Video Game Addiction Is Now Officially A Mental Health Disorder
In what is only news to people who aren’t parents of Fortnite addicted teens and tweens, video game addiction is now a real thing.
The World Health Organization has officially added video game addiction (defined as “a pattern of persistent or recurrent gaming behavior” that “takes precedence over other life interests”) to the International Classification of Diseases database.
The World Health Organization has officially added video game addiction — characterized by “a pattern of persistent or recurrent gaming behavior” that “takes precedence over other life interests” — to their International Classification of Diseases (ICD) database.
Video games are a real thing. And they are becoming more and more popular. Fortnite made 3 billion dollars last year. And as this just grows, so does the addiction.
According to the WHO, for gaming disorder to be diagnosed, the behavior pattern must be of sufficient severity to result in significant impairment in personal, family, social, educational, occupational or other important areas of functioning and would normally have been evident for at least 12 months.
What does that mean? It means in order to be diagnosed with gaming disorder, you need to be a video game zombie for at least a year before it’s considered an actual problem.
Are video games bad?
No, not most of the time. Over 2 billion people play them and only a tiny percentage will ever be addicted.
But, if you or a loved one is spending so much time on video games that they are missing out on real life friendships, jobs, and family– then they should definitely talk to someone.
And yes, mobile games count, too. So candy crushers, you aren’t going to get a pass on this one.
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I personally believe that unless there is physical side effects, vomiting uncontrollable bowel movements exc, that it can’t be considered and addiction, yes it can take time away from your social life, ( I know I have been gaming since I was 9)however not playing a game isn’t the end of the world for me or any of my family and friends that have been gaming with me since 1999, I have put over 1000 hours into world of warcraft( family included ) but not once have I missed work or anything important because I was gaming, ya I stay up till 1230 1 am every night and you guessed it I get up in the morning and go to work, and when I get home cook for my fiancé help clean the house and then I sit down and relax by playing a video game, when I have kids I won’t be able to sit for 3-4 hours and play I know this and most people do as well it’s the stupid people who neglect there responsibilities that are making this out to be a bad thing, your kid is acting up take the farming system away that doesn’t work take the modem out of the wall so they can’t access the internet, easy ways to deal with this and not one of you have mentioned the fact that it is up to the parents to regulate how long there kid plays for and when, if your letting your child stay up till 12-1 am playing games that’s bad parenting and is no fault of the child because he isn’t being told that’s enough, there is a fine line between this subject and I understand both sides, however it shouldn’t be considered a mental addiction when it actually increases your cognitive functions and helps with hand eye coordination which is great for sports like baseball and football there are more but I think you get the picture, my point is, can this really be called an addiction when there are no harmful physical side effects to the consumer, I could consider it a mental illness but not an addiction
I TOTALLY AGREE with you 100%!!!! You hit it on the nail PERFECTLY!!! I am a mom of 4 kiddos and have ALWAYS monitor their video game timing?? Those so-called parents whose kids play non-stop and are encouraging these labels are NOT doing their job as a parent BECAUSE they DON’T want to parent!! They use the video games as “babysitters “ so the kids WON’T bother them!! I’ve seen/heard it toooo often?. I’m a teacher and kiddos tell me that as soon as they get home, they are allowed to play…they tell me this when I ask them about getting their homework done!! It’s a “me, me, me” world we live in, and “parents” (I use that loosely!) are NOT parents because they only want to take care of themselves?♀️!
This comment is for Cat?. For Sofo, I’m a mom of 4 and kids CAN BE BRATS!!! I will be the first one to say when one of my kiddos is being a brat…there is ABSOLUTELY nothing wrong with that?. No Political Correctness here??
That is obsessing but not addiction. The parameters were clear. It takes precedence over life like: work self care, family and social interaction. You use your leisure time just all of it.
I have watched my partner’s child go from a regular boy to an overweight teenager. I consider that a physical issue. The kids are with the mom most of the time and so there is nothing g he or I can do that lasts more than a few days. It’s an addiction, it’s a disease.
Children (and adults for that matter) should be making real world connections and learning how to function in our society by experiencing it. Not be desensitized by a virtual world and lose grasp on the one in which they truly live.
You say you spend 3-4 hours a night gaming, that’s 21-24 hours a week.
Out of curiosity, how much time a week do you spend in nature? Volunteering, or otherwise giving back to your community or the world you actually live in? Something to consider I think….
Wow, I have to say the three strike for drug addicts with Narcan then no treatment options actually just made my blood boil, I find your comment to be of complete ignorance, and as for calling kids brats, obviously you are really old or have never had children as a parent knows, children can be very demanding at times. Unfortunately gaming releases the same chemicals in the brain as o me may have when having cocaine or another substance, this makes the brain hooked, this then causes withdrawal symptoms like any other addiction. I never reply to these but yours is clear ignorance….bet you have never been in any of these situations or you may ease up on the judgemental attitude…..
That was for Susan’s comment
I notice the last comment about gaming addiction……… if you think gaming releases the same reaction in the body that cocaine and other substances does then you really have absoultly no experience with drugs of anytype..the only similar behaviour exuded by both gamers and addicts are their anti social behaviour..and as a recovering addict of 20+years in addiction with 8 yrs clean and sober.and this is just another example of pharmaceutical companies jyst wanting to put another drug on the market..ok taje this drug and dont play games hahahaha so fucking stupid
The parents have to limit the time the child is playing games, It only becomes addictive when that is all the child wants to do. Adults should know when to stop on their own. It is addictive only if the person makes it so. As far as cell phones go I do not like them. I have none and I do not want one. These people are missing out on life with these phones. I remember when I was a kid we only had one phone. We lied through it and enjoyed life.
I think you need to look up the definition of “addiction”. You don’t seem to understand what it means.
Why are people assuming children are the only ones with addiction problems? That’s incorrect. Adults are the ones who spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on one video game. Mortgaging their homes, losing their jobs, failing out of universities, getting divorces, filing bankruptcy, and so on. Your kid who plays games for several hours a day is no more diseased than you are, as you sit watching Netflix for several hours, or surfing Facebook all afternoon. Some of the key symptoms of a disease are physically painful withdrawals, the inability to control your spending, and the inability to stop, even when it causes distress and anxiety rather than joy and entertainment.
It’s been an addiction for generations, look at poker games and slot machines, and more recently moving to mobile devices. The majority of video games today are built using the same principles as casino games. The only reason they are not regulated by the same laws is due to the courts deciding that, since video games never give you real money as a reward, they are different. A very thin line for an addict.
This is true, I’m a on line game addict. I started when my daughter was 11. By the time she was in high school I was playing about 14 hours a day. I had “friends” all over the world in all time zones. I didn’t get help and it took me about 5 years to stop, I played about 10 years. It cost me years of my daughters childhood where I abandoned her for my game. It almost cost me my marriage. Several times since i quit I’ve almost gotten sucked back in. I can’t let myself play any games that connect with other people playing but I even quickly get hooked on app games, and have to cut myself off. Even after more then 10 years I still get a feeling sometimes, something reminds me of my game and inside I cry. I long for it, I miss it. I deeply regret the lost years, and time. My daughter is in counseling now, she is getting help for symptoms of children of alcoholics. I’m very lucky and great full that she still speaks to me and has accepted my apologies. I cry when we talk about it. Gaming isn’t addicting for everyone just like some people can drink socially with no problems. It is however a real thing, and can be devastating to a life and to a family.
Still think online addiction is a new thing, its barely 20 years old. Parents are still adapting to it while raising kids in the internet world. This could just be a first step to making this worst, future parents need to learn how to apply new disciplines to this new barely 20 technology. This leads to “disability” applications, going to be ridiculous tax payers paying people to continue to play video games.
Discipline your kids, teach them restraint and self control about internet addiction before it gets out of hand.
Lots of real haters out there. Video games ARE an addiction I am almost 40 years old, have a Masters Degree and have my own mortgage and a place to live. Video Game has stripped me of an Social Life outside of the walls of my living space, it has made me neglect all Social responsibilities like Attending my friends Weddings, family Funerals, going into Work! It has made me neglect sleep, food, a healthy hygiene! Don’t let anyone say that this addiction is “fake” or it’s only for “young brats”! Video game addiction is as real as Crack addiction, only with less dramatic phisical results.
Let’s be honest, gaming likely didn’t “ruin your social life”, you likely didn’t have much of a social life and as such, turned to gaming to fill that gap. Comparing it to crack is simply a cop out, so you don’t have to face the truth: You turn to games because you are unfulfilled in your everyday life.
Isn’t that a foundation for pretty much any addiction?! Technology addiction is a real thing, and it’s not just for people you would consider “losers”. What because they don’t have an addiction to a chemical substance it’s not real? Actually if you though about it technology DOES cause chemical reactions in our brains, like dopamine. Just like any other high! Stop sounding like such a judgmental uneducated person.
That was a low blow- you don’t know that guy OR his life, so who the hell are you to be judge and jury??????
My one nephew stays of drugs if he’s gaming. So yes this is an addiction! My other nephew is in alternative school because he has to game they are literally obsessed with these games. He comes out of his room to eat and use the restroom! He bathes maybe 12 times MONTHLY! HE ONLY STOPS GAMING if he’s down loading a games so will socialize with his family.
This is there drug
My son, 15, gets violent if I don’t allow him to play his cellphone game. He has all the symptoms of a drug addict. Begging to play, crying, hitting me, spitting at me. Anything for the game.
Beat that brat. I play videogames daily and have no issues with such things I get irritable if I didn’t get to play but I do go for a couple days without playing too it’s only an addiction to those whom care for nothing but themselves. I myself have a young child (2y) and a girlfriend. I balance my time we’ll and work (when I’m not moved from placement to placement) it’s just an excuse for people to just get the “help” they don’t need cause they don’t wanna get off there lazy bones and do something.
You people are retarded if you think video games is a health problem. You better do more studies because it is not a health problem at all. It helps kids with hand eye coordination reflexes.
You’re an idiot for even thinking that, please do more research on topics before posting. Video game addiction is a mental health issue.
That is complete BS.
So you’re saying that you are smarter and more knowledgeable than the panel of experts employed by the World Heslth Organization? Do tell us your qualifications and what evidence you’ve found in your research on the topic that leads you to proclaim that the WHO experts are idiots?
People are missing the point when they proclaim that because they play video games and are not themselves addicted, addiction therefore doesn’t exist. I drink a beer now and then and am. It an alcoholic yet alcohol most certainly is addictive. And while good parenting, setting limits and self discipline are no doubt helpful in reducing risk of addiction, adduction cannot be blamed on bad parents or poor character. Those are archaic notions which ought to remain in the last century. Opinions and prejudices aside, Medical and social sciences recognize the reality of addiction and the research on addiction shows robust evidence that these devastating disorders are indeed real. The more people bicker like this, the longer it takes for prevention and intervention solutions to become available to help kids.
I believe the same thing can be said of cell phone usage, by many folks! A phone in their ear 80% of the time and not knowing what is going on around them. To me – that’s addiction in the same sence.
I agree. I think this will be something coming soon for sure.
“The World Health Organization, ” has taken ” gaming” off of the addictions list, and put it on the ” Disease ” list ( ICD data base. )
PLEASE Mr. ” World Health Organization” look into Drug Addication! I believe that drug Addication should be classified as a disease.
If the medical doctors association can make Gaming fit the model of Sysptom – Diagnosis- treatment- model then surely Drug Addication could be made to fit as well, our children are dying, the parents of addicts are lining up at the mental health ward! Followed by their children with drug damaged minds,
Put Drug Addication on the ICD data base please.
It is already on the list. It is code F19.20
the only dam addiction here is the parents need to suppliy every one of their entitled brats with every new game technoligy that hits the market so they can #!1 out due the other parents by buying more then them ,, and #2 to avoid having any contact or type of bonding or nurturing time with their own dam kids ,,, , and then they wonder why they have to suport their lazy non working entitled children the rest of their lives ,, rather then raising good healthy well rounded members of society ,,, then as parents you lable them video game addicted and ur kids use the same excuse when they kill you in ur sleep cause you wont pay for more time or game peices for their forte night game ,,, ADDICTION MY ASS !!!! STOP ENABLING EVERYTHING YOU PROVIDE YOUR SELF ENTITLED BRATS AS A DESEASE !!!! YOUR TAXING NOT ONLY OUR HEALTH CARE SYSTEM BUT OUR DAM PATIENCE , AND WHILE WERE ON THE TOPIC OD ADDICTION DRUG ADICTION IS THE SAME WAY ,, tax dollars supply narcan and safe injection sites and yet drug addicts dont care some have over dosed 10 and 20 times in few months and we keep bringing them back to life so they can do it again ,,, over and over ,,, i say enough,, 3 times u over dose and narcan is used to save you if u do not take rehab help after 3 times and get clean ,, then no more narcan treatment ,, its the unfortunate choice you mKE AS A DRUG ADICT END OF CONVERSATION ,, IM SICK OF SELF ENTITLMENT
Not sure if you realize or not, but there’s a vast majority of adults that play video games- not just kids.
Yeah, I realize it. I am one of them 🙂
Grammar and spelling is still important. Please learn to use it if you want people to value your opinion. It’s painful to read full grown adults posts when there are so many gramical and spelling errors. Honestly my 5th grader can write better.
“Gramical” lmfao that’s not a word. I don’t think you should be attacking other people’s grammar. The word is grammatically. Your welcome.
Grammar police…..You’re welcome! ?
I also favor correct grammar/spelling, because it’s taught in elementary school & everyone has had at least a 1-8 grade education; however, I’ve come to realize that some mistakes are the result of technology & not the person.
“grammatical” is the correct spelling of what you want to accuse the op of doing. If you are not sure of how to spell the word you want go talk to your 5th grader, they are upstairs playing fortnite 🙂
Well said
Seems like you like SHOUTING, and spell badly. We tend not to take people seriously when they SHOUT a lot and can not spell basic words.