What Does an Online Gaming Addiction Really Look Like?
By
Your son is thriving with his schooling and has even managed to make a few A's on his report card this academic year. He appears to be social by going out with his friends regularly and participating in a few extracurricular activities after school. Everything seems to be under control until he receives a new Sony PlayStation for his birthday that he asked for when some of his friends showed interest in playing games online with him.
He immediately takes the PlayStation out of the box and hooks up the necessary cords to get him online to start playing with his friends. You are happy that your gift is working out so well until he starts playing online games more frequently and his school work starts to suffer. There are a few conversations that are initiated between the two of you that state he needs to get his grades up or the PlayStation will be removed. He becomes frightened that you will be pull the plug and what use to be understood as teenage behavior of talking back and entitlement, turns into full anger and rage. Unbeknownst to him and to your family he is now unintentionally addicted to online gaming with a bunch of zeros at school and a volatile attitude affecting
everyone
around him.
Online gaming addiction can potentially manifest from poor grades and an explosive attitude into depression, violent behaviors, or suicide. A survey from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has reported that there has been a 60 percent increase since 2010 in the number of teens that have encountered major depressive disorder due to online gaming. Suicide has also increased above 30 percent in ages 15-24 since 2008 which is also the year that Smartphones came onto the market according to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.
Treatment for online gaming addiction is available depending on the needs of your teenager and the severity of the addiction. Therapy should be immediately considered to see if there is a bigger issue that needs to be addressed that could be the root cause of your teen playing online video games in lieu of having to deal with something like childhood trauma, abuse, or bullying that has persisted in plaguing him.
Online video gaming continues to progress with the advancements of technology each year and so should the knowledge of how an addiction will negatively affect the person playing the game. Finding out more about online gaming and looking for the signs of a habitual and unhealthy demeanor can help you to get a grasp on the addiction before you can get played.
Stonewater Adolescent Recovery Center provides a clinically structured protocol with withdrawal management that is designed to specifically accommodate the needs of teenagers. We first help to remove the toxic chemicals out of the body and then move onto the treatment of the whole person.
Call us today to start living in recovery: 662-598-4214
