See Dr. E up close
Keep your nose to the grindstone, your shoulders to the wheel, and your eyes to the ball. Above all, don’t blink. If you blink, the world can disappear. The world as we know it is being reshaped every day by technology.
Each of the following changes is electronically signed.
Work — Work is now home.
Schools — Chalk and blackboards have been overshadowed by I-pads, laptops, and distance learning.
Healthcare — Bedside manner becomes telemedicine.
Recreation — Fishing rods and campfires are replaced by Internet games with amazing virtual worlds powered by Xbox, Nintendo, and PlayStation.
Keeping up with these changes can be difficult. But what if you are raising children? How can parents preserve and protect the innocence of childhood when faced with the dangers of electronic devices?
Today’s article is about an emerging disorder called Internet Gaming Disorder (IGD). By learning about IGD, you can protect your children and yourself from this new type of non-drug or behavioral addiction.
Today’s column begins with Joshua, a young boy who went from playing computer games to playing competitive team Internet games. As you read about Joshua, see if you can detect the following elements of addiction:
Getting hooked on the game will encourage daily usage.
Tolerance develops with increased use, reaching 5 to 10 hours of use per day.
Past hobbies and friends other than games will be deleted.
Despite the harms such as lower grades, lack of sleep, and arguments from parents, the game continues.
Deceptions and lies about excessive games will prevail.
When parents stop playing games altogether, withdrawal symptoms such as anger, irritability, and anxiety occur.
Not only can gaming be an escape from life’s problems, but it can also be a powerful social network.
Gamer portrait:
Introducing Joshua. She is 5 feet 10 inches tall, weighs 140 pounds, rail-slim, has curly brown hair, and a photogenic smile. That’s him when he was 17 years old. Let’s go back to when he was 6 years old.
Born in St. Louis, her father, Michael, is a computer engineer and her mother, Denise, is a second grade teacher. He has two older sisters. Escorted by his sisters, Josh holed up in his room and practiced his passion, the trumpet. His walls were decorated with posters of iconic trumpeters like Louis Armstrong, Charlie Parker, and Miles Davis. Under the musical side of his mother (she played the piano), he started his private lessons.
At the age of 10, he became the first chairman of the school band. At age 12, he was hired to perform in his orchestra in the pit of musicals such as “Cats” and “Hamilton.” But when he was 13, his world split apart when his parents divorced. He moved with his mother to Indiana, where his mother took a teaching job. Since his sisters were in college, Josh found himself alone. He started attending school and played in the marching band, but did not make any friends.
His only contact with his father was online, where they played car racing games and Minecraft. For his 16th birthday, his father bought him two expensive gaming systems. Josh entered his gaming world on the Internet through a competitive team.
By the age of 17, Josh had two passions: his girlfriend Natalie and internet gaming. Natalie loved games, so on weekends he would play for 6 to 10 hours at a time. He coined the gamer name “Phantom Four.” This was earned by his skill in the game of sneaking into enemy territory unnoticed.
His relationship with his mother has radically changed. Daily arguments like “Josh, wake up for school, you’re late,” “Josh, I got called to school, you’re a failure in algebra,” “Why did you lie to me about quitting the band?” broke out easily.
Josh dumped his girlfriend and cut off all contact with his father. Desperate to help his son, Dennis removed the game from his system. Josh was furious. He says, “I want it back now!” He promises to only play on the weekend. ” Over his next three days, Josh was agitated, hostile, and depressed.
She returned the game after Dennis made her sign a contract limiting her gaming to 10 hours a week. Two weeks later, at 2 a.m. on a Sunday, she eavesdropped on his doorstep.
“Guys, it’s game time! It’s Phantom Four. I have a cheat code to add more ammo. Time for Call of Duty!”
“Slayer Six Online (Steve from Los Angeles)”
“Dead Mel Ready (Mel from Sydney, Australia)”
“It’s okay,” Brit Kill (Sean from London) replied. ”
As Dennis listened, he was struck by the kinship the four boys had developed. “Oh my god, it’s like family,” she thought. she sighed. “Have I lost my son?”
questions and answers:
Q1: Is IGD an official disease in the US? still. It is listed in the DSM 5 (Psychiatric Diagnostic Manual) as an emerging condition under research. In China, IGD is a legitimate diagnosis with special treatments.
Q2: Is IGD common? One Asian study found that 8.4% of males and 4.5% of females aged 15 to 19 years develop IGD.
Q3: Dr. E, you described IGD as electronic moonshine, like alcohol or cocaine. How can someone who is not addicted to drugs wield so much power? Neuroscience, which studies how the brain works, has discovered mechanisms common to all addictions, including drugs, sex, food, gambling, and IGD. IGD’s ability to take over Joshua’s life is due to her two distinctive characteristics of the Internet game. The thrill of the game stimulates the pleasure/reward centers of the brain and creates bonds of loyalty between players and teams.
Q4: As a parent, how can I protect my child from gaming problems? Set firm time limits for your games. No binge drinking – 10 hours of continuous play – 2 hours per day for gaming, and he has one day a week where he doesn’t play games. If you experience any problems, please collect all electronic devices before going to bed. If necessary, use a computer monitoring program to monitor all aspects of your child’s electronic use.
Bottom line: put your nose close to your laptop, put your mouse on your hand, and look at the screen with your eyes. Best of all, don’t worry if you blink. Then the electronic world will be stored above your head in a celestial blue mist called “the cloud.”
The content of this article is for educational purposes only and should not be used as a substitute for professional treatment. The characters in this story are not real. Names and details have been changed to protect confidentiality.
Dr. Richard Elghammer writes a weekly column for Journal Review.
