Are You Feeling Lonely
Feeling lonely is an emotion we all experience, especially if you live in a first world Western country where individualism has been put on a pedestal.
Of course, hiding yourself in games doesnt make you LESS lonely.
Because while games are good for distracting yourself, they dont offer true social interaction, even if youre interacting with other players.
And when the game gets turned off, your social life has deteriorated more than ever
These Are Personality Traits That Can Be Controlled And Changed
You CAN build better habits that get you where you want to go in life.
You DONT have to internalize an addict identity to demand more of yourself.
But you DO need to be honest and upfront with yourself and anyone else in your life that the pattern of behavior has gotten out of control and that youre determined to change.
To reiterate, the first step towards that determination is self-honesty.
Video Game Addiction Statistics
Researchers and social scientists have been troubled by video game addictions since the phenomenon first presented itself with the advent of video games in the 1970s and 1980s. Today, the term gaming has become a popular term used by people of all ages, not just teens. Ironically, video game addiction isnt just for kids, either. Adults can have just as much trouble turning away from video games as children do.
Some of the more recent statistics involving video game addiction are quite startling and are definitely indicators its time to start taking this type of addiction as seriously as other addictions:
With information like this, its important everyone becomes aware video game addiction is not to be taken lightly.
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Who This Course Is For:
- This course is for everyone who’s addicted to video games. If you regularly play video games for more than 6 hours per day. Chances are you’re addicted to them.
- 12,604 Students
- 6 Courses
I struggled with mental health issues every since I was 5 years old. Back then I did nothing but watch the only cartoon channel that was available back then. The english version of cartoon network. During my entire childhood I did almost nothing but play videogames, watch television, browser the internet or watch porn all day. I almost never did anything productive, which only made my depression stronger.
Things got even worse when I was 13 years old I experienced my first major panic attacks. It got so bad that at one point an ambulance had to take me home every week.
All that changed when I turned 16 and became obsessed with every form of self-help therapy imaginable. That didn’t stop my downfall I suffered a major psychotic episode in 2009 and became catatonic for over a year.
The road to recovery from then on was excruciating. I was unable to receive proper professional help, forcing me to rely on self-help courses that failed to meet all of my needs, but at least allowed me recover sufficiently to go to college to study psychology.
It was only when I thoroughly researched self-help techniques that I came to understand their scientific basis, allowing me to help myself completely.
How Did I Overcome It
With that being said, how do you overcome video game addiction? How did I overcome it? Well, to give you guys an idea, I overcame it when I was 17 years old. As I mentioned, it was my whole life all throughout high school. My friends played video games. I had online friends. Even when I went to school, on my breaks and lunch break, I played video games. In fact, I remember times when my parents would try to ban me from the computer.
When everybody went to sleep or my parents went to work, I would sneak home from school or I would get out of bed to go downstairs so I could play video games on the computer. It was a real big problem. How did I overcome it? Well, the way that you change anything in your life is by making a decision, a decision to change, where you decide that you are going to cut something off for good, and you are not going to pursue it anymore.
Oftentimes, in order to make these decisions in life, you have to get to a certain point, a point that I often call an ’emotional threshold’. It’s that point where there’s so much pain associated with the previous behavior, which is video games, that you finally make a decision to change your life and get rid of it for good. You are no longer going to look back. You are only going to move forward.
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Signs Of A Gaming Addiction & Natural Ways To Overcome
Getting the kids to turn off the video games and do their homework. Asking your partner to please tear him- or herself away from the hundredth game of Candy Crush and please help with preparing dinner and take a break from that gaming addiction.
Do any of these sound familiar? Heck, maybe youve even gotten involved in an intense game of Words with Friends against a friend and cant help but check in every few seconds to see if its your turn yet. Youve probably laughed to yourself, I am so addicted to this game!
But like smartphone addiction, can you actually be addicted to video and Internet games, or is this just a sign of something else? And what can you do if you or a loved one is spending an unhealthy amount of time playing video games, feeding a gaming addiction?
Treatment Of A Game Addiction
At Yes We Can Youth Clinics we help teenagers and young adults to overcome their game addiction and to live and function in society in a pleasant way. We help young people with an addiction to slowly demolish the wall they have built around them, to leave their destructive life behind them forever and to face a bright future. Yes We Can Youth Clinics strives to reduce any medication that the teenager or young adult already receive to zero or as little as possible during the treatment.
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Is Video Game Addiction Real
For some of us who struggle to understand how to play video and Internet games or lose interest in a game after a few minutes, it can be difficult to understand how someones need to play can eclipse everything else in his or her life. And yet, it seems that gaming addiction might be real.
In the latest edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, or DSM-5, the American Psychiatric Associations bible of disorders, Internet Gaming Disorder made its first appearance. While yet to be classified as a disorder, its been listed as a condition in the hopes that more research will be done.
Are you ready for some scary stats? About 183 million people in the U.S. play video games on their consoles, computers, smartphones or tablets, including 99 percent of boys under 18 and 94 percent of girls under 18. Across the planet, 3 billion hours a week are spent playing.
In fact, according to research done at the University of New Mexico, recent studies suggest that 6 percent to 15 percent of all gamers exhibit signs that could be characterized as addiction.
Worse, in a national study from Iowa State University of 1,178 American youths, psychologists found nearly one in 10 of the gamers to be pathological players, according to standards established for pathological gambling. These players inevitably cause problems with their family, social or school environments because of their gaming addiction.
You Have Got To Have An Alternative
You have got to make a list. Maybe the list is, I’m going to read. I’m going to watch a documentary. I’m going to go for a run. I’m going to go to the gym. I’m going to go for a walk. I’m going to take a bath. I’m going to get on the rebound, or I’m going to watch a YouTube video. I’m going to do something more empowering with my time to replace it. Guess what’s going to happen? These are positive, sustainable things that are going to make you a better person in the process.
For me, from 17 years old to 30 years old today, I have spent this time wisely. I am who I am today because of the last 13 years of my life, and what I’ve done every day the rituals and the books I’ve read. That’s what has made me who I am. I’m excited about what I’m doing today, and where that’s going to lead to in another 5-20 years from now. That’s the game changer. That’s how you overcome it. That’s what has worked for me.
It has got to come down to that decision, and you’ve got to start to realize the pain that is causing it in your life, and create the alternative. Associate pleasure to that process and sure enough you will develop a new addiction. That new addiction will set you free, and lead you down the path of a lot more enjoyment, fulfillment, and less distraction. It’s going to force you to go through uncomfortable emotions that you don’t want to face and confront. However, by facing it, you are going to become a better person in the process.
ABOUT STEFAN JAMES
ABOUT STEFAN JAMES
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Emotional Symptoms Of Video Game Addiction
Some of the emotional signs or symptoms of video game addiction include:
- Feelings of restlessness and/or irritability when unable to play
- Preoccupation with thoughts of previous online activity or anticipation of the next online session
- Lying to friends or family members regarding the amount of time spent playing
- Isolation from others in order to spend more time gaming
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Setting Limits On Your Access To Games
Warning: Setting appropriate limits can help prevent you from developing a full-blown addiction. However, if youre severely addicted to gaming, you may need to quit playing games altogether.XTrustworthy SourceCleveland ClinicEducational website from one of the world’s leading hospitalsGo to source
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Executive Video Game Addiction Programs
Those who have hesitated to seek treatment for their gaming addictions owing to responsibilities at work might be good candidates for executive video game addiction programs. These inpatient centers offer limited access to computers and mobile phones to permit business executives to stay in touch with the office while undergoing treatment.
Lean On Your Support System
Recruit some help. Whether its a friend or a family member, confide in them. Ask them to support you as you try to reduce playing time. Give them permission to hold you accountable. Even if it means they have to physically take control of your devices at times, such help may be required. If you dont have someone to play this role, you may want to look into in-person group therapy.
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Applications In The Media Violence Domain
The aforementioned longitudinal study on pathological video gaming found 36 turnaround caseschildren who stopped being pathological gamers . These turnaround cases were found to have higher goal-setting scores at wave 1 than children who remained pathological video gamers. This result is consistent with other findings concerning turning-point effects in the risk and resilience literature and suggests that goal-setting ability may represent a valuable resource that can allow individuals to overcome video game/Internet addiction. A longitudinal study by Krahé et al. examined developmental trajectories of media violence use and aggression among adolescents. Latent growth mixture modeling revealed a group of what they called, desisters, or adolescents who reduced media violence use over a 2-year period and showed steeper decreases in aggressive behavior than did stable high users. Both of these studies suggest the existence of turning-point effects in the media effects domain, although very little research has been designed to focus on turning points.
Kenneth Paul Rosenberg, Patrick Carnes, in, 2014
Discover Digital Tools To Help You Stay Focused On Your Goal To Control Digital Addiction
If theres chocolate lying around the house, then youre probably going to want to take a bite
If you suffer from problem drinking, a fridge full of beer will probably lead to late nights
The same principle holds true for gaming.
But FocusMe has some powerful tools that can help you to stay committed and stay focused on the most important task at hand.
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How Does Video Game Addiction Interact With Substance Use
The behaviors associated with video game addiction are highly similar to those associated with substance abuse and drug use disorders. As a result, those who suffer from video game addiction may be more susceptible to substance abuse. For example, consuming prescriptions pills to help stay awake and continue gaming, could lead to a substance use disorder.
The co-existence of video game addiction and a substance use disorder or mental illness is known as a dual diagnosis or co-occurring disorders. Since many symptoms of these disorders tend to overlap, treating co-occurring disorders at the same time is necessary to experience a full, long-term recovery from both disorders. Failing to treat both disorders at the same time can lead to worsened symptoms of the untreated disorder or relapse of the treated disorder.
Many addiction treatment centers offer dual diagnosis treatment to help people overcome co-occurring disorders. Substance use disorders are treated using detoxification and therapies that treat the underlying cause of drug addiction, while video game addiction is commonly treated using behavioral therapies.
Is There A Cure For Video Game Addiction
Treatment for video game addiction is similar to that for other addictions. Counseling and behavior modification are the primary means of treating addicted gamers. Together, individual and family counseling are powerful treatment tools. Some treatment facilities incorporate medication in their programs.
However, unlike drugs or alcohol, video games are tied to computers, which are a key part of life for most people. In that way, the addiction is similar to a food addiction. As a result, some treatment centers explore controlled use rather than abstinence.
No overall cure for video game addiction exists. As with alcoholism and drug addiction, the key is to enter treatment and to stay aware of triggers while continuing to participate in recovery groups, such as Online Gamers Anonymous.
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But Heres What You Dont Want To Do
Dont internalize the problem by constantly telling yourself, Im a video game addict and beating yourself up about the ways youve behaved in the past.
Doing this just makes you feel more down .
And taking on addict as a self identity label gives you an out every time the going gets tough
Most addictions in this vein really just come down to a mixture of impulsiveness and low frustration tolerance .
References: Video Game Addiction
Gentile D. 2009. Pathological video-game use among youth ages 8 to 18: a national study. Psychol Sci. 20:594-602.
Gentile DA, Choo H, Liau A, Sim T, Li D, Fung D, and Khoo A. 2011. Pathological video game use among youths: a two-year longitudinal study. Pediatrics. 127:e319-29.
Kelly JF, Myers MG, and Brown SA. 2000. A multivariate process model of adolescent 12-step attendance and substance use outcome following inpatient treatment. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors. 14:376-389.
Lee MS, Ko YH, Song HS, Kwon KH, Lee HS, Nam M, and Jung IK. 2007. Characteristics of Internet use in relation to game genre in Korean adolescents. Cyberpsychol Behav. :278-85.
Pentz MA, Spruijt-Metz D, Chou CP, and Riggs NR. 2011. High calorie, low nutrient food/beverage intake and video gaming in children as potential signals for addictive behavior. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 8:4406-24.
Rau PL, Peng SY, and Yang CC. 2006. Time distortion for expert and novice online game players. Cyberpsychol Behav. 9:396-403.
Skoric MM, Teo LL, and Neo RL. 2009. Children and video games: addiction, engagement, and scholastic achievement. Cyberpsychol Behav. 12:567-72.
Sun DL, Ma N, Bao M, Chen XC, and Zhang DR. 2008.Computer games: a double-edged sword? Cyberpsychol Behav. 11:545-8.
Tejeiro Salguero RA and Bersabe Morán RM. 2002. Measuring problem video game playing in adolescents. Addiction 97: 1601-1606.
Content of Video game addiction last modified 3/13
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So Video Game Addiction Comes With Very Real Life Consequences
As we can see, playing too many hours of video games isnt just a harmless bad habit.
Overplaying has a seriously negative effect on your relationships and work/life balance.
Here are some other long-lasting quality of life problems you may experience when you play too many video games:
Of course, these are just some of the symptoms of playing too many video games. So keep in mind that not everyones addiction manifests in exactly the same way.
Note: Read more about How Violence in Video Games is Affecting Your Mental Health in our bonus material here.
