The first US retreat for Internet addicts has opened its doors, welcoming a teenager that was captive to the World of Warcraft online role-playing videogame.
The 19-year-old boy went from pursuing quests in Azeroth to bottle-feeding baby goats and building a chicken coop as part of the Internet Addiction Recovery Program at a rural 2 hectare spread in the state of Washington.
“We are a cold turkey place — no technology,” reStart psychotherapist Hilarie Cash said on Thursday.
“A gamer is not going to be allowed to game any time they are here because it is the gaming that is their drug of choice,” she said.
Cash and therapist Cosette Rae opened the Internet addiction retreat in July as a live-in center for reconnecting cyber junkies with the land of the living.
“We are not anti-technology,” Cash said. “It is about helping people addicted to technology get through the withdrawal and help their brains get wired back to normal and connected to the world in a positive way.”
Internet and videogame addictions have grown over the past decade, Cash said.
“The problem is worsening,” Cash said. “More kids are being raised from the earliest days with technology. If allowed to spend too much time there, their development is not balanced.”
The reStart rehab program includes learning skills such as starting conversations and reading body language.
Videogame addicts typically need to be reprogrammed to be conscientious about everyday tasks such as bathing, cooking and household chores, reStart said. They also need tutoring when it comes to dating.
“The typical gamer is somebody who has fallen way behind in social skills and lacks confidence,” Cash said.
Videogames are designed to immerse players’ in fantasy worlds and hold their attention with intermittent rewards such as new powers for characters and story-line revelations.
“Games are really designed to keep people hooked,” Cash said. “Those that stay hooked are people really vulnerable for whom the world is painful or scary.”
Computers and the Internet are also parent-sanctioned refuges for children eager to escape hard knocks that are usually part of growing up.
“Childhood can be difficult for anybody,” Cash said. “You have lots of kids who are shy, or have miserable home lives, or low self-esteem, or are struggling in school. These are all kids drawn to the safety of a screen.”
Children that spend too much time in the company of computers or videogame consoles can grow into socially mal-adjusted adults, reStart said.
The retreat has beds for six patients.
A 45-day stay costs US$14,500 plus cash for daily expenses such as renting camping gear for wilderness adventures.
“The idea here is teaching people how to be moderate in their behavior and stay oriented to the real world,” Cash said.
The retreat’s premier patient is being nudged back into running with the aim of reacquainting him with his body and the physical world.
He has discovered a love for animals and cares for a puppy, baby goats and chickens.
“He is thriving, and his social skills are improving by leaps and bounds,” Cash said.
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
RSS