Study unveils 8 to 18 year old males feeling “addicted to video games”

What is computer and video game addiction?

When time spent on the computer, playing video games or cruising the Internet reaches a point that it harms a child’s or adult’s family and social relationships, or disrupts school or work life, that person may be caught in a cycle of addiction. Like other addictions, the computer or video game has replaced friends and family as the source of a person’s emotional life. Increasingly, to feel good, the addicted person spends more time playing video games or searching the Internet. Time away from the computer or game causes moodiness or withdrawal.

Reports from around the world suggest that gaming addiction is real and on the rise. Nationally, 8.5 percent of youth gamers (ages 8 to 18) can be classified as pathological or clinically “addicted” to playing video games. Most youth play video games and many feel that they may be playing too much.

According to a recent study on video game addiction by Rochester-based Harris Interactive, nearly one-quarter of youth say they that have felt “addicted to video games”, with about one-third of males and a little more than one in ten females feeling “addicted.” With nearly 8 in 10 American youth playing video games at least one time per month, this certainly raises concerns about video game addiction.

This new study is the first to document a national prevalence rate of pathological video game use among youth.

Dr. Douglas Gentile, Director of the Media Research Lab at Iowa State University and the director of research for the National Institute on Media and the Family, states, “It is important that people realize that playing a lot is not the same thing as pathological play. For something to be an addiction, it has to mean more than you do it a lot. It has to mean that you do it in such a way that it damages your life. This is why we based our definition on how pathological gambling is diagnosed in the DSM-IV. Almost one out of every ten youth gamers show enough symptoms of damage to their school, family, and psychological functioning to merit serious concern.”

According to Dr. Suzanne Martin, Youth and Education Researcher at Harris Interactive, “The prevalence of video gaming in youth culture in combination with this level of pathological video gaming is great cause for concern and highlights the need for further research in this arena.”

Gamers who were surveyed and classified as pathological were receiving lower grades in schools than their peers, were more likely to have video game systems in their bedrooms (65%), were spending much more time playing games each week (averaging 24.5 hours per week), and were also more likely to have been diagnosed with an attention deficit problem.

There is help out there. For example, On-Line Gamers Anonymous, is an organization that is a 12-step self-help organization dedicated to helping video game addicted individuals and their friends and family.

There’s also EverQuest Widows, which is a forum online for partners, family, and friends of people who play EverQuest compulsively. This group is a support group for those who have a relationship with an addicted gamer and are seeking support from other like people. There’s currently 7,221 members of this group, which goes to show how much of an impact this problem is on families and friends.

Like any other addiction, game addiction can be treated. Experts in the field recommend addicted gamers discuss the problem with their doctor, and inquiring about seeing a specialist for Cognitive Behavior Therapy, which teaches you to identify the problem, to solve the problem, and learn coping skills to prevent relapse. Sometimes, medication is introduced too, to relieve anxiety and compulsion to game. Support groups are also available.