WHO Classifies ‘Gaming Addiction’ As A Mental Health Disorder

by | Jun 18, 2018 | Headline News | 15 comments

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    The World Health Organization has just announced that an addiction to video games, dubbed a “gaming addiction” is now a mental health disorder. The WHO also said that “gaming disorder” is a unique mental health condition

    The World Health Organization announced “gaming disorder” as a new mental health condition included in the 11th edition of its International Classification of Diseases, released Monday.  The WHO defines a “gaming disorder” as having three major characteristics that experts say are similar to substance-use disorders (drug addiction) and gambling disorder.

    “One is that the gaming behavior takes precedence over other activities to the extent that other activities are taken to the periphery,” Dr. Vladimir Poznyak, of the WHO’s Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse, told CNN.  The other two characteristics that must be present are impaired control over gaming and a continuation or an increase in gaming despite negative consequences like “disturbed sleep patterns, like diet problems, like a deficiency in the physical activity,” Poznyak said. But, these patterns of behavior must be present for at least 12 months before a gaming addiction can be officially diagnosed as a disorder, according to The New York Post. “It cannot be just an episode of few hours or few days,” Poznyak warned.

    “I’m not creating a precedent,” Dr. Poznyak added. Poznyak proposed the new diagnosis to the WHO’s decision-making body, the World Health Assembly. Instead, he said, WHO has followed “the trends, the developments, which have taken place in populations and in the professional field.”

    The news was cheered by Hilarie Cash, the co-founder of reSTART, one of the first inpatient treatment programs in the United States for video game addiction. “I’ve been surprised it’s taken so long for everybody to catch up to the fact. But I also understand that they need to have strong, research-based evidence before they bring on a new disorder,” she said. “I think it’s a game-changer, although how quickly the game will change, I don’t know.”

    However, it is important to note that not all psychologists agree that gaming disorder is worthy of inclusion in the International Classification of Diseases, known as the ICD.  “People need to understand this doesn’t mean every child who spends hours in their room playing games is an addict, otherwise medics are going to be flooded with requests for help,” said Dr. Joan Harvey, a spokeswoman for the British Psychological Society.

    Gaming disorder has not yet been recognized as a mental-health problem by the American Psychiatric Association, which previously said it’s “a condition warranting more clinical research and experience before it might be considered for inclusion” in its own manual.

     

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      15 Comments

      1. Game disorder? Right “O”.

        Stalin put people in prison under the guise of mental disorders. A nuthouse or a jail, not much difference.

        Increasingly the USA is becoming like Russia was under the control of New York financiers working for Rothschild and Paul Warburg whose name, Warburg, is befitting.

        _

        • Gee, Just walking out your front door every day can be 50% Fatal. So does the act of walking out your door considered a sign of potential suicide? Round up dem guns boys. weez all crazy..

          Remember folks, the only real threat out there against you is “MAN.” Always watch their hands, and always follow the money.

          • Liberals and faggots are much more mentally deranged than anyone playing video games.

      2. I have found playing Video games like Delta Force II and Call of Duty, has increased my reactive speed, and increased eye hand coordination, and also increased situational awareness. In real war its kill or be killed. Luckily in Video games you get to re-spawn to live another fight. In Real Life you get one play. Any error can be fatal.

      3. I don’t play video games. I suppose that like anything else it can be overdone but the way I look at it is that we supposedly live in a free country so if you want to play video games until you go blind, go ahead and knock yourself out as long as don’t bother me. Second, I could care less what the WHO says about anything. It’s a UN agency which automatically means anti-American, new world order commies.

      4. Great. So this means the kid that plays these games and can’t find a job will be eligible for SSI or SSDI because they are disabled. Just what we don’t need, another scam for the free $hit army.

      5. Oh, I thought this was about being addicted to casino and lottery gambling. That takes a much larger toll on life. Isn’t that how Trump built his empire? Video gaming is OK as long as you have weed to enjoy the repetitive boredom of smashing buttons.

      6. I saw this a month or 2 ago, and posted it here or on Facebook, and my comment is the same:

        IF you have a mental disorder you cannot own a gun. This is just another thing they are adding to their list of “Mental Disorders” so that you cannot own a gun.

        What is next? If you wear makeup you must have a mental disorder thinking you need it… if you talk bad about a government policy you must have a mental disorder, etc. I better quit before I give them any ideas.

        • It worked in the former USSR. People were sent to mental institutions because they disagreed with the government.

          Let that sink in.

      7. You mean like Russian roulette? I guess that could be a disorder and with a gun!

      8. It’s not only time but next gen gaming is extremely costly I was addicted to a game for over 2 years I would spend almost all of my free time on it and overall spent around $15,000 on it sadly that is more than I have spent on the previous 15 years of gaming. Now I am 32 years old extremely out of shape and have allowed my health to fail. Critical thinking skills are at an all time high but not worth the cost. This is truly an epidemic for people under 45 who choose to partake in it. Just in the game I played as rare as my case seems was the norm some would literally spend their entire paychecks on digital goods.

      9. Right! These games are part of the deep-statemind control.
        Kids are being stalked for being smart, by certain games
        into communicating with evil communist agents online.
        They will be declared mental risks and will not be eligble for gun
        ownership.

        Parents!!! Take those stupid computer games away and
        take your kids outside in the fresh air and sunshine and
        do projects with them….. build something….make cookies.
        Do yard work….show them how to work. Do volunteer work
        challenge them…look for things they might like to do for a living..
        Keep them away from anything with a silver screen.

      10. I’m still trying to get over the concept of “sex addiction”. The only cure for that is death! I’d rather have the addiction, thank you! What are the odds that it is just another way to screw us over?

      11. If they deserve a lesson in objectivity, let them pay for it, responsibly. Do you need or want something. You have just volunteered yourself.

        Identify something interesting from that game. Anything, no matter how risqué. No matter how trivial. Pick just one thing. Fixate and focus.

        What is that called, in articulate, formal language.

        Where does it come from, or how was it known, historically.

        How can you improve upon it.

        (In other words, past, present, future.) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_unities
        This was in the Addams Family:
        “Your work is puerile and under-dramatized. You lack any sense of structure, character and the Aristotelian unities.”
        What is that?

        (Complicit) parents have ceased contact with me, when I said that digital media could be used for meaningful interaction. Parental guidance / discretion. Remember these sayings?

        “The cartoon said what?” “He copied what?” Did you actually sit in front of the electronic binky, not to disengage, but to pay close attention? Like, if it was a boardgame, or sport, or craft project, and you had to pro-actively participate?

        The other thing I notice about children, animals, and (newish) women —
        If you are making something, or doing something, saying something, or just have a pulse, they will follow you. Passive people will take your ideas and embellish them, like regular cargo cultists.

        Bored “game addicts” with no social or physical or moral outlet, haven’t found that in you, the authority figure.

        It’s possible to teach kids foreign languages and college-credit math. This is like when you a train an animal. You reinforce the useful behaviors, which it is already doing, naturally.

      12. Hopefully there’s a medication for that!

        Big pharma never met a disorder it didn’t like – or profit from.

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