Dutch game addiction clinic is "swamped"

by Christopher Grant { Jul 26th 2006 at 9:55AM }

Smith & Jones, the Dutch addiction clinic that opened a gaming treatment program earlier this month, has been inundated with calls from pleading parents leading clinic director Keith Bakker to exclaim, "Computer game addiction is obviously an even greater problem than we imagined." Whoa there buddy, let's slow it down a bit. Is it possible for someone to actually be addicted to video games? And can you really claim that your anticipated call volume is directly proportional to the size of the perceived problem? How scientific.

Bakker concedes that video game addiction "is not a chemical dependency, but it's got everything of an obsessive-compulsive disorder and all of the other stuff that comes with chemical dependency." Like the physical effects of heroin withdrawal, eh? Do gamers exhibit those? What about any other compulsive addiction, like picking one's nose or watching TV incessantly? Are those treatable? Certainly some of the "patients" that Smith & Jones will treat will have serious issues with compulsive behavior and the facility may help them overcome such behavior, but to brand it as being the fault of video games is misleading. It's intended to drum up publicity (like this blog post) as much as it is to define their mandate.

See also:
European game addiction clinic opens next month
The science behind game addiction

[Via GWJ: Press Pass]

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Jay @ Jul 26th 2006 10:02AM

I think game addiction can be a legitimate disorder, although it's probably a secondary symptom of a greater problem. Just like games could make someone act more violently -- but that's just a very minor subset of the population and is usually exacerbated by other psychological or psychiatric problems.

I think the simple way to look at it is, there is a large body of evidence concluding that gambling addictions are real and legit; a video game addiction isn't so far from that.

Although this is anecdotal and not scientific, I have known people that have blown relationships due to gaming. That's a non-healthy addiction. Just like I've known people that have done the same with health addictions, like working out or running. So, don't blow off the concept that some people may need help just because most of us haven't experienced that sort of problem. ;)

SuperMario82 @ Jul 26th 2006 10:06AM

I know that Video Game addiction is real and all (trust me, I'm addicted) but to open a clinic for addicts? Come on! It's not that hard to stop on your own, I mean it's not like drugs or anything, there are no withdrawal symptoms other than boredom.

Also I need to see an enlarged pic of that shirt/poster/what ever that pic next to the article is.

JimmyHACK @ Jul 26th 2006 10:10AM

what a con

32_Footsteps @ Jul 26th 2006 10:13AM

Oh, curing video game addiction in someone is easy. Just identify what systems they own and guide play accordingly.

For people with the Xbox, make it so they can only play Drake of the 99 Dragons.

Playstation 2 owners (along with PC owners) will find Oni as the only game available to them.

GameCube owners will be stuck with only Universal Studios Theme Park.

GBA owners will have the GBA version of the Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring game.

DS owners can choose between the GBA Fellowship game or Pokemon Dash.

PSP owners get Mercury, and the only UMD movie they're allowed is The Pacifier.

If that doesn't cure gaming addiction, then nothing can.

Comtar @ Jul 26th 2006 10:16AM

If you deside to leave your 1 year old child at home alone to play at the local LAN center... You're probably an addict.

If you play Counter-Strike for 36 hours stright until you die from stroke... You're probably an addict.

If you haven't made love to your wife in 2 years because of World of Warcraft... You're probably an addict.

If you kill 3 people over a X-box... You're probably a dumbass.

PSP Gamer @ Jul 26th 2006 10:17AM

People can get addicted to almost everything, playing video games is just one of those things. It's good that someone openend a place which speciallises in this form of addiction.

BaconBits @ Jul 26th 2006 10:23AM

Any behavior can become an addiction when it reaches the level of interfearing with your life. Such as gambling addiction, or hell, pot smoking. If your habit becomes so severely important that it literally disrupts your life and causes you problems then it's an addiction. Video game addiction is real, usually from someone using video games as an escape mechanism to avoid there real problems and then it becomes a crutch they are dependent on, no not chemically, but yes psychologically.

divergentbeing @ Jul 26th 2006 10:28AM

I'm gonna go ahead and guess that many of the calls they are recieving are from overzealous parents who are worried that their kids might be addicted because they play video games at all. They watch the "news" and are "informed" that video games are "evil" and that by playing video games instead of doing some sort of "normal" activity like watching TV that their children are addicted.

I do agree with Jay in that there may really be a problem with gaming addiction, but I don't think it is as widespread as Bakker would like you to think. This is another one of those things that are rabidly reported by the media so it seems like a large problem, while in fact it affects all of 100 people worldwide.

32_Footsteps, you should just create your videogame addiction clinic now, you could make MILLIONS. :)

Stick @ Jul 26th 2006 10:36AM

It's not the video games, it's culture. We are a culture of lazy people who want nothing but quick fixes.

It's easier -you can be a lethal ninja must faster in a game than you can 'IRL', which would obviously take years of training.

Osiris @ Jul 26th 2006 10:39AM

WELL, addiction.
"A compulsive physiological craving for a habit-forming substance, addiction is a chronic and progressive disease usually characterized by physiological symptoms upon withdrawal"

Withdrawl. Do you crave games as soon as you stop playing them?

I for one, do find myself playing a lot of computer games, but this is a choice over other forms of entertainment.

You have to realise why people play games in the first place, for entertainment.
People like to be entertained, and so will keep themselves busy with such forms as computer games to achieve that.

So long as I am doing something else that i enjoy, i won't miss my gaming.

Just as some find no other way but watching TV to pass their time, others use other forms of entertainment such as surfing the net or playing games.
I don't see that as an addiction.

DocR @ Jul 26th 2006 10:46AM

You're being incredibly shortsighted not to acknowledge the idea that gaming can manifest symptoms similar to addiction. Your problems in sneering at them are that 1) you use an overly strict and archaic definition of addiction and 2) you have a knee jerk reaction to anything that criticises gaming. Here's the solutions:

1) Addictive behaviour can be displayed to almost anything. More modern psychological theories and treatments prefer the concept of problem behaviour rather than addiction (e.g. there are well documented cases of non-problematic heroin and cocaine use in other cultures at other times). Even with Joystiq's myopic view, you cannot possibly deny that it is easily possible to 'over game', to let gaming get in the way of other more pressing things you should be doing. If that wasn't the case then why did we have cases of MMoG related deaths earlier in the year?

Now you might say that these 'problem gamers' are crazy in other respects and that gaming is an expression of some other underlying problem. Well, you're most probably right. However, treatment and diagnosis of psychological problems is often what is termed 'symptomatic'. In other words "we don't have a clue what's really wrong with you, so we'll just clump together your symptoms and call it a disorder". It's not great, but it allows some kind of treatment: if you treat the symptoms (by getting problem gamers off gaming) you don't solve the underlying problem, but you do give sufferers some semblence of a normal life. I suppose it's somewhat analogous to palliative care for terminal cancer.

Solution to problem 2) Get over yourself. Games are a medium and as such are morally and behaviourally agnostic. If we are going to champion the good, we have to accept the bad and deal with it. Ignoring problems associated with games and gaming will ultimately allow Jack Thompson and his ilk to win.

Marc @ Jul 26th 2006 10:51AM

So, video game addiciton isn't an addiction because there isn't a chemical dependancy? Then what about a gambling addiction, or aenorexia. Neither of those have chemical dependancies and yet their still addictions. Don't be so short sighted.

Scooby Doo @ Jul 26th 2006 11:05AM

Okay so first...32_Footsteps...thanks, your post definitely made me chuckle this morning.

I'll give props to Chris for calling a spade a spade. Reading what I could of Mr. Bakker's statements ticked me off a little, but then again, he has a vested interest here. I don't know what kind of degrees the man has, if any, but equating OCD to video game 'addiction' is incredibly misleading, even if the symptoms are similar and he only mildly inferred it. An average reader might not be able to see the difference.

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder is a true psychiatric condition and not a term to throw out lightly. It also commonly requires prescription drugs for treatment and should only be diagnosed and treated by a licensed psychiatrist. A person with OCD might have some of its symptoms manifest in constant video game playing, but the root cause couldn't be treated at his clinic.

One hopes that when parents were calling, they were at least given good information and alternatives. The fact of the matter is this clinic offers a service to its clients(it actually treats eating and gambling problems as well.) However his clinic shouldn't be considered the be-all, end-all solution if you or someone you love has allowed video games to become a problem in their life. There have been long established practices for modifying destructive or addictive behaviors long before his clinic or video games have been around.

Zorak @ Jul 26th 2006 11:06AM

Exceedingly well put, DocR.

Nathan Ziarek @ Jul 26th 2006 11:10AM

I am so proud of this thread. I like reading Joystiq a lot, but I am tired of the ranting about anyone that has any negativity towards games. If Thompson is at one end of the spectrum as an irrational anti-game zealot, Joystiq, when responding to any critisism of games and gaming, is at the other end -- just as irrational, but safe, since they are "preaching to the choir."

I would have thought this thread would have been filled with folks blasting the clinic, but instead there are a wealth of people that are achknowledging that, hey, maybe this is a real problem.

Not all games deserve respect. Games, just like all modern culture (TV, movies, art, books [ha!] can instill poor values and desensitize people to hate and violence. They can also increase reflexes, provide a sense of community, entertain and educate.

I think we all need to realize that, yes, there are some objectionable aspects of games and gaming. Very few things in life are all good or all bad; most stuff falls into those grey areas...

Abbas @ Jul 26th 2006 11:16AM

I have friends that play guitars and drums 8+ hours a day. here is the music addiction clinic?

ktmracer @ Jul 26th 2006 11:29AM

Can we get a clearer picture? I really want to read the shirt.

Drew @ Jul 26th 2006 11:40AM

I have a friend who won't leave the house unless he's poked or prodded because of WoW, and the game has even bled into real life. For instance, when he went camping, he didn't bring food, apparently because in a video game you find your own food easily in a video game or just "restart." He also has problems switching from in-game insulting, which is part of the competition, to real-life healthy conversation. For instance, you'll gently rib him about something and he'll fly off the handle and say "jmn" or some other initialism.

I know it's not serious and it's not the video game's fault, but I've heard of other people who sink themselves into their video game personas, a la the book "Snow Crash." So while the idea of a Dutch call center may be slightly laughable, the notion that the word addiction will be used in relation to video games isn't unreasonable.

epobirs @ Jul 26th 2006 11:43AM

I would recommend the approach Stephen King offered in 'Quitters, Inc.'

dkh @ Jul 26th 2006 11:51AM

Well put, DocR.

Game addiction can be as real as nearly any other psychological disorder. Phobias don't require any form of drugs, nor does OCD. Conditioning, despite what A Clockwork Orange might lead you to believe, can be done without drugs.

Game addiction is, I'm willing to bet, not common. I doubt many people are incapable of putting down the controller. But that doesn't mean it can't be a very real and very serious problem. We should treat it with more respect.

Ren� Kneyber @ Jul 26th 2006 12:27PM

There's a guy in that clinic who played games for 20 hours a day, using cocaine to handle his addiction. He also used to pee in a bottle so he wouldn't have to stop..

but yeah joystiq, I bet there is no such thing as videogame addiction.

The3rdNuisance @ Jul 26th 2006 12:28PM

Please do more video game related posts, I could just ignore this, but its getting a bit ridiculous. This isn't a chemical addiction, or a physical addiction, it is a mental addiction. There will be withdrawals, just not instantly noticable. Place these addicted people in a situation that they haven't repeated over and over again, and they start to break down, going into fits of anger, sadness, or just plain illogical actions. Perhaps even harm people because of something pointless. Those people will develop these symptoms on their own eventually. But a mountain will erode to dust on its own, dynamite just makes it a hell of a lot quicker.

Scooby Doo @ Jul 26th 2006 1:02PM

I'll let Chris handle any official Joystiq response, but I don't think that he was trying to deny that video game addiction doesn't exist.

Speaking for myself, the article bothers me in its context. Smith and Jones add video game addiction to the disorders they treat, along with the PR campaign, and suddenly a problem that has existed for years gets over-zealous media attention and parents feel like their kid is 'addicted'. Addiction is another term that should not be used lightly, although I admit that we (the gaming community) joke about amongst ourselves.

I don't like half-truths. Yes, there are people out there who are addicted to video games however I've personally never seen a study that shows that people are more at risk than with any other non-chemical vice. And it's also not like the behavioral risks are significantly greater than say someone who's addicted to TV; i.e. a sex addict is at a much greater risk of STD's hence why most layman consider it a more dangerous problem.

By using blanket statements out of context, it makes it seem like there's a bigger problem than it really is. For all we know, there's more people addicted to reading and collecting comic/manga books than video games.

There are also additional factors to consider with chemical addictions and while extreme cases of non-chemical addiction can share the same symptoms, they are still only psychological ones. I believe that was Chris' intent in the heroine example.

Perhaps Mr. Bakker had more to say that better qualified his statements and I should be disappointed in the original journalist. Their web site is certainly more informative and careful in its wording. However I think the knee-jerk reaction stems more from the fact that the article makes it sounds like video game addiction is some kind of serious disorder, when the great majority of cases are probably no more serious than any other addiction.

Video games have become a scapegoat much like the Heavy Metal music in the late eighties and early nineties. As a gamer, I want to ensure that people understand the whole truth, both good and bad, not hype or false statements about the severity of the problems.

joeymazoey @ Jul 26th 2006 1:06PM

Here's the only actual shirt for sale:

http://www.pegasuspublishing.com/xcart/product.php?productid=28656&cat=0&page=1

The image is still crap, so I transcribed it at the risk of my own eyes for all of you.

The shirt is from: http://www.pegasuspublishing.com/xcart/product.php?productid=28656&cat=0&page=1

Still a crappy pic, but I'll sacrifice my eyes for all of you and try to read it:

- You have skipped many meals just trying to get to that next level
- You have never been on a sports team, yet you are champion of baseball, hockey, and basketball.
- You get excited by a rating of "[unreadable]"
- You are part of an online gaming community
- when you call your local plumber your assume that he will be Italian with a moustache and a jumpsuit
- You are more worried about breaking a finger than a leg
- You think, "Yeah, I've heard of those. They're called girls."
- You assume that your skills at driving games are enough to help you pass at the DMV.
- You look for game releases 3 years in advance and think recent games are "so last year."
- The manager of your local video game store invites you in saying, "Mi casa es su casa."
- You dream in pixels.
- You have callouses on your finger tips for life.
- You remember complicated cheat codes, but not your own phone number.
- You turn off your console and get this awful empty feeling like you just pulled the plug on a loved one.
- Whenever you unlock a door with a key you expect the key to then disappear.
- You know the difference between pressing and pushing a button and follow the directions accordingly.
- You have found your soul mate and she is a princess whose kingdom needs saving.
- You convinced your mom school is a waste of time because video games offer more opportunities for strategic and critical thinking (and you actually believe that).
- At the zoo, you wonder why all those lazy monkeys aren't climbing ladders and throwing barrels.
- Your friends would have an intervention for you, but they are too busy trying to beat your high score.

Ben18 @ Jul 26th 2006 1:09PM

I'd say my brother would appear to be extremely addicted to video games from the outsider perspective. However, in reality he has just combined many things in to one, through WoW. Rather than watching tv, he'd rather watch his monitor. Rather than talk on the phone, he'd rather use ventrillo and talk to his guild-ies. Rather than hanging out with his friends in person, they hang out on line, and when they do hang out, they just all end up bringing their comps and playing WoW anyways. While I do think it would be nice for him to have to just one more hobby, I certainly wouldn't call WoW an addiction for him, it's jsut something to do that he rates higher than tv, phone, and browsing the web.

Jay @ Jul 26th 2006 1:10PM

Scooby Doo, he did post the rhetorical questions, "Is it possible for someone to actually be addicted to video games?" with the intimation that it isn't. That is why people are responding the way they are ... just like on GameFAQs the other day when 20 people jumped in to say that depression isn't an illness, it's just weepy, emo people feeling sorry for themselves.

For a small minority, these issues are very real and have very serious consequences. Maybe he didn't mean it that way, but that is what he wrote -- he made light of people's problems just he, and most of us here, don't have that problem. I completely support his right to post it, I read it, and I'm not complaining that he wrote it -- I'm just presenting another view like everyone else here :)

The withdrawal symptoms in the case of videogames (since people are questioning whether they could possibly exist) seem to be intense irritablity, inability to focus, and outburts of anger.

epobirs @ Jul 26th 2006 1:55PM

A person can becoem obsessively attached to any activity. Something like videogame addiction as a means of social engineering was posited back in the 1920s in the original 'Buck Rogers' novel, Armageddon 2419 AD. The bad guys were depicted as keeping most of their population in a state of contented amusement that required them to never leave their apartments and do only a minor bit of work via telecommuting.

Whether this is an ill deserving a dedicated clinic and news headlines is another question entirely.

What is the videogame addict's version of methadone? A deck of cards?

Scooby Doo @ Jul 26th 2006 2:01PM

Ah...I see what you mean now Jay. I suppose I read it differently because I saw the word addiction from the eyes of two worlds: the clinical definition and the lighter slang definition that us gamers have been using for years.

When I say it as a gamer, I mean: "Your're addicted to WOW. Why don't you get outside every once in a while and see the sunshine you vampire?! (Ribs friend in chest)."

As opposed to a more clinical definition: "You've been playing that game for the past two days and you've missed work because of it. I think you need to analyze why you can't seem to quit and seek help if you can't stop."

It's just a guess, but I think Chris was thinking more in the context of the former, and as a gamer. There's a small inside joke with his rhetorical question that puts a smile on my face. I've been falsely accused of being a video game addict for quite some time, even though it has only a small impact on my personal and professional life.

However, now that you pointed it out, I could definitely see why someone would take offense. I've read things Chris has said before, and I don't think he meant any harm. Of course, we should all remember this is a Blog, and they won't always be completely 'PC'. God knows I'm one of the most blunt people on the planet and I'm very capable of insulting others without realinzing what I'm doing. :-)

Staggs @ Jul 26th 2006 7:24PM

Wow, the guy is basing his assumptions off the amount of PARENTS calling in concerned about their children being addicted? Wow.

I'm not trying to say that gaming addiction isn't a real thing (despite the fact that it doesn't really match any conventional definition of the word 'addiction'). I personally know some people who eat, sleep, talk, and dream gaming. It's all they talk about. Those are the people I would call gaming addicts. However, I'm not entirely sure I want to listen to this guy saying it's so widespread that it filled up an entire clinic. I simply don't think it's that big of a problem.

I'm sure the majority of the calls they get are parents frustrated that their children play more than an hour of games a day.

I'll be true: I play WoW. I'm friends with people who play WoW. I play it when I'm bored or have nothing else to do. That's sometimes a long period of time, and it sometimes isn't. And it's true, when I close WoW, I feel bored for the next half hour or so. I think 'What was I doing before I started playing?' and then I remember and go out and ride my bike (!), do chores (gasp!), or read (*faints*).

There is a pretty strict definition of the word 'addiction.' It's not a word to throw around lightly. And I'm sure there's a very blurry line between what a parent thinks of their child's hobbies becuase of the so-called 'media,' and what addiction actually is.