Rehab Clinic Open for Gaming Addicts
It looks like the time is coming where we will be forced to view video game addiction as a real disease, instead of just making fun of it. After all, there is now an actual rehab center to deal especially with this particular back-hopping monkey. And where else in the world would be home to a detox center for gamers? Why, Amsterdam, of course! The cradle of recovery & self-control!
As reported in this article from BrettBart.com, the Netherlands' Smith & Jones Addiction Consultants (come on, is that the real name?) are successfully treating a host of patients who have let their virtual lives take over their own, even some who entered treatment for drug problems before realizing that their real trouble was video games...
I'm not sure what to think about this; while I am sure on the one hand that plenty of people have screwed their lives up from wasting too many hours on games, on the other hand, offering a therapudic resident recovery program for people who just can't stop trying to get their Orc to the next level sounds a wee bit...coddling to me. Like, if we say that it's a real problem, we'll actually make it into one, whether it really is or not. In any case, I'm sure we'll be seeing this pop up in the domestic psychology world soon...so I'm just waiting for the first time someone blames his five felony homicides on needing money to deck out his Gnome Warlock.
