A proposal to include video game addiction in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders has been discussed due to significant disturbing cases surfacing relating to this type of addiction. These cases involved withdrawal from society, disregard for wellness, robbery, battery and even murder.
The constant need to play a video game is most likely due to its immediate reward system. When a teenager plays for an hour, he would have already gained more than a dozen accomplishments on the game which doesn’t always happen in the real world. The longer he plays, the more satisfaction he gets. Some scientists propose that it more than just the accomplishments why gamers play. In a theoretical world, an individual has the freedom to be anything he wants to be, perform feats that may be humanely impossible and interact with other gamers on the same level. Compare these to what they can get from reality and you will have an idea why individuals pursue gaming. You see, there is just too much satisfaction in it for gamers to give it up.
It doesn’t take long for them to be hooked to a game. They utterly disregard whatever can take their time away from the game thus, addiction happens. The signs and symptoms of video game addiction involves withdrawal from school, disregard for hygiene, lack of sleep, weight gain or loss, lying about play time and strained relationships with their family and significant other. Just like an addiction to illegal substance or gambling, their situation will only worsen with time.
Many disturbing cases have been reported due to video game addiction. Three gamers were reported to have died after playing for more than 72 hours in China and South Korea with one diagnosed with cardiac arrest. In Vietnam, a 13-year old boy murdered and robbed an 81-year old woman to finance his gaming addiction. In the United States, a man was charged of killing his 17-month old daughter in rage for breaking his Xbox while a teenager, shot his parents, killing his mother in the process, when they took away his Halo 3 game.
Video game addiction is a growing concern for psychiatrists as more and more of their patients are coming in due to the problem. In view of this, psychologists have been studying the need to classify this addiction as a genuine psychological disorder in order to come up with a more structured and effective process of treatment. There had been oppositions to the proposal, though. To some child psychiatrists, the need to have a specific gaming addiction diagnosis is unnecessary despite how new the problem is. They have a number of teenagers visit them every week with gaming addictions and they treat their problems like any other addiction and the results were quite acceptable. Still, treating a patient using a different diagnosis will eventually cause problems in terms of ethics and medical practice. The new Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders will be released on 2012. The psychologists have until then to decide whether to create a proper gaming addiction diagnosis.