Addiction to playing games can be a sign of mental illness & bull; hello healthy

Some people choose to take a nap, read a book, or watch a comedy movie to both fill their spare time and get rid of stress. A handful of others prefer to play games - whether console games, computer games, or online games on mobile phones. Playing games is not as bad as many people think. But be careful if you are already addicted. The World Health Organization (WHO) is now classifying addiction to playing games as a mental disorder. Oops!

Addiction to playing games is a new mental disorder according to WHO

The World Health Organization (WHO) plans to publish a guidebook International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11) in 2018 by including addiction to playing games as a new mental disorder category, it is referred to as gaming disorder (GD).

Gaming disorder was proposed to be included under the broad category "Mental, behavioral, and neurodevelopmental disorders", specifically under the subcategory "Substance abuse or addictive behavior disorders." This means that health experts around the world agree that addiction to playing games can have an impact similar to addiction to alcohol or drugs.

This proposal was made because there is evidence of a rapid increase in cases of game addiction from various parts of the world, which is also accompanied by requests for referral for medical therapy from doctors.

What is meant by addiction to playing games (gaming disorder)?

Game addiction is characterized by an inability to control the desire to play, making it difficult and / or unable to stop the behavior - despite all the efforts made to stop it.

The classic signs and symptoms of game addiction are:

• Always spend a long time playing, even the duration is increasing from day to day.
• Feeling irritable and offended when banned or asked to stop playing games.
• Always think about the game while working on other activities.

This loss of self-control makes game addicts more likely to come first gaming in his life so that he will do various ways to be able to complete the desire for addiction, regardless of the consequences and risks.

What causes a person to be addicted to games?

Any object or thing that makes you feel good stimulates the brain to produce dopamine, the happy hormone. Under normal circumstances, this will not be addictive. Just a sense of happiness and satisfaction in general.

But when you experience addiction, the object that makes you happy actually stimulates the brain to produce too much dopamine. Excessive amounts of dopamine mess with the work of the hypothalamus, the part of the brain responsible for regulating emotions and moods so that it makes you feel unnaturally happy, excited, and overconfident - a sign of euphoria - to feel 'high'.

This happy effect will make the body automatically addicted and crave to feel it again. Ultimately, this effect makes you continue to use the opium over and over again in a higher frequency and duration to satisfy that need for extreme happiness. If this continues for a long period of time, it will damage the brain's reward and motivation receptor systems and circuits, causing addiction.

Are all gamers at risk of addiction?

Within reasonable limits, playing games is certainly not prohibited. Playing games can be a great stress-relieving activity and also benefit brain health.

There is some medical evidence that playing games can be used as an alternative therapy for treating mental disorders such as Alzheimer's and ADHD. The reason is that during gaming, your brain will be required to work hard to regulate cognitive functions (for example strategic planning) coupled with complex motor function work (for example, while looking at the screen you also have to move your hands to play the joystick or press buttons).

So if this hobby is not controlled, then it can develop into an addiction. For a doctor or psychiatrist to diagnose gaming disorder, the symptoms and behavioral signs of game addiction must occur continuously for at least 12 months and show a serious "side effect" of the addict's personality, such as changes in personality, characteristics, behavior, habits, even brain function.

A person is also called addicted if his addiction has also caused disturbances or even conflicts in his social relationships with other people or in a professional environment, such as school or work.