"Won't Some-WHO-body Please Think of the Children?!"

Picture the following scenario: you’ve purchased a video game you’ve never played before. You boot it up and start playing. After a few minutes, you die because the game’s harder than anticipated. So you try again, and again, and again, until you finish a boss fight. You glance at the time, realize it’s late and promise that you’ll stop soon because you have work tomorrow. However, you’ve already completed something and feel accomplished, so you might as well play a little longer. Sure enough, by the time you’ve beaten the next boss, you realize, with immediate panic, that it’s already 3:00 AM.

I want you to stop picturing now, because this is a reality for many gamers. It’s called a gaming addiction, and according to The WHO, or The World Health Organization, it’s officially been classified as part of the addiction umbrella.

I remember when I first heard about this. I was skeptical; after all, why would something as harmless as video games be an illness? But as I thought it over, it made sense. Especially considering my own experience with addiction.

See, I have Autism. One of the most-common traits of Autism Spectrum Disorder is a laser-focus on anything that fascinates me. While this has its upsides, I put more effort into tasks than most, it also make me lose track of time and my priorities. While in laser-focus, I often don’t eat, drink, sleep, do my chores or even go to the bathroom. The objective is my #1 priority, everything else be damned! I’m aware it’s unhealthy, but I’ll most-likely struggle with it for the rest of my life.

Video games are where this is most-prevalent. Because while movies, TV shows, books and writing require some degree of laser-focus, they’re all mostly passive. Video games, however, are interactive. I have a more active engagement with them, as much of the outcome is determined by me. Factor in how I’m slow with and bad at video games, and that laser-focus mentality can hijack my life.

So yes, I’m addicted to video games. (I’m addicted to other substances too, but that’s for another day.) But while acknowledging I have that addiction is a start, controlling it is really hard. And my brain knows this. I can’t begin to tell you how often I’ve openly “gotten sick” or “been busy” so that I could continue a challenging game. You can call it “hypochondria” or “laziness”, but I call it what it is: addictive behaviour.

And this isn’t uncommon, which is why The WHO was concerned. For one, it’s unhealthy to be that consumed by anything. And two, it can cause de-stability in a person’s life. Given how addiction, like anxiety, depression, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, is a mental health disorder, it should be taken seriously. The key word here being “should”, obviously.

If that’s not enough to convince you, allow me to share a story:

Two years ago, I attended a panel at my local synagogue on addiction in the Jewish community. This panel dealt with how addiction ruins people’s lives, but one of the panelists stood out. He was a psychiatrist, and he explained how video games are like gambling. Ignoring how many games require purchasing extras to finish them, like how gambling addicts spend more to win more, video games also function under similar principles as gambling. The most-common area of overlap is how the two create dopamine rushes when you complete your objectives, be it getting past a tough spot in gaming, or winning a hand in gambling. And when you lose at both, it’s not uncommon to have similar outbursts.

I initially compartmentalized this information; after all, I was more concerned about my other addictions and long-standing, buried trauma from childhood, so why would that be at the top of my list? But when I thought about The WHO classifying gaming addiction as a disease, I realized that it made sense. Because video games, judging by what I pointed out, can be incredibly addictive, and that’s worth addressing. It’s a shame that more people haven’t realized this until now.

I get it: gamers are proud and stubborn. We like to think we’re in control. We also like think we know better than everyone else. Unfortunately, we’re not in control. And, unfortunately, we don’t know better than everyone else.

It’s high-time we acknowledge that our favourite pastime is hurting many of us, and that we should do something. Does this mean “no video games ever”? No! Like candy, a little won’t hurt. But, like candy, too much is unhealthy.

I know that I’m not guiltless, especially given some of the pieces I’ve recently written, so I recognize that this won’t be an easy problem to solve. But we should still try. Because when video games get in the way, there’s a problem. And it needs addressing yesterday.

I think gamers need to suck up their pride and recognize that there’s an addiction epidemic. And it’s one that looks invisible. I know it clashes with our hard-libertarian, laissez-faire outlook on the industry, but not everything can be solved with “let the masses decide”. Because that’s dishonest, unfair to those in need and ignores the problem.

Ultimately, we need to stop treating The WHO like some obnoxious nanny who doesn’t know better. They deserve better than that. I’d even argue that we should trust The WHO more than ourselves, as they’re the experts. They’re the ones with the resources to dedicate to understanding addiction. That doesn’t mean that we can’t still fight for video games to be taken seriously, we should, but with that comes a need for introspection and humility. And that’s what we lack.