Game Addiction Treatment
November 3rd, 2009 by cranehipAt GamePolitics.com there was a recent article about a new Game Treatment program that opened up within an addiction recover center. I’d heard about the game treatment centers before, places where people are basically cut off from whatever game (usually MMORPGS.) At this particular resort in London, occupants participate in a 12 step abstinence program in order to kick the habit.
So why is a video game addiction dangerous, what harm was ever caused by an individual sitting in front of a screen for hours at a time. Well, Hilarie Cash who co-authored Video Games and Your Kids: How Parents Stay in Control said, “patients use their electronic media so obsessively that they stop sleeping and eating properly, ruin relationships with loved ones, suffer repetitive use injuries such as eye strain and carpal tunnel syndrome, and develop depression and anxiety, among other things.”
I looked up the treatment center online but couldn’t find the cost for treatment, but further research revealed dozens of other facilities, all ranger from somewhere in the low 10k to almost 25k. And you know what? Almost every news article I read listed World of Warcraft as the prime source of the addiction.
I’ll admit, I had my brief (*cough*two year*cough*) stint with WoW as well, and at the ripe age of 15 I was heavily invested in my level human mage, and I had friends who were like-minded in their devotion to raiding and farming gear. But to the point of needing in-patient assistance?
Reading the article linked above (here it is again) I learned that in Europe and East Asia, clinical video game addiction is a widely known thing, with treatment centers sprouting up all over the place. With one case even listed of a Korean man dying after playing a game for 50 hours straight with little to no breaks.