Manav, 15 yrs was brought by his parents with complains of spending hours on mobile gaming since last 8 months. He would avoid his friends and was getting back in studies and sports as well. He had become more irritable and would defy his parents many a times.
It’s finally official and has occurred after a long wait. We as psychiatrist used to come across many children spending hours on gaming and we used to fumble in finding an official name for the illness. The latest 11th International Classification of Diseases (ICD) has eased the trouble by including the condition “gaming disorder” in its latest edition. It’s going to be published in 2018 itself. This book contains codes and criteria to diagnose an illness
The draft mentions it as a pattern of persistent or recurrent gaming behaviour so severe that it takes “precedence over other life interests”. We have been treating such kids but now, we can label them properly.
Like any addiction disorder, the gaming behaviour should be persistent for a period of at least 12 months “for a diagnosis to be assigned” but added that period might be shortened “if symptoms are severe”.
Following are the clinical features mentioned
1.impaired control over gaming (frequency, intensity, duration)
2. increased priority given to gaming
3. continuation or escalation of gaming despite negative consequences
Some parents may claim that their children are simply enthusiastic gamers and may not be in real sense addicted. What needs to be seen is whether this habit is affecting the basic things like socializing, schooling, biological clocks and is also leading to behavioral problems.
The problem is being recognized all over the world. Indian parents frequently complain about the same. China has a system of alerting the user if the user cross a stipulated number of hours of gaming. South Korea bans access to gaming for adolescens between midnight to 6am.
The bottom line is, if your child is spending hours on mobile gaming, be alert and seek advice of the nearest mental health care provider. This could be a beginning of an addiction.
Dr. Srikanth Reddy MD
Psychiatrist and De-Addiction Specialist
Vijay Nagar, Indore
Debajeet Deb.
July 16, 2018Nowadays it’s a very big problem of the parents, about the mobile gameing..
My kid is 2years plus.if we don’t play mobile he didn’t eat, I’m worried how he addict on mobile in this age. So many time I’m try another way, but he had ignore, if we play anything’s specially rhyme, then he start again eating..
What i to do..?
I’m in pharma professional..
Dr. Srikanth Reddy
September 6, 2018Hello
Thanks for fhe comments.
Behavioral therapy is the answer to your problems. Through principles of behavioral therapy we can change the unhealthy behaviour of children.
Do get in touch and we can plan to sort it out.
Regards
Dr. Srikanth Reddy