Playing Videogames is Like Snorting Coke, Says Therapist

[Terramax]

Well this is my chuckle for the day.

Even professional athletes are struggling with the negative affects of gaming addiction. "Many footballers are playing on hand-held consoles and computer games before a game and this is resulting in a natural high which is causing a chemical imbalance which is leading to them not performing their best on the pitch," Pope explained. "I am the psychotherapist for Fleetwood Town and they ban their players from using any form of console for at least 24 hours before a game."

I really wanna know what professional athletes they're talking about here. a.) because there needs to be evidence and b.) I so wanna hear it being someone like Wayne Rooney. Picture him and the rest of Man U trading pokemon in the changing rooms before a live game.

Also, if games really do give you a high as much as cocaine, then I'm guessing that stuff isn't as addictive as I was lead to believe it was.

 

[Rofl-Mayo]

I have friends who are addicted to games and friends who are addicted to drugs like cocaine and crack and I'm just gonna say this: The therapist who said this is EFFIN IDIOT! In comparison drugs are a LOT worse!

 

[Wicky_42]

Oh? So that's why I feel high after playing games for 2 hours. This totally makes since now!

but seriously, does anyone here actually get high off games? if so I'd like to know how please.

Yeah, I've had rushes of endorphins and adrenaline off games. Some moments in Prototype got the adrenaline going, completing Zelda: Ocarina of Time was an epic moment for 10 year old me - hell, my parents came in to watch the final boss battle! Doing particularly well in online FPSes has given me rushes in the past - you know, those moments when you're behind the enemy team and manage to drop five of them with a single mag or make a fluky kill streak. Feels good (heh)...

 

[robandall]

Playing Videogames is Like Snorting Coke

Oh SHIT, really? F*ck I can't wait to get back and fire up my 360! Not sure how I'm gonna handle work tomorrow with a come down though.

 

[Continuity]

afraid of what they don't understand... how predictable.

 

[antipunt]

The article went from 'shaky with a few good points' to 'laughable' as it progressed. Its points chronologically worsening:

"Three out of five kids under the age of 16 play games to the point that it's cause for concern, the report said, while four out of five under the age of ten play games "at levels showing signs of addiction." "

Oh dear. Hmm...maybe this article has some points. Gaming -can- definitely turn into some form of addiction or another, particularly for certain types of people. Let's see what else it has to say...

""Spending two hours on a game station is equivalent to taking a line of cocaine in the high it produces,""

Hmm...well.. OK...I would've preferred that he use the word 'similar to' instead of 'equivalent'...If it really were 'equivalent' to drug addiction, we'd all be needing suboxone or rehab centers...

""Computer game addiction can also spiral into violence as after playing violent games, they may turn their fantasy games into reality.""

OK..wai..wait, let's hold on a second here...that's far from fact

"And it's not just children who are being victimized. Pope said that he is currently working with a 74-year-old grandmother who's addicted to online poker, her daughter, who's addicted to eBay and her granddaughter, who is addicted to Facebook. "

What the .. -hell-. Hold on, those -aren't- video games!

"a natural high which is causing a chemical imbalance which is leading to them not performing their best on the pitch," Pope explained. "I am the psychotherapist for Fleetwood Town and they ban their players from using any form of console for at least 24 hours before a game.""

ಠ_ಠ

 

[Rect Pola]

Has no one considered that there some PEOPLE are the issue, as opposed to arguing all games are the problem. What happened to the concept of someone having an "addictive personality"? There are people who can't/won't break from the fiction they see in movies. And let's not forget stories of people so absorbed they neglect others or themselves to the point of starvation. Would they call that a natural reaction that can happen to anybody?

 

[Jroo wuz heer]

This just in: videogames cause cancer, DUI, terrorism, and liver failure
also, playing videogames while pregnant

Spoiler: are you ready for this?

will cause the world to be enveloped in the sun

"Many footballers... not performing their best on the pitch,"
why would a football team hire a psychiatrist that gets football and baseball confused?

 

[cathou]

Spoiler: lot of stuff

He's so right!.I totally attacked three cops, tore out my fingernails, got a nosebleed, and tackled a horse after my last Contra session

remember back when Dungeons & Dragons was the most controversial game ever made? People have and always will be stupid and uninformed.

time to read a chick comic strip to remember what D&D really is, since it got as much credibility as this study...
http://www.chick.com/reading/tracts/0046/0046_01.asp

To quote from their "Straight Talk on D and D":

Dungeons and Dragons is a tragic and tangled subject. It is essentially a feeding program for occultism and witchcraft. For Christians, the first scriptural problem is the fact that Dungeons and Dragons violates the commandment of I Ths. 5:22 "Abstain from all appearance of evil." Much of the trappings, art, figurines, and writing within D&D certainly appears evil-to say the least of it.

On top of that, the second issue is that the materials themselves, in many cases, contain authentic magical rituals. I can tell you this from my own experience. I was a witch high priest (Alexandrian tradition) during the period 1973-84. During some of that period (1976-80) I was also involved in hardcore Satanism. We studied and practiced and trained more than 175 people in the Craft. Our "covendom" was in Milwaukee, Wisconsin; just a short drive away from the world headquarters of TSR, the company which makes Dungeons and Dragons in Lake Geneva, WI. In the late 1970's, a couple of the game writers actually came to my wife and I as prominent "sorcerers" in the community. They wanted to make certain the rituals were authentic. For the most part, they are.

So, DnD is "a feeding program for occultism and witchcraft" that teaches one in the art of witchcraft and wizardry? I'm not sure if rolling a d20 counts as casting a spell IRL guys...
(I'll be honest, I stopped reading any further than I quoted - I have never DnD'd but GOD was that article hateful)

I dread to think what these people would say about gaming :S

yeah but remember that that Schnoebelen guy claim that he was a vampire with demonic powers in the 70's (i must guess he gain "powers" by smoking some unknowned substance...)

and somehow i doubt he know that pong is not the only video game on the market...

 

[StrangerQ]

This is absolute BBBBBBBBBBSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

R-R-R-R-R-R-R-AAAAAAAAAAAGE

 

[V8 Ninja]

The Lancashire Evening Post [http://www.lep.co.uk/lifestyle/gaming_addiction_grips_youngsters_1_773488] has apparently "discovered" that hordes of young children have become dangerously addicted to videogames and that more and more are "seeking professional help after becoming hooked on the fantasy word of console games."

Does that mean PC gamers are Okay? =D

OT: Umm...how are they the same again? Last time I remember, coke can kill you while video games can't. And most of the kids are using video games as a scapegoat for all their problems in life even though they're the ones responsible for making their lives miserable. Yeah, the parents have to help out a lot during the early years, but most times it's a child's fault that he didn't pass that math test.

 

[CrazyGirl17]

(Facepalms) ...Okay, seriously? When will people learn that just blaming stuff for their kid's behavior instead of actually doing something about it won't help?

 

[tendo82]

This study paints cocaine in an unfair light. Obviously cocaine is waay more thrilling than any video game could ever hope to be. I mean hot girls and gunz come with cocaine special editions (read 1 kilo). Screw the night vision goggles.

The bottom line is this: until I see a video game player willing to provide sexual favors on a street corner for more time playing video games, cocaine wins the thrilling and addictive battle here.

 

[Hithlain]

If it does affect people like this guy says that it does, I would take it with a grain of salt. I can play poker but I don't sit around playing it all day. I can drink but I am not an alcoholic. The problem is that some people have triggers for obsessive behavior. Those sort of people would get addicted to video games and would not eat so they could play more. Those people who do not have the trigger will get up after 2 hours and go do some chores or whatever.

It's wrong to blame videogames for what is essentially an individual's mental problem. I don't blame playing cards for gambling problems.

 

[tehbeard]

Yes because I regularly cut my controller into fine lines and inhale it...

 

[Kris015]

And yet i'm still alive.

 

[coolman9899]

see what cod does to people guys it ruins lives


btw that was a joke

OT: total BS you dont see me spending a thousand dollars a week on videogames I think that this "therapist" should be drop-kicked in to a pile of CRACK since he LOVES IT SOOOO MUCH

 

[Kris015]

That's gotta be the worst therapist ever.

Someone please take his license away from him

By license, you mean life, right?

(sorry, but i had to do that)

 

[jjetr]

Seriously? Do these people get their degrees online or something?

Actually good point, but technically to be called a 'therapist' you don't need a degree, so any retard fresh out of no institution whatsoever can put that word on their nametag and consider themselves qualified to make outrageous comparisons between games and cocaine.

 

[TBPride]

Admittedly, as long as the people who do stupid stuff like this never really achieve any sort of power, I kinda like it when they put out articles like this. It gives us something to rage at, which is fun, and makes us feel smarter and more competent. Now if laws ever actually get passed or anything like that I'll be really pissed off, but for now, it's actually kinda fun. Oh, and this therapist person is an idiot. =)