Video games are bad!

[LawBeefaroni]

I get maybe 2-3 hours of actual game time a week. I'm not sure of any other way with 2 kids, a few other hobbies, and the associated social obligations. I bet my paused-to-playing ratio is 8-1.

If I gamed like I did 15 or even 10 years ago, I bet it would look like an addiction.

[ImLawBoy]

I haven't played a video game in months. By the time I get done with all the household stuff and getting ready for the next day, it's usually around 10:30 or so. I can barely make it over to the couch to pass out for a bit.

[Isgrimnur]

Yeah, but you're parenting on hard mode.

[coopasonic]

I get maybe 2-3 hours of actual game time a week. I'm not sure of any other way with 2 kids, a few other hobbies, and the associated social obligations. I bet my paused-to-playing ratio is 8-1.

If I gamed like I did 15 or even 10 years ago, I bet it would look like an addiction.

You kill the other hobbies and social obligations and you are all set!

[Stefan Stirzaker]

No I'm coop!

But yes what is the line between addiction and obsession? I took 5 yrs to do a 3 year degree cause i spent 1.5 years failing so i could play MUDs and MUSHs (1993 not a lot on the internet then) and w withdrawibg frim friends. It tok my now wife to drag me to class and realise more than games. But even now (44) i still feel compulsions to skip work and game but more able to control that but saying thatif i dont get at least one of rocket league or a game over a few days i will get irritable and tense. With two jobs thats my release valve but typung that it sounds like avoiding that maybe i do havr an issue even if im a functional human. Mostly

[gbasden]

I don't see how that's any worse than unwinding by watching sports, binging on TV or reading Facebook.

[GreenGoo]

Yeah, but you're parenting on hard mode.

Ultra mega award winning hard mode.

[Madmarcus]

I can see where your wife is coming from.

Normally I'd say that I'm like most people around here. I'm an introvert and one of my favorite ways to recharge after a day of interacting with people is to play video games. But I can also look back and say that the time I was living alone as a grad student I was showing some unhealthy behavior. Addiction? I have no idea but it was negatively effecting other aspects of my life.

When my son started showing some of the same obsessive behaviors we were worried. Since he kept his grades up and maintained his interest in other things we mostly kept the worries to ourselves. The one fallout was that we had to be more vigilant about bedtimes. In the end my wife doesn't see the fascination with video games but she's also an introvert and understands getting absorbed into other worlds (books for her) so it wasn't a source of friction.

[Paingod]

Yeah, but you're parenting on hard mode.

Ultra mega award winning hard mode.

+100 and much respect.

[Scuzz]

I am absolutely addicted to video games and it negatively impacts my quality of life and emotional stability. But mostly it's an avoidance mechanism.

What does addicted to video games actually mean to you? I don't get anxious when I think about not playing for a few days. That would be a telltale sign to me. I mean I prefer video games to most anything else, because they are fun and the rest of life is generally not.

I do get anxious with certain games. The Dark Souls series did that to me.

I recently went thru some medical testing with my heart. Turned out to be nothing terribly serious, but something I need to watch. Anyway, my wife asked my cardiologist if it was still okay for me to play video games. I think she would have liked the doctor to say I shouldn't. But he apparently told her not to worry about it. I wasn't there, I was out cold on a gurney at the time. I think she waited for that moment to ask the question.

I meant anxious when I hadn't played a game for too long. I have had my heart rate spike enough for my Apple Watch to warn me about it, generally while playing online shooters (PUBG). Nothing else really hits me the same way.

That is actually what I meant as well. Dark Souls was one of those games I thought about even when I wasn't playing it.

[naednek]

I am absolutely addicted to video games and it negatively impacts my quality of life and emotional stability. But mostly it's an avoidance mechanism.

What does addicted to video games actually mean to you? I don't get anxious when I think about not playing for a few days. That would be a telltale sign to me. I mean I prefer video games to most anything else, because they are fun and the rest of life is generally not.

I do get anxious with certain games. The Dark Souls series did that to me.

I recently went thru some medical testing with my heart. Turned out to be nothing terribly serious, but something I need to watch. Anyway, my wife asked my cardiologist if it was still okay for me to play video games. I think she would have liked the doctor to say I shouldn't. But he apparently told her not to worry about it. I wasn't there, I was out cold on a gurney at the time. I think she waited for that moment to ask the question.

the answer is obvious.... You're a dodgers fan... the years of enduring playoff disappointment has taken a toll on you.

[TDD]

I am curious about addiction as it related to video games and how that would manifest. That will require some research.

The jury is still out on specifics, although WHO did include "Gaming disorder" as a separate disorder in their classification.

For gaming disorder to be diagnosed, the behaviour pattern must be of sufficient severity to result in significant impairment in personal, family, social, educational, occupational or other important areas of functioning and would normally have been evident for at least 12 months.

The APA (American Psychiatric Association) has a more specific list of behaviors on their website, but they don't classify gaming as its own category of disorders.

Video gaming addiction is definitely real, but the WHO is wrong in labeling it a "mental illness" or "disease."

Last I checked people CHOOSE to play games. And their parents CHOOSE to keep it going. Soon enough, any kind of slightly abnormal behavior is going to be labelled as some kind of mental defect, where, surprise! The only solution is to take big pharma pills (if you believe the propaganda)

There are a lot of video game addiction tests out there. One worth checking out is this one.

(One more note for the admins of this forum: I know this forum doesn't have too many members, but it definitely helps to attract new registrations if you get a FREE SSL certificate + use HTTPS. Google is penalizing websites that don't, cuz you know, people don't want their information to be stolen when they try to register or sign up. Just saying')

[dbt1949]

I won't take a test that requires my email.

[Z-Corn]

DAMN! This bot comin' in HOT!

[dbt1949]

It is a little ironic to be concerned about members privacy but send me to a site that wants my email.

[GreenGoo]

Withdrawal symptoms. Irritability, preoccupation, lack of centeredness, listlessness.

I'm going by memory since I haven't not played videos games for longer than 48 hours in years.

Unexpectedly finished playing my "main" (not a conscious decision. Just *boom* interest gone) and had nothing in line to replace it. For a couple of days I experienced the above symptoms, relatively mild though. I'm coming out the other side and the symptoms are disappearing, even though I haven't found a new game to hold my attention yet. I have a couple of real life stressors that are big enough to keep gaming in the background for now.

The point being, with nothing capturing my attention, I felt a little discombobulated for a few days. It has mostly passed.

[Scuzz]

I am the same way now when I finish a game. There are times when I have a game or two waiting to be played, and sometimes I have nothing. Those times I have nothing I do go thru what can only be called withdrawal. It usually doesn't last very long but it is there.

[dbt1949]

When I first started playing pc games I was a lot more "hooked" than I am now, some 25 years later.

[Kraken]

I've been in a non-gaming mood for two weeks now. Nothing appeals and I haven't been in the mood to buy anything new. Most recently, I started a game of GalCiv3 and abandoned it 1/3 of the way through; before that, I loaded up my free copy of Subnautica and just couldn't get into it. I haven't been in the mood to buy and start anything new. Instead I read the internet. The whole thing. Every night.

Sooner or later another game will draw me in and I'll go back to my old ways. The Steam summer sale might do it if I pick a few titles off my wishlist. Anyway, nothing remotely like withdrawal, so I guess I'm not addicted to gaming.

[Blackhawk]

It's also important to remember the distinction between obsession and addiction. Gaming can bring either, or both.

If it an overwhelming desire to get everything done, to check off all of the boxes, to find all the collectibles, to finish every game in your backlog, that's obsession. If it is that gaming is what you do after dinner, every day, and you can't game then because that's when you game, that's obsession, too.

If it is a driving need, whether to escape from negative pressures or for the rewarding feel that is hard to come by elsewhere, or to feel powerful, or competent, or excited, or to feel like you belong (especially prevalent in MMOs and other social games), that's likely addiction. If not doing it makes it feel like you can't be satisfied, or feel good, or relax unless you do it, that's likely addiction. Note that there is often (but not always) a strong chemical effect in play here, too. It isn't an outside substance, but substances that your own body makes (dopamine, adrenaline) that the games are designed to make you produce (see discussions on the reward loop of games like Diablo or drop-based MMOs.) Another good indication of addiction is when you genuinely don't want to play, but you do anyway (you are, in essence, chasing the high.)

[gameoverman]

Wife:
You wouldn’t have liked it either.....Video gaming can be an addiction, it can desensitize you, you can lose touch with reality, cause you to withdraw from human interaction.

I'm kinda late to this but my first thoughts are:
The operative word I notice there is 'can'. Drinking too much water can kill you. It doesn't mean you should avoid drinking water. This is why I'm not especially alarmed when people talk about what can happen when discussing something. Lots of things can happen, it doesn't mean they will.

If your wife could point to actual negative things that are happening then that's something that needs to be addressed.

[Blackhawk]

I agree with that. People who get drawn in that badly do so for a reason. If they didn't play video games, they'd have a comparable problem with something else. For me, that reason was intense, undiagnosed social anxiety. I went into games back in those days to escape. I didn't always have games. Before I did, I always had something else to escape into. Sometimes it was something healthier, sometimes it wasn't. My seeing games as a true 'need' went away once I was diagnosed and learned other ways to cope.