Video games may look innocent, but they can be as addictive as gambling or drugs -- and just as hard to kick, says Keith Bakker, director of Amsterdam-based Smith & Jones Addiction Consultants.

Bakker already has treated 20 video game addicts, aged 13 to 30, since January. Some show withdrawal symptoms, such as shaking and sweating, when they look at a computer.

His detox program begins in July. It will run four to eight weeks, including discussions with therapists and efforts to build patients' interests in alternative activities.

"We have kids who don't know how to communicate with people face-to-face because they've spent the last three years talking to somebody in Korea through a computer," Bakker said. "Their social network has completely disappeared."

It can start with a Game Boy, perhaps given by parents hoping to keep their children occupied but away from the television. From there, it can progress to multilevel games that aren't made to be won.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/fun.games/06/...x.ap/index.html

Bakker is going down...

hilarious

I can quit anytime I want. I just don't want to right now.

i'm not surprised, and its probably a good thing. I was addicted you could say, to games like a year ago for sometime. From 2004-early 06 I played 90 straight days worth of games according to my Xfire hours. Xfire is like a little message thing that records how long yo have played certain games for. It doesnt have hours for all games though. Most of that was done during 2005.

I guess i kinda "kicked the habbit" myself because I simply got bored of games . Well, that and i cant see upgrading my computer every year in order to play newer games.