Topic : 06/03 Virtual Chaos

      I think that you're making some serious mistakes. You're disiplining your son because he doesn't enjoy other hobbies, and you don't trust him to not become one of those two men who played MMORPG's until real life became a problem.

       This is what I suggest.

1) Games are like novels and movies. Research the games that your son plays and introduce him to other ways to enjoy those genres.

RPGs and Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games are in the Fantasy genre. Your son will likely be interested in reading books in this genre and watch movies in this genre.

1st and 3rd Person Shooters are in the war and action genre. Get him a toy gun, tell him no pointing it at people unless it's a nerf or squirt gun, and tell him to use his imagination outside.

If he plays sports games like Madden or Racing games, take him to something like Swings and Things and take him to the Go-Carts, or introduce him to the school's sports or a sporting League.

2) Do not disipline him without due cause. Until he breaks a legitimate rule, he should not be punished. If you expand his interests through plausible and reasonable means, he will likely filter those new interests to his friends.

      This should get you better results.

as a video game addicted person i know how it is to play i have been playing video games for 10 years straight and people say if you are addicted to video games you can barely "log back in" to real life.

me and my cousin were going to create awesome games but now i am going to confince him for us to make games that you get better equipment and acessories for excersising so the more you get in shape the better you have a chance to beat the game. video game addictors are always doing what ever they can to beat the game but if you get in shape in order to beat the game the healther the econimy get evr the years.

your ideas are really great as a gamer and my family loves video games we some times play game together as a family like mario kart and mario party 8. so you should hang out with your child do not let them play game you think they a not mature enough to play.my cousin(8) plays grand theft auto sanandras and get excited when he steals a cops car kills the officer and runs 50 people over. when i play the game i drive crazy but i have 10 years of gaming experience so i dont kill people unless the mission is to.

so i have i idea like DR. Phil said see how much your kids play video games reward them for the amount of hours they get exercise and read library books. if your child goes over a friends house talk to their parents about this our show them this episode.but game teach you hand eye cordnazation, i play soccer and take computer application at school and it has paid off.

so strect your kids to a serain amount of hours they can play. the wii,xbox 360 and computers have parental controls where you can set the amount of time spent on the games, but the wii over heats after 4 hours of play,do not set a password on the pc, some days your child needs the internet for school or to sent you a email. you can block game websites.

get your children the new ME2 handheld were they can get lots of fun stuff for there avatar online for exersicing

some days play racing games with your child or exersice games like wii fit .

         I would like more information.

1) What game or games consumes your son's time?

2) How much time does he play it/them?

3) Does his severe mood swings occur when he is pulled away from the game/games?

       The way you wrote this post; I think that your son's bi-polar diagnosis is an inaccurate diagnosis. Please bare in mind, I'm not a doctor, and I could be miss interpreting what I read.

I would like to know what genre those game/games are if you're able. You can give me a list of his games, and I'll look into them if you would prefer.