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England's National Health Service will be putting a plan into motion to fund and create an internet addiction center, which will focus on helping those "addicted to video gaming". Officially called the Centre for Internet Disorders, it'll be headed by the NHS London Foundation Trust and Henreietta Bowden-Jones, offering help to families with those that are suffering from internet or gaming related disorders.

When asked for a comment about the future opening of the clinic, Jones had the following to say to The Guardian:

Gaming disorder is finally getting the attention it deserves. The distress and harm it can cause is extreme and I feel a moral duty on behalf of the NHS to provide the evidence based treatment these young people and their families need

This follows the controversial decision from the World Health Organization earlier this month, which had been discussing the proposal of classifying gaming addictions and related disorders as a health condition.

One of the major reasons for implementing this is to help keep students from dropping out of school due to negative behavior instigated or caused by an over dependence on video games.

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[leon315]

Bro why do you think we left the European Union? Look at images of the Calais jungle. We have the same fate as you if our govt isn't careful

I think that's more like a french's problem rather a Britis's.

 

[retrofan_k]

If it's not alcohol or drug addiction to complain about, something new has to be man made up by these so called health experts.

Tbh, imo, gaming helps mental health issues like Anxiety and depression, as it's a go to tool to release stress and escape from real life problems.

You might aswell say every other type of hobbyist, collector and enthusiast is mentally ill and will need help.

Also, nobody says nothing regarding smartphones and social media shit like FB and Twitter.

What about those who use it 24/7 and thrive on all the shit posting drama? Is there a category for that instead of blaming video game players.

 

[FAST6191]

So watching youtube videos of people playing games is probably just as addicting especially when they do cool stuff. Does that count as addicted?

Addiction to things like this is usually phrased along the lines of "the compulsion to perform an action to the point where it starts affecting your school/work/relationships, and may also see the person in question start to forgo biological needs (sleep, food, hygiene, possibly moving as well, or coming the other way and seeing people push through pain associated with carpal tunnel and similar things)". Psychological additions like these are different to chemical addiction (not all chemically addictive* substances will kill you with withdrawal, but alcohol and opiates are two popular examples of things that might, hence earlier comments) but still extremely harrowing and distressing to see. I don't know if this clinic is going to be worst of the worst or more general.
Going into the opinion but what bothers me here is unlike food or exercise there are not usually associated things** with being addicted to games or internet. I can't see why you would need, or otherwise seriously benefit from, specialist conditions, specialist equipment or specially trained medical types for it; there are all sorts of fields involved in treatment of this sort of thing-- counselling, nursing (psychiatric and conventional), doctors of various stripes, non medical staff but having some role all appearing in various capacities. Alternatively if you noticed your system was being clogged up with game and internet addicted types you might form a branch for them. As this is also the national health service they are mandated to do the best with the funds they have, which also means they have to justify why this got some kind of priority over either better funding another service or setting up another service. A term you might want to look up is "third sector" ( https://www.healthcareers.nhs.uk/working-health/where-will-you-work/third-sector ) because if they are funding this then a lot of things that are that are going to have to pause and wonder.

*not all chemicals that might be classified as drugs are addictive, this is in turn what people mean when they say weed is not addictive.

**if you eat too much you end up a fat bastard, though it can go further -- there are conditions where people addicted to food will put their hand in boiling water to get the food they are cooking in it out of it so as to eat it there and then. That sort of thing does tend to benefit from truly specialist setups (in that case monitored accommodation, time delay fridges and whatnot).

 

[Deleted-355425]

This planet man, talk about messed up.

 

[spotanjo3]

Thats's an idiot! I grew up with video games all my life and it didnt effect me at all. Nonsense.

 

[snails1221]

As insane as it sounds they aren't wrong. Spending 10+ hours a day doing just about anything isn't good for you.

 

[Viri]

Part of me thinks this is silly, but then the other part of me remembers the people in China and Taiwan who play games to death at net cafes.

 

[TotalInsanity4]

Honestly I only see this as a good thing, and I don't get why everyone's so bent out of shape about it. Yeah there's negative hype surrounding "gaming disorder" right now, but once that dies down then that means there will be a proactive service in place to help people who genuinely need it to help them get over an addiction that's making life difficult for them

 

[comput3rus3r]

If it's not alcohol or drug addiction to complain about, something new has to be man made up by these so called health experts.

Tbh, imo, gaming helps mental health issues like Anxiety and depression, as it's a go to tool to release stress and escape from real life problems.

You might aswell say every other type of hobbyist, collector and enthusiast is mentally ill and will need help.

Also, nobody says nothing regarding smartphones and social media shit like FB and Twitter.

What about those who use it 24/7 and thrive on all the shit posting drama? Is there a category for that instead of blaming video game players.

exactly.

 

[FAST6191]

Thats's an idiot! I grew up with video games all my life and it didnt effect me at all. Nonsense.

How is that logic? I once went into a casino. Put some money in a machine even. Therefore gambling addiction does not exist?

Honestly I only see this as a good thing, and I don't get why everyone's so bent out of shape about it. Yeah there's negative hype surrounding "gaming disorder" right now, but once that dies down then that means there will be a proactive service in place to help people who genuinely need it to help them get over an addiction that's making life difficult for them

I am still questioning why there needs to be such a place and why a general counsellor/nurse/psychiatrist/holds/groups/outpatient/GP derived system (different strokes for different folks and all that*) is failing such people in such a way as to need this kind of thing. Similarly this sort of thing is managed by local trusts rather than nationwide (see postcode lottery nhs if you want a basic intro there) and I am sure the general addiction services would love a cash injection**, or any other number of mental health sectors there would love some extra funding either to do something required. I would probably actually be happier if they instead funded a bit of research into it all (prevalence, treatment methods attempted and outcomes... the usual research stuff for fields like this) and then gave that to the existing systems.

*some people may need little more than a couple of sessions with a medical professional but others might need full bore secure housing/assisted living sort of thing. None of those are particularly outlandish things though and can be found up and down the land already. If for some reason a gaming setup is needed for a treatment plan then it is not going to be more expensive than something like having to paint a room a different colour or anything like that which is already routinely done.

**I don't know what this is costing but surely more than getting someone once a month to put out some chairs in a local village hall sort of thing.

Edit missed the following

If it's not alcohol or drug addiction to complain about, something new has to be man made up by these so called health experts.

Tbh, imo, gaming helps mental health issues like Anxiety and depression, as it's a go to tool to release stress and escape from real life problems.

You might aswell say every other type of hobbyist, collector and enthusiast is mentally ill and will need help.

Also, nobody says nothing regarding smartphones and social media shit like FB and Twitter.

What about those who use it 24/7 and thrive on all the shit posting drama? Is there a category for that instead of blaming video game players.

.

exactly.

No, not "exactly". Far from it in fact.

Gaming most certainly can help people, however it does not mean it is a universal. It if exists then people can be addicted to doing it, even more so in the case of things like gaming which have nice feedback loops and are designed to be really compelling for people.

Nobody is saying enthusiasts and people with hobbies are mentally ill. Again the term addiction is reserved for when things go way too far and people start to trouble their day to day lives with it.

Similarly plenty of people have been worried about social media and its effects upon people, have been for years. Also yes it can be something a medic will tell you or help you with.

 

[TotalInsanity4]

I am still questioning why there needs to be such a place and why a general counsellor/nurse/psychiatrist/holds/groups/outpatient/GP derived system (different strokes for different folks and all that*) is failing such people in such a way as to need this kind of thing. Similarly this sort of thing is managed by local trusts rather than nationwide (see postcode lottery nhs if you want a basic intro there) and I am sure the general addiction services would love a cash injection**, or any other number of mental health sectors there would love some extra funding either to do something required. I would probably actually be happier if they instead funded a bit of research into it all (prevalence, treatment methods attempted and outcomes... the usual research stuff for fields like this) and then gave that to the existing systems.

*some people may need little more than a couple of sessions with a medical professional but others might need full bore secure housing/assisted living sort of thing. None of those are particularly outlandish things though and can be found up and down the land already. If for some reason a gaming setup is needed for a treatment plan then it is not going to be more expensive than something like having to paint a room a different colour or anything like that which is already routinely done.

**I don't know what this is costing but surely more than getting someone once a month to put out some chairs in a local village hall sort of thing.

I guess that is a good question. I'd imagine the answer probably is along the lines of internet/screen/gaming addiction has different steps for proper treatment that thus far, general counselors have been unequipped to provide. But I obviously don't know the proper answer to that, that's just my guess

 

[cearp]

Can you link it here? i'm quite curious...

i think it was this one i watched, i thought it was some bbc things but maybe not:

 

[Niels Van Son]

Memes addiction lmao





Won't happen in EU though.

 

[GameSystem]

I saw some tv show about one in China, it was really interesting.
It's a very real thing, so yeah good to help people who can't control themselves to play in moderation.

Can you link it here? i'm quite curious...

Evil_or_Live
Not what @cearp was talking about, but this is Japanese cartoon based on a Chinese comic. I don't recommend watching it, as it's not very good, but it's another take on "curing" internet gaming addiction.

 

[FAST6191]

I am broadly familiar with the practices, and since the start of the thread actually went and had a chat with someone properly familiar with counselling, psychological rehabilitation and treatments of behavioural conditions about the matter at hand (they had heard about all this and were also at a loss). The baseline for them, as well as attempted treatments, has been around for decades ( https://psychcentral.com/blog/sms-addiction-and-texting-addiction/ , a 2008 article citing a 1995 paper and going back even further still).

While I am sure some PR wonk will tell me it is a unique and special concept there is nothing basic principles or anything the collective/walking around knowledge of myself and my conversation partner to indicate such a thing here, and indeed there is precious little for any concept that warrants a truly different approach*. I can go do a full literature search I guess but I am not expecting much.

*obviously everything changes on a patient by patient basis. Given there are no other particular harms (see something like that food thing with the boiling water I was on about earlier) with this I am back to "treat it like other psychological addictions".

 

[leon315]

i think it was this one i watched, i thought it was some bbc things but maybe not:

wow, amazing thinks they've got there! i would never image that this is actually a real social treat in China, and it's great that they have a proper solution for it.

 

[tbb043]

This is a useful thing to spend tax money on.. not!

 

[Hells Malice]

Brb getting a phat paycheck from the govt for having a videogame addiction

 

[spotanjo3]

How is that logic? I once went into a casino. Put some money in a machine even. Therefore gambling addiction does not exist?

No, you are right... gambling addiction does exist, yes, of course. Because people are after money. We can be gambling addiction because we wants the money. That's so obviously, indeed.

Anyway.. The video games ? I dont know about that since I grew up with it and it doesnt caused me addictive at all. Maybe some people are addicted to video games. I do not know for sure.

 

[TotalInsanity4]

Brb getting a phat paycheck from the govt for having a videogame addiction

I do hope that you understand that having something that can be categorized as a mental disorder (or even disability in some cases) doesn't usually qualify you for a government disability welfare check

Take it from someone with anxiety and major depressive disorder, that's really just not how it works

 

[cearp]

No, you are right... gambling addiction does exist, yes, of course. Because people are after money. We can be gambling addiction because we wants the money. That's so obviously, indeed.

Anyway.. The video games ? I dont know about that since I grew up with it and it doesnt caused me addictive at all. Maybe some people are addicted to video games. I do not know for sure.

i know a person or two in real life who WoW has seriously negatively affected their life. i'd call it an addiction for them.
addicted to your job at least makes you money and progresses your career (usually).
addicted to a video game dosen't help you much.