Diagnosing Yourself for Video Game Disorder

If you are considering whether you might have a problem, trying to make an honest appraisal of your relationship
with video games could be revealing.

Are you simply an enthusiast, or have you arrived at a point of dependence? Can you be comfortably separated from
your gaming for days at a time, or would this be problematic?

The recognition of the disorder will hopefully allow people to engage with these kinds of questions without
concerns over their validity.

Effects of Gaming Disorder

Video game disorder can create or exacerbate other mental health issues.

Note that someone who spends days at a time playing video games may be vulnerable to depression and anxiety when
they are separated from their games.

There is also the issue of video game dependence becoming linked with other problems, adding further complexity
to the dependency.

Any two addictions can become paired with each other. A common example is coffee and cigarettes.

The same could certainly happen with video gaming and other behaviours.

Let’s say whenever the person is playing games, they’re always eating a particular food. They’ll start to link
those two things together. So the pairing can further increase the impact the disorder can have on
someone’s life.

Influence of Video Game Disorder on Social Skills

These games offer a chemical reward, similar to that elicited through drug use, while giving users an attractive
escape to become fully immersed in a virtual world that they can command.

The sense of power, accomplishment and self-worth are highly addictive to users of all ages, but especially
socially maladjusted teenagers, most often boys, who withdraw from society and into the gaming world as a form of
sanctuary.