by NancyN

Created on: February 08, 2009   Last Updated: February 20, 2009

Addictions 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.

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