“Pride, identity, and accomplishment” are partly responsible for gaming addiction

Videogame addiction is a controversial topic, but for the all fears that come up among parents and morning talk shows, it’s not a well-established psychiatric field. Alok Kanojia, an addiction psychiatrist with Harvard training, wants to change that, and he’s hosted a Reddit AMA to provide a load of fascinating answers to questions about gaming addiction. Part of why gaming addictions are a tough study is because they’re behavioural disorders - not substance addictions, as with drugs and alcohol. The brain’s relationship with those mechanisms are much more complex, according to Kanojia, and the nearest analog may be gambling addiction. “For example,” he says, “many gamers derive a sense of pride, identity, and accomplishment from playing games. This is one of the things that pulls people so heavily into games. I have never met a heroin addict who is proud of all of the things he's done related to heroin use.” (No, that’s not an intentional reference to EA’s ‘pride and accomplishment’ line.) However, Kanojia adds “I think gaming and gambling are the most similar of the behavioral addictions, but learning about gambling hasn't really helped me very much with my patients. The entities, while the most similar to each other, are still quite different in my experience.”

from PCGamesN https://ift.tt/2Luavrb