the AMA is gonna classify Internet Addiction?

[NMDemDist2]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x289820

AMA to vote on "internet/video-game addiction" as medical condition

By Linda Shrieves
Orlando Sentinel
Posted June 21 2007

So you think your teenager is addicted to his Xbox?

You may be right — and if the American Medical Association has its way, video game addiction could become a legitimate medical condition.

It may sound like a bunch of hooey to a nation of Wii, Xbox and PlayStation enthusiasts, but next week, at the AMA's national meeting in Chicago, delegates will vote on a recommendation that "Internet/video-game addiction" be classified as a formal diagnosis.

For 160 years, the AMA has made recommendations on the nation's health that are quickly adopted. They range from recommending cars be equipped with seat belts to calling for annual mammograms for women older than 50.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-flasands0621nbjun21,0,771832.story?coll=sfla-news-sfla

[KitchenWitch]

1. I guess I better find another 12 step group to deal with my internet addiction!

:blush:

[Kajsa]

2. Ditto on that, KW.

I'm hopelessly addicted to DU!

and chocolate, and butter cookies,
and-----
-sigh-

:hi:

[SPKrazy]

3. i know i'm not addicted because

i can go for hours without being online :P

seriously

i'm not ready to give up the internets

:shrug:

[ismnotwasm]

4. LOL

And I can give it up any time I want too

[Justpat]

9. Me too. I gave it up for a couple of days once. eom

[KitchenWitch]

5. I'll quit tomorrow!

[SPKrazy]

6. hey good idea

tomorrow never comes

remember the story about the guy who kept going by the bar and the sign said free beer tomorrow?

He went 5 days in a row, and every day the sign was still there and no free beer

finally getting pissed (i'd have been pissed after the first day :grr: when I was drinking) he asked the bartender what the damned deal was... the bartender shrugged :shrug: (cool illustrations for the joke :D ) and said, by the time tomorrow gets here it is today, and therefore tomorrow never comes.

How come it was easier to live one day at a time when we were drinking, at least for me, I was only concerned about getting loaded today, and now I have to make myself stay in today? One of them paradoxes. :shrug:

:hi:

[KitchenWitch]

8. I know - recovery is full of paradoxes

the way to empowerment is to admit powerlessness...:banghead:

:)

[varkam]

7. I could see that.

I would submit that I used to play video games entirely too much. I could play for 8 - 10 hours per day and I don't even think I was on the bad end of the spectrum. Thankfully I never got into MMORPGs very much, but I have had some friends who did. Spooky stuff.

[varkam]

10. UPDATE: They're not going to do it.

I read this evening that they decided that there is no solid science to formally classify it as an addiction. They did say that it can be "problematic", however.