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Video Game Addiction

In this Article:
Video Game Addiction
Video Game Addiction Symptoms
Video Game Addiction Diagnosis
Video Game Addiction Treatment

Video Game Addiction No current behavior—not web-surfing, not online porn -viewing—is getting attention like compulsive video gaming, thanks in part to a trio of highly publicized deaths in China and South Korea from marathon online gaming sessions. The issue kicked up so much dust that members of the American Psychiatric Association felt compelled to get together and vote on the matter in June of 2007:

“The APA defines mental disorders in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. Since the current edition, DSM-IV-TR, does not list “video game addiction,” the APA does not consider “video game addiction” to be a mental disorder at this time. If the science warrants it, this proposed disorder will be considered for inclusion in DSM-V, which is due to be published in 2012.”

A 2007 Harris poll reported that in the US 8.5% of youth gamers (ages 8 to 18) “can be classified as pathological or clinically ‘addicted’ to playing video games” while another 23% say they have “felt addicted” to video games.

It is extremely unlikely these figures represent an accurate depiction of the problem since, as the APA notes, there is no clinical classification for video game addiction; and further, it is unlikely any of those questioned were qualified to self-diagnose. Meanwhile the term ‘addiction’ has become so casually colloquial among young and old that all sorts of pleasurable activities, from relaxation to eating popsicles, might elicit the same response.

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