Computer Game Addiction
publication date: Jun 6, 2006
|
author/source: Terry Robson Silver IT Club
|
Next
Most of us know of a teenager who spends an unhealthy amount of time in front of a screen playing computer games. It isn’t unusual to see some of them playing games for eight hours or more sometimes right through the night.It is logical that this will have an effect on their social and intellectual development. The simple fact of spending so much time in front of a screen, often in isolation, is bound to leave a mark of some sort.
The computer game addict is clearly identifiable by their drooped shoulders and pale waxy skin. They frequently have dirty fingernails and are not renowned for their personal hygiene.
But isn’t only teenager’s, although that is when it most often starts. Adult victims will talk about loosing many years of their lives, their jobs and their families. Some started their addiction as teenagers and are still playing excessively right into their thirties.
Excessive computer gaming has many of the hallmarks of addiction. New experiments on "drug memory" show this. Some researchers argue it should be classified as such, enabling “addicts” to start seeking help.
Learning is recognised as an important part of addiction. In becoming addicted, people start to associate cues that are normally neutral with the object of their craving. To a crack addict, for instance, a building in which they have used the drug is more than just a place they have been – it becomes a trigger for craving and can, on its own, reignite a need to use the drug again after months of abstinence.
I have experienced this myself when giving smoking. I had stopped for almost a year and hardly thought about it any more. Then one day went on a train for the first time since giving up – it was torment.
Sabine Grüsser, of the Charité University Medicine Berlin in Germany and her colleague Ralf Thalemann wanted to see if computer game cues could also trigger similar “drug memories” in excessive computer gamers.
Desperate to indulge
They compared 15 men in their 20s who admitted that gaming had chased other activities – such as work and socialising – out of their lives, and 15 game-playing but otherwise healthy men.
They showed them a variety of visual cues and asked the volunteers to rate how they felt about the images. All had normal reactions to neutral images, such as chairs, and even to alcohol-related images, despite the fact that all the participants drank alcohol.
But excessive computer game players showed classic signs of craving when they were presented with freeze-frames from some of their favourite games – they desperately wanted to play, expected to feel better once they did, and fully intended to indulge again as soon as possible.
Startle reflex
In another test, the researchers monitored the response of a large muscle in the eye, to see how much the volunteers could be startled while looking at a game-related image. Scientists theorise that the most pleasing stimuli prompts the smallest of startle reflexes. They found that excessive game players could not be easily startled, unlike the 15 healthy men.
Grüsser says that addictions stem from relying too heavily on one coping strategy, which eventually becomes the only activity that can activate the dopamine system and bring a person relief. “It’s the same mechanism in all addicts,” she says.
It seems that the condition has a lot in common with other addictions. What makes it tougher is that gamers cannot simply abstain from using computers – they are now an integral part of our lives. In that sense, it has to be approached in the same way as an eating disorder, she suggests.
There is a parallel with cannabis not in the drug but in our attitudes to it. For decades researchers, scientists and doctors thought that it was just habit forming and not addictive. Many users did seem to get on with the rest of their lives without bad effects while others became “dope heads”. Now more and more users and researches see it as a treacherous drug that can blight lives and that people giving it up display a common set of symptoms.
I think we are going to move to similar realisations about severe gaming.
Evercrack and WarCrack
And while not everyone agrees that computer games have the addictive potential of drugs, or even gambling, groups such as Online Gamers Anonymous and EverQuest Widows are overflowing with stories of people so wrapped up in slaying monsters that for days they neglect to eat, wash or sleep.
If you want to get an idea of how many people around the world are worried about loved ones just run a Google Search with key words such as “gaming addiction”, “EverQuest addiction” or “Warcraft Addiction”. You will read about some very real tragedies.
I suspect that this will become an ever-increasing concern for relatives of victims. If you have any concerns about someone you know or even about yourself, please send an email to our Gaming Addiction Forum. Advice from recovered gamers is particularly welcome as are observations from gamers who have a life beyond their computers and keep their gaming within sensible bounds.
Author - Terry Robson