Gaming Addiction Rehab

A likely question that the words “gaming addiction” immediately conjure is, “Is it even a real addiction?” Invariably, it’s often sneered at or asked mockingly.

It’s a fair question to ask for those who themselves haven’t been sucked into a black hole of endless gaming or internet gaming disorder. Something to be skeptical about to those who haven’t had to watch a loved one lose themselves in the digital realm. Just playing video games does not mean a person has an internet addiction or gaming addiction. It can be a valued and even positive pastime for many. However, spending days, weeks, months, and years gaming at the expense of personal life, goals, personal hygiene, and more can lead to compromised mental health and well-being, necessitating video game addiction treatment. 

Addiction isn’t exclusively related to taking drugs or drinking excessively. Behavioral addictions can be just as impactful on daily life, wellness, and mental health conditions. Addiction is a mental disorder related to circuitry in the brain involved in reward, stress, and self-control, from substance abuse and drug addiction to gaming, shopping, and more. 

That last one, self-control, is key to understanding. A loss of the ability to control an impulse, like one to continue gaming, is a crucial part of what defines an addiction. Gaming triggers a reward and leads to an overwhelming compulsion to keep doing it in spite of consequences.

That’s an addiction to a behavior.

Regardless of how it starts – as a bit of fun or a way to socialize, connect with others online, or even escapism – playing video games can turn into an addiction for some people and it shifts from fun and frivolous to a full-on need, complete with mental health ramifications, social consequences, and impact on mental and physical health. An itch that must be scratched, or required for the brain to release dopamine. 

On a diagnostic level, as per the American Psychiatric Association (APA), there is no formal diagnosis for gaming addiction. That said, in their fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) – the bible for diagnosing addiction – the APA included Internet Gaming Addiction (IGD) as an area for further study before possibly making it a recognized condition.

At this moment, the only officially recognized behavioral addiction is gambling, but gaming may soon join it.

Let’s backtrack through and understand the scope of gaming. Globally, there are about 2.7 billion gamers. Billion. These people are not just young adults; adults and even those in retirement play video games. In the United States, it’s a 60.4 billion dollar industry. Again, billion. To put it differently, it’s a big business that reaches every corner of the globe; 2.7 billion people are literally over one-third of the world’s population. Chances are, you know a gamer.

Moreover, 59% of all Americans have played video games, and if you look closer at adolescents, specifically those aged 12 to 17, 97% of them play video games in some form.

The issue with gaming being addictive has already caught the attention of the World Health Organization (WHO) who officially classified gaming disorder as a diagnosable condition, adding that it’s a “pattern of gaming behavior (“digital-gaming” or “video-gaming”) characterized by impaired control over gaming, increasing priority given to gaming over other activities to the extent that gaming takes precedence over other interests and daily activities, and continuation or escalation of gaming despite the occurrence of negative consequences”.

A 2015 study found that 1.4% of gamers could be classified as addicted, which would equate to just shy of 38 million people with a gaming addiction around the world. It becomes a little bit clearer why the WHO would be so concerned as to include the disorder in their International Classification of Diseases (ICD).

And the consequences of gaming compulsively go beyond what you might expect. A long-term BYU study that took place over the course of 6 years, the longest study that was ever done on video game addiction, in fact, showed that about 10% of participants fell into the pathological category. The consequences and symptoms of video game addiction that manifested as “higher levels of depression, aggression, shyness, problematic cell phone use, and anxiety by emerging adulthood”.

A critical thing to note is that a gaming addiction isn’t exclusively tied to the amount of time spent playing a game; it’s about the control the game has on a person. The way it preoccupies their thoughts and affects their behavior. How a person’s very happiness is wrapped up in it. In that sense, gaming can have a similar effect on the mind as substance use or substance use disorders. However, there is always professional help available, with specialized treatment plans and treatment programs to explore the effects of video game addiction in daily life.