Games Of Death II

I subscribe to several google alerts to keep me abreast on news regarding alcoholism, recovery, and addiction. There are three topics I see all the time that I ignore and delete almost automatically – oil addiction, Jane’s Addiction, and Internet Addiction. However, I believe the time has come to give IA (Internet Addiction) a little more of my attention. While stories of OA and JA (see above) have been constant in the last year that I have been getting alerts, there has definitely been an uptick in the number of stories concerning IA.

Unplugged: My Journey into the Dark World of Video Game is an internet gaming addicts memoir that has been in the news a lot the last couple of days. Yahoo News posted a story Saturday that really sealed the deal with me on my opinion on the subject. Just like the arc of sex and gambling addiction, the story of Ryan Van Cleave details a gradual progression of addiction that ends with a family and career in near ruins and thoughts of suicide.

The American Psychiatric Association will not list video game addiction as a mental disorder in the 2012 edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. However, the APA said there is a possibility that a group of reward-seeking behavioral disorders – including video game addiction and Internet addiction – will be included in an appendix of DSM-5 to “encourage further study.”

I believe in the years to come we will hear more and more stories like his as the internet and gaming become more advanced, immersive, and potentially addictive .