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The thought of yet another interview/poll/whatever researching the addictive qualities of gaming may send one running for the hills, but author Rachael Grant Dixon’s interview with this particular gaming addict on Patch.com makes him sound Betty Ford Center-worthy.
Though the addict was a ‘close family member,’ and perhaps not the best candidate for a completely unbiased interview, it’s still an insightful look inside how damaging and scary addiction can be.
To be fair, Grant-Dixon admits up front that it’s certainly not a fact that everyone who plays games will become addicted (good to know) even though googling ‘gaming addiction’ will bring up several million results.
So while the majority of the population are able to balance gaming with a normal, healthy lifestyle, writes Dixon, the subject of her interview is on the opposite side of the spectrum. He tells of an addiction to the hobby that many people might have formerly reserved for a lot of drug-addicts. “
When I was at the worst part of my addiction, I was playing about 16 hours a day,” the man says. “I would lie to my wife about how long I had been on the computer. In fact, I looked forward to her being gone so I could play all day without her knowing. Then when she got home, I would say I had only played a few hours.”
The interviewee goes on to admit that the mere thought of getting rid of his games sent him into a panic.
“The thought of getting rid of my game scared me and made me feel depressed. When I was playing I could just escape into another world … literally. The problem was that world was not reality. When I finally knew it was time to give up gaming, I was embarrassed at how much of my life I had wasted. My health was terrible, my marriage was over and my social life was not real. The video game was not worth the costs it’s had on my life.”
A doctor specializing in addiction, Michael Brody, insists that identifying gaming addiction is not unlike identifying substance abuse problems. Specifically, he cites two signs that may help you identify someone with a gaming addiction problem:
1. The person needs more and more of a substance or behavior to keep him going.
2. If the person does not get more of the substance or behavior, he becomes irritable and miserable.
Pretty interesting report, although Dixon’s study comes off as more than a little biased for a few reasons:
First, Dixon admits up front that she was interviewing a family member, so there’s plenty of bias that could be a factor right there. Secondly — call us paranoid — but Dixon got her M.A. in exercise/sports psychology and thus spends most of her time as a sports psychology consultant, which makes us kind of suspicious to boot. I think I still have nightmares of overzealous sports medicine/health teachers lecturing me on the dangers of T.V./video games/sitting on my ass for more than a few minutes at a time, when I was a kid. Obviously it’s difficult to get an idea on exactly how unbiased this interview was (outside of a couple of different tips from some doctor)?
As it stands, though, addiction is no joke whether it applies to gaming, drugs or junk food. Avoiding it is usually a matter of balance and not allowing the things we love to distract and restrict us from new opportunities. We’re too strong and have too much potential to be addicted to anything other than our own passion to learn, discover and achieve.
No matter what the above report presents, we should always take away this much.
Jeff Nau – who has written 1264 posts on The Jace Hall Show.
Jeff Nau is a main contributor to the Jace Hall Show covering pop culture and music trends in the nerd community. He has contributed to San Diego City Beat, 944, and Ill Literature, amongst others, and spends his spare time working as an artist and photographer.

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