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Can’t peel yourself away from the alternate reality behind the screen of your PC this
weekend? Then you might be on the road toward a gaming addiction, says the World Health Organization. For the first time in history, a medical governing body has classified video gaming disorder as a disease.Video game addiction has been talked about as a potential disease for almost 30 years, but the WHO voted to adopt this language last month.
Frankly, I think this entire discussion reeks of cultural bias toward a younger generation that enjoys virtual entertainment. For starters, the symptoms of this disease are lb pretty vague. The WHO lists symptoms such 17 as impaired control over gaming, increased priority to gaming over other life interests 11 and escalation of gaming despite negative z,o consequences. Bad practices, of course, but these generic markers feel too broad to diagnose a person with a mental health disorder.
The problem with this description is that you could substitute gaming for any behavioural addiction plaguing society, like online shopping, reading, exercise or the most pervasive condition today, mobile phone attachment.
So why is gaming being singled out?
In the 1940s, medical experts believed it was possible to suffer from radio addiction.
Researchers actually referenced a group of children as “radio addicts” in a study about
the effects of horror films and radio. The study defined addiction as a medical condition by “giving oneself to a habit- forming practice” that is difficult to break.
Radio addiction was eventually cured by a modern-day medicine, television. Of course,
radio addicts became television addicts and television addicts become computer addicts
and computer addicts became gamer addicts’I and now all addicts are some version of
internet addicts.
All of this makes me wonder if medical experts are becoming addicted to addiction 4r labelling. Professor Chris Ferguson from the 41 University of Melbourne says that “unlike depression, which is diagnosable at any time point in history, gaming disorder can only 51′. happen now,” warning that “whenever mental illness needs to be rooted to a particular historical period, that for me is a
red flag that they might have conceptualized. this thing wrong.”
Resultingly, the American Psychological Association pushed back against the WHO’s decision to classify video gaming order because of the lack of clear research. The organization, which Ferguson heads, said the clinical research is unreliable and gamers b”) who experience symptoms of a disorder could arise from other mental health disorders the individual is already suffering from like depression or anxiety. Psychiatrists are still researching the topic and while it’s 6b entirely possible that some people struggle 1, r to limit their interaction with games, more research seems necessary before moving to the disorder phase.
Are gamers in an obsessive culture? Possibly. But no more obsessive than a sports culture where an entire state takes a day off every September to attend the AFL Finals parade, and horse-racing fans call into work sick after the Melbourne Cup.
And by the way, we call these people enthusiastic fans. In the gaming world, for now, we call this
is, addiction. But there’s little cause for concern. The world is changing so quickly that I’m sure
we’ll have a new addiction to worry about next year.
