I am sure that pretty much every passionate gamer from my generation has heard the following accusation at some point:
You don’t have time for XYZ anymore, you are addicted to these computer games!
I believe that many people, especially parents, are not aware of the damage they can cause with such statements. I personally take myself as an example here, as I obviously have the most knowledge about it.
Like many others, I started with “World of Warcraft” (Okay – I also played “Silkroad”, but who remembers that anymore?) and became increasingly involved in the various game contents. At first, it was just evening dungeon runs (Scholomance, again and again Scholomance!) and later it became a raid group of 40 people, which meant that I had to have time for at least 4 hours, 2-3 times a week – that did not even include the farming time for flasks and buff food.
But back to the main topic: I thought a lot about whether I was really addicted, and I reflected very intensively on my actions. In doing so, I also did a lot of research: What exactly constitutes an addiction?
There are many opinions on this topic; some people are convinced that playing computer games for 2 hours a day already qualifies as being strongly at risk of addiction, while others argue that an addiction can never be measured by time – even if it can be an indicator. I hold the latter view and my studies in “Social Work” have only further confirmed this opinion, as one of the prevailing theses here is:
A supposed ‘addiction’ is only considered a disease when the affected person experiences distress.
This means, roughly translated: You are only addicted if something else is missed, which you would like to spend time on, but cannot due to the addiction.
To give an example: You are dissatisfied with your grades in school and would like to study more, but you can’t because you are gaming all day. That would give us a distress (bad grades that you want to change) and a clear indication of the addiction.
I have always handled it differently. I didn’t really care about my grades, so I could spend my time on raids and role-playing without any distress. Since I also don’t drink alcohol, it became boring to attend parties with age – at least after a certain point when the alcohol level exceeds the magical “nervous threshold”.
Of course, one might say that I made it too easy for myself, as an addicted person will always deny their addiction, as the saying goes. That’s exactly what I did until my guardians had the brilliant idea to send me to an addiction counselor – how humiliating it is when your own parents think you are addicted, most people can probably imagine.
However, this turned out to be the best possible solution for me: After two sessions with the addiction counselor, he came to the conclusion that I was not addicted – I really felt a weight lift off my shoulders, and from then on I could pursue my passion without a guilty conscience!
What you can definitely take away from this: Do not let others convince you of anything.
Ask yourself, reflect on your actions honestly, and you will almost always have the right answer regarding your situation.
Phew, today I really spilled the beans a bit. Have you had similar experiences? What do you think of all the labels that can be quickly attached in our society? Let me know in the comments, until next time!
