Video Game Obsession And The Behavior To Look For In The Player
Forget about drugs and alcohol ruining lives, hoards of teenagers and young urban professional video game players are “clinically” obsessed to playing video games – either online video games like World of War Craft or at home with their Xbox, playstation or Wii.
These game addicts become almost possessed with their game and end up playing for hours every day, often at the costof their homework, relationship and real interaction and even their work. In some cases video game addicts will play long into the night, get up early before school or work and play more and then return to their computer or TV, and upon their return, play for numerous hours every afternoon and evening.
This compulsion is responsible for crumbled failed marriages, diving grades as well as job layoffs. In essence, it has become a debilitating habit forming compulsion that is adversely affecting hundreds of thousands of people , mostly male teens and young men, from living normal productive lives.
Understanding the crisis level of this compulsion, gamer addiction clinics are springing up around the planet to help these video gamers who have no control and to stop and find a balance. One such clinic, no big surprise here, was established in the Netherlands. Game players come to “detox” from the debilitating neuro-mind disease and must initially admit they have no sway over their compulsive behavior to play on line console games endlessly.
Video game addiction, like other addictions, lands in the description of something that a person wants more and more of and when they don’t get it they are moody. While there is noabsolutepsychological addiction such as escapism to fantasy – not unlike other online addictions such as chat rooms.
Most gamers do not necessarily have an addiction to playing – it really comes down to self control and being able to quit when you want and not “have” to play. The signs that you or a loved one are a video game addict are:
1. Increasing playing time at the expense of other activities
2. Thinking about playing video games while active in some other activity
3. Used as escapism from real world depression
4. Deceitful about the amount of time spent gaming to friends and family
5. Getting depressed when trying to back off on from social and physical real world activities, hobbies, and people.
Breaking the addiction is difficult as well sincegaming and computers go hand in hand and computers are so integrated in normal life that it is hard to control the compulsion when you are using its hardware. One must have the courage and need to get a grip of the yearning to play an uncover their balance again. Getting help from friends and family and a clinic may be the answer to this relatively new phenomena.
