Playing Videogames is Like Snorting Coke, Says Therapist

[katsabas]

So, video games can kill you? Did not know that.

 

[drkchmst]

Man if video games are like coke, i have one hell of a high tolerance to coke guess I should find a better drug of choice

 

[Natdaprat]

This is a huge scapegoat to take the blame off of parents. It also undermines the real threat of REAL drugs.

I live in Lancashire, and it's retarded doctors like this that make me shameful sometimes.

 

[Dr. Paine]

You can't compare highs between Coke and ANYTHING. Good science, Mr. therapist. Its almost as if this guy has never heard of Dopamine.
To explain, your brain gives off Dopamine when it gets happy - simply put. COCAINE chemically forces you to OVERPRODUCE Dopamine production, making you high. Things that aren't chemical cannot do that.
Just... Here:

Spoiler

Holy smokes.

Time to try meth.

I know right?! Fuck sex, do meth!
I wonder where Tetris ranks on this graph.

I read this as 'do math'...

I think I was up too late playing my -gasp- VIDEO GAME.

I've stopped taking this sort of thing seriously, I just wait for new ways to laugh.

 

[cathou]

A childhood friend of mine was addicted to coke up till last october and I can tell that this person has never seen or experienced, either first or second-hand, effects of cocaine.

That being said, people need to WAKE UP about the nature of videogames and sites such as The Escapist should try to have more(than half a paragraph of)insight into videogame topics instead of automatically trying to shoot down or ridicule any report that shows the nastier aspects of gaming.
The bottom line is: VIDEO GAMES ARE ADDICTIVE TO MANY MANY PEOPLE and unlike previous generations, today's children have much more and stronger exposure to video games and multimedia. What needs to emphasized is not how much videogames(and t.v. and the internet)are going to wreck your life if you play them, but rather how much they can affect people of all ages if they are allowed to run your life. After all, those people spending 12+ hours on internet and videogames did not start playing 12+ from the very beginning.

Stop the fucking press, we've hit the mother lode!

[HEADING=2]14-YEAR-OLD BOY DID NOT BEHAVE![/HEADING]
Read all about it!

People are in denial if they believe that spending 24 straight hours without drink or food is misbehaving. STOP DOWNPLAYING THE EFFECTS OF VIDEOGAMES ON PEOPLE, that is a full force addiction.

P.S. Sorry about caps, I don't know how to underline/bold on these forums.

True, games can be addictive and some people really have trouble with compulsive video gaming. But this article, is flawed and it's just a big

[http://img265.imageshack.us/i/51bbj3ggrylsl500aa300.jpg/]

And in the under 10 age group, a staggering four out of five children play computer games at levels showing signs of addiction

4 out of 5 kids under 10 is playing to addiction level ? first, i highly doubt the numbers, since they never say what is exactly playing to addictive levels. of for thoses kids that are that extreme with their games, what the parents do ? they are under 10 years old !

I am working with one family where a 74-year-old grandmother is addicted to online poker, her daughter is addicted to eBay and has bought 270 pairs of shoes and her grand-daughter is addicted to Facebook.

i,m sorry but that part is misleading. it's like if i was alchoolic, and that i get drunk every night playing on a xbox, and that i claim that i'm addicted to videogames.

tyhe 74 old lady have a gambling problem clearly. it's not playing that she's addictied to, it's to win money, it's just that instead of doing it in a casino, she now do it on the net.

her daughter is clearly a compulsive buyer. you dont buy 270 pair of shoes, because you're addicted to ebay, she would have buy them on a store if ebay didnt exist. and her dauther well, she's a teen, she's a compulsive texter like half the teens now, and it's not a video game problem, because facebook is not a videogame.


They talk about expert and studies, but dont give any source, except for that guy, who live and make money by treating addictions...

 

[WolfThomas]

I want to see a systematic review, published in a reputable medical/psychological journal, which shows what methods were used to obtain their results before I will believe a word of this article which has only been written because of it's headline.

 

[MiracleOfSound]

Field report:

Having been forcibly removed from my Xbox 360 for the last 3 days due to illness, and having Red Dead Redemption half finished, I can safely say that coming off gaming is nothing like coming off an addictive substance.

 

[Polock]

Some of you seem confused guys. The therapist is not compareing gaming and coke's lethality. She/He is comparing the addictiveness.

That being said....Yes. Parents.

 

[Jim Grim]

If that's the best cocaine can do I don't think it's worth the risk, to be honest.

 

[ryai458]

someone obviously hasn't done drugs..
Or IS doing them, either way moron.

 

[GideonB]

Some of you seem confused guys. The therapist is not compareing gaming and coke's lethality. She/He is comparing the addictiveness.

That being said....Yes. Parents.

Ok. This is probably the best explanation, but it's just scaremongering saying it's like snorting coke. Every parent now who heard about that is probably now shitting themselves going OMG I GAVE MY CHILD COKE WITHOUT KNOWING WTF AM I GONNA DO? probably only read that title. Seriously, moderation. That's why parents are there. They need to make sure that their child doesn't spend too much time on their console. Also I like how it was called a "game station". I'm pretty sure thats a shop in the UK xD

 

[Warachia]

actually I would say these can all lead to a higher chance of obesity not obesity itself (cant we just call it fat or is that an american thing?)

Games therefore are a hobby in which we spend our time sitting in a chair so would lead to obesity sooner then say a hobby like rock climbing, but hey so does playing chess.
that said I do agree on your points and believe you are spot on.

What anoys me is that people actually believe this kind of shit! How does COD equal whisky! how! everything in copious amounts is bad for you (name me one thing that isnt and you get a cookie)

something that does not lead to obesity? I'm sure someone said this but CELERY! You lose more calories than you gain simply by eating it, and no that is not a fable 2 joke, it is an actual fact.

Now give me my cookie.

 

[Warachia]

If this is true, then what about Yahtzee? Playing games is his job! Somehow, I really doubt that he's like a crack addict...

Why can't these asshole just leave us gamers alone? How many off the wall ass ties can they make before they finally move on? Now they're calling us drug addicts... What's next?

"Up next, Gaming: A humble pastime? Or a direct line to SATAN?"

actually, they already did that, because I cna't find the video quickly, and don't know how to link, an evangelist already preached to hundreds of people that video games are the key to hell. Look it up if you want, it's called pokepower

 

[Tetsuhara]

It's just the same old, same old again.

I remember reading how 'studies' conducted in the 1940's and early '50's showed that addiction to comic books lead to delinquent behavior and violence.

And a bit more recently how Dungeons and Dragons lead to addiction and deranged behavior and death by suicide.

It always seems that the word 'addiction' gets tossed in whenever so-called 'experts' discuss a popular or enjoyable activity that people become involved in that doesn't fit what is considered to be normal and acceptable.

Because there's always going to be people of any age that want to act out or do something different, there's always going to be something new to blame for it. And this has been going on for centuries.

Heck, back in the 19th century, some newspaper critics stated that the mass printing of cheap dimestore novels would lead to an unhealthy attraction to poorly written material and lower education standards by keeping people from enjoying 'true literature'. So it's always going to be SOMETHING.

 

[Requx]

It's funny how addicting pressing buttons that do things is. So what I am going to do is spend 2 hours pressing the handicapped button on doors at grocery stores instead of buying coke... and eventually I'll have a very strong addiction.

 

[Snor]

actually I would say these can all lead to a higher chance of obesity not obesity itself (cant we just call it fat or is that an american thing?)

Games therefore are a hobby in which we spend our time sitting in a chair so would lead to obesity sooner then say a hobby like rock climbing, but hey so does playing chess.
that said I do agree on your points and believe you are spot on.

What anoys me is that people actually believe this kind of shit! How does COD equal whisky! how! everything in copious amounts is bad for you (name me one thing that isnt and you get a cookie)

something that does not lead to obesity? I'm sure someone said this but CELERY! You lose more calories than you gain simply by eating it, and no that is not a fable 2 joke, it is an actual fact.

Now give me my cookie.

I said copious amounts of anything is bad for you. celery costs more calories than you gain so eating only celery would be very bad for you as you dont gain enough calories.

but you get a cookie anyway because of the attempt

 

[Monshroud]

I don't think they testing 2 hours of grinding quests in WoW to Cocaine, because there is no high in quest grinding...

Also, I love how there is a Mom out there that purposefully bought their child a game that was rated "M" Why don't you just buy your kid some porn and guns while you are out.

I would also like to see the studies that show these people didn't have an addictive personality to start with. There # of people who are addicted to games is quite small, just like the people who are addicted to alcohol is quite small. Besides, it is the parents job to monitor what their kids are doing, how the hell did a parent let their kid play a game for over 24 hours straight? Just shows how busy they were not paying attention to him/her.

 

[Fensfield]

This idiot's just chiming into something we've always known; drugs, music, film, games, and anything else you enjoy lights the pleasure centres in your brain.

This is one prat that's obviously just out to light controversy by making a comparison that's as irrelevant as it is true -.-