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Beijing’s new gaming addiction clinic opens old wounds
Netizens decry China’s past with shock therapy as country tries to address the newly-recognized WHO disorder
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This article originally appeared on ABACUS
Four days before the World Health Organization recognized gaming disorder as a modern disease, China opened the doors to a new gaming addiction clinic in Beijing. But rather than celebrating China’s forward-thinking, some Chinese netizens are concerned about their country’s past in treating modern addiction.
Ten years ago, a famed Chinese doctor was caught forcefully electroshocking more than 3,000 kids in the name of treatment for internet addicts. Reactions online to official recognition of gaming addiction voiced concerns about a return of China's notorious electroconvulsive therapy (ECT).
“So ‘shock therapy’ for treating mental illnesses like internet addiction is finally recognized?” one Weibo user asked in a People’s Daily post about the WHO recognizing gaming addiction.
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In the latest update to its International Classification of Diseases (ICD), the WHO identifies gaming disorder as “characterized by a pattern of persistent or recurrent gaming behavior” that results in “significant impairment in personal, family, social, educational, occupational or other important areas of functioning.”
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While netizens might be quick to link efforts to treat this newly-recognized disorder to past controversy, the new clinic at one of Beijing’s biggest psychiatric hospitals appears to offer something quite different from shock therapy.
The clinic’s head doctor said they would try to help patients replace their addiction with other hobbies. The clinic has many different toys and facilities, he said, including a karaoke machine. Rather than sequestering patients, family members are allowed to stay at the clinic as well.
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China has a complicated history when it comes to treating gaming or internet addiction. Doctors in the country were treating people with game addictions long before the WHO had even introduced the issue to its agenda. Yet one doctor in particular has tainted the industry in the eyes of many.
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