Last week, the Mirror UK reported that a 9-year old girl was sent to rehab for video game addiction. Although that may sound intense, so was her video game addiction. Let's be honest, millions of Americans spend countless hours playing video games. There are days when I do not have work where I can spend a good 9-10 hours playing an array of games, from PUBG to NBA2K. Still, nothing quite compares to this 9-year old girl who opted to keep playing Fortnite rather than use the bathroom. In fact, she urinated on herself while sitting down playing the game. She was that dedicated to playing. Cases similar to hers, where people place essential body functions such as eating and using the bathroom lower on their survival list than playing video games, are not rare. Now, the World Health Organization has concluded that video game addiction is a mental disease.
The World Health Organization states that, "Gaming disorder is defined in the draft 11th Revision of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11) as a pattern of gaming behavior (“digital-gaming” or “video-gaming”) characterized by impaired control over gaming, increasing priority given to gaming over other activities to the extent that gaming takes precedence over other interests and daily activities, and continuation or escalation of gaming despite the occurrence of negative consequences." They continue on to assure the masses that playing video games for hours on end doesn't necessarily mean you have the disorder, the situation must be much more serious than binge gaming. "For gaming disorder to be diagnosed, the behaviour pattern must be of sufficient severity to result in significant impairment in personal, family, social, educational, occupational or other important areas of functioning and would normally have been evident for at least 12 months."