H/T Roobeedoo, a few days back:
World Health Organization Classifies Video Gaming as a Mental Disorder
What is it with these people, that they see everything as a disease? From the WHO:
Gaming disorder is manifested by a persistent or recurrent gaming behaviour (i.e., ‘digital gaming’ or ‘video-gaming’) characterised by an impaired control over gaming, increasing priority given to gaming over other activities to the extent that gaming takes precedence over other interests and daily activities and continuation of gaming despite the occurrence of negative consequences. The behaviour pattern is of sufficient severity to result in significant impairment in personal, family, social, educational, occupational or other important areas of functioning. These features and the underlying pattern of gaming are normally evident over a period of at least 12 months in order for a diagnosis to be assigned, although the required duration may be shortened if all diagnostic requirements are met and symptoms are severe.
I think these bastards must see more or less any “recurrent behaviour” as evidence of “impaired control” with inevitable “negative consequences”.
Have breakfast every morning? That’s a “recurrent behaviour” demonstrating “impaired control” most likely with “negative consequences”.
Same thing with lunch. Or evening dinner. Or watching TV. Or reading books. Or playing cards. Or sunbathing. Or surfing. Or going on holidays. Or holding down a steady job. Or simply being a doctor or dentist or plumber or electrician or politician or pastor. I mean, if you’re an electrician who fixes electrical stuff, that’s a “recurrent behaviour” demonstrating “impaired control” with “negative consequences” which are pretty obvious when you regularly electrocute yourself.
I can hardly think of anything that isn’t habitual, in one degree or other. Even what I’m doing right now – writing this blog – is pretty habitual. I do it pretty much every day. Although I don’t usually write the exact same thing every day.
And what’s so bad about habitual behaviour anyway? What’s wrong with knowing that when you get out of bed in the morning you’re going to put on the kettle, make a cup of tea, light a cigarette, and gaze blearily out of the window at the distant hills, wondering if it’s Tuesday or Wednesday? Are you supposed to do something completely different every day? Is every day supposed to be a completely new day, during which you might do absolutely anything, including visiting Mars, or walking a tightrope, or swimming across the English channel?
It seems to me that habits provide an essential framework to a day. It’s all mapped out. After you’ve had the tea and cigarettes, you’ll maybe head down to a local cafe and read a newspaper over a coffee and a snack, and then you’ll stroll up to the library, and be back in time for lunch, and then a siesta, and then drop in to see Eddy and Martha for a game of bridge, and a couple of beers. It’s all mapped out in advance. It saves you the effort of figuring out what to do next.
Every time I climb in my car and visit some supermarket, I go the exact same way I usually do. I don’t have to get a map and figure out the best way. I did that years ago. And now driving that way is automatic. I don’t have to think about it.
I think it’s a damn good thing I’ve got all these habits. They save me a lot of effort and a lot of thought. My habits free me up to do other stuff.
And anyway, aren’t these bastards in the WHO engaging in “recurrent behaviour” when they look at absolutely everything like it’s a disease or epidemic? And doesn’t it demonstrate “impaired control” that they’re stuck in this rut of thinking? And don’t we all suffer the “negative consequences”, as they label one thing after another an addiction and a danger, and we all lose a bit more freedom? Can’t they stop themselves? Seems they can’t.
Anyway, it gives me another opportunity to post up Video Games by Lana Del Rey, the song (and video) that made her famous (by which I mean that a lot of people engaged in the “recurrent behaviour” of listening to it over and over again, thereby demonstrating “impaired control”, and suffering the “negative consequences” of having the song going round and round in their heads for days on end).
Frank Davis 
Seems that they believe that any activity that people enjoy is a proof of mental illness.
I totally agree with you about habits.
I agree. They’ve succeeded in monetizing unhappiness by classifying depression, anxiety and the like as “diseases” which require the help of the Healthcare Industry and Big Pharma to resolve, so it appears they’ve moved on to attempting to monetize happiness in the same manner. Now, no matter what your state of mind, you are deemed “unhealthy” and require treatment. It sure smells like job security for these greedy assholes.
It is nothing new. In the 18th Century it was novels and a passion for reading putting the wind up ‘authority’:
.http://www.historytoday.com/frank-furedi/media%E2%80%99s-first-moral-panic
Oh dear. I used to be a member of a gaming clan. I still play too. Been video gaming since 1978 (Atari console back then).
Do you think that watching sports on tv will be called ‘second hand video gaming’?
Was planning a sarcastic comment about how the WHO seems intent on irritating as many people as possible (try telling your average Mom that her sprog’s got a mental disorder – most’d skin you alive, use that to cover a poffee, then use the rest for stew).
Then I recalled this being one heck of a problem in China where the poor wee tykes are fawned upon by parents and grandparents without a break, on account of the one child policy.
And that means no risk, no horsing around in a mucky playground. Actually it’s not nice at all having parents and in-laws that cling to you like a sodding rash.
So some try to escape into their own little world of the internet or gaming – and they get thoroughly cheesed when told to quit and join the grown ups for meals or quality time (that invariably means a re-run of some aspirational crap about getting good grades and becoming whatever when tyke grows up). In China that’s construed as rebellious.
So “The State” has come up with a solution. 250 military style camps for internet and computer game-addicted children!
http://21stcenturywire.com/2015/10/12/battle-royale-china-style-game-addicted-kids-sent-to-junior-military-rehab-school/
No idea what their follow up’s like. Suspect the kids get to know each other and develop strategies to avoid a repetition.
No idea what their follow up’s like. Suspect the kids get to know each other and develop strategies to avoid a repetition.
You are undoubtedly right on that one, SS. Kids are both cunning and devious. I know. I used to be one.
Yes, I remember reading about the boot camps for gamers. A rather drastic solution, I thought. A restriction on the hours where gaming was permitted would have been sufficient, surely?
The lifestyle controllers appear dead set on expanding their tobacco control template to all facets of life. It really looks like tobacco control was the experiment that succeeded and is being converted into the template for oppressing all.
It has often been observed that tobacco control encourages antismokers to attack smokers and that the prosecution of smokers is a key component of the lifestyle control, regime. The latest evidence of this persecution is seen in Australia where a rabid antismoker has taken to assaulting smokers smoking on public streets with a ‘super-soaker’ water gun. That is outright battery and the antismoker should be prosecuted. Even worse than the vile, attacks is the mob sentiment praising the assault on smokers in the comments section. (It is routine for media outlets to censor and remove dissent from smokers criticism persecution and the imposition of smoking bans yet these same outlets allow outright hate speech to persist–in all fairness the news.com.au removed the most blatant post that encouraged attacking smokers from this specific thread.)
Check out: “I was sprayed with a supersoaker for smoking a cigarette, and the government needs to do something about it” http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/health/health-problems/i-was-sprayed-with-a-supersoaker-for-smoking-a-cigarette-and-the-government-needs-to-do-something-about-it/news-story/96d6708418e28e7d37421162210cdea9
Tobacco control has nurtured and encouraged this societal division and mob hysteria and should be held to account.
Working for the WHO must be a ‘mental disorder’. They do it every day, for a considerable amount of time, at the expense of their private lives and with severe consequences to the rest of the world. Therefore, it seems reasonable that everything WHO – buildings, vehicles, communication, even personnel – should be tagged with black on white stickers saying for instance ‘Public Health obsession is addictive’, ‘Don’t pick up the habit of dictating people’s lives’ or even ‘The WHO kills’.
:)
And their obsession drives them to impose their will on others and ignore sovereignty, democratic process, and free choice. In their latest assault von smokers the WHO is mounting a propaganda campaign to strong arm Japan into universal smoking bans before the Olympics. Of course the Mari Yamaguchi at the AP plays along and accepts the blatant propaganda without question. See “WHO: Japan needs anti-smoking law beforeTokyo Olympics” at http://www.sltrib.com/home/5151075-155/who-japan-needs-anti-smoking-law-beforetokyo
I sincerely hope Japan continues to stand their ground.
There are so many gems in that article to comment on. Like this one, for instance:
So when will the WHO present 15,000 death certificates which list cause of death as “secondhand smoke?” I’m waiting…
Also, how fucking intelligent is secondhand smoke? The WHO is telling us that it knows how to discriminate, killing “mainly women and children.” Secondhand smoke has a goddamn mind of its own now, folks! This must mean that it can also choose which concrete walls to travel through!
However, this paragraph gives me some hope for Japan. Why don’t we see more of this skepticism from prominent figures in the West?
This is where second hand smoke really becomes a joke,remember its nearly 94% water vapor and air…..now lets get to the facts of toxicology and dose makes the poison:
According to independent Public and Health Policy Research group, Littlewood & Fennel of Austin, Tx, on the subject of secondhand smoke……..
They did the figures for what it takes to meet all of OSHA’S minimum PEL’S on shs/ets…….Did it ever set the debate on fire.
They concluded that:
All this is in a small sealed room 9×20 and must occur in ONE HOUR.
For Benzo[a]pyrene, 222,000 cigarettes
“For Acetone, 118,000 cigarettes
“Toluene would require 50,000 packs of simultaneously smoldering cigarettes.
Acetaldehyde or Hydrazine, more than 14,000 smokers would need to light up.
“For Hydroquinone, “only” 1250 cigarettes
For arsenic 2 million 500,000 smokers at one time
The same number of cigarettes required for the other so called chemicals in shs/ets will have the same outcomes.
So,OSHA finally makes a statement on shs/ets :
Field studies of environmental tobacco smoke indicate that under normal conditions, the components in tobacco smoke are diluted below existing Permissible Exposure Levels (PELS.) as referenced in the Air Contaminant Standard (29 CFR 1910.1000)…It would be very rare to find a workplace with so much smoking that any individual PEL would be exceeded.” -Letter From Greg Watchman, Acting Sec’y, OSHA, To Leroy J Pletten, PHD, July 8, 1997
WHAT! DILUTED BELOW PERMISSABLE LEVELS
By the way ASH dropped their lawsuit because OSHA was going to make a rule and that rule would have been weak and been the law of the land,meaning no smoking bans would ever have been enacted anywhere,simply because an open window or a ventilation system would have covered the rule.
Yep! All true Harley! Of course the Antis have used their money and power and influence and strong-armed both OSHA and ASHRAE over the years. ASHRAE however has maintained that smoking can be done in a separate room; and it’s refused to condemn secondary smoke itself, instead saying that they’re just repeating what “cognizant authorities” have said on the subject. (Of course they, ASHRAE, are the TRUE cognizant authorities in the area of safety, comfort, and ventilation; but in this one instance they defer to OTHER “cognizant authorities” for their rule. Interesting what $500 Million of MSA money power per year can do, eh? Not to mention the money from Big Pharma and other tax/charity sources.
– MJM
Why did the anti-smoker cross the street
To pick up some fresh butts
These WHO wankers have completely lost any credibility that they ever had. Total wankers one and all.
World Health Organization Classifies Video Gaming as a Mental Disorder
I don’t think this is aimed at the younger generation. They will be needed to be a consumer, work and pay taxes.
Pensioners, however, are a different matter
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-34255492
We do have to work longer these days and we are being told that this is because we do live longer. Even us, the baby-boomers who grew up with people around us SMOKING. And a lot of us smoking ourselves.
And:
http://www.saga.co.uk/magazine/technology/news/silver-gamers
This is true. I certainly like puzzle games (sorry, don’t do shooter games) and I play them for PLEASURE. Just as I smoke for PLEASURE.
Is the WHO (tobacco control mouth piece) on a war path on pensioners to make them as unhappy as possible so they just vegetate and DIE?
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27198080
Looks like geriatric medicine has the same to offer than 30 years ago.
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