Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Arkhandus" data-source="post: 3643869" data-attributes="member: 13966">Actually, my grandfather is a psychologist who specializes in rehabillitating addicts.  He's been a social worker for at least a decade now, maybe two.  He was the first person to introduce me to video games when I was a kid, and I'd play his Atari pretty often back then.  One of the main kinds of X-Mas gifts I'd received over the years from him as a kid was new video games and computer games (the other main kind was Legos, heh).He's never said anything bad of video games or computer games, and his favorite neighbor plays video games (and builds computers for a living).  He's a very active reader of psych and social worker material, and the smartest person I know (granted, I don't know a lot of people).  And he's not once said anything about video games being addictive or the like, though I'd expect him to say something if he worried I might be addicted to video games.  He knows well enough that I spend a lot of time playing video/computer games.But I'm certainly not addicted to video games, else there wouldn't be these long stretches of months in which I hardly play any video/computer games at all.  And I wouldn't have taken every chance to hang out with friends as a kid, as opposed to spending all free time with video games.  Nowadays I play them only when I'm really bored, and I've never had an obsession with video games.Even in my most dedicated gaming sessions I'd leave the room every few hours or so to eat, drink, or got to the bathroom, and to do whatever chores my parents demanded of me (and of course to try getting precious, precious sleep despite my insomnia).  And I'd still usually spend a few hours each of those days on doing other stuff, before deciding to start up the game again.  And that kind of gaming streak I'd only do once in a while, with a new game (which would usually last for about a week or a bit less).Ergo, I'm fairly certain that video games are not addictive in and of themselves.  I've occasionally spent a month playing games for some 8 to 12 hours a day, but never had any trouble putting the games away and taking care of my schoolwork (anyway, I'd only spend that much time gaming when I wasn't in school).  None of my friends have ever had a problem with that either, and they were at least as video-game-loving as I was.Only people with a psychological predisposition toward addiction, and insufficient self-control, are at any potential risk of addiction to video/computer games.</blockquote>

Verification