Clinic for game addicts swamped

Clinic for game addicts swamped :

"'These are perfectly decent kids whose lives have been taken over by an addiction,' said Mr Bakker, a former drug addict. 'Some have given up school so they can play games. They have no friends. They don't speak to their parents.'"

I understand that about 10% of a population can become addicted. Addiction is addiction is addiction. It's not using. It's not managing. It's not coping and setting goals and boundaries. An addict is an addict is an addict. You can become addicted to anything if you are an addict! So yes, you can become addicted to computer games, the computer in the same way you can become addicted to drugs, alcohol, sugar. We need to realise that addicts and addiction have traits, behavious and disorders which are similar from one addiction to another and therefore we, as a society need to be far more clued in about what addiction is, what can provoke it, what purpose it serves, how it can be broken. I can rememebr my firend's son being very addicted to computer games. When friend decided to cut down the amount of time spent on games there were angry outburts, depression, arguments, blah blah and all of this was discussed in a sensible way, but the 16 year old became quite monstrous until he finished his withdrawals. Friend had engaged some professional help to settle things down a bit. Addictive behaviour effects everyone and the addict is miserable and not particularly in control of their actions and their reactions if they feel threatened. We do need to help each other and understand this whole addiction matter better.