Video Game Clinic Suggests Games Aren't Addictive News

After far too many headlines and mainstream media articles pointing towards the "dangers" of videogame addiction, the world's first and only clinic to treat "addicts" has had an apparent change of mind.

The BBC reports that The Smith & Jones Center based in Amsterdam is changing its treatment, due to its realisation that compulsive gaming is a social rather than psychological problem.

"These kids come in showing some kind of symptoms that are similar to other addictions and chemical dependencies," founder Keith Bakker claims.

"But the more we work with these kids the less I believe we can call this addiction. What many of these kids need is their parents and their school teachers - this is a social problem."

Responding to the alleged link between video games and violence populated by atrocities such as the Columbine High School shooting, Bakker suggests that feelings of anger and powerlessness often pre-exist a compulsion to play violent video games amongst younger gamers and that if there was more commitment from parents and other care providers then the feelings of isolation and frustration could be better dealt with.

"If I continue to call gaming an addiction it takes away the element of choice these people have," he says. "It's a complete shift in my thinking and also a shift in the thinking of my clinic and the way it treats these people."

"In most cases of compulsive gaming, it is not addiction and in that case, the solution lies elsewhere."