Video game addiction - psychiatric disorder or lax parenting?
Posted
June 22, 2007 at
11:48 am by
Prescott
Many of us parents with older kids know the slack-jawed, glossy-eyed look that’s involved with an intense video game session. And we also know that some days we have to drag them away from the console kicking and screaming because, let’s admit it, video games are fun and often more attractive entertainment to a kid than reading or riding their bike. But would you ever think that a love of video games is a bona fide addiction? A leading council of the American Medical Association does.
The council is trying to persuade the AMA to lobby to have video game addiction classified as a psychiatric disorder and have it added to the American Psychiatric Association’s diagnostic manual. They want to make the public more aware of this supposed disorder, even making treatment for it covered by insurance. According to them, it’s a wide spread epidemic possibly affecting up to 5 million kids. One mom describes her ordeal with her teenager’s addiction:
Joyce Protopapas of Frisco, Texas, said her 17-year-old son, Michael, was a video addict. Over nearly two years, video and Internet games transformed him from an outgoing, academically gifted teen into a reclusive manipulator who flunked two 10th-grade classes and spent several hours day and night playing a popular online video game called World of Warcraft.
“My father was an alcoholic … and I saw exactly the same thing” in Michael, Protopapas said. “We battled him until October of last year,” she said. “We went to therapists, we tried taking the game away.
“He would threaten us physically. He would curse and call us every name imaginable,” she said. “It was as if he was possessed.”
Besides the threat of violence, does this sound that far off from the daily battles with stubborn teenagers that take place in homes across the globe? Comparing alcoholism to an obsession with video games seems a bit of a stretch, even if I don’t necessarily buy the whole “alcoholism is a disease” bit.
But even so, these teenagers wouldn’t have become “addicts” in the first place without a little enabling from their parents. An alcoholic wouldn’t become one without having access to copious amounts of booze. A kid won’t become a sugary cereal addict without being constantly served it for breakfast. And a teenager won’t become addicted to video games if strict limits are enforced as soon as the Xbox enters the house (if it’s even allowed to invade in the first place).
My version of treatment for “video game addiction” involves a sledgehammer, a garbage can, and a swift kick out the door into the backyard.
Tags: addiction, health, video games, xbox
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18 Responses to “Video game addiction - psychiatric disorder or lax parenting?”
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1. Cara said:
June 22, 2007 @ 2:09 pm | Quote
Oh you’ve got to be kidding! Perhaps “Bad Parenting” needs to be designated as a disease because we certainly have an epidemic of that!
2. Petulant Pixie said:
June 22, 2007 @ 3:35 pm | Quote
Well, I don’t know. There is some belief that the lights and actions stimulate certain areas of the brain, and well, that’s the core of an addiction right there.
True alcoholics are alcoholics before they take their first drink. It is their acloholism that causes them to drink and to crave more alcohol. A lot of research has been done on the chemistry of the brain and in people who are truly chemically dependent (as opposed to chemical abusers), they are lacking in some of the functions that create normal feelings of well-being, so they search them out artifically. Maybe these are kids who would be alcoholics or cocaine addicts, but since they were exposed to video games first (which might have a similar stimulus to the brain), that’s where their addiction lies.
It’s possible that your recommended treatment for the video game addiction could cause a kid to start smoking or drinking or using street drugs instead to get his “fix”.
3. julymom said:
June 23, 2007 @ 11:17 am | Quote
Do parents ever have to take responsibility for their children any more? If parents took a more active role in their children’s lives and weren’t so damned afraid to say the dreaded ‘n’ word every now and then (that word being ‘no’) we might not have problems like this. I’m so sick of the whole, ‘it’s not my fault, evil corporations market directly to my children and what am I to do about it?’ mentality. Step up to the plate people. You make the choice to bring these things into your home, not your children.
4. Petulant Pixie said:
June 23, 2007 @ 11:46 am | Quote
Yeah, I guess it’s better to just pick and choose from what the American Psychiatric Association (that fly-by-night organization) deems as legitimate mental illnesses. If it’s in OUR family, then sure, if not, then we’ll be suspicious that it’s just bad parenting.
Personally, I believe that I take huge responsibility for my actions and in parenting my kids, but I also know that there is a long history of addiction in my family, and believing that it’s a BIOLOGICAL issue, I would not be surprised if one or more of my kids has to deal with it as a teen or adult in one form or another.
5. SewingSiren said:
June 23, 2007 @ 1:10 pm | Quote
Petulant Pixie said..”Personally, I believe that I take huge responsibility for my actions and in parenting my kids, but I also know that there is a long history of addiction in my family, and believing that it’s a BIOLOGICAL issue, I would not be surprised if one or more of my kids has to deal with it as a teen or adult in one form or another.”
You know, I’m not a worrier, but *this* worries the shit out me (all the time).
6. Petulant Pixie said:
June 23, 2007 @ 1:47 pm | Quote
It concerns me, too, SS, obviously. As someone who has battled addiction (cigarettes), I really see how what they say about the biology of it is true. Wellbutrin worked for me, and it worked for my dh and it works for a significant amount of the population, and HOW it works is really amazing. It doesn’t replace the nicotine, it doesn’t wean you off the nicotine, it just attaches to the same receptors in the brain as nicotine does, creating the same neurological chemical buildup. So, while people say that the nicotine is the addictive component, they’re only partially right. The nicotine itself is addictive, but the chemical state it creates in the brain is more addictive. And I beleive (and the science is backing that up) that some people are biologically predisposed to addiction becasue of their neurological chemical makeup.
I have no idea really whether video games are truly addictive or not. All I know is that it is a realiable source has enough incentive to believe its true that they’re presenting it to the AMA, and knowing what I know about addiction, I don’t think it’s that impausable.
It just irks me when people jump all over things that are approached differently and holler about how silly they are. I mean, really, do we have to go through this with every single mental disorder–call it silly until you actually have a kid or a parent or someone else who YOU believe and then you accept it’s an actual disorder? Doesn’t that get tiresome?
7. Addict's Sis said:
June 23, 2007 @ 3:45 pm | Quote
I actually have a brother who’s addicted to video games. As a family, we’ve known it for years and have tried to do everything we could to control it.
I remember my dad removing all video games from our house. My brother would go to his friend’s house and play them. Keeping him home didn’t help, he smuggled in gameboys and such. When those were confiscated, he “sunk as low as” (his words, not mine) playing handheld “slot machine” games, or other inferior games like the ones at the DOLLAR STORE or that come in McDonald’s Happy Meals. When we would go to the store, he would “shiver and shake” when he saw a video game and he would almost get out of control if you refused to give him a quarter to play it. I have countless stories throughout my childhood surrounding my brother and video games, and all of them bad.
He’s now 25, works a deadend job and blows all his money at the local arcade. The same one he’s been kicked out of 4 times already for bad behavior. This last Christmas he blew off the family dinner to “game” all night. His, is a very sad life.
My Brother is not the only one out there. There was actually an episode of INTERVENTION where the subject of the show was addicted to video games. Also, DATELINE recently covered a story where the kid (early 20’s) killed himself over an on-line game.
Although some of you may not understand how it can be called an addiction, it can be one. There just comes a time where their playing habits just cross the line from really liking them, to obsession over the games.
8. Cara said:
June 23, 2007 @ 8:54 pm | Quote
I know fully well that it can be an addiction. My ex-husband was a video game addict (he became that way as an adult, though). However, if parents put limits on screen time at the beginning instead of just letting their kids have unlimited time in front of a computer or a game console, then how would a child become addicted?
My father is an alcoholic and he unfortunately passed on his addictive personality to my brother. Luckily, he’s been able to direct his addictions to more productive or at least healthier pursuits. He will get addicted to a particular sport, for instance, and that sport will absolutely consume him for several months. Every bit of free time and money will be spent on it. When he feels he’s mastered one sport, he’ll move on to a different sport and the cycle starts over again. He’s also been addicted to cigarettes and marijuana in the past but has been off both of those for years now.
I’m just saying that yes, although addiction can be biological, if you know or suspect that your child is predisposed to addiction, perhaps you can attempt to direct their attention to more fruitful pursuits than video games.
9. Jessica said:
June 24, 2007 @ 7:02 am | Quote
What did video game addicts do before video games were invented??
What’s that?
They went outside? Say it ain’t so!
So, now tax dollars will be going to support bad parenting. I can see the IEP now: Johnny has severe video game addiction, OT will be needed to desensitize Johnny to mindless, flashing images and take Johnny to museums and the library to overcome his victimization. Speech therapy will be ordered so that he can learn how to socialize with other kids.
Who knew you needed experts for those things. Might as well just give your kids up for adoption and allow therapists to raise ‘em if you can’t figure out how to pry your kids away from video games.
10. Petulant Pixie said:
June 24, 2007 @ 8:43 am | Quote
Huh, Jess, did you read any of the responses?
What did video game addicts do before video games were invented? Their addiction landed in other areas–tobacco, alcohol, cocaine, prescription drugs.
Everyone can figure out how to pry video games out of kids’ hands, but what will they do then? Is getting your teenage kid to quit smoking as easy as throwing away his cigarettes? Dumping the vicodin down the toilet for someone addicted to pain killers? Your world is very idealistic, isn’t it?
11. Cara said:
June 24, 2007 @ 9:00 am | Quote
Pixie, I would imagine that most video game “addictions” start way before a child would be getting into alcohol, cigarettes, drugs, etc. Kids start playing video games pretty young these days and I can’t imagine that an 8 year old is going to just go get high if mom won’t let him play X-Box.
Plus, if your theory about what addict kids did before video games was correct (that their addiction was directed towards drugs and alcohol), then wouldn’t it stand to reason that addictions to illicit substances would be going DOWN because those kids were getting hooked on video games instead? I don’t know that drug and alcohol use in teens has going down all that much if at all since video games have been around.
I think it’s more realistic to say that before video games, kids just got hooked on TV instead. I’ve seen some kids have some major meltdowns when told they have to turn the TV off.
Like I said in a previous post, if there were limits set on screen time (computers, video games AND TV) when kids were young, then I don’t they would have the opportunity to become “addicted”. And as a parent, if you notice that your child has addictive tendencies towards anything, perhaps you should take them to doctor before it gets out of control. Maybe it really is something biological and something could be done about it early on before it gets out of hand.
12. Petulant Pixie said:
June 24, 2007 @ 10:06 am | Quote
Well, this is a losing battle. Maybe you guys could just get educated on the biology of addiction and that would make it easier to understand. It’s not my job here on the planet to argue with people who have zero interest in learning about the topic they’re discussing, whatever that topic may be. I just see these knee-jerk ingorant rants and I feel the need to speak up. I won’t bother. Live in a pit-bull hating, psychosis disbelieving, parent-blaming bubble, and keep writing about it on a regular basis, lol, there’s no point in trying to get through.
13. Jessica said:
June 25, 2007 @ 4:13 pm | Quote
I actually do believe that children can become addicted to various things, maybe even video games. What I don’t understand, is how a parent would allow their child to play video games 12 - 15 hours a day. Parents are enablers. It is our job to redirect that obsessive behavior into other interests, by exposing them to different interests and by setting strict limits.
I have no doubt that if we allowed my older son carte blanche access to computers and video games, he probably would become “addicted”, but we have endured meltdowns, tantrums, negotiating tacts, nothing will break us. Now, he doesn’t even bother asking us. He knows better and chooses to read or ride his bike instead.
14. Jessica said:
June 25, 2007 @ 5:00 pm | Quote
Looks like there’s an update, from Reuters, in response to Video Games being an addiction:
“There is nothing here to suggest that this is a complex physiological disease state akin to alcoholism or other substance abuse disorders, and it doesn’t have to have the word addiction attached to it,” Dr. Stuart Gitlow, of the American Society of Addiction Medicine, told the Reuters news service.”
Apparently, the AMA has rejected that it is a disease and said they will revisit it in 2012.
So, maybe we’re not so ignorant after all!
15. Petulant Pixie said:
June 25, 2007 @ 5:16 pm | Quote
I said I had no idea whether it was an addiction or not, but I said that since it was suggested by a reputable organization, and I know what I do about addiction, it was pausable.
What irks me is the anger in these vents. The all-or-none mentality of them. Everyone who disagrees is an idiot or a bad person or whatever. I don’t know whether you really believe as passionately about these things as you come across, or if you do it just to get more hits on the site.
16. prescott said:
June 25, 2007 @ 5:46 pm | Quote
Anger? Passion? I’m not sure what blog you are reading. I gave the details of the news story, offered my personal opinion on the subject (which is what one is wont to do on their own blog) and left the comments open for discussion. Even the title is posed as a question so I don’t know where you get this “all-or-none mentality” accusation. Jessica didn’t chime in until the 9th comment.
As for this string of “rants” that are supposedly the norm, look at the main page of the blog — only 2 out of a long series could even remotely qualify as a “rant” (The pit bull post you reference is from over a year ago). I generally try to pick topics that may be of interest and generate thought/debate. Whether I do it because of some level of passion or the desire to entertain/drive traffic (or maybe even a little of both) I’ll leave up to the readers to decide.
17. D.R. George said:
March 7, 2008 @ 1:59 pm | Quote
When video games first came out back in the 70’s or 80’s, I remember that each game had a beginning and an eventual end of victory or defeat. You’d have to hit the reset button to play again.
But today–many times a parent learns that things have changed the hard way–there is no end but rather a perpetual advancement to the next level and therein the addictive aspect begins. These games today just have no end to them, they go on and on with no last level in sight!
When we first bought a playstation for our son, we liked it because it taught him all about the rules of football, baseball and other sports along with a knowledge about the players. At a very young age he could hold an adult conversation about the NFL which impressed his father and other adults. But then the addiction came in along with some fights. And now that he is pre-teen, he is being exposed to violent video games at the homes of friends. You can be the most responsible parent in the world, but you cannot control what goes on in the homes of your children’s friends–this is very important to remember!
We parents can curb our children’s amount of video game usage, and responsibly refuse to buy the unsuitable violent games, but we are overcome by our lax parenting peers who do not do the same!
18. dave in jax, fl said:
April 4, 2008 @ 4:05 pm | Quote
“When video games first came out back in the 70’s or 80’s, I remember that each game had a beginning and an eventual end of victory or defeat. You’d have to hit the reset button to play again. “
That is pretty inaccurate, are you forgetting about pacman and pong, there is no end to those games. As far as it being an addiction, it is true, and should be covered. It doesn’t affect just your overweight smart mouthed teens and preteens, there are adults who become obsessed and lose jobs, houses, marriages, and even on occassion their lives or someone else’s because of neglect caused by their addiction.
“However, if parents put limits on screen time at the beginning instead of just letting their kids have unlimited time in front of a computer or a game console, then how would a child become addicted?”
As far as that goes, how do people become addicted to drugs when they are illegal?? Its not about the amount of time, because when they do get older, they will over endulge, just like most Americans do when they get to finally drink.
The problem is deeper than what any of you are really trying to give credit for, you can’t always blame the parents, and deffinately can’t blame the games, it all comes down to the INDIVIDUAL, child or adult.