Video Game Addiction: When RPG's Consume Your Life

From young children to grown adults, there really are those who are addicted to video games. It's not just something that is tossed about like an overused phrase to describe someone who is too lazy to clean their room. These video game addicts exhibit the classic symptoms that classify most addicts from drug abusers to gambling addicts. 

Research studies have shown that an internet or video game addiction can have all the standard symptoms of most addictions. How are parents to know if their children are addicted to video games? How does a spouse discern that their significant other has a gaming addiction?

Symptoms:

The symptoms vary between children and adults to some degree, but adults are better at hiding addictions than children are.

Adult

Adult's obsession with games will cause them to be online talking about the games, blogging about games or playing games to an excessive degree. They will neglect or brush aside relationships with family and friends to play. Gaming obsessed adults will neglect their own personal hygiene because they are playing for hours on end. The home will become dirty with trash and dishes piled up all over the rooms. When they are forced to leave the computer or game console to participate in society, they become angry, abusive and depressed. They might lose their jobs because of play time. 

Children 

Children have some of the same symptoms as adults, they will become irritable when pulled from the game, often throwing temper tantrums when they are not allowed to play. Children will lie about playing when they should be doing homework, friends and family don't hold the same interest anymore. The addicted child would rather play video games than be outside playing with friends, and their grades drop because they don't complete homework or because fall asleep in school after late-night playtime. Any time not spent in school is used for playing the video game to the exclusion of everything else. 

Treatment

There are treatment programs available for the addicted person whether an adult or child, but before dragging a child kicking and screaming away from the computer, consider the consequences. There is usually an underlining reason that children remove themselves from life and play video games instead. Treatment can help get to the root of the problem and help the whole family deal with this addiction. Adults that are addicted can be a little more difficult to rehabilitate, but caring family members can get adults the help they need too.

Author Bio

This article was written on behalf of Treatment Alternatives by Melisa Cammack, and for those looking for more information on drug addictions, and how to get help, please visit their website today.