Detox clinic to help addicted gamers

CNN ^

[Kokojmudd]

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (AP) -- An addiction center is opening Europe's first detox clinic for video game addicts, offering in-house treatment for people who can't leave their joysticks alone.

Video games may look innocent, but they can be as addictive as gambling or drugs -- and just as hard to kick, says Keith Bakker, director of Amsterdam-based Smith & Jones Addiction Consultants. Bakker already has treated 20 video game addicts, aged 13 to 30, since January.

Some show withdrawal symptoms, such as shaking and sweating, when they look at a computer. His detox program begins in July. It will run four to eight weeks, including discussions with therapists and efforts to build patients' interests in alternative activities.

"We have kids who don't know how to communicate with people face-to-face because they've spent the last three years talking to somebody in Korea through a computer," Bakker said. "Their social network has completely disappeared." It can start with a Game Boy, perhaps given by parents hoping to keep their children occupied but away from the television. From there, it can progress to multilevel games that aren't made to be won.........

[Red Badger]

Give them old PONG games to play with. They'l be bored straight...........

[PBRSTREETGANG]

Can one for Freepers be far behind?

[tcostell]

They can have my copy of "Call of Duty 2" when they pry it from my cold dead hands.

[FearlessFreep]

treatment for people who can't leave their joysticks alone.

-----

There is treatment for this? I don't want it.

[FearlessFreep]

I'm still loyal to the original Ghost Recon. I play it nightly.

[Political Junkie Too]

His detox program begins in July. It will run four to eight weeks, including discussions with therapists and efforts to build patients' interests in alternative activities.

Then you advance to Level 2.

-PJ

[Red Badger]

We'll just call you Harry Palmer.........

[LongElegantLegs]

[FearlessFreep]

Actually I go by Hugh G. Rection.

[dead]

I would think a good smack upside their head by their father should do the trick, no matter how old they are.

[HuntsvilleTxVeteran]

In the sixties I went to the Shick center for the control of smoking. I did not want to quit smoking but I knew I should quit.
They used aversion therapy. A person sit in a window and shocked me ever time I took a puff.
I knew the cigarette was not shocking me, it was the person sitting and watching me.

[tcostell]

I hear it's pretty good, but the thing I like about COD2 is the historical accuracy. The sighting picture, accurate range, and recoil/recovery time of those weapons is all pretty close to spot on. I can't tell you (well maybe I can) what a hoot it is to look down the barrel of a Russian PPH and see the same image I see when I sight down the barrel of the AK47 in my gun safe, or to see a German soldier running away from inside of that M1 Garand peep hole.

And some of the new multiplayer maps are awesome.

[BossLady]

Wonder if they will have a special 'Betty Ford Wing for Mountain Dew Co-Addiction'? :o

[Ptaz]

I should send my hubby with a copy of Battlefield2 and Counterstrike.

[FearlessFreep]

I need to go there myself. Hooked on Dews for over 25 years.

[1rudeboy]

Anyone play Alpha Centauri/Alien Crossfire? That darn game was designed to run on Win95, and I can't get it off my back.

[cdga5for4]

Paging Jack Thompson! Paging Jack Thompson!

[knews_hound]

Ping

[1rudeboy]

We should send him a copy of the game, or a subscription to World of Warcraft or EVE Online (or the new one with the buzz Spore. Check it out . . . catchy jingle, funny animation.

We'd never see him again.