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Government Medicine Games

WHO Officially Classifies 'Gaming Disorder' As An Illness (cnet.com) 205

Posted by EditorDavid from the joyless-joysticks dept.
Saturday the World Health Organization officially adopted the latest update to its International Classification of Diseases (ICD) -- and added "gaming disorder" to its list of modern diseases.

It's in a list of harmful behaviors which also includes too much use of "the internet, computers, smartphones." Despite opposition from trade groups, which reportedly pointed to contradictory research on the subject and touted some of the virtues of video games, the latest ICD was officially approved at the 72nd World Health Assembly.... It's described as "a pattern of persistent or recurrent gaming behavior, which may be online or offline, manifested by impaired control over gaming, increasing priority given to gaming to the extent that gaming takes precedence over other life interests and daily activities and continuation or escalation of gaming despite the occurrence of negative consequences."

The issue of gaming addiction isn't new: The American Psychiatric Association still has it listed as up for discussion (PDF) in the latest version of its diagnostic bible, the DSM-5.
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WHO Officially Classifies 'Gaming Disorder' As An Illness More

WHO Officially Classifies 'Gaming Disorder' As An Illness

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  • Awesome. Next step, SSDI. (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Step after that: Suing to force the government to pay for my Steam bills through Medicaid.

  • Life is meaningless. (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 26, 2019 @08:53PM (#58659818)

    We just do our thing and then we die. And that's it.

    Some people smoke. Some people mate. Some people get trapped in dead-end jobs. Some people get fat. And some people game.

    And they all die.

    I don't see why gaming is something to be afraid of.

    • Re:Life is meaningless. (Score:4, Insightful)

      by rtb61 ( 674572 ) on Monday May 27, 2019 @01:08AM (#58660676) Homepage

      Excessive gaming is a problem and there is no denying it. The reality is though excessive gaming is not the diesease it is simply a symptom of the diesease. The predatory nature of psychopathic capitalism is driving people to escape the abuse, whether it be drugs or gaming, it is much the same thing, for those who can not cope, the need to escape from the cruel and abusive nature of the societies of which they do not feel a part, just it's victims.

      Want less of a problem, eat the rich and create healthier societies ie it is better that the psychopaths currently in charge be made miserable (not being able to fuck with people's lives to feed the egos of the psychopaths) in mental health institutions for the incurable that they rest of humanity continue to suffer.

      These kind of illnesses are a measure of the unhealthiness of our societies, rather than an unhealthiness of those individuals, they are the canaries in the mine and we should be paying attention to why are ill and curing our societies rather than it's victims.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Kjella ( 173770 )

        Excessive gaming is a problem and there is no denying it. The reality is though excessive gaming is not the diesease it is simply a symptom of the diesease. The predatory nature of psychopathic capitalism is driving people to escape the abuse, whether it be drugs or gaming, it is much the same thing, for those who can not cope, the need to escape from the cruel and abusive nature of the societies of which they do not feel a part, just it's victims.

        Perhaps. But if you see the diagnostic system as a tool to prescribe treatments you might have to detox someone physically high on drugs differently from a gaming addict. It can also be to get public health data on how many suffer from alcoholism in particular and if the gaming industry should start to see regulation of loot boxes and other addictive/gambling elements. Same goes for a diagnosis like depression, more granularity into why people get depressed could be useful. Of course the individual story is

      • The reality is though excessive gaming is not the disease it is simply a symptom of the disease.

        Not quite. A disease is a disorder in the function or structure of a living thing. As such excessive gaming is actually a brain disease and deserves that classification along with every other addiction. While I appreciate the thought, the causes you listed which lead to addiction are not classifiable as diseases.

        This is much the same way as bacterial conjunctivitis is a disease but Staphylococcus (the most common bacteria to cause the disease) is not.

      • Want less of a problem, eat the rich

        Ah, cannibalism, is there a single ill of the modern world you cannot cure? World hunger? Just eat your neighbours. Capitalism? Just eat the rich. Pollution? Just eat about 2/3rds of the world, and we'll have less pollution. If you love your fellow man, then eat him.

        The predatory nature of psychopathic capitalism is driving people to escape the abuse, whether it be drugs or gaming, it is much the same thing, for those who can not cope, the need to escape from the cruel a

        • $ echo "10 minutes in an online game community should teach you that everyone else in the room is really there to work out their own little stresses on other people in an abusive as possible fashion." | sed s/game\ // | cut -d\ -f26-34 --complement > dog 2>&1 && echo '.' >> dog && tr -d '\n' cat && echo `cat cat` && shred -u dog cat

          • I love HTML space handling. Fixed:

            $ echo "10 minutes in an online game community should teach you that everyone else in the room is really there to work out their own little stresses on other people in an abusive as possible fashion." | sed s/game\ // | cut -d' ' -f26-34 --complement > dog 2>&1 && echo '.' >> dog && tr -d '\n' < dog > cat && echo `cat cat` && shred -u dog cat

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by MrL0G1C ( 867445 )

        It's called escapism, people have crappy lives and use the distraction of games to get away from it all.

        Pinning this down to games is pointless and ignores the causes - we live in a dog eat dog world and some people can't cope.

        • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

          by serviscope_minor ( 664417 )

          Pinning this down to games is pointless and ignores the causes

          Almost any blanket statement will greatly oversimplify a situation.

          Some people have addictive personalities and are liable to get addicted to almost anything. Some people seem more or less immune to addiction. Most people exist on a continuum between the two ends. You can't, for example, blame tobacco entirely on external causes, nicotine has been shown to be a very addictive substance. That doesn't preclude external factors (e.g. personality, so

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by MrL0G1C ( 867445 )

            Fair enough it is complicated.

            Nicotine -I don't think nicotine addiction is in the same ball park.

            But maybe WHO are wrong about whether or not people are making the choice to play games too much and are focusing too much on the game aspect and not looking at the situation holistically.

            • Nicotine -I don't think nicotine addiction is in the same ball park.

              No but it's a good analogy. Physiologically it's fiercely addictive, but the smoking rates are also heavily modulated by a huge variety of factors.

            • Fair enough it is complicated.

              Nicotine -I don't think nicotine addiction is in the same ball park.

              Convince me you've carefully considered the effects on dopamine levels, and I'll believe you have an opinion on the subject of addiction.

              Without that, my presumption is that you only have a philosophical determination that you brought with you to the subject.

            • Nicotine -I don't think nicotine addiction is in the same ball park.

              It is and it isn't, because smokers suffer from two different addictions at once. The first is the chemical dependency on nicotine, and yeah, there's not a lot of overlap between that and gaming addiction. The second is the mental addiction, the same sort gamblers might have, or sex addicts might have -- an addiction to the high they get when partaking. Do it enough and it changes the mental wiring to make relapses easier, to make the addiction stronger, to require more frequent or more intense highs. That

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by MrL0G1C ( 867445 )

            PS, don't get me wrong about the gambling mechanic being introduced into games, I totally think those should be regulated or flat out banned. But I don't think it will be straight forwards regulating loot boxes and microtransactions, I fully expect the gaming industry to try to introduce loop-hopes or use sneaky work-arounds etc.

            • PS, don't get me wrong about the gambling mechanic being introduced into games, I totally think those should be regulated or flat out banned. But I don't think it will be straight forwards regulating loot boxes and microtransactions, I fully expect the gaming industry to try to introduce loop-hopes or use sneaky work-arounds etc.

              Yes, I expect you're right. There's a lot of money to be made in gambling and some of the game companies want that money. They will do everything they can to avoid regulation. And r

          • You make a good point there: There're some games that make use of psycological tricks to get people to keep coming back for more and to spend as much money as possible. Obvious ones are some of the free-to-play kind since they obviously have to make money from means different than a one-time sale.
            I only play games that require one-time payment (the "classic" sale model) and that don't benefit from buying additional elements (save for history-extending DLC).
            That doesn't mean that I won't get addicted but m

          • Medical professionals pathologize everything they can get away with because it adds to their power. That's their nature.

      • In 24 AD there was this Roman Centurion who was addicted to masturbating. His name was... well we don't know what his name was because nobody knows or cares what he did in his spare time.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by kubajz ( 964091 )
      We just do our thing and then we die. And that's it. Some people drink and drive. Some people do drugs and beat others. Some people lie to get elected. And some people kill for money. And they all die. I don't see why killing for money is something to be afraid of.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      I'd rather die in comfort or suddenly, than die a slow agonizing death after decades of ill health due to smoking an cancer.

      Clearly there is a qualitative difference between all these things.

      • Then you're in luck, with today's medicine you will know that you have cancer and are in for a slow, agonizing death while you're still strong enough to put a gun to your head and pull the trigger.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

          Luckily guns are hard to come by here, but we could certainly use some assisted dying.

          That all rather misses the point though. Most people prefer being alive to being dead, and prefer being healthy to being weak and in pain.

          • I'm absolutely certain that pretty much all cancer patients would prefer to be healthy rather than weak and in pain, but most of them didn't exactly choose this...

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

              Okay, but what is your actual point?

              • That you usually don't get to choose how you're going to die, unless you kill yourself, so what's YOUR point?

                • Re: (Score:2)

                  by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

                  I don't think that's true. Okay maybe you can't choose the precise moment and manner, but if you set yourself up to be in a good situation then the odds of going quietly in your sleep or in the place of your choosing are decent.

                  While I do fully support the right to end your own life and to get assistance to do it... Wait, I've forgotten what this thread was even about.

                  • The point, I think, was that all people die, what matters is how.

                    Personally I want to die peacefully in my sleep like my grandpa. Not screaming and flailing like his passengers.

                  • I've heard people using the following rationale for smoking/drinking/etc: So I won't live to be 90. Who the fuck wants to be alive at 90 anyway? Everyone who makes it to that age is miserable with a broken-down body anyway. So why not enjoy a shorter life than live a longer, less enjoyable where the last 20 years are misery anyway?

                    The rationale is that extremely old age sucks and isn't worth living.

      • Perhaps, but I'm curious about the rate of cross-addiction between sugar and gaming.

        Heavy consumption of Earth Sugardrink causes very similar rates of suffering to smoking.

        In my observation, people are rarely actually talking about the game they're addicted to when they talk about preferring to "die in comfort;" they're almost always making excuses about something they're bodily consuming that doesn't kill you suddenly at all, but rather makes the latter decades of your life awful.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by sad_ ( 7868 )

      this is for those people who game and forget about everything else, including taking care of themselves.
      that includes; eating, sleeping, hygiene care, social contact, etc.
      i gamed a lot when i was a kid, but i was not that far gone that i forgot to eat or wash myself and put on fresh clothes.
      unfortunately, there people in that state, and for those it is a real problem.

      but, to be fair, these people could have this issue with anything, there are probably people who have a netflix/youtube/social media disorder

      • but, to be fair, these people could have this issue with anything, there are probably people who have a netflix/youtube/social media disorder or what ever silly thing you can come up with. the actual problem is not the thing they do, but why they do it. the gaming/netflixing/... is just a means.

        It all depends on if they can engineer those other things to create the same dopamine response that leads to addiction. If games can use the psychology known from gambling to do that, and youtube can't, then they're not at all comparable.

        You seem to have reached a conclusion on that without having any data at all. Your cart is in front of your horse.

    • Anything that gets in the way of maximizing your potential as a consumer is bad.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Trogre ( 513942 )

      Only on /. would such nihilistic twaddle get so heavily up-voted.

  • Great! (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Computer gaming is already considered a sport!

  • Excellent (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Can I get a restraining order against fortnite, please?

    • No, I'm sure the gin rummy and whist aficionados will be grandfathered in along with pool/billiard/snooker addicts

  • Sure (Score:1, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward

    But wanting to chop-off your dick is not mental illness? Excuse me while I tell WHO to fuck themselves.

  • I get really nauseous when I try playing FPS games for more than a few minutes. It's a horrible disease because I used to love them as a kid, growing up on Wolfenstein 3D and Doom I / II.

    • Go back and play wolfenstein and doom again... Might just be today's graphics that screw with you. Gameplay makes the game, not pretty graphics anyway.

    • If I wanted to play a FPS I'd probably still rather just play a few minutes of Duke Nukem.

      If I wanted it to have realistic graphics, I'd go to a laser tag arena to play FPS.

      Think about what you really want from the game, and what you were really getting from Wolfenstein 3D. Do the differences between the new games and the old games actually enhance what you were getting from the old games? Or is something different?

      If it is different, just seek it elsewhere.

  • Back when I was a greaser in the Big City, we suffered different conniptions. Fashionable in the time of street gangs and switchblades our dilemma was dramatized on stage and in theater by the West Side Story, specifically in the song Dear Officer Krupke. Here's a taste:

    Riff (Sings)
    My daddy beats my mommy,
    My mommy clobbers me.
    My grandpa is a Commie,
    My grandma pushes tea.
    My sister wears a mustache,
    My brother wears a dress.
    Goodness gracious, that's why I'm a mess!

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]

  • Everything is a disorder (Score:5, Insightful)

    by SirAstral ( 1349985 ) on Sunday May 26, 2019 @09:56PM (#58660046)

    This is getting insane, the human body and brain is an addiction machine. Anything can become a disorder because of it. In most cases obesity is an eat disorder. Drink too much alcohol, that's a disorder. Anything we do that is detrimental to our health is a disorder whether we admit it or not. The problem is that some disorders are more risky than others.

    The mind is constantly craving input and how it makes the decision for what input to seek is dependent upon it's experiences. Even food has this function. You start on a diet that is common in your neck of the woods and you tastes and microbiome in your gut will produce enzymes that encourages you to keep eating the same things because those food promote their life cycles. Candida has over 20 types of strains and many of them feed well on sugars. There is a reason some are saying sugar is as addictive as cocaine.

    Video games provide this same function, really all forms of entertain do this. But what is interesting is that they have not classified sports watchers as being a disorder too. Likely because video games can be played all the time while normal sports watchers have to wait until teams play so they probably go under reported. But there are people that still mismanage their sports fanaticism and still harm their marriages, jobs, and social standing.

    All things in moderation, including moderation. Going overboard every once in a while by small margins is usually okay. Just don't do something stupid like drinking and driving. Or in this case, playing video games until you ruin your life!

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by antdude ( 79039 )

      When will they say /. is also a disorder? :P

    • someone decided to redefine the meaning of addiction from something meaningful to any accusation under the sun.

      Addiction is just another bullshit term these days.

      • Addiction is just another bullshit term these days.

        Have you ever paused to wonder why you have such a strong reaction to the word, even before considering the details of their analysis?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by mjwx ( 966435 )

      This is getting insane, the human body and brain is an addiction machine. Anything can become a disorder because of it. In most cases obesity is an eat disorder. Drink too much alcohol, that's a disorder. Anything we do that is detrimental to our health is a disorder whether we admit it or not. The problem is that some disorders are more risky than others.

      Don't worry. The WHO has well and truly discredited itself as an authoritative source for health professionals after they tried to put bacon in with cigarettes. Sure bacon isn't that healthy, but it's nowhere near as bad as cigarettes.

      They're just trying to live off an old reputation, a lot like the various NCAP organisation (EuroNCAP, ANCAP). They used to be a good indicator of if a car was safe, but now just hand out points for warning bleeps, buzzers and warbles that you could get an unsafe car throug

  • Now I can officially claim victim status.
  • RISE UP
  • WHO classified gaming as a disorder?
  • I see people spending hours every day figuring that their side's team of crack investigators, and their sides people in Washington, will finally bring down, and bring to justice, the other side. Rather like an addictive walking simulator, where there are clues scattered around to solve what the frack went on. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org] "Walking simulators, or environmental narrative games, are narrative games that generally eschew any type of gameplay outside of movement and environmental interact

  • I stopped buying lotto tickets, and bingo games, and put the money into Bitcoin instead.

    Yeah, it's high risk, but the payout has been great over the last 3 years.

  • So... (Score:3)

    by LordHighExecutioner ( 4245243 ) on Monday May 27, 2019 @01:59AM (#58660796)
    ...does posting as AC on Slashdot qualifies as gaming disorder ?!?

  • I have a different illness, I suffer from Book Addiction, I read too many books and newspapers.

    PS. Kids, newspapers were some sort of papery blogs.

    • Comment removed based on user account deletion

      • Or just sleep in the alley behind the library, and live the Good Life reading all day.

        • "Or just sleep in the alley behind the library, and live the Good Life reading all day."

          I got kindle unlimited, it's easier on the old bones than rough-sleeping behind the library.

      • "If your daily routine suffer from it, it might indeed be a disorder. e.g. if you read and not get enough sleep because of it and thus your work suffers and you lose your job and still keeep reading, and are unable to cut down on the reading, then yes, that is a disorder and you need to talke somebody about it."

        Thankfully I'm retired, so I'll just keep reading, at least until this 1000 page sucker is finished.

  • If it gets into DSM, they can't fire you for fucking around on the Internet at work!

    Ain't legislation without Congressional approval grand! This ain't even the sophistry of the executive branch creating regulations as part of "executing the law."

    • If it gets into DSM, they can't fire you for fucking around on the Internet at work!

      But that's the issue and the debate --- it ALREADY IS in the DSM, just not the way some people want it. Mostly it's because of money.

      Compulsive behavior disorders are already covered, but they are covered in abstract terms. It doesn't matter what the compulsion is, it can be a compulsion to pick at the skin, a compulsion to pull hair, a compulsion to shop, a compulsion to wash hands, order things, count things, repeat words, or anything else.

      The generic requirements are quite comprehensive. Recurrent th

  • This world is completely off the rocks.

  • WHO Officially Classifies 'Gaming Disorder' As An Illness

    Good question.

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