Video-game addicts get help

An addiction center in Amsterdam is opening Europe’s first detox clinic for video-game addicts, offering in-house treatment for people who can’t leave their joysticks alone.

Keith Bakker, director of Amsterdam-based Smith & Jones Addiction Consultant, already has treated 20 video-game addicts, ages 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,” said Bakker, who has seen signs of addiction in children as young as 8. “Their social network has completely disappeared.”