Nowadays, digital games have become a popular means of entertainment for both adults and children. However, uncontrolled and excessive gaming behaviour can lead to a serious condition called gaming addiction. Gaming addiction is defined as an uncontrollable desire to play games that negatively affects one's daily life, social relationships, and academic or work performance.
Effects on Children
Children are more vulnerable to game addiction because they are in their developmental stages. Game addiction can lead to attention deficit, social isolation, academic failure, sleep disorders and physical health problems in children. It can also negatively affect children's emotional and cognitive development. It is critical for families to recognise this situation and intervene early for the child to have a healthy development process.
Effects on Adults
Adults can also face serious consequences of gaming addiction. Decline in work performance, breakdown in social relationships, financial problems and mental health problems are among the main effects seen in adults. Gaming addiction can lead to neglect of responsibilities and social isolation. Recognising the addiction and seeking professional support can prevent the situation from worsening.
Treatment and Intervention Methods
In the treatment of gaming addiction, specialised approaches are required for each age group. It is important to limit the playing time for children, to offer alternative activities and to raise awareness of parents. Family therapy and individual therapy can help children recover from gaming addiction.
In adults, raising awareness, setting personal goals and receiving professional support should be at the forefront. Methods such as individual therapies, group therapies and cognitive behavioural therapy can be effective in the treatment of gaming addiction. In addition, setting healthy limits on technology use and developing alternative life skills are important steps in the fight against addiction.
Gaming Addiction:How Can You Evaluate Yourself?
In order to evaluate gaming addiction, you can pay attention to the following symptoms:
Inability to spend time outside the game: Not understanding how time passes while playing games, feeling that the time spent outside the game is worthless, constantly thinking or planning to play games.
Neglect of Daily Responsibilities: Starting to neglect your work, school, family and social responsibilities, putting these responsibilities in the second plan to play games.
Emotional Imbalance: Feeling irritability, restlessness or depression when you are unable to play; showing excessive sadness or anger when you fail to play.
Social Isolation: Staying away from social events and meetings with friends to play games, communicating only through the game.
Increased Game Duration: Increasing playing time in order to get more satisfaction, feeling the need to spend more time to get the same level of enjoyment.
Inability to Stop Playing: Inability to control the duration of gaming, unsuccessful attempts to stop gaming.
Physical and Mental Health Problems: Physical symptoms such as eye strain, headaches, sleep disturbances and general deterioration in health as a result of prolonged gaming. At the same time, experiencing deterioration in mental health.
Assessment Process
You can follow the steps below to assess whether you are addicted to gaming:
Self-observation: Observe the above symptoms in yourself. If you experience several of these symptoms, you may need to review your gaming habits.
Track Game Duration: Record your daily and weekly gaming time. Observe how this time changes over time and evaluate your balance with other activities.
Get Feedback from Your Neighbourhood: Ask for feedback from your family, friends or close circle about your gaming habits. Outside observations can help you assess the situation more objectively.
Assess Your Emotional State: Analyse the emotions you feel when you cannot play. Feeling excessive anger, anxiety or restlessness can be a sign of gaming addiction.
Review Your Responsibilities: Evaluate whether you have difficulty fulfilling responsibilities in your daily life. If gaming is negatively affecting your work or school performance, your social relationships and your overall health, you may need to take this seriously.
Gaming addiction is a condition that can have serious consequences for both children and adults. Early intervention, awareness and professional support are critical to overcoming this addiction. Both children and adults can be protected from the negative effects of gaming addiction by establishing a healthy digital life balance.
