Asperger Syndrome is NOT Caused by Gaming

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Obsessive computer gaming is not a cause of ASD or necessarily a symptom. It can be an Addiction like any other or an escapist past-time for someone seriously unsatisfied with life.

In earlier times we had distinct rites of passage and rituals in our upbringing, that fulfilled our needs in the transition from child to adult. Such as how to conduct courtship, or the mentoring of child by parent. We don't commonly have that now. children usually don't see their parents enough of the day, and teachers and similar tertiary mentors don't want to take that responsibility. children don't spend enough alone time with parents of the same gender, or are able to be shown clearly their parent's vocation and how / why their parent chose it.

Now imagine a child with the social difficulties common in Asperger's Syndrome. how would you prefer them to be raised - in a manner (or lack of) common today, or the more distinct manner of earlier times? Perhaps this is why the difficulties of Asperger's Syndrome, despite evidence suggesting it's presence in people living centuries ago (e.g. Newton), is a "disease" in modern times. It's a consequence of social "illness", the breakdown of old constructive rituals of upbringing that fulfilled our needs in becoming adults.


Some of this comes from recent counselling, and recognizing anger I feel at my father for his remoteness and lack of role-model-ship in my childhood. Also from reading "Iron John" by Robert Bly, part of my efforts to rediscover what Masculinity and "Man-hood" means to me.

Also I don't condone the destructive practices of earlier times. Punishment and Discipline are different things.

Anime and cartoons dont cause it either

Are Boss Battles in games sort of like electronic simulations of initiation tasks?

There seems to be a recurring theme where you have to defeat a threatening "bad guy" or "monster" or "wild animal" in order to win. This theme is ancient: probably deeply rooted in the human psyche. It's like the tasks of Hercules all over again.

Mario is basically a modern take on the fairytale of hero travelling to the underworld to fight a dragon and rescue a princess.

Years ago, I played a game that had a cartoon bullfight as one of the bosses.

There was another game where I had to poison a shark in order to get accepted into a group of pirates. I felt sad that the game made me do this because I like animals and it seemed like an awful waste to kill a shark just to join a "club". Then I realised that the shark wasn't real and only made of pixels.


I've been addicted to many things including studying and reading (people didn't mind me being addicted to those two!). If it wasn't video games it would've been something else like collecting objects, tidying up, arranging things, playing with construction/science kits, using the computer etc.

Yes, I agree that people turn to the wonderful fantasy world of gaming to escape when their real lives are boring, difficult, restrictive or traumatic. I can kind of appreciate why someone might want to play the "hero" in a game when in real life this person is ostracised, bullied or ignored. Perhaps the player tries to deal with real life psychological traumas by projecting these onto "monsters" and "challenges" in the game?

I can also sort of appreciate why a kid who's told not to go out into the dangerous real world alone by adults would enjoy interactive electronic fantasy stories about heroism, special powers and going on adventure quests.

I have a hunch that some people are born with more compulsive (overly enthusiastic and committed?) traits than others. If you're compulsive and are "addicted" to the right subject at the right time, people admire you.

My guess would be that you'd probably have to be compulsive and technically thorough to create video games and anime.

The same themes of heroism and defeating monsters often crop up in anime too...

I do very little gaming in comparison to all of my friends NT or Aspie.