Ex-video game addict shares his story, and a way out - Boston Globe

[kedawa]

I don't know if you can be addicted to video games but I'm addicted to sex. It's not a joke and unfortunately I'll be going to SA meetings for the rest of my life to help control my addiction. I know the general assumption is that being addicted to sex is just a cop out and gives people an excuse to cheat on their spouse or sexually harass people at work. I hate it and I wish I didn't have to deal with it. I'd much rather be addicted to video games.

Queue Tiger Woods joke.

Just about everyone is addicted to sex. It's why we continue to propagate as a species.
What you have is no different than what afflicts people who eat themselves into obesity.

[theoakwoody]

Just about everyone is addicted to sex. It's why we continue to propagate as a species.
What you have is no different than what afflicts people who eat themselves into obesity.

I agree with you about the eating thing but not that everyone is addicted to sex. Just because you really like something doesn't mean you are addicted. Let's put it this way, when you start doing things that most normal people wouldn't do that put you in harms way such as losing your job or getting arrested, you are probably a sex addict. People who have a lot of sex are not addicts necessarily.

Man, I sound like Jeff Foxworthy.

[kedawa]

I agree with you about the eating thing but not that everyone is addicted to sex. Just because you really like something doesn't mean you are addicted. Let's put it this way, when you start doing things that most normal people wouldn't do that put you in harms way such as losing your job or getting arrested, you are probably a sex addict. People who have a lot of sex are not addicts necessarily.

Man, I sound like Jeff Foxworthy.

Hypersexuality is a real thing. I know you aren't making it up.
I just don't think it can compare to an actual chemical dependency.
No matter how randy you get, I doubt it's as debilitating as a hard drug addiction.
Unless you're a ferret, I guess.

[moggles]

Meh. Can't be worse than my masturbation addiction.

[RCM]

Meh. Can't be worse than my masturbation addiction.

Yeah, I heard it took you 20 minutes to type that with your nose, heh.

[Baloo]

Lots of things can cause addictions. Food, drugs, video games, sex, cigarettes, chocolate, soda, the computer, alcohol, texting, plenty of things have that effect.

Should we now chastise video games for a minor incident like this? No way. The biggest thing about addiction is how it affects your daily live and health. Video games and Facebook aren't nearly as harmful as drugs and alcohol in this sense. Why should we put them in the same category? This is a scare tactic to paint video games in a bad light.

[goatdan]

Lots of things can cause addictions. Food, drugs, video games, sex, cigarettes, chocolate, soda, the computer, alcohol, texting, plenty of things have that effect.

Should we now chastise video games for a minor incident like this? No way. The biggest thing about addiction is how it affects your daily live and health. Video games and Facebook aren't nearly as harmful as drugs and alcohol in this sense. Why should we put them in the same category? This is a scare tactic to paint video games in a bad light.

Agreed. With just about any activity, period, there are people that can get addicted to them. There are people that can get addicted to working out. People that can get addicted to eating. To not eating. To riding roller coasters, to sex, to Facebook, to alcohol or other drugs.

The key with absolutely anything is moderation and knowing yourself. I can honestly say that I've never been drunk. My grandfather, unfortunately, turned to alcohol quite a bit when I was young, and although he was the nicest person and I love him greatly, I know that if he could get addicted to that, so could I. So, I've avoided it pretty much my entire life.

If this dude has a person issue with video games, I'm glad that he got it taken care of, and yeah -- he should probably avoid them in the future. But that doesn't mean that video games are dangerous to the vast majority of people, and this article's attempt to frame them this way (each year, the average age of a gamer goes up... oh noes!) is just asinine. It is sensationalist writing, nothing more.

[The Shawn]

I don't know if you can be addicted to video games but I'm addicted to sex. It's not a joke and unfortunately I'll be going to SA meetings for the rest of my life to help control my addiction. I know the general assumption is that being addicted to sex is just a cop out and gives people an excuse to cheat on their spouse or sexually harass people at work. I hate it and I wish I didn't have to deal with it. I'd much rather be addicted to video games.

Queue Tiger Woods joke.

This issue has many trolling opportunities to it on a video game forum.

[theoakwoody]

This issue has many trolling opportunities to it on a video game forum.

Nothing can be as bad as what's going on at the NG forums. I can't stop reading.

[sidnotcrazy]

Everyone finds it so much easier to blame something for their problems. Be it drugs, games, etc. When the real problem lies with yourself.

[Zthun]

I knew I had hit rock bottom when I started sucking dicks for Microsoft 1600 point cards.

I gotta admit...I hit the floor on this one. Though you better be getting around 10 of those cards for one session.

[The 1 2 P]

Meh. Can't be worse than my masturbation addiction.

I don't think masturbation by itself could be necessarily called addicting, even if you do it alot. After all, it's suppose to be pleasurable. Now if you are turning down actual sex with another real person for masturbation, then yeah you're probably addicted....and need help.

[Gamevet]

Agreed. With just about any activity, period, there are people that can get addicted to them. There are people that can get addicted to working out. People that can get addicted to eating. To not eating. To riding roller coasters, to sex, to Facebook, to alcohol or other drugs.

The key with absolutely anything is moderation and knowing yourself. I can honestly say that I've never been drunk. My grandfather, unfortunately, turned to alcohol quite a bit when I was young, and although he was the nicest person and I love him greatly, I know that if he could get addicted to that, so could I. So, I've avoided it pretty much my entire life.

If this dude has a person issue with video games, I'm glad that he got it taken care of, and yeah -- he should probably avoid them in the future. But that doesn't mean that video games are dangerous to the vast majority of people, and this article's attempt to frame them this way (each year, the average age of a gamer goes up... oh noes!) is just asinine. It is sensationalist writing, nothing more.

It's not like these kind of articles haven't existed for a long time. In the 80's, you'd see countless articles about anorexic teenagers, in the late 80's and early 90's it was crack babies, and in the past decade it's been Meth addicts. There have been countless stories about people being addicted to WOW, this is just one of the many that have been out there. People get addicted to many different things, and those stories will be told long after we are gone; it's just part of our culture and the media will exploit it until people stop reading it.