just hate to see people use this as a tool to bring video game stigma back to where it once was. 

I guess we can only hope things don't go wrong 

[Anacybele]

1 hour ago, silveraura25 said:

Some people (the victims of gaming to death) just don't know when to stop playing is what's wrong. They don't have the self control to stop themselves or family to restrict their playing time for their well being. I'm no medical nor psychological expert, but I think it just might be a case of lacking a sense of self-preservation. Living in comfort dampens your sense of danger.

When playing a game I want the experience to be fun. Because of the addicted mentality of troubled gamers I don't know how they view gaming.

Not the best idea to mentioning this because of the example, but the South Park movie carries a message that instead of parents trying to get things banned because they pose a risk to their children, parents should pay more attention to their kids to ensure kids won't for example play gta or watch south park (I find it funny that they spend time protesting when they could use that time to raise their kids). Also, people dig too deep into things and find things that really aren't there (that pokemon being satanic by adults' views you mentioned).

I have relatives who really do believe playing video games makes you fat, but that's because they're ignorant when it comes to many things. They lived a majority of their lives in Soviet times so I would't really blame them because they were deprived of some of the things we experience today. They're old as well.

I recall teachers at my school blaming school violence on video games when it was just a case of bullying leading to self defense.

Yeah, and those people should seek help and not blame the games.

And that's a good message. It's surprising where you'll find those things sometimes...

Those teachers you mentioned are just the kind of example I hate. Bullying is the problem there, as you said, not video games.

20 minutes ago, DisobeyedCargo said:

Exactly, for the people who genuinely have this problem, im glad they can seek treatment more easily. I would just hate to see people use this as a tool to bring video game stigma back to where it once was. 

I guess we can only hope things don't go wrong 

Yeah, this.

27 minutes ago, Florete said:

Don't read this as "If you're an avid gamer, you have an addiction." This is about the cases where things get literally life-threateningly bad. Take this article's examples: "Over the past decade, we've seen several tragic stories of addicted gamers make international headlines. Seungseob Lee, a boiler repairman in South Korea, played StarCraft for more than 50 consecutive hours at an internet café before suffering a fatal heart attack. In China, a man named Xu Yan died after playing an online game persistently for two weeks. And in America, a woman named Rebecca Christie was sentenced to 25 years in prison after she allowed her daughter to starve to death while Christie was preoccupied with World of Warcraft."

As for me, I'm unsure what to think for now. On one hand, it could be great for the people who really do need the help. But if things go wrong, it could revert gaming back to the awful stigma it once had (which is still somewhat here, but far less prevalent).

Yes, but I'd imagine those cases are very very rare, much more so than something like drug addiction or alcohol addiction.

But yeah, I really hope this doesn't make things go wrong.

[Erren]

To hell with the WHO. Gaming is my life

 

[Phoenix Wright]

christ people, relax. video games are not being blamed for the disorder. it's attempting to categorize people who play video games so often that it interferes with life.

the trouble is, is this actually a unique classification? are video games different that tv? porn? etc? apparently, most don't seem to think so (myself included). like many things, i think video games are addictive. but that doesn't result in a unique labeling.

op, please post some sort of link next time.

http://www.cnn.com/2017/12/27/health/video-game-disorder-who/index.html

[DisobeyedCargo]

54 minutes ago, Phoenix Wright said:

christ people, relax. video games are not being blamed for the disorder. it's attempting to categorize people who play video games so often that it interferes with life.

the trouble is, is this actually a unique classification? are video games different that tv? porn? etc? apparently, most don't seem to think so (myself included). like many things, i think video games are addictive. but that doesn't result in a unique labeling.

op, please post some sort of link next time.

http://www.cnn.com/2017/12/27/health/video-game-disorder-who/index.html

That was my bad, I should have posted a link, sorry about that.

As for the unique label for it, I don't know why they haven't included TV or Porn in this anywhere, or why exactly they are focusing on gaming.

[Tryhard]

Yeah I play a lot of games, probably too much, but this seems more like 'playing games so much you forget to eat/do important things'

[Time the Crestfallen]

So basically it's just describing a pattern of addictive behaviours with gaming as the cause?

Yeah, fair enough. Although I can't imagine the reactions of the wider gaming community being very open-minded towards the issue.

[DisobeyedCargo]

2 minutes ago, Phillius the Crestfallen said:

So basically it's just describing a pattern of addictive behaviours with gaming as the cause?

Yeah, fair enough. Although I can't imagine the reactions of the wider gaming community being very open-minded towards the issue.

Yup, that's more or less it

thats to be expected with the community, since most gamers are able to limit and crontrol how much they play, whereas these addicts simply can't do that.

[Time the Crestfallen]

On 12/29/2017 at 10:36 AM, DisobeyedCargo said:

thats to be expected with the community, since most gamers are able to limit and crontrol how much they play, whereas these addicts simply can't do that.

I was more talking about how the gaming community is, more than anything else I know, extremely defensive and aggressive towards those who are considered 'outsiders'. Whether or not that's justified I'm not talking about in this post specifically, but I imagine a number of them will read just the title and get pissed off because they read it as a personal attack on them and dismiss it as another attempt to demonise gaming.

Anyway, it's especially interesting seeing this come up after that whole mess with loot boxes and whether or not they can be classified as gambling. I wonder if they factored that into the discussion.

Edited December 31, 2017 by Phillius the Crestfallen

[Lord Raven]

On 12/28/2017 at 10:32 AM, John Denver Fan said:

I am a avid gamer, but that as a mental disorder is bullshit. Video Game addiction and mental health disorders is different things. Playing Video Games all day is NOT a disorder, it is a addiction. Shit, I think that the WHO needs to look up the definition of disorders AND addictions because playing Video Games all day is a addiction.

Addiction is a disorder.

Playing games everyday, even for like 4-5 hours a day, isn't (necessarily) an addiction.

[Harvey]

Guys and gals...let's be real here. The government and doctors in general has often been bashing of how bad games are in general.  From people killing each other because they have been influenced to games to losing vision because of addition. This is nothing so special.

Let's all just say woopdie doo and move on.

 

Edited January 8, 2018 by Harvey

[Ertrick36]

People who are complaining about this being the typical anti gaming nonsense... I don't think some of you actually read up on this.

For one thing, this was only a beta draft.  As such, some of the contents are subject to change.  Granted, the basic idea of this classification will probably not disappear, but the parameters will probably change according to analysis and research conducted by mental health professionals.

For another, this sounds, like a lot of mental health stuff, kind of open ended.  Like, I don't think you'll be sent to an asylum for staying up late playing video games, nor will parents have a valid reason to drag their kid to a doctor just because they would rather play video games than do homework.

Lastly, look at the symptoms.  Games getting in the way of stuff like relationships or jobs?  I bet a lot of you heard stories (or even personally experienced) involving these kinds of scenarios.  Boys who never spend time with their girlfriends, are given an ultimatum between her or the games, and they choose the games... people who got fired because either they stayed up too late playing video games and underperformed at work or because they got distracted and didn't get to work on time... skipping out on family gatherings, funerals, and whatnot just to play games more.  The majority of mentally healthy people would never allow games to get in the way of this stuff.  These are actual issues for some people.

Now, the issue I have about it is this: why is it that video games in particular are being classified?  I don't recall hearing about phones or social media getting this classification, even though they can essentially do the same thing to you.  I get TV addiction wouldn't necessarily be quite the same since it's less interactive, but I'd say gaming and social media are equally immersive.  Maybe it's because you're usually doing different things?  Maybe it's because social media still retains some element of social interaction, while gaming sometimes doesn't?  Is it just for the sake of clarity?  I'm uncertain, but I would hope that actual scientists would be above the idiotic dogma that permeates within the minds of a lot of older people who march against games.  I know a lot of you know what I mean when I say this.

[Dismissed]

2 hours ago, Harvey said:

 losing vision because of addition.

I think you are more likely to lose your mind than your vision due to overexposure to mathematics.