What makes something truly addictive?
CHICAGO — Now that the world’s leading public health group says too much
Minecraft can be an addiction, could overindulging in chocolate, exercise, even sex, be next? The short answer is probably not. The new “gaming disorder” classification from the World Health Organization revives a debate in the medical community about whether behaviors can cause the same kind of addictive illness as drugs.
The strictest definition of addiction refers to a disease resulting from changes in brain chemistry caused by compulsive use of drugs or alcohol. The definition includes excessive use that damages health, relationships, jobs and other parts of normal life. Brain research supports that definition, and some imaging studies have suggested that excessive gaming might affect the brain in similar ways.
Under a looser definition, addiction is considered “a disease of extreme behavior. Any behavior carried to extreme that consumes you and keeps you from doing what you should be doing becomes an addiction as far as life is concerned,” said Dr. Walter Ling, a UCLA psychiatrist.
In its widely used manual for diagnosing mental illness, the American Psychiatric Association calls excessive video gaming a “condition” but not a formal diagnosis or disease, and says more research is needed to determine if it qualifies as an addiction.
The only behavior classified as an addiction in the American Psychiatric Association’s diagnostic manual is compulsive gambling. To be diagnosed, gamblers must have several symptoms including repeatedly gambling increasing amounts of money, lying to hide gambling activity, feeling irritable or restless when trying to stop, and losing jobs or relationships because of gambling. Research suggests excessive gambling can affect the brain in ways similar to addictive drugs. Since the diagnostic manual was last updated, in 2013, studies have bolstered evidence that excessive video gaming may do the same thing, and some experts speculate that it may be added to the next update.
The manual doesn’t include sex addiction because there’s little evidence that compulsive sexual behavior has similar effects on the brain.
Many excessive gamblers, gamers and sex “addicts” have other psychiatric conditions, including anxiety, attention deficit disorder and depression, and some mental health specialists believe their compulsive behaviors are merely symptoms of those diseases rather than separate addictions.
Excessive use of the internet and smartphones is also absent from the psychiatric manual and World Health Organization’s update. Psychiatrists disagree on whether that is a true addiction — partly because overuse is hard to measure when so many people need to use their smartphones and the internet for their jobs.