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Fact or Fiction: Is Video game addiction linked to mental health disorders? Formatted: Font: Bold

Justin Trifari

Professor Malcolm Campbell

UWRT 1104

March 26, 2019

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The gaming industry is seeing a rapid growth due to the continued innovations on

technological advancements. Since technology is easily accessible younger generations are being Commented [CP1]: Good Start

introduced to technology at far higher rates than any generation previously. This continued

technological advancement leads to better game mechanics, graphics, audio, and overall

playability of the game. With the increase in playability of a game combined with generations

becoming exposed at younger ages the audience grows and becomes more heavily involved with

what they are playing. With that being said, are video games addicting and can excessive gaming

lead to depression or other major mental health disorders?

To start, in 2018 the WHO (World Health Organization) classified excessive gaming as a

disorder within the ICD (International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health

Problems) which is a list of diseases and conditions that are used by health professionals to make

a diagnosis and treatment plan for their patient (Medical News Today). Signs of excessive

gaming disorder include prioritizing gaming over other activities and interests, lack of sleep,

isolation, and lying to create more time to play video games. This is reinforced with Achabets et

al. study that compared characteristics of addict vs non-addict online gamers and how the Commented [CP2]: Clarify what this means seems like
gibberish
addicted gamers reported three times more daily sleepiness, sleep deprivation, and emotional

changes.

Furthermore, gaming disorder is also described within the American Psychiatric

Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manuel of Mental Disorders (DSM-5). The DSM-5
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focuses more on what they consider “Significant impairment or distress”. Griffith states that 80%

of online gamers sacrificed some aspect of their lives such as education, sleeping, working,

socializing with friends, family, and partners. A diagnosis would require experiencing 5 or more

symptoms within a year. These symptoms can include anxiety, sadness, and irritability when not

playing video games, inability to reduce playing, deceiving family members or others on the

amount your gaming, jeopardizing your job or relationship, and preoccupation with gaming.

Another study by the University of New Mexico states that 6 to 15 percent of all gamers exhibit

symptoms of gaming addiction. For perspective if there were 5000 gamers approximately 300 to

750 of them would show symptoms of gaming addiction. On a smaller scale this seems pretty

minimal but if you take the world population of approximately 7.5 billion people and multiply

that number by 15% that would be equivalent to 1,125,000,000 people showing symptoms of

gaming addiction.

Additionally, both the DSM-5 and the ICD agree there are two different types of

symptoms. These symptoms are classified as physical and emotional. Physical symptoms

include, migraines due to excessive gaming, fatigue due to lack of sleep, and carpal tunnel due to

high usage of a mouse and keyboard to long. Emotional symptoms include irritability due to lack

of sleep, isolation because of gaming too much, and lying to create more time to play video

games.

The question now is what makes video games so addicting. According to Dr. Brent

Conrad there are many factors to consider such as no pre-defined ends, in-game rewards are

based on leveling up, social connections, collaboration among other players, harmless online

activity, and rewards being set on variable schedules. A common trend among these factors are

related to in-game rewards. In-game rewards promote a sense of self accomplishment but, to earn
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the rewards one must first complete the leveling system in place. As a player increases his level

the tasks become increasingly harder and the skill gap becomes wider thus making the game

consume more of the players time. Additionally, setting rewards on variable schedules makes

players log on and play more hours to ensure they don’t miss a chance at earning a specific

reward. I’ve experienced this while playing the well-known game World of Warcraft. In this

game you are able to collect mounts and other items to increase your item level and engage in

PvP (Player vs player) and PvE (Player vs Enemies) gameplay. I spent hours on end trying to

acquire the headless horseman mount. The reason for this is that the headless horseman mount

was only available during the hallows end holiday in World of Warcraft which lasts for only 13

days. Additionally, it was set on a fixed drop rate of .05%. So, to get this mount you must

complete a dungeon which takes around 45 minutes not including the que time. And then if you

complete the dungeon you have a .05% chance of obtaining the item. Since this mount is only

available during the hallows end holiday it makes it extremely time consuming to obtain the

mount. Finally, with no pre-defined ends the game can expand forever thus allowing them to

earn more money and the players to enjoy new experiences.

Understanding that video games are addicting is important to understand how it causes

depression and other mental health disorders. Caitlin Gibson a writer for the Washington Post

stated that in 1998, a study showed that video games raised the level of dopamine in the brain by

approximately 100%. Dopamine commonly referred to as the “Feel-Good” hormone is a

neurotransmitter that helps regulate movement, learning, and show emotional responses such as

motivation, euphoria, and concentration. This amount of dopamine released repeatedly creates

withdrawal and cravings due to changes in the amount of dopamine being released to the

dopamine receptors while not gaming. Charles Hymas stated,” Fortnite and other addictive video
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games can have a similar effect on children’s brains as drug abuse or alcoholism, MRI scans

reveal. This is important because people experiencing depression struggle to feel happiness and

pleasure among leisurely activities. One cause of this is video game addiction as it allows for an

unhealthy amount of dopamine to be expended into the dopamine receptors. Another problem is

that human brains aren’t fully developed until the age of 25 with that in mind, people as young as

13 who experience video game addiction develop a reward or impulse system much faster than

others. This would lead to an uneven distribution between the developed reward system and its

necessary counterpart the self-control system. This would lead the individual to exhibit more

impulsive and risky behavior.

Video game addiction is seen as only affecting teenagers. However, this is simply not

true. According to the BBC in 2010 South Korean prosecutors charged a couple with negligent

homicide for allowing their child to starve to death while playing the well-known MMORPG,

Prius Online (Grunge). Another tragic case involved a 28-year-old South Korean man dying of

heart failure due to exhaustion after playing a 50-hour StarCraft session in 2005. Although these

events are uncommon it would be ignorant to ignore them. Both cases showcase how video

games created a false reality that lead to neglect of personal health and well-being of individuals

and others around them.

Moreover, there’s ongoing debates over if violent video games are linked to mass

shootings and other violent acts such as school shootings. ABC News reported that Texas Lt.

Gov. Dan Patrick argued that violent video games have created people who are “Desensitized to

violence.” (ABC NEWS). His argument was defended by the American Psychological

Association (APA) which passed a resolution in 2015 declaring that “Scientific research has

demonstrated an association between violent video game use and both increase in aggressive
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behavior, aggressive cognitions and decreases in prosocial behavior, empathy, and moral

engagement,” among other findings. What worries many is the rates of which children are

playing video games. According to the APA in the United states alone 90% of children play

video games. Not only that but the APA also state that 85% of videogames within the market

contain some form of violence. Understanding that violent video games could be associated to

things such as mass shootings show the effects on the brains that video games could have on

youth and adults around the world.

However, not all scientist and doctors believe that video game addiction should be

classified as a disorder within the ICD and DSM-5. Some doctors state there isn’t enough

evidence to establish that gaming disorder is a disease. The World Health Organization also

stated that the disorder only affects 3 percent of gamers. It’s also important to note that the

symptoms provided by both the ICD and DSM-5 are extremely vague and could lead to

misdiagnosis of a person. Romeo Vitelli a writer for Psychology Today states,” In China, for

example, military-style "boot camps" for the treatment of video game addicts have become

extremely popular with parents sending their children to be "cured," often after weeks or months

of grueling treatment.” Although this is an extreme example you can’t deny it could happen and

continue to grow and become more problematic then it is now. Overall, the lack of reliable

evidence and small percentage of those affected leads the doctors to debate the validity of video

game addiction being classified as a disorder.

Scientist and doctors also state that playing video games can improve cognitive skills.

Cognitive skills are core skills your brain uses to think, learn, reason, remember, and pay

attention. These skills learned while playing video games include, coordination, enhance

memory, improve problem-solving skills, improve brain speed, improve multitasking skills, and
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improve social skills. Peter Gray an author for Psychology Today states, “Green & Bavelier

(2012) found that action video gaming improved performance on the ability to locate, quickly, a

target stimulus in a field of distractors—a test that has been found to be good predictor of driving

abilities.” Commented [CP3]: Really good and it shows you spent

some time on it. If there’s a better solution to gaming
addiction, then boot camp I would finish with that but overall
it was really good
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Citations

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www.techaddiction.ca/why_are_video_games_addictive.html. Accessed 12 Mar. 2019.

Dodds, Charles Hymas; Laurence. “Addictive Video Games May Change Children's Brains in

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change-childrens-brains-way-drugs/. Accessed 15 Mar. 2019.

Eugenio, Sheila. “Public Access - 8 Cognitive Benefits of Playing Video Games for

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