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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]

Oh noooooouuuu, I can't stop watching gbatemp and respond to garbage topics, I'm so addicted, HALP!
someone send me there!

 

[DarthDub]

Is there something like this in the U.S.? I want to meet fellow gamers and make friends that way!

 

[Delerious]

Of course it's in England.

 

[The Real Jdbye]

I'm definitely addicted to the Internet, but I don't think I want that to change. I didn't have much of a life before that anyway so things haven't really changed.

 

[Catsinabucket]

Public: "Hey we need more funding for mental health services on the NHS".
Government: "Okay but consider Fortnite".

 

[Dracari]

i could see this going wrong no matter where in the world it gets delt w/ there are plenty of people who have nothing to do and are jobless (be it from situations that keep them jobless (like criminal background that they've paid their dues yet still screws over a job), those w/ physical Disabilities (i myself have 3 bulging discs in the lower lumbar , unless we're talking cashier or desk job, i cant physically handle a typical on your feet 9 to 5 w/o severe crippling pain) or other chronic illnesses that keep em at home. if what these poor souls are broken, battered or consistently screwed over after doing thier time, only have games to play/shit to watch online, then unless they MUST bring a phone (outside keeping in touch)/tablet/handheld gaming device wherever they go or they have a addict's level breakdown, then i really wouldn't call it an addiction rather just "making use of ones time"

 

[OctolingRift]

This is why I avoid Europe

 

[Jimbo_Slim]

Honestly, the main stereotype of "gaming addiction" comes from the fact that either some people don't know the difference between someone chilling on Discord or playing with their friends online (MON I CAN'T PAUSE THE GAME) and people who go whaling for 2 years just to get 1 character or skin. Because of this, people are making these services to "amend" the addictions and by doing so, lump in people who play games because they don't have much else to do with people who actually do harm to themselves.

 

[TheDarkGreninja]

Of course it's in England.

Am I missing something here? What would make the UK anymore likely to set up a gaming clinic than anywhere else in the world?

 

[Hells Malice]

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

It's a joke m8 I really don't care, lol. I'm also Canadian so maybe our fucked up govt is better than your fucked up govt. We do tend to care about our people more than our military tbf.

 

[Apathetic_Discord]

Hmmmm.

 

[FAST6191]

Also... Do they correctly divide different kinds of gaming addictions? Someone so hell-bent to chase impossible-to-achieve achievements is different from someone who lives more in a mmorpg than in life, and that's yet different from the borderline gambling addicts of F2P whales.

Is there a need to divide them like that? Most treatment paths/courses/plans/protocols would be about the same, or at least follow the same proverbial flow chart*. Obviously tailored to the individual and progress measured accordingly but in any case it is a person that has become fixated upon an action that they perceive as rewarding.

*it is probably not terribly suited to being expressed as a flow chart as... there is a reason it takes as long as it does to become any kind of medic, and that is before you consider any kind of extra aggravating conditions (someone that self refers because they are playing too much WoW and just need to learn some better coping mechanisms is rather different to someone in the schizoaffective realm that is delusional in some manner).

 

[Alex4nder001]

“Let’s see, NHS just got some extra funding. What should we spend that on? How about getting patients through A&E quicker, or improving cancer support for patients?”
“Nah, lets just use that for something we don’t really need. Oh I know! An internet addiction centre!”

Seriously, what has my country become?

 

[Deleted member 420418]

Wonder how many people will be sent to this clinic.

 

[Taleweaver]

It's a good thing in idea... No matter the negativity of some in this thread, gaming to the point where it becomes compulsory is a devastating thing.

My worry is more in the'what do they do with addicts?'. There are gaming possibilities everywhere, so how do they for with that? Unlike most addictions, gaming can be done without costs (aside electricity) and has strong social connections. I mean... Drugs can be a social thing too, but some gaming achievements are something you really HAVE to chase as a team.

Also... Do they correctly divide different kinds of gaming addictions? Someone so hell-bent to chase impossible-to-achieve achievements is different from someone who lives more in a mmorpg than in life, and that's yet different from the borderline gambling addicts of F2P whales.

 

[DeletedMember411838]

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

Anxiety isn't considered a Disaese, this is now. https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.marketwatch.com/amp/story/guid/B290ED72-EA83-11E7-9E1D-0928E9AEF3E6

BTW you can 100% get a check for Depression Disorders, if you haven't got one that doesn't mean you can't. I know 2 people that get checks for that right now lol.

My wife's brother got a check for being overwieght get with reality lol.

The catch is that disability office will always fight you, you are not going to walk in one time and they be like okay here is a check. It takes people years of fighting to actually get on disability no matter what wrong with you.

 

[MadonnaProject]

No wonder the NHS has no money. All this BS about giving women tits if they're depressed, letting them have botox, transgender surgeries. WTF man. There's people with real illnesses out there. Oh and SJW's don't jump on me, I don't care.

 

[FAST6191]

While I will also question this (see also my replies to this thread) your examples might be a bit of an oversimplification.

Tit jobs tended to first be done for those with truly truly serious body image issues, or disproportionately sized ones (multiple cup size difference sort of thing). Now there might well be a notable few that try to game the system but the initial intent was fine from where I sit, and probably even more cost effective than dosing people up on antidepressants for 60 years if you care more for that than care reasons. If the archetypal fake tan, fake nails, "going on a package holiday to Ibiza innit and want to look fit" set can get past the gatekeepers then yeah.
Similar arguments for transgender surgeries (quality of life/outcomes), and it is not the sort of thing you rock up and do cosmetically as an outpatient procedure when they have time -- it is a later stage of a years long process.
Have not seen the botox stuff as far as it potentially being abused, indeed around here it is/was mostly dentists that offered such services at fairly reasonable rates.

Money wise I would put it more at the feet of there being many more procedures today (you can survive or have corrected an awful lot more than you could even 30 years ago), said procedures necessarily being more complex and involved (I don' t think pediatric heart surgery was really even a speciality in the 80s, today it is) and there being a lot more old people clogging up the joint (it is something of a big decline in later years after all).

 

[Redhorse]

I had a neighbor Almost loul his wife and children because he ignored his job and financial responsibilities to play x box.. The state was about to take neglected children....yeah some get addicted to video games to the exclusion of all else..