Quote:
|
Originally Posted by pan6467
Hate to sound argumentative.... but as a professional addictions counselor and having had a mental addiction (gambling) and not a physical (drugs, alcohol).... there are many differences some subtle some very obvious. And mental addictions are far far harder to recover from, have fewer success rates and have more suicides attached to them.
For the most part they can be treated the same ways, however with mental addictions there is a need to delve far deeper into the escape from reality aspect and the need for the person to face their inner turmoil more.
|
Do you have a source for this? In psychology we learnt the exact opposite, that some problem gamblers who have gambled their houses away are able to stop cold turkey and be fine within a few weeks. When you are addicted to alcohol or dope or heroin, and you stop, you suffer real serious anxiety and your body/brain is telling you constantly relieve this feeling. Thus most drug addictions are about avoiding the negative as much as chasing the positive after a while (and some argue that serious addictions are almost totally avoiding the negative). Higher rates of suicide? That is nothing compared to the number of people who die every year due to alcohol or smoking. I live in Sydney, Australia and we have a massive poker machine problem but it is nothing compared to cigarettes and alcohol.
Back to the original poster, your friend sounds in pretty deep and I'm sorry that it has come to this. But keep it all in perspective and know that it is extremely unlikely he will die from playing WoW or suffer any irreversible damage. As others have pointed out playing that often generally would indicate other problems in his life, it is unlikely he really loves WoW that much and more likely that he is escaping from something he doesn't want to deal with. Don't beat yourself up about introducing him to the game - the game is fucking awesome but its not heroin.
If he wants to keep playing and waste his life doing it, there is really nothing you can do to stop him. I think the first step to helping him is accepting that it is his choice to continue to do what he is doing. You have certainly done the right thing by letting him know how you feel. The danger is that he will now start playing with a whole bunch of new people that are just as addicted. I'm almost surprised blizzard keep adding more ways to make WoW more addictive (e.g. the honour system), gambling sites for example now have ways of helping you limit your play and hopefully blizzard will introduce something similar in the future.
I don't know how often you play but if you want to send a strong message to him it might be an idea to stop playing. Myself I have recently moved house and I'm on dialup which is close to unplayable for WoW. It has changed my life a little because I have been seeing more of my friends and doing my own projects instead of working on my character. I hope when I get ADSL I will keep on some of my new found healthier habits
.
Good luck let us know how it goes.
Disclaimer: My advice only