• This study indicates that the term “addictive personality” could be a reality, and is caused by a lack of sufficient dopamine receptors in your brain.
• Dopamine is a natural stimulant released by your brain when experiencing pleasure.  The receptors remove an amount of dopamine from your circulation, curbing your appetite for a particular experience.  If you lack receptors, your body gets overwhelmed by these pleasure-makers, and REALLY enjoys whatever it is you’re doing.
• Problem:  Excessive dopamine circulation has been linked to every form of addiction studied.
• Gaming is proven to release dopamines!

Why is Technology so Addictive?

• Answer:  Because we don’t know how to filter its use properly.
• Also includes several great tips on avoiding tech addiction (specifically re: smart phones)
• Examples:
  • Don’t multitask when you can avoid it.  Doing so can create an ingrained sense of stress and urgency whenever that tech is in use.
  • Don’t apologize for your tech’s failures (bad reception, etc) — this psychologically reinforces a dependency on the tech.
  • Get organized.  The mere act of getting organized reduces your reliance upon reminders, distractions, and the stress of forgetfulness.

NCSoft gets SUED for making Lineage II “too addicting”

• Gamer claims $3million in damages over “gross negligence” because he wasn’t warned ahead of time that the game could possibly become an addiction.
• This dude’s just crazy.  The lawsuit was filed after his account was banned for selling in-game items (violation of the EULA).
• Interesting that a federal judge has allowed the case to be heard, though.  If ANY judgement is passed against NCSoft, it could open an whole can of worms in the MMO scene.
• Massively.com has a whole “addiction” tag because of stories like this…

South Korean physician treating “Starcraft Addiction” with drugs!

• The drug being used is an anti-depressant called Bupropion.
• Success was judged by doing MRIs while subjects were shown pictures of zerglings.  No joke.

Psychoactive drugs being used more frequently to treat addiction and other ailments

• Psilocybin (from ‘magic mushrooms’) has been shown to assist in the treatment of tobacco and other drug addictions, when combined with psychotherapy.