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Sleep Therapist Says Gamers Are Like Cocaine Addicts
There's never a shortage of so-called "experts" out there ready to make specious claims about the negative effects of video games, but this takes the cake.
MCV UK recently reported on Steve Pope, an English therapist who went on BBC Radio 5Live yesterday to discuss a recent Reuters article that linked late-night usage of technology like television, computers, and game consoles to sleep disorders. While we're willing to listen to the claims that playing Call of Duty until 3 a.m. might make you tired the following morning, Pope went on a rant that equated games to illegal drugs, dubbing gaming "the silent killer of our generation."
“Spending two hours on a game station is equivalent to taking a line of cocaine in the high it produces in the brain," Pope commented. "We're now onto second generation game station players who have always grown up with it. Computer game addiction can also spiral into violence as after playing violent games, they may turn their fantasy games into reality."
He also went on to claim that late night gaming sessions create an "endorphin high" in the brain akin to drug use. This effect -- in Pope's estimation -- can lead to chemical imbalances that create violent and disturbed behavior.
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