Massive number of people across the globe spend time playing video games wherein there are times when people don’t have the count of time and are continuing to play games or watch a game online. While we talk about millions spending time in such a way that they tend to lose track of time, there is a possibility that something is not right. There are situations in life when you cannot witness a change in you, however in this scenario, the act of relentless playing refers to a disorder which certainly refers to gaming disorder. Failure of not being able to control oneself over gaming where an individual forgets to perform all the daily tasks and gives more than the time required to gaming, certainly leads to a condition called gaming addiction.
This order embarked its existence on the 11th Revision of the International Classification of diseases wherein it is termed as a gaming disorder. ICD is a platform where health trends and statistical information is updated on a global scale and is marked as the international standard for reporting diseases and health conditions. In order to be sure if an individual is suffering from the gaming disorder it is important to witness the change in the behavioral patterns that significantly impact the personal life, social life, educational life, career and family life in all ways. The addiction must long for more than 12 months to be able to be significantly assured.
With an inflation in the usage of electronic devices, video games, laptops, internet surfing, smartphones, computers etcetera, the real time exchange of information has become a part of everyone’s life and is certainly identified as gaming disorder in various countries. Another major fact that should have eyes laid is that the excessive access over the social media sites, the process of making friends, playing games online and surfing the internet for any purpose leads to the existence of cybercrime too, however, it is important to have complete knowledge about the internet before letting yourself be a part of the trap. Talking in detail, we must firstly discuss various symptoms that are responsible for an individual to develop gaming addiction.
Firstly, let's have a glance at the gaming behavior wherein, your mind is preoccupied with the games, there is a constant reverberations of the gaming techniques and waiting for the time to play the next game embarks upon an attitude of addiction and proves gaming to be a major part of your life. Willingness of an individual to remain isolated for a better gameplay or better concentration in the gameplay is another sign of disrupted gaming behavior. Playing games without the track of time to relieve stress, anxiety, negativity, restlessness or depression is not a fair deal to crack. Moving on, deceiving lying to your family members or peers unnecessarily just to keep your game going is not at all appreciated and is considered as a symptom of gaming addiction.
Sometimes, gaming disorder leads to isolation and a behavioral change which is not accepted by the society but seems normal to the victim, wherein people tend to lose interest in their personal life and give no attention to their partners, or forget to work on their hobbies, refrain from other modes of entertainment just to go on with the cycle of uninterrupted gameplay. Tired mind and body due to less amount of sleep, ignoring the alarm of being jobless and affecting the career opportunities just to play those online games can lead to a disastrous life. It is very important to understand that someone should suddenly not be considered an addict of gaming unless and until one of the problems mentioned above is witnessed in the individual as playing games can be widely considered as a hobby and hobbies do require an intriguing behavior more than a normal thinking.
People in abundance across the globe spend their time playing games across the world and it is widely observed that the pattern of gaming addiction hits 1 out of 50 people among the users. Studies prove that an impulsive player who certainly tends to take the game as a real-life event might become a game addict sooner than a normal mind. This usually happens with people that have interest in online multiplayer games where the massive interest lies in the story of the game that keeps the player intrigued till the end. Enunciating the statistical data, it is observed that an average person plays six hours a week while a game addict makes it to six hours a day which certainly leads to non-productivity in every other aspect. Fixing proper hours to play the game is very important as so much of the screenplay and game play proves to be an unhealthy part of the lifestyle for the children.
People at the age of 18 to 25 unexpectedly become gaming addicts as they tend to be in constant touch with their phone and cannot keep their phone on rest mode. Basically, in general terms, the addiction of constantly fiddling with smartphones makes these individuals game addicts. Another age group that is seen addicted while playing the games is people that fall over the bar of 35 years as majority of them don't prefer playing online games rather, they prefer playing on their personal laptops and desktops in order to pass their time. However, addiction to games in this age is certainly a rarity.
Talking in real, age, profession or country, nothing matters for someone who has become a game addict. Rather people should take proper measures and control their game playing habits in case anyone from any strata of society feels that gaming is becoming addictive for them. Well to talk about the fact of treating the game addiction, the most common treatment till now is to run through a cognitive behavioral therapy. Other things like giving therapy about family life or motivating the individual and counseling the individual can help in relieving the enactment of game addiction. Game addicts are basically treated to help them be away from the gaming activities and the gaming world, moreover, it is a known fact that people who are so familiar with playing the games must be kept refrained as a little way out can get them back to the game addiction.
One of the hard facts that holds recognition is that video gaming is sometimes played out of boredom and acts as a good resource of entertainment and education. While we talk about treating an individual for the addiction it is advised to reach the root cause of the situation. Setting boundaries is quite hard, but it shall be implemented which certainly means that there should be a limitation set to the time of the game play. The next is, curtailing an access over the number of sources of video games abstains the individual to surf the internet and helps in attaining a control to avoid addiction. Choosing one device to play which certainly means either a laptop, a phone, a console or a PC, usage of one device helps in bringing an unsaid control over the usage.
Another way of treating gaming addiction is to choose a game that requires physical activity or physical movement. While we talk about online gaming, it certainly leads to making you get tired mentally, however choosing a game that requires physical movement makes an individual more active and avoids the habit of going back to playing online. Constantly using your phone without even having any task to be performed on it is an addiction, however, refrain from using your phone unnecessarily to avoid giving stress to your eyes. One of the most common reasons for gaming addiction is ignorance of relations in your family and among your loved ones. However, it is advised to play games with your loved ones so that the degree of interest bifurcates and results in playing the games for a smaller number of hours.
Walking through the door of advanced technology, various supporting apps for example, Mental UP as this game widely serves the educational purpose with easy navigation and efficient use of this app will not at all affect the people as this gaming app is useful in many other ways specially for the children who certainly are dependent on the internet technology to pass their time. Treatments like, Cognitive behavioral therapy, Solution focused therapy, Psychoeducation, Interpersonal therapy etcetera are few other ways of treating the problem of gaming addiction.
Last but not the least, it is important to know that gaming addiction is a slow process as it involves the screening of mind along with other parts of the brain wherein long hours of gameplay leads to physical tiredness due to lack of sleep and more intriguing behavior of the pro streamer. It is a very complex process as it certainly refers to the slow killing of the brain making the brain active and synchronized in every form to play the games online. However, it is said that gaming addiction should be cured as soon as possible to keep your brain active and healthy for other activities.