Many people love video games, and it may reach the point of addiction that cannot be controlled, and the World Health Organization has recently declared video game addiction as a mental illness and a mental health disorder. In this report, we learn more about the symptoms and treatment of video game addiction, according to the Cleveland Clinic website.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), gaming disorder was recently classified as a mental disorder in the eleventh revision of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11).
In order to call video game addiction a mental illness, it must be severe enough to cause “significant disability in the personal, familial, social, occupational, or other areas of life.”
The disorder is not surprising, but it is considered a diagnosis when the negative behavior persists for longer than 12 months and dominates a person's entire life.
Psychiatrist Dr. Scott Beh, a member of the World Health Organization (WHO), said that if a person who plays video games avoids other behaviors, such as going to work, school or doing homework, and if their relationships with surrounding people are affected by excessive video games, it may be sign of a problem.
Why are video games so addictive?
Dr. Beh says the addiction involved in video games is no different than addiction to alcohol or drugs, as the brain receives positive emotions every time while playing. “In gaming addiction, reward occurs sporadically and unpredictably, as players keep actively looking for the good feeling produced in the brain when they reach a new goal or successfully complete a goal.”
Video game developers are aware of this, and many games, especially online multiplayer games, are designed to dramatically make players repeat their behaviors in pursuit of these goals.
People with psychological problems, such as anxiety and depression, may rely on video games to produce changes in brain chemistry that temporarily make them feel better.
The people most at risk are teenagers and young adults, who may have the most difficulty assessing the negative effects of these games.
Video game addiction treatment
Reducing the number of hours played by someone around you sets a schedule for you and in some cases, complete abstinence from video games may be required to treat addiction.
Like compulsive or addictive behaviors, it is often difficult for individuals who have had problems with a particular behavior to develop greater control over it.
- If you do not find a way to control this type of addiction, you can resort to a psychiatrist.