Craft Addicts

A recent article describes a psychiatrist who've discovered yet another new psychiatric disorder: pathological computer gaming.

He maintains that playing computer games feels more shameful to adults who suffer from this problem than if they were watching porn, because porn is a socially accepted pastime for adults, while gaming is "for kids".

The inception of pathological computer gaming is an evidence of the continuing expansion of the list of mental disorders, and the desire of any psychiatrist to find a nice "niche" for his services. The doctor talks about singular cases of people who are distressed because they spend 15 hours a day at their computers playing games, and who forget to shower and use the toilet in the process.

His ideas, however, may be applied too loosely (as it happened with many other psychiatric ideas), and we may eventually start treating people who spend a lot of time in front of their computers simply because this is "wrong", without regard to whether they have a problem with it, or actually like it.

We also must not forget that a significant part of the "addiction" to computers, like any other addiction, lies in the inability of the society to provide a person with anything more meaningful to do. The alternative for a pathological gamer would be to immerse himself into the battles with colleagues and bosses in the office, instead of the battles with orks and goblins on the unknown planets. Exactly why is one better than the other?