The Video Game Addiction in Adolescence life - Research Paper Example

?Running Head: ADDICTION Video Game Addiction in Adolescence of the of the of the Video Game Addiction in Adolescence Video Game Addiction: Most students in adolescent age play games and get excited with the video games or other devices every day. Most of them are able to organize the several demands of schoolwork, sports, or everyday jobs and their family life. Video games become an addiction for teens when it begins to interfere in personal relationships and search for other goals in their school life such as getting good grades or an active member of a sports team. Video games and computers specially the huge multi online role-playing games such as World of War Craft allow the players to act in a different way from their normal personality. For example if a child is shy, he or she can become extroverted and a passive child can become violent and aggressive. Video games are very charming and attractive for people in young age who often feels weak or powerless in everyday life, all of a sudden they have the ability to dominate over others, command army, drive cars, and do disasters on a virtual world with no real life consequences (VGA, 2012). When it becomes difficult and challenge for boys and girls in adolescent age to make friends in the real world, then the video games computers offer those ways to interact with others in their virtual world with no sufferings of face-to-face interactions. Video games addiction is not actually diagnostic according to Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM)-IV classification, even though the American Medical Association is analyzing the study to find out whether they should be incorporated in the next update of the manual. Many professionals of mental health believe that video games are like gambling, which is an addictive practice. Some of the estimations show that ten percent of gamers exhibit the behavior of addiction (VGA, 2012). In this research paper, video games addition and consequences of its addiction are discussed along with relevant research to support the argument. Symptoms of Game addiction Some of the symptoms of video games addiction are given and more of these symptoms need professional help: Most of the boys and girls spend non-school hours on playing video games and computers. Some of them fall asleep in class during the school timings. Some of them fall behind with the assignments. Some of them get the worse grades. Some Lie about video games or computer use. Some of them prefer playing games and use computers rather than seeing friends. Some of them drop out of other social groups such as sports and clubs. Some girls and boys get irritable when they are not playing games or not using the computers. The physical symptoms that may point to addiction are carpal tunnel syndrome, sleep disturbances, backaches, or neck aches, headaches, dry eyes, failure to eat often, or disregarding personal hygiene (Wood, Griffiths, & Parke, 2007). Consequences of Video Games Addiction: The primary loss of playing excessive video game is time loss and spending too much time on any activity can make its own problems. In recent study conducted, 280 video game players were selected out of which 82% experienced loss of time frequently or all the time. Over half of players perceive this as a positive feature and those who like to lose time, found it relaxing experience for them, and value for money. Study showed that these players were so much enjoying in playing that they could not realize that time passed so quickly (Wood R. , 2008). To determine the time loss due to video game has a negative affect is difficult to determine, as it is a matter of individual judgment of value rather than objective measurement. Another consequences of excessive video game is that player wanted to stop playing or cut down but actually he is not able to do it. This indicates that these people are addicted to gaming. This issue is surrounded by the fact that some people do not want to stop playing video games even if friends and relatives are showing concerns for them. It is not a dispute that people play video game excessively, but the point where behavior becomes problematic is not far. The doubts come when some people play video games frequently for longer intervals, than it is good for them socially and physically. People will give excessive time to any activity in which that have the capability to divert their attention from other issues of life. This is true when person is having difficulty in coping up with other critical issues of life therefore he distracts himself from those problems by engaging in video game sessions that are lengthy and time consuming (Wood R. , 2008). Even though video games addiction officially is not yet recognized as a diagnosable disorder by the American medical Association, there are many evidences that people of almost every age specially the teenagers and pre-teen are facing very real hard time and in some cases, painstaking consequences that are associated with the habitual use of video games or computer games. Now a day’s video games are becoming more and more detailed, complex and convincing to an increasing audience of players internationally (VGA, 2012). Boys and girls prefer playing latest video games rather than hanging out with friends, playing sports, or watching television because the video games are now more attractive and appealing for the teens with better graphics, more realistic characters and more strategic challenges. Not all the gamers are addicted to video games, some teens can play games in a week for few hours, and they are successful in balancing their school activities, their school grades, their friends, and family obligations; whereas, for some teens video games has become an unmanageable compulsion. Like gambling and other habitual behaviors teens turn out to be so fascinated in the world of fantasy that they ignore their families, friends, work and their school (VGA, 2012). A recent study has a scientific support to the argument of addiction along with one disreputably devoted group. Boys or girls who play video games might suffer from video game addiction and in some cases people who make these statements are just trying to give emphasis to the extent of their intense enthusiasm that is eventually not unhealthy. In a journal report published in May 2009, an Assistant Professor of Psychology Douglas Gentile has discovered that almost 8 percent or more, the gamers who are between the ages of 8 and 18 show evidences of video games addiction or the term he used as Pathological Behavior. However, the general public generally uses the word addiction, whereas clinician reports behavior as pathological use (VGA, 2012). Research on Video Game Addiction: A survey of 1,178 American young people with the ages of 8 to 18 was conducted in 2007, in which Professor Gentile gave his conclusions on the prevalence of addiction of playing video games among the young teens. Prof. Gentile's research had give way the following statistics that was reported in an April 21 article on the Times Online website, by a technology correspondent Mike Harvey: Survey respondents just fewer than 90 percent reported playing video games. In the survey, average boys spent 16.4 hours a week playing games, whereas the average for girls was just more than nine hours every week. The average for addicted video games player was 24 hours a week, twice as much as casual gamers (McBride, 2011). As defined by the American Psychiatric Association Young gamers of about 8.5 percent show evidence of pathological pattern of play, which was illustrated as the existence of at least six of the 11 clinical symptoms. One-fourth of the surveyed report, video games players turns to video games in trying to get away from their problems, and some said they played video games instead of doing homework. 20 percent of the young video game players said that are not able to do their schoolwork because they spend more time on playing video games (McBride, 2011). Science Daily illustrated that the teens whose behavior rose to the height of video game addiction were more expected to report the following than non-pathological players: Teens having game systems in their living rooms. The receiving of poor grades from school. Young People feeling the addiction for game systems. Experiencing a higher than usual normal number of problem related to health. Habit of stealing to support their video game playing routine. However, Professor Gentile's conclusion about the prevalence of video game addiction has gathered a significant amount of publicity; he is the first person to hypothesize that the attraction of video games may cross the line from desirability to addiction (McBride, 2011). Video game addiction has not yet achieved official status specified by enclosure in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, or DSM-IV, usually acknowledged symptoms of video game addiction and other form of pathological behavior such as sex addiction and compulsive gambling include the following: Preoccupation: A person focus on the behavior when not engage in it, to the level that it distract concentration from matters related to family, work, school, and other main matters (McBride, 2011). Tolerance: Individuals who are in the hold of a pathological behavior such as habitual gambling need to engage in more and more large amounts of the behavior in order to practice the same rush. A person finds that he is unable to end or restrain a behavior even if he wants to control the behavior (McBride, 2011). Withdrawal: When an individual is not capable to take part in the behavior for instance, not being able to play video games because the comfort opens and person experience symptoms such as nervousness, impatience, or touchiness (McBride, 2011). Escape: The person gambles, plays video games, has sex, or engages in other forms of pathological behavior as a means of escaping anxiety or pressure or in place of the happiness that results from the behavior (McBride, 2011). Previous Researches: Griffith modified criterion set to distinguish pathological gaming competently. He used a scale, which consisted of nine dimensions of addiction, and a score of four or more criteria is thought to be as a sign of video game dependence and he described no psychometric properties. By the use of this instrument, different results were found. Phillips pointed out that 7.5 percent of children between the age of 11 and 16 years scored at levels of addiction. Griffiths & Hunt illustrated that among five adolescents only one was dependent at the time of study and one in four adolescents were dependent at some point in their lives (Salguero & Moran, 2002). In the same way, Fisher modified the criteria for pathological gambling in the DSM-IV (APA 1994) to provide a screening evaluation of use of video games as addiction. This scale was presented as DSM-IV-JV (J= juvenile; V = arcade video game). If a person had answer yes to four or more than four of the nine points of the questionnaire, then the person is believe to be a video game addict. Six percent of the four hundred and sixty subjects were found in her sample between the ages of 11 and 16 years. Psychometric properties that are reported are acceptable. The DSM-IV-JV is though applicable to arcade video games i.e., coin operated video games machines only, therefore it is unfair and strongly biased since financial component of three of nine criteria is appropriate for this type of machine specifically (Salguero & Moran, 2002). Lastly, in a survey of 1358 Spanish video game players of adolescent age, five questions were derived for pathological gambling from DSM-IV criteria that were used in the survey. No psychometric properties for the scale were reported. Quite a few symptoms of addiction were noticed to be linked very effectively with a stronger commitment to video games. Individuals who played frequently scored a lot higher than the individuals who did not play frequently when they considered in the measures of tolerance, withdrawal, preoccupation, family, or academic disruption. However, there was no cut-off proposed, and no psychometric properties were seen to be reported for the scale (Salguero & Moran, 2002). The Disease Model of Addiction: The disease model of drug and alcoholism suggests that they are progressive and chronic diseases or illness and are similar to further chronic diseases such as diabetes and heart diseases. In the definition of medical ailment, addiction is considered to be fit because it involves the abnormality of function or structure of brain that resulted the impairment of behavior. The basis of this model says that addiction is the inability of a person to control the use of drug, alcohol or any other uncontrollable craving or compulsion to perform certain activity (Gorski, 2001). The loss of that inability to control can either be short term or on long term period. An example for this behavior is that when a person starts to drink for a short session and wanting to take only one or two drink. However, after two drinks it is not possible for him to stop drinking. In addition, person decides to quit drinking for a long time but after a certain period, he start drinking because of his inability to stop drinking. Gorski (2001) defined craving as a main player in developing the disease model as a desire that is urgent and overpowering. He observed this desire as a feeling in which person is forced to do anything to take or obtain that entity of addiction even when the consequences are harmful and devastating for that person (Gorski, 2001). The disease model of addiction and alcoholism affiliated with Alcoholic Anonymous (AA) philosophy, Minnesota Model and Narcotic Anonymous (NA). According to this approach, the impaired control and control are not reversible and there is no cure of addiction especially alcohol and drug addiction. In case of video game addiction, the disease model of addiction is related because this addiction is uncontrollable by person and it is not possible for most of the people to leave video game addiction. Even if they try to leave this addiction, it would be for short-term period and it is difficult for them to leave this addiction for long period (Gorski, 2001). Few people finds addiction concept as a helpful disease for understanding condition of a person who is addicted and helpful to recognize the recovery path they take. The addicted people find comfort in the fact that the same model used for heart and diabetes disease, understands their condition (West, 2002). These addicted people feel less guilty regarding their condition and joins programs that helps them to recover. These programs offer ongoing recovery pathway, personal goals and lifetime support. The debate for disease model is often heated because of its implications for remedial involvement. In short, it is argued that there is no single group of alcohol related problem as there is range of problems for alcoholism and there is no proof that addiction and the core elements of addiction are irreversible and development of this problem is not inevitable (West, 2002). Video Game Addiction: Mental Disorder In the American Medical Association (AMA) meeting, they discuss whether video game addiction is a mental disorder or not. Finally they came to a conclusion that more research is needed in this area and until further research, video game addiction will not be considered as a mental disorder that need medical aid therefore, it does not fall under this category. The head of media committee at the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry is Dr Micheal Brody who agrees with this decision of AMA. According to him, video game addiction is due to other disorders such as social anxiety or medical disorder, which are already listed in DSM-1V (3). His argument is that this addiction fall under same category of using cell phone (Lindsey, 2008). A poll was conducted by MSNBC in which asked people asked whether they believe video game addiction is a mental disorder or not. Out of 13,298 votes, 60% people think that video is not an illness and it is similar to books and movies addiction while 36% consider it same as alcohol or drug addiction, and 4% people were not sure. Majority of people believe that the video game addiction is not a mental disorder as it is present only for few decades and people are suffering from major mental disorders for centuries. The lack of experience is the reason that people do not understand the consequences of playing video game and they take it just as a hobby that consumes a lot of time (Lindsey, 2008). Despite the popular opinion of people, there are many psychotherapist and doctors that believe video game addiction is mental disorder that needs to be taken as a disease. Dr Karen is a psychiatrist and she believes that video game addiction should be diagnosed as addiction and doctors should not look for other diagnosis. According to her, many of her patients are not able to sleep and eat properly because of this addiction and many people show aggressive behavior and used bad language when video game is taken away from them. Shavaun Scott a psychotherapist says that person who is addicted to video game has two lives that are primary life and secondary life (Lindsey, 2008). In primary life is reality in which we live while secondary life is the world where they play in. Dr Scott explains that problem arise when person who is addicted is so involved in his secondary life that he overlook his responsibilities in primary life. People who have severe video game addiction not only affect themselves but, also their family and friends. This is the point where video game addiction becomes parallel to drug or alcohol addiction where people are so absorbed in their secondary life that it becomes their primary life. Medical attention is necessary for these addictive because if they do not get drug or video game, they become destructive causing their family to suffer. Currently, video game addiction is not considered as a mental disorder in DSM-1V but many doctors believe that it should be considered as an illness and not a symptom (Lindsey, 2008). Conclusion: Although video game is not a substance like drug or alcohol but excessive playing of video game produces drug like substances in human brain and body and its effects can form a habit that can also be called as addiction. As there are several patterns of illicit drug reaction depending on person’s neurophysiology, it can be assumed that few people gets easily addicted to drugs as compared to others. Video game addiction is becoming a major issue as many companies are launching video games that are not only damaging the minds of video game addictives but, also their families are getting affected. The person addicted to video game lives in secondary life and it is difficult for him to cope up with obligations of his primary life. It is the failure of mental health professionals and legislators who are not able to discuss this issue on big platforms so that awareness is given to people and after-effects of video game addiction should be revealed in front of public. People addicted to video games are facing mental disorder but they are not able to recognize their mental condition. In this year, the American Medical Association (AMA) will publish a comprehensive report in which it will be decided that whether video game addiction is a mental disease or it is only a habit. When that report comes, it will become easy to understand video game addiction but it is evident that video game is a problem for those people who are addicted to it. List of References Gorski, T. T. (2001, August 7). Disease Model Of Addiction. Retrieved April 3, 2012, from www.tgorski.com: http://www.tgorski.com/gorski_articles/disease_model_of_addiction_010704.htm Lindsey, T. (2008, February 25). Is video-game addiction a mental disorder? Retrieved April 3, 2012, from www.msnbc.msn.com: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19354827/ McBride, H. C. (2011). Study Documents Prevalence of Pathological Behavior among Young Video Gamers. Retrieved April 3, 2012, from www.video-game-addiction.org: http://www.video-game-addiction.org/video-game-addiction-articles/study-documents-prevalence-of-pathological-behavior-among-young-video-gamers.htm Salguero, R. A., & Moran, R. M. (2002). Measuring problem video game playing in adolescents. Addiction, 12, 1601-1606. VGA. (2012). Video Game Addiction. Retrieved April 3, 2012, from www.video-game-addiction.org: http://www.video-game-addiction.org/ West, R. (2002). Theory of Addiction. London: Blackwell Publishing. Wood, R. (2008). Problems with the Concept of Video Game “Addiction”: Some Case Study Examples. International Journal of Mental Health Addiction, 6, 169–178. Wood, R. T., Griffiths, M. D., & Parke, A. (2007). Experiences of time loss among videogame players: An empirical study. Cyberpsychology and Behavior, 10 (1), 38-44. Read More