On
June 21, 2007, the American Psychiatric Association issued a press
release on the subject of video game addiction. Apparently,
it had been rumored n the media that the APA was going to have a vote
on whether to classify excessive video gaming as an addiction.
That was never a possibility. Official changes in diagnostic
categories only occur when the
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diagnostic_and_Statistical_Manual_of_Mental_Disorders">diagnostic
manual is changed, and the next change is not due until 2012.
Furthermore, the current procedure for changing diagnostic methodology
is more rigorous than a simple vote. The policy is to keep
the method constant unless there is sufficient empirical evidence to
warrant a change. Then, proposed criteria are put forth, and
field-tested. A new diagnostic category can only be
established if there is sufficient
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inter-rater_reliability">inter-rater
reliability.
The text of the press release is
href="http://psych.org/news_room/press_releases/07-47videogameaddiction_2_.pdf">here
(PDF file).
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Having witnessed alcoholic and drug addiction withdrawels first hand, I have a real problem categorizing as an addiction something that would be more accurately described as "a-difficult-to-break habit". And this coming from someone who, as a teen, couldn't drive past the video arcade without stopping in to play just one game, and then 7 or 8 "last game"s later, would finally leave.
It's not an addiction if all it takes to break it is to pull the plug.