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WHO Classifies 'Gaming Disorder' as Mental Health Condition (cnn.com) 201

Posted by msmash from the how-about-that dept.
The World Health Organization has announced "gaming disorder" as a new mental health condition included in the 11th edition of its International Classification of Diseases, released Monday. From a report: "I'm not creating a precedent," said Dr. Vladimir Poznyak, a member of WHO's Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse, which proposed the new diagnosis to WHO's decision-making body, the World Health Assembly. Instead, he said, WHO has followed "the trends, the developments, which have taken place in populations and in the professional field." However, not all psychologists agree that gaming disorder is worthy of inclusion in the International Classification of Diseases, known as the ICD.

A diagnosis standard, the ICD defines the universe of diseases, disorders, injuries and other related health conditions. Researchers use it to count deaths, diseases, injuries and symptoms, and doctors and other medical practitioners use it to diagnose disease and other conditions. In many cases, health care companies and insurers use the ICD as a basis for reimbursement. Poznyak said the expectation is that the classification of gaming disorder means health professionals and systems will be more "alerted to the existence of this condition" while boosting the possibility that "people who suffer from these conditions can get appropriate help."
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WHO Classifies 'Gaming Disorder' as Mental Health Condition More

WHO Classifies 'Gaming Disorder' as Mental Health Condition

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  • Not a disorder (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 18, 2018 @12:06PM (#56803494)

    Gamer dysphoria is not a disorder.
    I identify as a gamer and demand to be treated as one, not as a mentally ill person.
    No to gamerphobia!

    • "Gamer dysphoria is not a disorder."

      Of course. A Gaming Disorder diagnosis would mean a person's symptoms (eg gaming obsession and compulsion) cause them significant distress, affect their ability to function in daily life and the level of intensity, and duration, of the dysfunction exceeds the minimum diagnosis criteria.

    • I try to consider the upside. Can I throw a harness on my dog and call him a "service dog"? Every time I take him out for a walk it's therapy for my gaming addiction. He's very well trained and quite persistent, I'd argue he is essential to my recovery.

      The downside is my cat. He also is responsible for some gaming therapy, but I don't want an excuse to have him tethered to me.

      • No, but if you can get a shrink to sign a paper that says that your pets increase your quality of life, you can get them registered as comfort animals and then landlords in California have to permit you to keep them in the rental unit unless they are highly unsuitable for the space. And not just the normal kind of unsuitable, like a dog too big for an apartment, but more like a horse too big for an apartment.

  • Just another type of Addiction (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    https://www.healthyplace.com/addictions/addictions-information/types-of-addiction-list-of-addictions

    Even though it's a behavioral and applies to almost everything in the world (gamification of anything).

  • Great! One more (Score:5, Insightful)

    by mark_reh ( 2015546 ) on Monday June 18, 2018 @12:07PM (#56803502) Journal

    preexisting condition that health insurance companies can use to deny coverage ...

    We are stupid and deserve everything that is happening to us.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      preexisting condition that health insurance companies can use to deny coverage ...

      We are stupid and deserve everything that is happening to us.

      Those who allow a problem to become an addiction are stupid and tend to deserve what happens to them, particularly when an addiction is NOT instantaneous and does not create a physical dependency. That kind of addiction takes time and dedication to create. Society as a whole should not be forced to subsidize treatments for such a problem, and yet that is exactly what you're asking for when you want to remove any preexisting condition limiters.

      • Are you stating that addictions that does not include 'substance' or 'physical' as you called it are any less troublesome (or addictive).
        How naive...or ignorant...or both

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by atrex ( 4811433 )
        Gambling is a recognized addiction. Several video games use techniques similar to those employed by gambling to increase player engagement and retention.
        In reality, gaming addiction is just another form of gambling addiction; it's the same psychological triggers that are used to cause both.

    • and then stop working and go on SSDI where work is bad = a few more hours at a low wage job = health insurance as you are under 30 hours a week but make over medcade / ssdi cutoff.

  • The Differnce? (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    OK then so the difference between being a mental disorder or not is 100% dependent on how much you move around.

    -Brain damage from Football: OK
    -Inhuman multitasking from RTS: Disorder

    OK then

  • Health condition? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Kohath ( 38547 ) on Monday June 18, 2018 @12:14PM (#56803554)

    If the cure for your disease is "just stop doing it", then is it really a health condition? Humans have agency. We decide what we do.

    Perhaps we should change society so that we have two classes of individuals: people who are victims of their own choices (because they can’t control them), and people who control their choices and are therefore treated as full citizens.

    Some of us are tired of being dragged down.

    • Re:Health condition? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by gnick ( 1211984 ) on Monday June 18, 2018 @01:06PM (#56803832) Homepage

      If the cure for your disease is "just stop doing it", then is it really a health condition?

      I drank so much over about 5 years that my liver failed and damn near killed me. That takes dedicated drinking to the level of mental illness. When I was in the hospital being rescued from liver failure, I would have kept drinking if I could have figured out how to get alcohol into the hospital. The drinking resumed when I was discharged. Is mental illness manifesting as suicidally self-destructive behavior a health condition? I think so.

      It's been almost 3 years since I "just stopped", but until you've been there you can't appreciate how difficult "just stopping" can be. For one, alcohol withdrawals are a bitch and weaning off requires control that most alcoholics don't have.

      Victim of my own choices? Sure. Just like every other suicide.

      • It's been almost 3 years since I "just stopped", but until you've been there you can't appreciate how difficult "just stopping" can be. For one, alcohol withdrawals are a bitch and weaning off requires control that most alcoholics don't have.

        Well done on your 3 years. I count myself very lucky to have never found myself addicted to alcohol, suffer from depression or any other number of mental illnesses. It is very ignorant for anyone to assume that just because they didn't struggle with any of these that others should "just be able to stop". If it were easy then it wouldn't be such big a problem.

        I will never really understand what's it's like but that shouldn't stop me from having sympathy for those who do.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Kohath ( 38547 )

        Do you think you are better off having been treated as a full member of society with all the freedoms everyone else has to buy and drink liquor? Or would you have been better off in a society that took a more parental approach to you specifically?

        What if it were voluntary and temporary— subject to a test to get full citizenship status back: liquor is made available to you and you decline it for a period of time (like a year)?

        Because the current society is a strong enabler of self-destructive behavior

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by gnick ( 1211984 )

          Or would you have been better off in a society that took a more parental approach to you specifically?

          Like one that said that I'd have to hit a breathalyzer 4 times a day for a year if I wanted to see my kids? That was a fine place for me to start. Never been arrested or accused of a crime, not even neglect, just accurately described to the court as a drunk by Mrs. gnick #1.

        • We can have services to help addicts _and_ fully legal substances.

    • I think that the disease here is that people lack agency.

    • If the cure for your disease is "just stop doing it", then is it really a health condition?

      Doesn't this apply to possibly EVERY addiction? I struggle to think of an addiction which doesn't involve "stop doing it" as a solution.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by jythie ( 914043 )
        You forget that the people who say this have no particular interest in other people stopping, only their own sense of superiority. It is a method of dealing with anxiety, not a proposed solution, kinda like rich people saying that the problem with poor people is they don't make enough money.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Kohath ( 38547 )

        Doesn't this apply to possibly EVERY addiction? I struggle to think of an addiction which doesn't involve "stop doing it" as a solution.

        For an addicted person, what’s the acceptable alternative to stopping?

        No one said it was easy. Sometimes you have to do things that aren’t easy.

        • For an addicted person, what’s the acceptable alternative to stopping?

          None, but the GP challenged it being a disorder based on "stop doing it" being the solution.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      Plenty of other addictions are considered genuine medical problems, so why not gaming? It has many of the typical attributes of addictive behaviours - it rewards continued use, creates feelings of joy and has a built in feedback mechanism.

      We also know that some developers have studied addictive behaviours in order to incorporate them into their games, particularly "free to play" mobile ones but these days everything seems to have loot crates (literal gambling) and the like.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by jythie ( 914043 )
        The real debate is not 'is it a problem?', but 'is it a distinct problem that requires its own classification?'. So the question is really about it having unique attributes that help in diagnosis or impact treatment methods.
        • Comment removed based on user account deletion

      • The problem isn't that there aren't enough defined mental illnesses, it's that there are too many. The field of psychiatry has jumped the shark. It seems their only purpose now is to increase the number of paying patients to include everyone and then medicating the entire planet. They're just legal drug dealers at this point.

        • The problem isn't that there aren't enough defined mental illnesses, it's that there are too many. The field of psychiatry has jumped the shark. It seems their only purpose now is to increase the number of paying patients to include everyone and then medicating the entire planet. They're just legal drug dealers at this point.

          How would you know this?

          Any more than you (and I do mean you, not "one") could know if "too many" beta blockers are being prescribed nowadays, as compared to 1950?

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Mashiki ( 184564 )

        Yeah this "addictive behavior" complex is called a skinner box, you might have learned about them in high school. That doesn't make it a medical condition though, not anymore then say...working for a living to make money and "get stuff to survive." Which is also a skinner box called life.

      • Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • Replace gaming with heroin and you see why. It is the "doing it" which is the health condition. The health condition is "doing it, being unable to stop, AND this has a negative impact on job/life/etc...". The second part is the one people forget the addition in the DMS is about..
    • Replace gaming with heroin and you see why. It isn't the "doing it" which is the health condition. The health condition is "doing it, being unable to stop, AND this has a negative impact on job/life/etc...". The second part is the one people forget the addition in the DMS is about... Sorry I missed adding the negation in the previous post.

    • If the cure for your disease is "just stop doing it", then is it really a health condition? Humans have agency. We decide what we do.

      If humans were good at that then politics, laws, and government would be unnecessary and would not exist. We humans are surprisingly generally bad as individuals at making important decisions in a lot of situations. And decisions made by one very often end up affecting others. One who chooses to imbibe alcohol in excess is far more likely to make rash decisions towards others while inebriated.

      Perhaps we should change society so that we have two classes of individuals: people who are victims of their own choices (because they can’t control them), and people who control their choices and are therefore treated as full citizens.

      The problem is you usually don't figure out which category you might fall into until it's far too late to change

  • ADHD (Score:4, Interesting)

    by lucasnate1 ( 4682951 ) on Monday June 18, 2018 @12:16PM (#56803560) Homepage

    Isn't this just a private case of attention span deficit disorder? To me it looks like one is incapable to control what one gives attention to, and I see no difference between a "gaming addict" and a "facebook addict".

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      ...I see no difference between a "gaming addict" and a "facebook addict".

      Oh, you don't? Here, let me clarify.

      There is no such thing as a facebook addict according to the social media generation. Everyone does it, so it must be normal and accepted.

      As far as gaming addicts go, THOSE fucking losers have a real problem, and should get help.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by sd4f ( 1891894 )

      There was an article written over 3 years ago about the sexodus, I have my suspicions that pathologising gaming addiction is specifically targeted because of a group of predominantly male gamers who are 'checking out' of society and regressing into non productivity. They're in bliss living a subsistence life that provides enough for them to just play their games.

      I suspect that this has not gone on unnoticed, and as a result, attempts are being made to seriously address this with serious academics behind it

    • Comment removed based on user account deletion

      • I don't know how it is with Americans, but as a rabid Facebook user with similar friends, we're quite aware that it we have a bad habit (although for some of us there are also positive things about Facebook use).

  • Neat (Score:1, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Now when are they finally going to classify religion as a mental disorder?

  • It's never too early to quit. (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    https://gamequitters.com

    • You met 3 out of 9 criteria for video game addiction. A score under five shows less problematic use, but if you are still concerned it is worth investigating.

      I need to game more.

  • ... classifies gaming disorder as mental health condition.

  • The so-called 'World Health Organization' seems to be more of a political organization with an agenda than it is anything that exists solely for reasons of medical science, therefore I do not consider it to be trustworthy or credible.

  • tl/dr: A moral hazard exists when corporations profit from deliberately fostering addictive behaviour in the public but are not liable for the damage they cause. Regulation is possible, but the nature of the industry to be regulated makes them resistant to regulation.

    Anything that makes me feel different can be an addiction.

    Social media and gaming companies have figured this out and done their very best to take advantage of people's ability to become addicted to something.
    Take cocaine or nicotine for exam

  • There's Alcohol addition, gambling addiction so gaming addiction isn't exactly a huge surprise. For some folks it can be a real problem.

    • A modern casino is a big arcade with video games dumbed down for non-gamers. Having played freemium mobile games before I ever went into a casino, I was a bit shocked on my first trip to a casino that the video slots operated with the same sort of inane game play and flashy graphics.

      And I'm not going to blame all gambling addiction on gaming. For example there are plenty of people who lose everything on sports betting. Which is at least old school and not electronic stimulus engineered to trigger your pleas

  • Trust me, as the parent of a young boy who's obsessed with Minecraft and Portal 2, I can testify to the hold games have on him.

  • If you resist being a good little cog, you can take these pills.

  • In the US, "reasonable accommodations" are expected for people with disabilities.

    If gaming disorder is a diagnosable mental illness, what accommodations can disabled persons request?

    I don't really want to know the answer. I just want to watch the debate.

  • Uhm, no. We need "more research" before we get behind your stupid, stupid idea.

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