@pink-geek-chic said in ‘Gaming disorder’ classified as a mental health condition:
As a parent of five, I must say that I feel there is something to this. I know it's not a popular opinion, but it's just my experience.
My husband feels it's ok for the kids to play as much video games as they want so long as their grades are good and they are taking care of their responsibilities (chores, personal hygiene, etc.). Needless to say, most of their free time at home is spent playing games, especially the older boys.
That being said, when they have to go an extended period of time without games, there is a noticeable shift in their behavior. They become moodier (than they already are...they are teenagers after all), they are more hostile, they tire easier. I liken it to how my ex behaved when he would go too long without a drink. However, the children that play less don't display the, what I call,"withdrawl" symptoms.
We decided that unfettered access to video games is clearly having an addictive effect, and as such have begun to slowly decrease the amount of time that can play (is there a video game version of the DTs)
Again, this is my opinion as a mother who has five distinct different level of gamers to observe. I understand that some of it can be attributed to age, but the heavy gamers in my household ages are varied (16, 14, 9). My mid gamer is 12 and my light gamer is 8. So I have a good cross sample to analyze.
Just my observations.
You know something ma'am? The same goes with every activity. A notable example are naval aviators flying F14s in the 80s and early 90s. When you take a pilot away from flying he becomes moodier, irritable, and just down right mean and hostile towards people because he's not enjoying what he's trained to do.
And that goes with all pleasurable activities. The difference is the ramification of what the actual activity is. Whether it's flying jet fighters, doing aerobics, solving crosswords puzzles, or yes, even playing computer games, you get the exact same symptoms.
The severity of those symptoms can vary, because if you're engaged in something that's mixing with your biochemistry and alters your mood, then you're going to have an extreme reaction. With computer games or the more simpler console / video games, you get those symptoms because your brain isn't rewarding itself when you've solved a puzzle or finished a quest like in this game. But it's still the same effect regardless.
Like I said, if it had not been for games of all types, whether it was some military shooter or something more mundane like a desk top puzzle game like Pipe Dream, I would not be here. I in fact had to file a grievance with the Department of Justice's Human Rights and Inspector General to bring the harrassment to a stop. But what saw me through this was being able to install an old favorite or log onto some game server of something more contemporary, and take my mind off of people who had violated my privacy to the utter core and otherwise trying to harass me, so to speak. And not to be too melodramatic about it, but someone may have been trying to kidnap me or do me worse harm (good luck, since I've had 30 years of martial arts courtesy the secret service).
Whether it's the old Colico Vision or Atari 2600, or our own Sea of Thieves, games are helpful and constructive. If they eat into your time to do other things that you should be doing, then you might have some kind of argument for cutting back. Otherwise games are beneficial to society.