Clinic Seeks to Help Teens Kick Tech Habit

(March 19) -- Facebook, Twitter and video games provide a harmless diversion for most people. For others, however, they can be an addiction on par with gambling or even substance abuse. In July, Dr. Richard Graham, a British psychiatrist, told The Daily Telegraph that some video games are as addictive as crack.

He's now offering help. Graham has set up a clinic in London that will specialize in technology addiction for patients he has dubbed "screenagers."

The clinic at at Capio Nightingale Hospital will cater to children aged 15 to 17. A video game rehab center opened in Amsterdam, Netherlands, in 2006, and other clinics offer help with technology addiction, but Graham's center differs with its focus on teens. The clinic already is receiving large volumes of calls from worried parents hoping to help their children.

The program will also help patients deal with cyberbullying, as well as manage their use of other devices like cell phones.

"Mental health services need to adapt quickly to the changing worlds young people inhabit and understand how seriously their lives can be impaired by unregulated time online, on-screen or in-game," Graham told the London Evening Standard. "We have found many of the existing services fail to recognize the complexity of these situations, borrowing from older models of addiction and substance misuse to very limited effect."

Some cases are so severe, Graham said, that police had to be called because of fights between teens and parents who were attempting to limit their computer use.

But when Graham and his team announced they would be signing up to play the popular online game "World of Warcraft" to research its addiction, some within the gaming community saw this as a patronizing move.

"World of Warcraft players, on the other hand, who may suffer from the false consciousness of not wanting to be saved, might characterize Dr. Richard Graham as a clueless n00b who should be ganked as often as possible," wrote a blogger on the group complaint blog Popehat. Translation: Graham might be characterized as an inexperienced player who should be killed.

Recent events suggest that some problems go beyond individual responsibility, however. Cyberbullying through social networks has been linked to a number of teen suicides. Also, the clinic opening comes just weeks after a South Korean couple made international headlines by allowing their 3-month old daughter to starve to death while spending 12 hours a day in a cybercafe raising a virtual child in the online world.

Others from within a community of "World of Warcraft" players might be more inclined to agree with Graham. One Web site, WoWdetox.com, offers an online support group for people trying to give up their gaming habit. Users report problems with their social lives, marriages and work. One person even reported developing a vascular disorder in his leg from spending all day sitting down.

One commenter echoes the sentiments of millions of others who have allowed an addiction to move to the center of their life.

"I want to quit WoW so badly. I've been playing for 2 years. ... The problem is that I don't know what else to do besides play video games :(".