Is Videogame Addiction a Psychiatric Disorder?

Of course they can be addicting! Anyone who thinks otherwise has never seen a child play games for hours and hours on end, several days of the week! I'm not saying everyone who plays WoW is addicted, but some certainly are, and addiction is the psychological illness. Just because you drink alcohol doesn't make you an alcoholic, and playing video games doesn't make you addicted to them, but that doesn't mean there aren't people who who are addicted

Um, okay, lets draw a basic comparison. Smoking: addiction. Sociopath: psychiatric disorder. Is smoking a Psychiatric Disorder? NO!

No, Video Games ARE not an addiction, but they can be a psychiatric disorder, in the sense that you can get hyper focused and your brain will rewire itself to derive pleasure from achieving things in video games. And saying "I play for hours but know when to stop" is a legitimate defense. I love video games, I also love chocolate. Yes, I binge, but I also rock climb, bike, kayak, drive, and do manual labor, for fun. So when I decide to kick back and spend a weekend doing nothing but gaming, its equivalent to telling me I have a psychiatric disorder for camping for a weekend. However, if I quit my job to go camp because I hated the working life, that's another thing (and yet still somewhat more justifiable than a "gaming addiction").

Yes, it is a mental illness. I used to play Guild Wars with my boyfriend all the time, but I grew tired of it after about 10 or so months, but my boyfriend continues to play. And it's not normal playing like most people (1-2 hrs a day), it turns into 10-12 hr sessions. He's a smart guy, too, with an athletic build and great charm, but it has damaged his social life. Thankfully he'll get off of it if I yell at him enough, but as soon as he gets the chance, he's back on it. It is a true addiction. I don't think he needs to visit a psychiatrist, but a trip to the therapist could only help.

It is not a psychiatric disorder it is the same thing as saying alcoholics have a disorder too. You cant just label something a disorder when a few people don't have any control.

"The report says that up to 90% of American children play videogames and as many as 15% of them -- more than 5 million kids -- may be addicted."

15% is not exactly a convincing number and also there children. The youth is easier to influence I would understand if 90% of all adults were gaming addicts then that would be something but children? People are blaming video games for completely different problems. If the kid is addicted could he possibly have an addictive personality? No no noway! He has to have a psychiatric disorder let's blame the thing he is addicted too!

I play video games but I'm not addicted I hang out with my friends,go out,spend time with my loved ones. It is not something addictive the problem lies within the person themselves.

I am a former Final Fantasy IX addict. Yes, these games can be HIGHLY addictive to people. The scary thing is with these games is that they are specifically designed to keep you playing. I have tried to tell myself that the game companies stumbled upon this addictive configuration by accident. Let's just put it this way: I have researched addiction and I can say that many of the symptoms were being elicited by me during my active phase.

NO!!! These quacks will make any excuse to prescribe mind-bending drugs! Every vice, every bad decision, every example of laziness, is not treated with DISCIPLINE! Instead, it is EXCUSED as some phony-baloney "MENTAL ILLNESS"!
What a crock!

A friend of my husband's from work gave him a WOW demo disc and ever since, he has been playing this game from the time he gets home from work(3:30 pm) until about 2:00 am(he has to be at work at 7:00 am)every day. When we went on vacation to Hilton Head Island last month, he bought a new laptop so that he could play while we were away. For some reason, the game wasn't compatible with the laptop and so he couldn't get into the site. He went into "withdrawal" and the rest of us suffered from his hateful attitude, until he got his old laptop from our son and was able to play on it. Can you imagine paying a considerable amount of money to spend a week on a beautiful island, with all the sun surf and sights, only to want to spend at the condo with a video game?! I really think he needs help.

I have a 23 yr old that has played video games since he was 13 and is totally addicted to them. His is a very intelligent with a high IQ and a great looking guy, but all he does is play games. He only comes out of his appartment to go to work, buy games or buy food. He is lost without his game system and it controls his life. I find it a shame that he is wasting so much of his life playing games instead of really living life.

It is NOT a mental illness, but a choice. As a parent, take it out of the house, if the child won't turn it off when told to do so. My children play WOW, but they don't use it as an excuse to not do anything else.

As someone who SETS ASIDE time out of my very busy day to relax by playing online games, and who has donated money to a server to make sure that it stays alive, I can say it's a choice. I choose to get on. I choose to spend those hours on my games. I also choose to get up and go to work in the morning, work hard all day, and earn my living. It isn't a problem with the game, it's a problem with the person already. If you have an addictive personality or are weak willed, you can get addicted to anything. Sugar. TV. Games. Violence. Work. It's not a problem with what you're addicted to, it's that you already have a predisposition to be addicted to it. If you put up with someone being addicted to anything that you feel is harmful, you're the one who should take action. A lot of people don't realize the time that they put into stuff and what they are missing until they are shown. That's about the time that they stop spending so much time doing nothing. So instead of blaming the games, get up off your butt and help your child or hubby get active.

Video Games is NOT an addiction or physiciatric disorder. Me and my four brothers play video games constantly and we are not addicted or anything like that. We know when to stop and we can go however long we have to without playing it. I think people think that its an addiction is because they are just looking at people who they think are addicted. Video games are not a bad thing, they improve hand eye cordination and are actually sometimes educational. My friend had very sever cancer when she was eight, and she had a bone marrow transplant. This left her extremely weak. It only got worse when they found a tumor in her brain and she needed it removed. This left her extremely uncordinated. Video games helped her gain a lot back. Without them she would have been a vegetable. Think about that!

To even consider video games a psychatric illness just makes want to throw up! I agree the games can be time consuming but addictive no way! The reason some individuals are "addicted" come from underlying problems. Neglect by parents that allow kids from very early ages to play them constantly to keep them occupied instead of inter acting with their children. Individuals that suffer from insecurites, anger issues, low self-esteem etc , can find video games give them a sense of identity that real ife doesn't. Activities with others in the outside world and with the help of a counselor can get to the underlying causes. An addiction--PLEASE--get real people! Get a life, find the Lord, find help for the heart of the problems. This is just another excuse for psychiatrists to have another generation popping pills and being labled for life! It enables the excessive gamers an excuse for their choices and says oh poor kid they're addicted. Parents, spouses of excessives gamers take control! Throw the games out, block computor access, and get the person involved with real human contact and some good old fashioned physical activity!!!!!!

Pretty soon not believing in total medical control of our lives will be a category in the DSM IV.Man, these people are out to destroy all that is fun in life!

I think that people who play violent video games have an anti-social problem. It seems that they feel safe letting their real self out under anonymity. People that behave in a manner that is unacceptable to society, and they know who they are, need to seriously think about getting help. If people would remember that although they have the right to their freedom, they still affect others who care for them, perhaps they would think before getting involved in negative gaming. They also risk the chance of losing people because of their habits. You are what you feed yourself or what you let into your mind.

I DO BELIEVE THAT VIDEO GAMES ARE HIGHLY ADDICTIVE TO THE YOUNGER GENERATION THESE DAYS ! PARENTS DO NOT KNOW JUST HOW TO DEAL WITH THERE CHILDREN, SO WHAT DO THE PARENTS DO....PLACE THERE KIDS IN FRONT OF A GAME SYSTEM AND SAY, " PLAY ALL YOU WANT " . HOW EVER...FROM WHAT I HAVE JUST WATCHED ON WWW.YOUTUBE.COM ABOUT ANGRY GAMERS.....DAMN, SOME OF THEM TRUELY NEED HELP IN THE WORST WAY........!

I FEEL THAT AT A CERTIN TIME OF THE DAY OR EVENING, THE ENTIRE VIDEO GAME SHOULD BE " SHUT OFF, UNPLUGED AND PUT AWAY " , WHEN THE CHILD DOES NOT RESPOND TO THIS....THAT IS WHEN THE CHILD BECOMES HYPER ACTIVE AND REALLY OUT OF CONTROL !

I SAY THIS TO SOME OF YOU " GAMERS WHO ARE ONLINE" UNPLUG, GET SOME R&R AND FOR GOD SAKES, DON'T MAKE A COMPLETE ASS OUT OF YOUR SELF WHEN YOU ARE SITTING THERE SCREAMING, YELLING, AND SWEARING AT THE VIDEO GAME....YOU LOOK REALLY STUPID AS ALL HELL, I MEAN IF SOME OF YOU GUYS COULD ACTUALLY SEE AND HEAR YOUR OWN BEHAVIOR, I THINK YOU WOULD BE VERY EMBARESED TO KNOW THAT , THAT WAS YOU !

The same thing that causes certain people to become addicted to Alcohol is the same thing that causes people to become addicted to gaming.. it all has to do with synapses firing in the brain as well as the release of chemicals that create the euphoria for some people. The purpose of including it in the DSM is so that psychologists, doctors, parents, and the general public can become educated on the fact that, for some people, it is the equivilant of alcohol... or marijuana... or whatever addictive substance you wish.. some people are genetically wired to be more susceptible to addictions.. it is the persons choice to become involved with video games, but when it reaches that extreme level where it consumes your life (i.e playing it 12 hrs a day, every day; causes you to neglect your family, friends, work, school, social life) that's when it becomes an addiction. Saying that it's an addictive is not excusing it, it's helping to explain it and get the person support and help in breaking the addiction.

There was a case in the news recently where two grown adults were so addicted to an online video game (which I will decline to name), that they neglected their 22 and 11 month old babies to the point of letting them go without food, care and attention. The 11 month old girl weighed 10 pounds and had to have her head shaved because her hair was so completely clotted with cat urine that they couldn't get her clean. Addictive? You bet! Irresponsible? Definitely, if you play or allow your children to play more than an hour or two in a day's time. I went through a phase where I was pretty much addicted to playing several MMORPGs myself. I finally got to the point that I sought help, and now I have NO accounts with ANY service because I understand that I simply get so involved, I can't break away from the machine. I have rediscovered life, lost weight, and now my kids actually realize that the person standing in the kitchen is Mom and not some stranger who just wandered into the house! =) Bottom line? Try to keep it in perspective. A little is fine, but too much can be damaging both to yourself and others.

Time spent playing video games should be an alternative to time spent watching TV. If you think your kid is playing video games too much, don't assume it's an addiction if they used to spend that same amount of time watching TV... heck, you may spend that same amount of time watching TV.