Video game addiction more difficult to treat than drug abuse

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penix
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Video game addiction more difficult to treat than drug abuse

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http://voiceofrussia.com/uk/news/2013_1 ... pert-7525/

Computer game addiction more difficult to treat than drug abuse - expert
Brendan Cole, Natasha Moriarty
11 November, 23:44

It’s long been believed that an addiction to computer games can be psychologically damaging. Now, a British psychotherapist has claimed that an addiction to gaming is more difficult to treat than drugs or alcohol abuse. VoR's Natasha Moriarty has been looking into it.

The addictive potential of computer games is nothing new. The alternative universe they offer proves more attractive to some people than the real world.

However, psychotherapist Steven Noel-Hill claims experts have underestimated the scale and size of the problem.

Mr Noel-Hill was once addicted to gaming himself, but now runs a Harley Street Clinic dedicated to the treatment of teenage addicts.

He claims video game addicts are harder to treat than those dependent on heroin or crack cocaine.

According to Noel-Hill, Britain is at risk of losing a generation to this insidious dependency. He has seen it sap patients’ willpower, and totally transform their personalities. Furthermore, the addiction will often cause physical cravings.

It’s known that thousands of people in Britain contact counselling services every year to seek help for children as young as 11 who are spending up to 20 hours a day in virtual worlds.

Oliver Clark, who runs the addiction counselling service ADT Healthcare, said he gets around 10 calls every day from desperate families.

The NHS does not offer treatment for gaming addiction: there are only three clinics in the UK who can help with the problem and treatment can cost in excess of £4,500 per week.

The organization Video Game Addiction says part of the appeal of video games is that they allow players to speak and act in ways that they can’t in real life.

Someone who is shy can become confident and charismatic; someone passive and physically weak can become a victorious superhero.

According to Noel-Hill, gaming addicts tend to be anti-social, alienated from their surroundings and lacking in social skills.

Noel-Hill claims addiction to certain behaviour – such as gaming and gambling – are more deep seated than chemical addictions and therefore harder escape.

He advises parents of young people in danger of gaming too much to set limits on which games they can play and to keep an eye on how much time they are spending online and unsupervised. He wants others to avoid the pitfalls into which he fell.

VoR's Brendan Cole spoke to Liz Woolley, who founded the organisation On-Line Gamers Anonymous after her son's gaming addiction resulted in his suicide:

http://m.ruvr.ru/download/2013/11/11/18/GAMING_LIVE.mp3

Woolley said: “My son became addicted when he was 20 years old and he had played games for ten years before that. He didn’t have any problems with any of the games he played. He got it in 2001, shortly after the new generation of games came out where there is no ending such as EverQuest, WorldCraft – they became virtual societies.

“He was having problems with real life within three months from starting to play the game EverQuest.

“Just by looking at his actions and how he was neglecting life, he was leaving us, he said he no longer trusted us, the only thing he wanted to do was games, he no longer looked into his future.”

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