Tuesday, April 22, 2008

An interesting acticle

So the debate rages on. Are Video games addicting? But that is not the whole debate. the real question is If they are addicting, to what level should this addiction be treated? Gambling is a non-substance addiction and has been evaluated by psycologists to be "Worthy" of their expert help. Now, there are a few psycologists that have opened clinics for addiction and some of them will even treat video gaming addiction. However, the psycologists as a profession still refuses to claim it as a valid form of addiction. What does this mean? Well, lets say you have a mental illness, a gambling issue, alcohol, or pysical disablity you can get FMLA (Family Medical Leave Act, gets you off work without losing your job) and your insurance (depending onthe plan you are on) can cover the treatment (doctor visits, Drugs if needed). So right now if you are addicted to a video game that can consume your life then you can't get help other than on your own.
Here is an acticle by MSNBC.com about this a little bit.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24245196/

So My question is: are you addicted (the Definition of addicted is: it affects you daily activites to the point of crippling them) to video games? If you are what has it affected? What have you done if anything to fix it?

3 comments:

Unknown said...

mmmm.... nope!

Addicted to the Internet though.

Nat said...

I'm kind of internet addicted, though I still take a shower and take care of my kids and stuff. So maybe I'm not addicted...

Erika Kiel said...

Hi Jer,
I go through addiction phases and so does Jas. Waaay back in the day when my fam first got our old-school Nintendo, I played SuperMario 1 NONSTOP until I beat it. I do remember taking a break to have a cookie once, though lol... Actually, now that I think of it, I think it was APRIL who got me hooked enough to beg to get a Nintendo for Christmas that year. She had one that we used to play for hours. It's April's fault!

These days, when we first got our WII, Jas got hooked on Zelda and he would stay up all night playing that dumb game! I don't think he ever beat it, though. Life intervened and he had to give it up. Does that still count as an addiction?

Oh, btw, I am totally addicted to chocolate and that is far more serious. :)