Sunday, June 24, 2007

H.S Video Game and Computer Addiction

Hey folks,

Happy Sunday to you. In the Health and Science segment this week? OK, we now all have an excuse. Another addition into the “Not My Fault” arena. Yet another blow to self responsibility. This is going to be good for me. Now I can say, hey, I know I’m on the computer a lot, but “It’s Not My Fault” I’m sick. There are no shortages of help out there for this either. Just type in Computer Addiction in your search engine, sit back, and see for yourself.

According to the Seattle Times -Is video game addiction a psychiatric disorder? AMA report seeks to declare it one By LINDSEY TANNER
AP Medical Writer

CHICAGO — The telltale signs are ominous: teens holing up in their rooms, ignoring friends, family, even food and a shower, while grades plummet and belligerence soars.

The culprit isn't alcohol or drugs. It's video games, which for certain kids can be as powerfully addictive as heroin, some doctors contend.

{Laughing} HEROIN?

A leading council of the nation's largest doctors' group wants to have this behavior officially classified as a psychiatric disorder, to raise awareness and enable sufferers to get insurance coverage for treatment.

STOP!!! Read that again.

A leading council of the nation's largest doctors' group wants to have this behavior officially classified as a psychiatric disorder, to raise awareness and enable sufferers to get insurance coverage for treatment.

MONEY and psychobabble. That is ALL this is about.

In a report prepared for the American Medical Association's annual policy meeting starting Saturday in Chicago, the council asks the group to lobby for the disorder to be included in a widely used mental illness manual created and published by the American Psychiatric Association.

AMA delegates could vote on the proposal as early as Monday.

It likely won't happen without heated debate. Video game makers scoff at the notion that their products can cause a psychiatric disorder. Even some mental health experts say labeling the habit a formal addiction is going too far.

Not for those seeking more money. Psychobabblologists, Drug companies, ETC. Get this.

Up to 90 percent of American youngsters play video games and as many as 15 percent of them — more than 5 million kids — may be addicted, according to data cited in the AMA council's report.

That is a big windfall of cash flowing in if they can tap into it.

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."

So you have a brat. You are the parent. Take the video game away, computer away, then say DEAL WITH IT. {Sigh} Idiot

Proof it’s about money?

When she suggested to therapists that Michael had a video game addiction, "nobody was familiar with it," she said. "They all pooh-poohed it."

Last fall, the family found a therapist who "told us he was addicted, period." They sent Michael to a therapeutic boarding school, where he has spent the past six months — at a cost of $5,000 monthly that insurance won't cover, his mother said.
A cost of $5,000 monthly. The rest of this goes on to tell you horror stories. Kids not showering, playing for 12 hours straight, depressed, ETC. WHERE ARE THE PARENTS? I know this is a hard concept, but your kids only do what YOU allow them to do. How about being a parent.

Then just this morning I see this from Health Day -Video Game Overuse May Be an Addiction: Experts By E.J. Mundell HealthDay ReporterFri Jun 22, 7:02 PM ET

Dr. Martin Wasserman, executive director of MedChi, the Maryland State Medical Society, helped spearhead the new proposal, which has resulted in a 10-page report submitted to the AMA by the group's Council on Science and Public Health.
"The concern came up because one of our psychiatrists here in Maryland was seeing older people who were losing their social contacts," specifically because of their overuse of video games, Wasserman said. "It was ruining their family life. So, it was not unlike gambling addictions or alcohol, where it was having a profound impact on the lives of individuals."

How about IED, Shopaholic, The most OVER diagnosed {Disorder} ADD? Let’s just throw these together and say NOTHING is our fault. OH WAIT they actually have some guidelines forming.

The new AMA report defines "heavy game use" as two or more hours a day, but Wasserman, a pediatrician, said addictions are best defined by their impact on an individual's life and psyche.

"Basically, you're using a disproportionate amount of time on the video game, and it's what you are thinking about even when you're not on the video game," he said. "And even though it's having negative consequences for you in school or your family situation, or it's taking a disproportionate amount of your money, you still continue to do it. You spend less time with
your friends or in other social things."

YES! Do not throw your money away on the video games, give it to US. Hi. My name is Peter. I have CAD, {Computer Addition Disorder.} It’s not my fault. Just drug me, tell me it’ll be ok..
Peter

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