After the World Health Organization (WHO) included an excessive passion for games in the list of diseases and disorders, specialists expected a stream of appeals from those suffering from “gaming disorders” to medical facilities. In the UK, even opened a special clinic for the treatment of gaming disorders, but as it turned out, it is not in great demand.
From December 2019 to February 2023, only 43 people were directly interested in her work – this is the total number of people who contacted doctors and expressed a desire to visit the clinic. However, only 22 people submitted documents directly for treatment. They are engaged in them now.
According to medical officials, review disorder was far from as widespread as excessive passion for review (many times more in this category of calls). Experts expected a greater flow of patients.
As Dr. Henrietta Bowden-Jones said, a typical “sick” game disorder today (the picture is based on the first calls to the clinic and undergoing treatment) are teenage boys. Some of them used to be very kind to their parents, but against the background of uncontrolled passion for games, they began to manifest aggressive behavior and even outbreaks of violence.
The doctor emphasized that situations when a person has a real game addiction (other types of addictions also do not bring anything pleasant) can be very dangerous, as they can directly affect human health. However, she urged to separate the grain from the chaff and not hang labels on every young man who likes to play.
“The assertion that all young people suffer from review addiction is, of course, not true. There are many guys who just like to play. According to our estimates, only a very small percentage of people may lose control of their actions.”
According to her, each case of a gaming disorder needs to be carefully evaluated, since there can be very different reasons for the decision to immerse yourself in the game and stop monitoring properly the other aspects of your life. For example, problems in the family, poor experience with peers, bullying, low self-esteem, difficulties at work (if an adult suffers from a disorder), physical limitations and much more.
As part of the treatment, first of all, psychological assistance is provided. In addition, people are taught to control themselves, therefore, as part of the treatment, they are not forbidden to play.
According to Bowden-Jones, the approach is different from the treatment of alcoholism or review (there, as a rule, people try to protect people from alcohol and review, respectively).
“Gaming disorder” can be diagnosed in cases where a person for a long time “falls out” of his usual life and makes gaming the number one priority. His health is deteriorating, significant deterioration is observed in his personal life, at work, in the family, social, educational and other important areas. But he can’t do anything about it, continuing to play day and night.
Read also: The director of “Sonic in the movie” explained why there was no place in the film for Knuckles.
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