Videogame Addiction Is Social, Not Psychological, Says Clinic Founder

[geizr]

All addictions use the same reasoning, that something drove the patient to the addiction in the first place. In all addictions, the addiction is merely the symptom of the larger problem. In this case, it seems to be social isolation that drives people to excessive video game consumption.

However I genuinely believe that there is gaming addiction in this world and it pertains to a audio visual triggering in the cerebral cortex. The brain gets used to this type of stimulation and when you try to take away that stimulation the brain isn't going to let you.

The addiction is real. It's naive to say that you can cure it by letting the patient still play video games but work on real world communication. Yes, you're getting at the reason why the patient turned to video games but the patient's brain is still going to be yelling for the stimulation.

This is the key problem that I have with the thinking that the addiction is not there just because it has root causes in social problems. A lot of addictions have root causes in social problems. However, once the addiction has taken hold, it doesn't matter what started it, only that it is there. One has to deal with the root problems leading to the addiction, to be sure, to prevent relapse and reinforcement of the addiction. However, one also has to deal with that control switch in the brain that forms the addiction, and that's usually a separate treatment.

Just to reiterate what a psychologist told me about addiction, control is the distinguishing factor of whether a habit is addiction or not. If you are in control, then no matter how much you engage the habit, you are not addicted. It's once you lose control that you are addicted.

And just to echo, gaming addiction is quite real to the person going through it. That's what the gamers who think gaming addiction doesn't exist don't realize. Of course, they are probably just protecting turf by denying gaming addiction.