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Peter is so addicted to video games that he identifies himself as the characters in the games he plays and refers to other characters as people he hangs out with.

Please tell me Peter isn't the father...

No, he's a young guy.
It was funny because his parents flew from out of state to confront him. The threats of his parents wouldn't make him budge. He wasn't going to go to "rehab" until his cute chick friend said she wouldn't be his friend anymore until he went.

I know there are major differences between drug addiction and video game addiction, but they also have many similarities. One major one you pointed out yourself.



The whole point of drugs is to escape real life for a while where things don't matter. Psychologically, this is a very similar thing to escaping to a video game. It's probably not as much cause for concern, but I would be concerned if I was a parent in the same situation.

Also, with MMORPGs, video game addiction has been elevated to a new level. Children have died as a result of neglectful parents who were too busy racking up experience points and saving elven princesses to take care of their own children.

I understand this show probably exaggerates things to no end and purposely makes the kid look like he's 100% in the wrong, but to ignore signs that a problem exists would just be ignorant.

Mr. DNA are you a psycologist? Because that is one helluva explanation. You should seroiously get a job tellin people what their problems are . Any way i think that this kid needs to learn what the OFF switch is on his consoles.

No, I'm not a psychologist, and I don't think I wrote anything groundbreaking in my last post. I just made a simple comparison between two things, and I'm sure someone who is properly educated on the topic can prove me wrong quite easily. It was, however, my opinion. Whatever that's worth.

Unless you were being sarcastic. In which case, I support your opinion.

Why don't people ever intervene in a way that other's would appreciate it? Why does it always have to take away from that person's happiness. Wouldn't intervention be a lot better if it was for something that people would really like. I mean wouldn't you just love it if someone showed up at your house one day and said, "hey you!, we're tired of you being broke all the time and not paying your bills. We feel it's time we intervened. Here's a million bucks. Now you be po no mo - huzza!"

Now that's what I would call intervention.

I remember how my dad would "intervene" if he thought I was playing too much. He'd walk over turn off the NES and tell me to go outside and play. I absolutely hated him for it...Now I do the same thing to my kids. (I understand how saving a game works though, so I usually give a 5 minute warning)

I think that you should need to get licensed to have children. The minimum age should be around 25 or so, most people have a good idea of who they are by then. Children should not be raising children. I've seen kids go without things they should have so mommy can buy yards of leather to make an outfit for a rennaissance fair.

BTW I have three sons, I had the first when I was barely 18, my youngest just last year when I was 30. Everything is so much easier now that I'm more mature and better of financially.

I think the point is that addiction doesn't lead to hapiness. It leads to isolation, and loneliness. Someone might think they are happy playing 6+ hours of video games every day, but chances are they aren't and by the time they figure it out, they won't have any friends left.

I just think the whole concept of "introvening" (in the instance of everyone you know in a room threatening you) is not the way to go. In the instance of this "Peter" guy, sure he went on his little boot camp away from video games, but he did it unwillingly. It said later in the show when he got back he started playing video games again.
He only went to this bootcamp because he was threatened. How is saying stuff like "If you don't, I won't love you or support you or even talk to you," or "I won't be your friend anymore" helping? I feel this isolates people even more than the issue at hand.
You need to understand there is a problem or you can't fix it. If you need to change you need to want to change (or it just isn't going to happen).

I couldn't agree with you more. It's a horrible way of helping someone handle their problems. In fact, it's probably not helping at all.

I caught the one tonight about the chick who was Hooked on Vicadin (probably spelled that wrong,oh well). If anything, it made me feel better about myself. I mean, I've talked about my kidney disease on here before, and how much pain it puts me through...so of course the doctors have me on some high POWered stuff (Hydrocodone every day). Addiction is gonna happen, I'd be lying if I said I didn't enjoy, and probably need the high from it at this point. But...then again I can't live without it, the alternative is constant lower back pain. I don't take 20 a day like that chick, that's kinda overkill big time. But...the buzz you get off taking 5-10 a day isn't gonna chance much about your ability to do things. All I get from it is pain releif and a warm fuzzy feeling. Takes my mind off the fact I'm only 31 and and on a collision course to the same end this stinking disease dealt out to my Dad....if that's a bad thing, let 'em intervene me. After I smack 'em around, they'll be asking me for pain pills,lol.