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| Yes | 73% | 1063 votes | Total: 1451 votes | |
| No | 27% | 388 votes |
Yes
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Add to FavoritesAddictions are always a problem. The good news, if there can be said to be any, is that a gaming addiction is not essentially physical other than denying the player an active, healthy lifestyle. The bad news is, gaming addiction is primarily a psychological addiction, presenting the same symptoms and manifestations as an impulse control disorder (think compulsive shoplifting or compulsive gambling).
Although it is not considered as a bona fide diagnosis at this time, a gaming addiction, or compulsive gaming, can be very serious. The compulsion takes choice out of the hands of its victim. It creates a strong and driving need for gaming that can only be satisfied by participating. An addict will forego normal interaction with people in his environment in favor of playing the game. Relationships can suffer, or be destroyed. An addict will spend an inordinate number of hours at the game, giving up friends, family, and normal social obligations. Sleep patterns can become disturbed. School or work suffer when they take second priority to the gaming. Victims can become hostile not only while playing the games, but some who are vulnerable psychologically can carry that anger into the real world.
How does a player know if he is addicted? Usually he won't. Often it takes an outside influence to make him understand something is wrong, but even so, as with most addicts, there will be an initial stage of denial. Sometimes a player comes to understand the depth of his addiction if he cannot, for whatever reason, play his game and he goes into psychological withdrawal. This can be manifested in anger, depression, anxiety, and of course, an intense longing to play the game in order to alleviate these symptoms.
Some cases of gaming addiction are never addressed. The addict may remain addicted to gaming or may transfer the addiction to some other stimulus. Often it takes a crisis moment to convince the gamer that he is addicted. At this point he has two options: accept the addiction and live with it, dangers and all, or decide to overcome it.
If the addict is a child living at home, subject to parental rules, the parents can break his addiction by removing access to the game. The longer the parent waits to intervene, and the older the child is, the harder it is for this to be successful. Counselors can also help a gaming addict come to understand himself, and to assist in finding coping skills, until the addiction is broken. A counselor can also help him to identify and solve any social problems he may have had that led to the comforting isolation of gaming.
While a game is not dangerous itself, obsession with it can rob a person of normal relationships, and can replace a real and productive life with one of detachment from a normal life and normal emotional growth. It can mimic a real life, but it cannot provide one.
Learn more about this author, Nannie Kate.
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No
Video game addiction is the subject of debate when it comes to being a problem. There are those that do spend money on games and that is true without question. Addiction to video games would have to be considered as one of those scapegoat ideas that do exist.
The major fact in all of this would have to be that there is nothing that can get injected into a person's body that makes them get involved with spending an excessive amount of money on video games in the first place. As a matter of fact, it is just merely used as a scapegoat and should not be used as a pity party story. It is what it truly is and not something that can be get into a person's body.
There are no shakes that happen because nothing was taken physically to get in that position all the time. If something had been injected like a drug for example, that would be one thing. As far as anyone can tell, video games do not get injected into a person's body. As a matter of fact, it does not happen whatsoever. It is something that needs to be looked upon as just simply making an excuse.
Accountability is something that has to be looked upon when it comes to that. There honestly is no need for a rehab assignment after playing video games for hours. It really comes down to what is your top priority. If that is the top priority and not taking care of the important items such as bills or food, then quite honestly something is wrong with you as a person and it doesn't say much about you.
Put it in this perspective, if there had been injections into the body, there would be a need for rehab if it became a huge problem? With that not involved in the first place, how in the world could it be said that addiction to video games is a huge problem when deep down that is not the case. The real reality is that it comes down to personal responsibility. If that is not there, then quite honestly, what does that say in the first place?
It does not say much and quite honestly, it should. It really is not a problem in itself. What really is the problem is just the case of irresponsible who would spend all their time figuring out what to do when it comes to playing games instead of realizing that there are more important things in the world to take care of. There is nothing wrong with video games, as something to do on spare time, there is a problem if it does become a higher priority.
Learn more about this author, Bruce Bostwick.
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