The Logic Behind Gaming as a Disease

[ZOOMAR]

I know its a week old, but I barely read the article.

The article appears to be among the most profound and utterly stupid moments in history. Gaming as a disease? Gaming is a hobby, and to call it a disease will naturally enrage the community that has evolved around it. Why on earth would they try to call our hobby a disease?

There's lots of answers. Because they're stupid. Because they're afraid. Because they don't understand. But here's an answer that best fits the question.

So they can treat it.

Think about it. If gaming remained a hobby, then it is our right to be able to buy and play these games. It wouldn't be constitutional to try and restrict one of our liberties merely because some extremist christian group doesn't agree with it. But if it was a disease, then they can push out ANYTHING they want to CURE it. Pharmaceutical companies and "doctors" would have a field day pushing out pills, powders, and fluids to "treat" the disease. Tack on the fear parents have of electronics and the growing "epidemic" of young gamers, and you have one huge market to exploit.

This has happened before. Attention Deficit Disorder, commonly known as ADD, has symptoms so vague and commonly misunderstand that any doctor could diagnose any child with one personality problem and not raise any eyebrows. Better evidence would be to ask anyone diagnosed with ADD what symptoms they have, and it'll be unlikely that they exactly know, and yet most have been prescribed pill after pill to help them with their "disease."

Well thats my two cents on the whole gaming as a disease thing. Conspiracy theory? Unlikely. I'm not one to really believe that a small group of evil men in suits run the world. However, if that bill does make it through Congress (and it just might), I won't be surprised if VGame-Ritalin rolls onto the shelves.

 

[LinksOcarina]

Thats like saying they can cure people from being gay though. It is the treatment of something a group considers is a disease, when in reality it is nothing of the sort, just a group of pleople claiming they can treat something they don't fully understand in the end.

 

[Ted Wolff]

I think you're getting a bit ahead of yourself there, pal.

There's no bill being pushed through Congress to declare gaming a disease. The American Medical Association was just convening on whether or not to recommend to the American Psychiatrics Association to include excessive gaming as a disease in their next revision of the DSM-IV, a huge honkin' diagnostic manual.

 

[UrbanMasque]

there are bigger issues in the world - rather than deciding if gaming is a disease... these bureaucratic idiots need to do something that matters.


"Let the kids play"

 

[LinksOcarina]

Thats why there bureaucratic idiots though.

 

[UrbanMasque]

...good point.

 

[Ted Wolff]

As I said, it is the American Medical Association that was pushing for gaming addiction to be declared as a disease. Well, let me cite a psychology textbook I own, titled "Drugs, Behavior, and Modern Society":

"Since 1957, the American Medical Association has defined alcoholism as a disease... As reasonable as this position might sound, the disease concept has created something of a dilemma among professionals concerned with the treatment of alcohol abuse. It places the burden on physicians to deal with the alcoholic through medical interventions, and unfortunately the medical profession is frequently ill equipped to help. A study in 2000, for example, found that 94 percent of a group of primary care physicians failed to make a correct diagnosis of early-stage alcohol abuse when presented with symptoms typical of this condition. Only a small percentage, approximately one out of five, considered themselves "very prepared" to diagnose alcoholism in the first place."

If alcoholism has been defined since 1957 and still cannot be diagnosed and treated adequately, how can the AMA expect to do so with video game addiction--especially when the effects of video game addiction have hardly been studied, and especially when a video game addiction cannot even be defined (It's defined as "excessive" gaming, but what's excessive?).

The AMA certainly jumped the gun like a pubescent teen on this one, but at least they've held off recommending video game addiction to be declared a disease, retreating to study the matter further.

 

[Padain]

AMA ended up saying it wasn't, so no big deal

 

[LinksOcarina]

It kind of is, it's like saying that Drinking is bad but failing to pass prohibition, maybe not on a great scale as the real Prohibition, but still the very notion that was once there is troubling.