Addiction is a disease burrowing the lives of many people. Some are addicted to alcohol, some suffer social media addiction and others, from addiction to video games.
More seriously,
video game addiction seems to be the only addiction that cuts across all age
groups—children, teenagers, adolescents and adults.
Because teenagers’
and children’s video game addiction can hinder potentials, disrupt
concentration and compromise ambition, parents need to take stringent action to
avoid this deadly mistake many parents make. I have painstakingly written this article
just to do that—an easy way to help an addict find a solution to video game
addiction. This post is for everyone: children, teenagers and adults who are
addicted to playing video games.
Below are the
outlines for this post;
- What is video game addiction?
- How to tell if a child is addicted to video games
- Causes of video game addiction
- Effects of addiction to video games
- Solution to video game addiction
- How to prevent addiction to video games
WHAT IS VIDEO GAME ADDICTION?
Video game
addiction is once over-indulgence in playing video games to the extent it
controls his life and steals his priorities. Like every addiction, addiction to
video games begins with an initial mild interest which then becomes a pleasure
and then a strong desire.
Video game addiction is in short called Gaming addiction, gaming disorder or compulsive gaming. It has become an internationally recognized mental disease as asserted by WHO.
According to WHO, there are too many
negative side effects of video game addiction, especially in teens and children. Now I know why we rarely see Albert Einstein's of this generation.
HOW TO TELL IF A CHILD IS ADDICTED TO VIDEO GAMES
The signs of video
game addiction are glaring. It is not rocket science. It is pretty easy to
tell if someone is a video game addict.
Addiction to video
games is a disease and like every disease, it has its own symptoms as well.
These symptoms can help parents notice a child’s addiction to video games.
Some of the symptoms
of video game addiction are;
- Poor academic performance
- Always acting like a character they see in video games
- Always wants to use your phone or are regularly on PC
- Lack of concentration
- Being quick about things like school home works, bathing or even eating just to play a video game
- Making video games the centre of discussion all the time
- Playing video games for outrageous hours of time like 2 to 5 hours straight-non-stop
- Loss of interest in learning
- Stealing money just to buy or play video games.
CAUSES OF VIDEO GAME ADDICTION
The reason for
video game addiction is not far-fetched. If you are a parent, then you are the
number one cause. You can’t be too busy that you seldom make out time to
observe and indulge your kids in healthy practices. Teens or children’s
addiction to games or any other thing is because you fail to get them busy with
the imperatives.
Think about it for
a second. It is natural to indulge in meaningless things when you don’t have any
meaningful thing to do. Similarly, a child will naturally bequeath his or her
time to playing games when they are less engaged with what matters. Remember,
games resonate well with children.
By engaging children, I don’t mean you totally
write off games or any recreational exercise. They help a child’s mental
development if handled appropriately.
If an adult is
addicted to video games, whoever raised him is to be blamed. This is why we need
to raise our children to embrace virtues so that in the long run, we won’t be
held accountable. To do this, you have to set their priorities right, so
that they won’t set wrong once for themselves. This is one of the things you
must do if you don’t want to go through the struggle to breaking gaming disorder.
EFFECTS OF ADDICTION TO VIDEO GAMES
A reputable study has
shown that a child’s basic character is formed at the age of seven. This means
that the side effects of a child’s addiction to video games will begin to speak
from age 7 to adulthood. The negative consequences are enormous if this is the
case.
Some of the major
side effects of video game addiction are;
- Loss of drive for things that matter
- Loss of life’s dreams and ambitions
- Poor academic performance
- Isolating from others so as to play video games thereby missing out on major family activities or outings.
- Relationship problems may arise when one can no longer spend quality time with his partner.
- Once mental health may be challenged since there is little or no indulgence in healthy activities that can enhance the development of one's mentality.
- Migraine may result from focusing on a computer or phone screen for long hours.
- Video game addiction can be very time-consuming, leaving addicted adults with less time to focus on their career or education.
SOLUTION TO VIDEO GAME ADDICTION
As we have seen the
effects of addiction and how detrimental they are, how then can we overcome
video game addiction? How can we control it?
Here are a few
things to do.
1. UNDERSTAND
ITS PERKS AND PITFALLS
Maybe you are a
parent who keeps asking the question of what to do when a child is addicted.
Well, in dealing with the issue of video game addiction whether as an adult,
teenager or a child, understanding the advantages and disadvantages of video
game is the best place to start from. The pitfalls when indulged in excessively
are colossal.
As
we’ve already seen, misplacement of priorities, compromise of career and
education and loss of dreams and personal ambitions are some of the pitfalls of
compulsive gaming.
A
parent’s first assignment is not to destroy the gaming systems, pads and warn
the children not to ever play games again, but to provide solid enlightenment.
Knowledge is power and education is the beginning of a change in any situation.
2. ADMIT
YOU NEED A SOLUTION
We’ve seen some of
the signs and symptoms of addiction to video games. If some or all of those
signs sounds like you, then you need to admit your need to control or break free
from video game addiction. If you think you are ok, you are normal and this
post is exaggerating, then you may never get the help you need. Admitting you
have a problem solves 50% of the problem.
3. ACCEPT THE GRACE FOR CHANGE
If you are an adult
addicted to playing video games so much so that it has affected many areas of
your life—relationships, career, business, name it, then your cheap win is
Jesus Christ.
Many times you have resolved not to ever play games again. You even went a step further to dispose of your gamepads. But after a while, an uncontrollable longing for it sets in again and you are back to it. It has become a cycle of defeat.
This is because
you don’t have a higher Grace backing up your decision. Your decision without
God’s backing will always end in failure. In any kind of addiction, God does
not help those who think they can do it without HIM. This is the reason for the
cycle of defeat.
In case you need
God’s help, the first step is accepting Jesus Christ into your life by making
this prayer:
Father, thank you
for demonstrating your love for me by sending your son JESUS CHRIST to take my
sinful position and die to set me free. I receive you into my heart JESUS and I
acknowledge you as my LORD and SAVIOUR, Amen.
In case you made
that prayer, you now have the power and right to approach the throne of God in
prayer. The next thing is to look out
for a bible believing church near you and attend.
4. TRY
CORRELATING YOUR LIFE’S DREAMS AND VIDEO GAMES
Think about your
dreams—the things you hope to achieve in life and ask yourself, “can I get
there being addicted to video games?” “How
can I achieve my goals when the only thing I invest my time in is video games?”
5. DON’T
DESTROY YOUR VIDEO GAMES
Taking away a
source of temptation is not the solution. Instead, use that source to your
advantage. Use the tempter to fight your temptation. How do you achieve this?
By still keeping the video games and at the same time determine not to play them.
As time goes on, its grip and control over you will begin to wear off. But in a
situation where your addiction level is critical, then you have to
smash your video gamepads and uninstall those you have on your devices. Treating
addiction to video games demands a drastic measure in such a case.
6. CHANGE
COMPANY
There are several reasons we want to hang out with our friends. Some people for their intelligence, some for comic reasons and others perhaps for recreational reasons like playing games. For any significant change to happen in your quest for freedom from video game addiction, you need to keep off of friends who like playing games and who fuel your desire for video games.
To easily achieve this, ask yourself, “Are my
friends more important than my life?” If the answer is NO, then you have to
choose your life over them. Don’t forget, many people— parents, siblings and
the world at large depend on your purpose for life. There will be no Microsoft
if all Bill gates did was play video games. Even the devices by which video
games are played, including the game itself, were manufactured by people who
were not game addicts. Perhaps if they were, they probably wouldn’t have
succeeded.
7. SET
YOUR PRIORITIES RIGHT
One way to help children or teenagers control their addiction to video games is by helping them replace unhealthy or worthless priorities with healthy ones.
This is how it works.....
The minds of
children were clean slates from birth. They are like a very fertile and viable
soil ready to germinate anything planted in it. This is why God wants us to
keep our hearts with all diligence for out of it are the issues of life (Proverbs
4: 23).
If you refuse to plant positive seeds in the
soil of their heart, they will plant negative ones like video games, cartoon
and many more.
HOW
TO PREVENT ADDICTION TO VIDEO GAMES
To prevent is
different from seeking a solution. You seek a solution to a problem that is a
reality already. But to prevent means to take proactive steps to ensure that the problem
does not occur at all.
There are
preventive measures to video game addiction. Actually, it is a two-step
process—DEFINITION AND SUPERVISION
DEFINITION
When God gives you
children, as long as they are babies, He confers the power of decision to you
as parents. But when that child grows into an adult, you no longer have that
power. This is why the best time to exercise authority over them is as long as
they are children. What you do with them as children today will determine what
they will become as adults tomorrow. We already know that a child’s basic
character is moulded by the age of seven.
The best every
Parents can do for their children in the childhood stage of life is to define
priorities based on values and virtues for them. Priorities such as praying,
going to church, studying God’s word, education, respect, honesty and pursuing
one's dreams are primary. Let games and cartoons be secondary. This will help
prevent addiction to video games.
SUPERVISION
Many parents have a great outline of virtue-driven and value-driven priorities for their children, yet
nothing significant is changing and they wonder why. Well, plans alone can’t do
the magic if not monitored. Even adults are mischievous concerning instructions, talk more of children. They
have to be seriously watched over and observed closely.
After making and executing a
child’s daily priority engagement plan, the next step that
does the miracle is supervision. You have to ensure they are not replacing your
priorities with theirs. If you are a career parent, let whoever be the guardian
take charge. They must not be seen playing games and watching cartoons than
they read their school books and study God’s word. They must not be allowed to skip
church service or any important meeting or outing because of games. They have to be drastically engaged in
meaningful activities 80 percent of their time if you don’t want to deal with
video game addiction later on in their life.
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