WoW Addiction More Shameful Than Porn
By Shawn on Monday, June 9th, 2008 at 3:23 PM PST In Blizzard, Computer, Game Companies, Game Platforms, Gamer Life, Games, World of Warcraft
According to Dr. Jerald Block, there is more shame in a gaming addiction than an addiction to porn. Dr. Block specializes in treating Internet addicts and has recently published an editorial in the American Journal of Psychiatry urging his fellows to make “Internet Addiction” a new diagnostic term although he prefers the term “pathological computer use.”
BLOCK: Some people come in for trouble with Internet porn. But the computer gamers tend to be harder to treat. People feel a lot of shame around computer games. Whereas, it’s socially acceptable to have a porn problem.
IDEAS: You can’t be serious. You mean your clients are more ashamed of …
BLOCK: …playing World of Warcraft than looking at porn. Yes.
As a society we understand that porn is something people do, and you can see a psychiatrist and get treated for it. But gaming is hard to describe to anyone else. So these people can’t explain their situation to friends. In fact, it’s hard to give you an example of what my clients talk about, because gaming is enormously complicated.
I have no idea what this man is talking about. I’m quite proud of my gaming addiction.
via Boston.com; Picture from Basil Childers for the Boston Globe
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Cant read… playing WoW!!!! >
Yea… this is stupid. He only gets the patients that have parents that tell them they are losers for playing, or the one’s that have a spouse that nags them until there ears want to fall off. That’s probably why the feel ashamed. I feel great. Gaming helps me relieve a lot of tension. I guess if I didn’t have games to do that… I’d find something else. Probably not porn though. That gets pretty old… really fast. And it tends to make me feel like shit even after seeing it. I have been clean for a good while now and I didn’t have help getting rid of it either. Maybe I should go kick a soccer ball or something
Haha wow..Im not ashamed of playing WoW, LOTRO, BF2, and about every game on the 360. Porn is not a problem for this man, because i have about the greatest girlfreind ever…and she plays wow with me.
Offhand, I’d say the number of people going to get treated is not an accurate measure of shame. Maybe inverse shame. Meaning that more people are less ashamed of playing WoW too much than they would be for something else.
I think a true gaming addiction would be an unhealthy lifestyle. Sitting around, smoking and snorting all day and drinking to boot. It doesn’t make for the best of life.
On the other hand, being a former hardcore gamer, I must say that I still play once in a while….. and I love it.
Hardcore gaming and Gaming Addiction is really easy to confuse with… if you play no more than 4-8 hours a day then you’re a hardcore gamer but if you spend more than 8 hours everyday playing games or online games then you really need to see someone. It is like a poisonous illusion. Wake up and get out and live life!
what about the people with both gaming and porn addictions? do the two shames cancel each other out entirely?
I think that gaming is not a bad thing, it is possible to live two lives, i have my social life, i live pretty remote so i can’t get out with mates much, but im at school from 8am to 8pm and i generally go into town now and then or play golf with my mates.
When i’m at home/bored i play games, sure i play them alot, i play everything, from MMORPG’s to FPS’s to Strategy. The thing is i have my gamer friends and my social friends, my social friends keep me sane and i trust them, my gaming friends are there for a laugh and to relate with my gaming.
I find it perfectly fine to game 8 hours in a day, because i get 2 choices, i can go out with my mates, or play games with my other mates.
People need to realise gaming is becoming more well known, its not something to be ashamed of, are people ashamed of smoking? maybe so? isnt that an addiction? its not cool is it? Games are portrayed as nerdy yet they boost the imagination and relieve alot of stress. I wouldn’t know about hardcore, because that is at a proffesional level. Figures, its your life, i know mine, i probably won’t play games like i do when i finish school. But still, everyone has a addiction/something they enjoy a whole lot, who cares what it is, wether its jacking one off or Killing virtual characters, or going out with mates, i dabble in the entire spectrum but its anyones choice to make, poisonous illusion my ass, wake up and get out and live life, its your life to live, if you want to follow a set of rules for your life read a bible, living a life is different in peoples perspective and if people choose to game 24/7 respect to them for not giving two flying F***s about what others think.
Peace out.
Game on.
I like how he says we can get treated for looking at Porn to much. Really? So basically every male on earth who can look at the internet is his client then.. So shouldn’t he be the richest man on earth?
Lol I like how some people here have their owns scale of what equals addiction “omg if you play more then 8 hours then you have no life” what an idiot. I agree with Neutral, let people do what the hell they want too as long as it doesn’t interfere with your own life in some dramatic way.
Wait, you can get addicted to porn? I knew I was wasting too much time on these other websites!