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cgames 02 – What is gaming addiction? Interview with Dr. Kimberly Young

Summary

In this episode we talk with Kimberly S. Young the director of the Center for Internet Addiction Recovery about the nature of online addiction.

Here are some of questions we discuss:

• What are the symptoms of gaming addiction?
• How do you know if you are addicted?
• How do you help a loved one who is addicted.

Links

• Center for Internet Addiction Recovery
• Breaking the Denial: Confronting a Loved One Addicted to the Internet

Transcript

Welcome to cgames.com podcast. My name is Thomas Umstattd Jr. We’re on the line with Dr. Kimberly Young an internationally known expert on internet addiction and on-line behavior. She is currently the director of the Center for Internet Addiction Recovery. She is also the author of Breaking Free of the Web, Catholics, and Internet Addictions.

Thomas Umstattd: Dr. Young as a physiologist what is gaming addiction?

Dr. Kimberly Young: Well, one of the things that we’ve been seeing here in the last few years is the growth of gaming addiction which really seems to be people who are staying on line longer than intended, they are people that are very pre occupied with gaming, they are people who will jeopardize relationships, careers, or even sleep to stay on line.
One of the strange things that we’ve seen is that it’s not just young people but also a lot of older adults as well. It seems that the warning signs need to be looked at both for the kids that are doing this and the adults.

Thomas Umstattd: What are some of those effects on those older gamers; like their families and such?

Dr. Kimberly Young: I think that is the thing is that these older gamers or adult gamers are people that are neglecting; you know like parents not spending any time with their children or their doing this at work and maybe getting fired from their jobs. You really start seeing some real cost to this behavior that says this is more than just a hobby or a passing interest. It’s becoming a real problem.

Thomas Umstattd: So why do you think people get addicted to gaming? What are some of the causes would you say?

Dr. Kimberly Young: For a lot of people the games themselves are role playing games. So people can go online and take on another role. That can vary from a very quiet and shy person becoming a dominant warrior in the game. I worked with one sophomore in college. He was really someone who was never seen as a strong guy. His brother was a baseball star. His brother had great grades. His brother was just kind of the all rounded type of guy where as he was kind of the misfit of the family, the one who didn’t fit in but in the game he had a very powerful character. He was very good at it. He led groups, he was in a guild. He led maybe 70 other gamers though these fields. So there is a lot of mental or psychological rewards that come though these games so people can invent part of themselves online and maybe that character that they are playing on line, they like better or that person is just more accomplished at the kind of things that they haven’t been able to achieve in their real life.

Thomas Umstattd: That’s amazing! So people are able to find a significance in the virtual world that they aren’t able to find in the real world.

Dr. Kimberly Young: Yeah, they really can. These characters normally have a lot of symbolic of physiological meaning. People with low self-esteem would be more likely to gravitate towards these games because it feels something that is missing. As I said before, there is that idea of being recognized because it’s not just like a video game where you are enhancing your eye/hand coordination and the game itself like what you would see in an arcade, but you are playing with other people in real time and you have a lot to accomplish and strategize.
It causes simulation as well. It’s a very intellectual process. So you do see wind up seeing people that are very smart but they don’t have fulfillment in their everyday lives so they can go online and fulfill that.

Thomas Umstattd: So what are some of the signs of addictions, if you’re a gamer how can you know when you’re gaming is starting to get out of hand?

Dr. Kimberly Young: Well, pretty much as I was saying. You’re staying online for excessive hours and you become very preoccupied, meaning that when ever you’re off line you’re thinking about the games. Some people will dream about game. I know some college students skip classes just to game or they stay up to all hours of the night and they’re just to tired to go to school the next day or workers will just be to tired to go to work the next day. I mean, there are even some people that are so afraid to leave the games, that they eat at the computer, they don’t bathe, don’t shower, and they just sit there and won’t leave it because they’re afraid something will happen.
And again, we’re talking about something that has gone beyond; “Well, I like playing this for a few hours.” It’s where they’re playing for hours at a time and it is normally at some sort of cost.

Thomas Umstattd: That was good what you said about dreaming. I remember as a gamer, games used to preoccupy my dreams quiet a bit. I thought that I was the only one but I got online and I found out that that is quiet a common side effect for gamers. They’re dreams are just bombarded with dreams of the game itself.

Dr. Kimberly Young: Yes, and another sign too, is just the physical effects too. Gaming for hours and hours and just sitting at the computer people can get back problems from sitting there. They might get carpel tunnel syndrome from clicking on the mouse, they might get eye problems, eye strain. So physically it’s not good to just sit at the computer for a great length of time on a daily bases.

Thomas Umstattd: One of the questions I get a lot in my talks is; “What about people who make money on online games like Second Life or War to War Crafts where you can earn items in the games that you can actually sell for real money on eBay or other web sites. Does that money making potion alleviate any of the dangers of does that strengthen the dangers?

Dr. Kimberly Young: Well, I would think that with the money making it makes it worse in the sense that it can be part of the fulfillment. You can become an enterer and sell property that you can buy things that you need in the games like weapons or World to War crafts. All of this is not profitable and it kind of enhances the whole experience because it’s not just “I can win a battle” anymore it’s “I can also make money off of this.” So it builds on itself and it just enhances the whole experience because if you can get something tangible out of it as well you think that it is justified. “This isn’t an addiction, I’m making off of this. I’m an enterer.” So there is defiantly that way of rationalizing that behavior too.

Thomas Umstattd: What would you give as way of advice to someone who say, her husband is gaming too much of their son is gaming to much? What do you do in that situation when you aren’t the gamer but you’re the loved one of the gamer?

Dr. Kimberly Young: Well, I think that is the hardest role. We get a lot of calls from parents of or spouses of the gamer. They were very despondent. They said; “we don’t know how to stop this behavior for my husband or my child.” You know, the greatest problem is to try to confront any addict. It doesn’t matter if we’re having to deal with alcoholics or gaming addicts. There is not a real sure fire answer. People say; “What am I supposed to do?” I would say that it’s a lot of work to get them to realize that they have a gaming addictions. I know what we do a lot of times is a family intervention where you have to sit down with all your family members, lets say that is dad that is addicted. So the kids, mom, maybe the dad’s parents, you know friends. Anyone who sees the problem and they do a confrontation, if you will, with the addict. Talking about some of the problems caused by this behavior.

Thomas Umstattd: Do you have any resources on how to carry out a family intervention or any advice on the best way to do that?

Dr. Kimberly Young: Well, actually, we do have a booklet on our site at net addictions. com called “Breaking the Denial” and that booklet has step by step guide if you are going to do a family intervention, how to set it up, a good time to talk to the addict, obviously not when they’re at the computer, and maybe the things to try to include when you talk to them and the reactions that you might encounter. I mean, obviously when ever you’re confronting an addict it isn’t just a welcomed opportunity. They might feel defensive and threatened, maybe even angry that you are trying to take away something that they enjoy so much because they don’t see the problems the way you do so it’s kind of an up hill battle sometimes, explaining to them that they are harming themselves.

Thomas Umstattd: Do you recommend for gamers to come off cold turkey or is it better to do a kind of gradual approach?

Dr. Kimberly Young: You know, for myself, what I’ve seen, some really like the gradual approach. I know sometimes kind of the therapy that is involved is just realizing what that game means to that person and upping their motivation to want to quit. A lot of people under therapy don’t really want help. They’re just there because their mom or dad said that they need to come but they don’t really want to stop. The problem is kind of like how do you treat an alcoholic that doesn’t want to quit? Probably not as effectively as someone who says “I have a problem and I want to quit this and get a hold on my behavior.” At least then you have more of a chance. Again it’s the same thing. Gaming addiction isn’t as highly recognized as, we’ve talked about alcoholism, or we’re minimizing it because it doesn’t involve an intoxicating substance that over time could kill you. Where as crack or cocaine or things of that nature would.

So there is a lot of justifications that you have to work though so when I’m talking about treatment, the early phases are not just about the game and stopping the game but about “why are you gaming? What is this doing for you psychologically” And then finding another out look and way of achieving those rewards so that eventually the gamer will say “you know what? I’ve got it! I need to quit!” Then you’ve really had success when the accept it but getting to an acceptance in any addiction is a very difficult process.

Thomas Umstattd: One of the things that I say in my talks is; “it’s a lot easier to take the play station out of your house than it is to get it out of your child’s heart. I think that has a lot to do with it.
Well, thank you so much for coming onto the show. Tell us more about your web site and the resources that it offers.

Dr. Kimberly Young: Well, one of the things for gamers is the “self test.” I know that you asked a couple of times about the criteria. We have a list that defines gaming addiction and a little test that you can take, and also a booklet that talks specifically about gaming as an obsession. It’s geared towards parents, since often their the ones on the front line. We also have some articles, a blog, and a pod cast as well. We want people to be able to get information.

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