by Angella Gailey

Created on: August 20, 2010   Last Updated: August 22, 2010

If we were talking about alcohol or drug addiction, you would not blame the actual drug or drink?  They are not to blame when someone picks up a drink or takes a drag from a joint; they are inanimate objects and actually have no control over what a person does.  Video game addiction is no different.

A person can pick up a video game, put it into their console of choice, and make their own choices from there.  Even if they are genetically predisposed to addiction, they can make the choice to turn the video game off.  They make the choice to continue playing the game.  The player makes the choice to let the game ruin their lives or to just let it be a fun distraction.

It is easy to say a video game is addictive; it's a lot harder to say that you are suffering from your own addiction.  Anyone who suffers from an addiction has to realize the same thing: it is your own choice to have the thing you are addicted to in your life.  By saying that the video game forces you to be addicted is just like an alcoholic blaming the bar tender for forcing him to drink at all.  It makes no sense because the alcoholic chooses to drink and he has to make the choice to stop.

There is no reason for a person to be ashamed of being addicted to video games.  As far as addictions go, it is one of the better ones.  Even though it is capable of destroying your life (and I have seen this) it is not necessarily harmful to your body.  It is also easy to get past.  Just like with every other addiction, you have to remove it from your life.  This might seem hard because you have probably spent tens of thousands of dollars on your video game systems and video games, but the player needs to think about how much better off they will be for conquering their addiction and how much money they will save once you move on.

Video game addiction can be a terrible thing, but it is definitely not the games fault.  It is sad that video game addiction is not frowned on more than it is and far too many people live with it and never get the help they need. Hopefully many of these people will get the help they need, but until then; blame the player, not the game.

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