Compulsive gamers are not "addicts"

Social rather than a psychological problem


25 November 2008 11:36 GMT / By Katie Scott

The founder and head of the first and only clinic in Europe to treat gaming addicts is claiming that 90% of those who seek treatment aren't, in fact, addicts.

Keith Bakker claims that compulsive gaming is a social rather than a psychological problem.

He runs the Smith & Jones Centre in Amsterdam which opened in 2006.

Having treated hundreds of gamers, he claims that the clinic's traditional abstinence-based treatment models only work with 10% of the patients - people who may show other addictive behaviours such as drug taking and excessive drinking.

But for 90%, addiction counselling is not the way forward.

"These kids come in showing some kind of symptoms that are similar to other addictions and chemical dependencies", he told the BBC.

"But the more we work with these kids the less I believe we can call this addiction. What many of these kids need is their parents and their school teachers - this is a social problem".

The clinic is now concentrating on developing the patients' social and communications skills "to help them rejoin society".

"This gaming problem is a result of the society we live in today", Mr Bakker told BBC News. "80% of the young people we see have been bullied at school and feel isolated. Many of the symptoms they have can be solved by going back to good old fashioned communication".
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