90% of Compulsive Gamers are Not “Addicts”
The BBC reports that the vast majority of people who seek treatment for compulsive gaming habits aren’t addicted. The word comes from Keith Bakker, founder of the Smith & Jones Centre in Amsterdam, Europe’s only clinic for treating game addiction. After treating hundreds of compulsive gamers, Bakker has found that only 10% of gamers are truly addicts. “These kids come in showing some kind of symptoms that are similar to other addictions,” he said, “but the more we work with these kids the less I believe we can call this an addiction. What many of these kids need is their parents and school teachers — this is a social problem.” The clinic has started to alter its treatment to hone the social skills of the compulsive gamers, rather than traditional addiction counseling. Bakker finds that 80% of their patients have been bullied at school and simply feel lonely, and have sought out online game communities as a form of social interaction. The best treatment for these cases is to introduce a social, real-life place that they feel accepted. He suggests that parents are generally the best solution for stemming excessive gaming, by taking away the games if a player is developing compulsive habits. But 87% of online gamers are above the age of 18, and have to make their own choices of how much is too much. Excessive game-playing isn’t just a matter of relaxing a bit with a game after work. One example from the clinic played Call of Duty 4 for at least 10 hours per day. “Call of Duty was somewhere I felt accepted for the first time in my life,” the anonymous gamer said. “I liked gaming because people couldn’t see me, they accepted me as my online character. I was aware that I played too much but I didn’t know what to do.”
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