Video Gaming Addiction Is Real
Addiction to video games is a mental health disorder, so why is there no treatment in the U.S.?
the world health organization (who) officially recognized gaming disorder as a mental illness in June, adding it to the International Classification of Diseases. The condition goes beyond normal playing: People who suffer from it skip meals and sleep—pretty much anything that isn’t a game— to the point of harming their physical health.
The diagnosis has steep criteria. According to the agency, only 3 percent of the 160 million American adults who play games online will become addicted, and that means a person must have exhibited tangible changes in his or her life—like the inability to keep a job or a relationship—over 12 months.
Health officials in China and South Korea have already acknowledged the problem and created treatment programs. In China, where an estimated 24 million people between 13 and 29 are addicted, these include controversial, military-style boot camps where electroconvulsive therapy is sometimes used. In South Korea, the government funnels millions of dollars into treatment centers and awareness campaigns; some tech companies now offer private counseling and addiction hotlines.
The U.S. has yet to embrace any measures, and that’s because the American Psychiatric Association refused to distinguish gaming addiction as a unique disorder in 2013, when it published its most recent edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. They called for further research, leaving gambling disorder as the only officially recognized behavioral addiction.
Predictably, the Entertainment Software Association, an industry trade organization, called the studies behind the WHO decision “highly contested and inconclusive.” And Bath Spa University psychologist Pete Etchells, who studies how gaming affects behavior, called the evidence “weak.” But Dr. Petros Levounis, of Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, thinks the obsessive behavior and failure to control it are “strikingly similar” to symptoms of drug addiction.
Psychotherapist Nicholas Kardaras, author of Glow Kids: How Screen Addiction Is Hijacking Our Kids, says hooked gamers need to separate their personality from their addiction. “We have to help that person form a new sense of identity and accomplishment, not associated with their gaming lives.”
If you suspect you might be addicted (and admitting there’s a problem is the first step), Levounis suggests you investigate 12-step programs and counseling; some people may benefit from medications for treating depression or anxiety. Medical coverage is iffy, though; insurers cover conditions classified by WHO, but the new criteria won’t be presented until 2019.