My Brother is so addicted to WoW, we get into fights

Alienwho

Diamond Member
Apr 22, 2001
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Let me start off by saying, that I am 23 years old. My brother is 15. My brother is completely devoid of humanesque tendencies, I swear he is lower than a dog. He has no sense of loyalty, passion, love, gratitude, justice, judgement, etc. He cares for no one and no thing. He absolutely refuses to do any kind of schoolwork.

Since I live relatively close to my parents, home, I visit a few times a week for dinner and to chat. I stopped by this afternoon to grab a package and talk with my mom. She told me my brother has been sneaking downstairs to play the computer at 2am, so she asked me to hide the monitor and stuff. I told her I could just password the computer and call it good.

About 10 minutes later, my brother comes home from school. My mom tells him he needs to find something to do today, such as homework, hanging out with friends, reading a book, riding his bike, whatever and that his computer time is over. He ignores her and goes directly to the computer. Finding it was password protected, he tries some things. I tell him it's useless and he'll never get it, so he might as well go find something else to do.

At this point he starts to slam doors and yell. My mom is extremely patient with him and tells him nicely that it's a beautiful day and he needs to do something outside. She also reminds him their "deal" where he has to do so much homework/chores and he could have so much computer time. He obviously failed at his end of the bargain.

My mom then tells him to go outside and get out some of his energy. He yells "I'm going to get out some energy by breaking stuff". At this point he is in the nice living room that is full of all kinds of statues and figurines. I go to confront him and tell him to relax and get over it, because it's not changing. At this point he gets in my face and puts his wiry arms up like he's going to hit me.

Now, I am 6'2", 185 pounds, in quite good shape (I lift 3 times a week and play numerous sports). My brother is about 5'7" and extremely scrawny and skinny (he doesn't do ANYTHING physical). So needless to say, when he got in my face I couldn't really help but chuckle to myself. Especially because this has happened before:

*Side Story* Now, what my brother lacks in brains and strength, he makes up by his complete stupidity, arrogance, bad judgement, and pure passionate hatred. A few months ago my mom grounded him from the xbox and asked me to take it away. As I was taking it away he freaked out, punched out some windows and kicked a few holes in the walls. As I walked back inside and realized what was going on, I went in his room and noticed all the destruction. I was still calm at this point though. My mom was trying to calm my brother down, and at this point he started to curse my mom into oblivion. Well this sent me over the edge, and I proceeded to nearly choke my brother unconscious, followed by restraining him on the ground for about 10 minutes while he boiled and freaked out. Once he calmed down, I cleaned up all the broken glass, and that was the end of that. I felt bad about it mere hours afterwards, and I wanted to apologize, but I would only apologize if he apologized first, because it was all his mess afterward. He never felt any remorse.

Back to today. He gets in my face and I instinctively twirl him around and get him into a headlock. And get him down on the ground. He fights with everything he's got, but it's totally useless, he's not moving anywhere. I almost choke him dead once again, he freaks continues to freak out. I tell him to relax and I'll let him go. He shows no signs of calming down. Meanwhile my mom is talking of calling the police. I tell her to do it, call the police, get this kid out of here. She calls 911 and gets a message saying "this call will not go through". Heh, great. She gives up on that and I restrain my brother for another few minutes.

Eventually I feel his body tension go down a bit. I slowly let him go. He then goes for his shoes, puts them on, and stomps his way out of the house. He then hops on his bike, being sure to cause as much damage to our cars/garage stuff on the way out. He rides off and I tell him to do us all a favor and get hit by a car.

So that's my story. I don't know what to do. My mom is the most kind and patient woman in the world and she's trying her hardest. My dad is great, but he gets so frustrated with him that he doesn't know what to do. I'm the only one who gets into physical confrontations with him.

Why is he so incredibly addicted to these games? We try to get him to do stuff with us, motorcycles, wakeboarding, boating, sports, etc. But he just refuses and would rather sit in the office gaming. If you don't force him to eat, he never would. He would sit and play games for 5 days until his body just shut down and died. The sad thing is, he doesn't even have a WoW account, he just keeps playing the 5 day trial or whatever it is, over and over again. And the computer he plays on is so slow and old, it's like a slideshow. I'm not joking, I'm talking 1 frame per 2 seconds here. It's unbelievable.

Advice me.
 

uhohs

Diamond Member
Oct 29, 2005
7,660
44
91
Originally posted by: Alienwho
Why is he so incredibly addicted to these games? We try to get him to do stuff with us, motorcycles, wakeboarding, boating, sports, etc. But he just refuses and would rather sit in the office gaming. If you don't force him to eat, he never would. He would sit and play games for 5 days until his body just shut down and died. The sad thing is, he doesn't even have a WoW account, he just keeps playing the 5 day trial or whatever it is, over and over again. And the computer he plays on is so slow and old, it's like a slideshow. I'm not joking, I'm talking 1 frame per 2 seconds here. It's unbelievable.

Advice me.

that's the saddest part of the story. :Q
 

yowolabi

Diamond Member
Jun 29, 2001
4,183
2
81
My advice.... seek professional help for him. Obviously none of you know how to deal with him, and none of what you're currently doing is going to work, including the headlocks. Nobody here can tell you how to help him in a couple of paragraphs. Only a professional can help over a period of time.
 

jman19

Lifer
Nov 3, 2000
11,225
664
126
He sounds depressed. Playing video games, especially the same stupid content over and over again is not helping things. You did the right thing though. He obviously is angry and has no self control, so you'll just have to take things from him until he gets it through his skull that there is more to life than video games.
 

Alienwho

Diamond Member
Apr 22, 2001
6,766
0
76
Oh yeah, I should mention, he's been seeing a professional psychiatrist for years now. All he says is "You just need to accept him for who he is". That psychiatrist is a douchebag. The kid needs a drill sergeant psychiatrist, not a pacifistic weeny cry baby psychiatrist. We've been 'accepting him for who he is' for 3 years now, and he's in a downward spiral.

Also, he is on some medications, though i'm not sure which.
 

clamum

Lifer
Feb 13, 2003
26,252
403
126
Jesus man. Don't know what to tell ya besides try seeking some professional help.
 

MasonLuke

Senior member
Aug 14, 2006
413
0
0
Kids these days....

In about a year or two, he'll get sick of playing games and more interested in girls.
 

clamum

Lifer
Feb 13, 2003
26,252
403
126
Originally posted by: Alienwho
Oh yeah, I should mention, he's been seeing a professional psychiatrist for years now. All he says is "You just need to accept him for who he is". That psychiatrist is a douchebag. The kid needs a drill sergeant psychiatrist, not a pacifistic weeny cry baby psychiatrist. We've been 'accepting him for who he is' for 3 years now, and he's in a downward spiral.

Also, he is on some medications, though i'm not sure which.

Fvck him then, try and find another.
 

Alienwho

Diamond Member
Apr 22, 2001
6,766
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Another thing, he's got some friends (amazingly, I can't imagine why these other kids could possibly like him). And the friends will come over and basically sit around for hours waiting for him to get off the computer so they can go outside and do something. He will just act like nobody is there and like they are just thorns in his side.

So it's not like the kid doesn't have friends or can't get any friends. He simply ignores anyone who can possibly tolerate him.
 

Kwaipie

Golden Member
Nov 30, 2005
1,326
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You respond to verbal abuse and destruction of property with physical harm to a family member? Maybe you should also get counseling.
 

AreaCode707

Lifer
Sep 21, 2001
18,447
133
106
Ok, the choking and "I hope you get hit by a car" were out of line on your part. There's no shame in apologizing to him about that, even if he doesn't apologize first.

Leave the computer passworded. If he gets his way by threats and tantrums, you're reinforcing the behavior. Make some deals, be prepared to cut him some slack at the first sign of cooperation so he learns that cooperation gets him what he wants.

And yeah, I'd try a new psychiatrist.
 

Rumpltzer

Diamond Member
Jun 7, 2003
4,815
33
91
I doesn't sound like online gaming is your brother's problem. I sounds like he's going to be a pain in the ass no matter what it's about.

Have your parents tried being his parents? Other options would be to kill him, send him to boot camp, hand him over to a cult, find him a new shrink, etc.
 

Alienwho

Diamond Member
Apr 22, 2001
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0
76
Originally posted by: Kwaipie
You respond to verbal abuse and destruction of property with physical harm to a family member? Maybe you should also get counseling.

Assuming your mom is the nicest, most sincere and loving person in the world, and somebody you know has been abusing that nicety for 15 years and still has the nerve to call her every name imaginable...in my opinion, if you don't do anything, you're a pvssy and should get counseling yourself (or get your balls checked).

I doesn't sound like online gaming is your brother's problem. I sounds like he's going to be a pain in the ass no matter what it's about.

Have your parents tried being his parents? Other options would be to kill him, send him to boot camp, hand him over to a cult, find him a new shrink, etc..
I agree, it isn't necessarily online gaming is the problem. By no reasons am I contributing his problems to gaming, trust me. It just helps contribute to his antisocial attitude.

And yes my parents have been parents. My mom used to get mad at him, yell, scream, etc. until the doctor said "accept him for who he is". She's tried that road, it's obviously failed.

We've been contemplating 3 of your 4 options.
 

AreaCode707

Lifer
Sep 21, 2001
18,447
133
106
Originally posted by: Alienwho
Originally posted by: Kwaipie
You respond to verbal abuse and destruction of property with physical harm to a family member? Maybe you should also get counseling.

Assuming your mom is the nicest, most sincere and loving person in the world, and somebody you know has been abusing that nicety for 15 years and still has the nerve to call her every name imaginable...in my opinion, if you don't do anything, you're a pvssy and should get counseling yourself (or get your balls checked).

Wrestling the kid to the ground is different than choking him to unconsciousness. One is getting him under control and the other is assault.
 

Fenixgoon

Lifer
Jun 30, 2003
33,099
12,507
136
Originally posted by: Alienwho
Oh yeah, I should mention, he's been seeing a professional psychiatrist for years now. All he says is "You just need to accept him for who he is". That psychiatrist is a douchebag. The kid needs a drill sergeant psychiatrist, not a pacifistic weeny cry baby psychiatrist. We've been 'accepting him for who he is' for 3 years now, and he's in a downward spiral.

Also, he is on some medications, though i'm not sure which.

new psych?

and man, i wish my family would get me into motorcycles :p *one day i'll have one*:heart:
 

sygyzy

Lifer
Oct 21, 2000
14,001
4
76
What a sad story. Maybe you can send him to the military? OK, I know he's too young but maybe like a pre-school bootcamp.
 

Oceandevi

Diamond Member
Jan 20, 2006
3,085
1
0
Boot camp his ass. Yip yapping will not change him.

Also the beating on your little bro is not helping. I understand why you did it but it wont help.

He needs a major ass kicking or some kind of mental breakthrough.
 

Alienwho

Diamond Member
Apr 22, 2001
6,766
0
76
Originally posted by: Uhtrinity
Originally posted by: Phokus
Uhm... how about counseling? Ritalin? Electrotherapy?

How about parenting?

My parents have raised myself, 2 other brothers (ages 21 and 19) and my sister just fine, thanks. All of which which are currently attending college for things such as business/law/medical, all are bi lingual, honor students and extremely productive to society.
 

glutenberg

Golden Member
Sep 2, 2004
1,941
0
0
Refer to the "is it ok to spank your child" thread. Since he's 15, you need to create a "Is 15 too late to start spanking" thread.
 

glutenberg

Golden Member
Sep 2, 2004
1,941
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Originally posted by: Alienwho
Originally posted by: Uhtrinity
Originally posted by: Phokus
Uhm... how about counseling? Ritalin? Electrotherapy?

How about parenting?

My parents have raised myself, 2 other brothers (ages 21 and 19) and my sister just fine, thanks. All of which which are currently attending college for things such as business/law/medical, all are bi lingual, honor students and extremely productive to society, thanks.

Don't you love the generic, ATOT, response.
 

xanis

Lifer
Sep 11, 2005
17,571
8
0
Sounds like your brother has some real issues that call for professional help. Another piece of advice: next time he freaks out and starts breaking stuff, call the police. Let him get carted away by the cops to spend a bit of time at the station. It might knock some sense into him.