A DISTRAUGHT mother says her teenage son has quit his job and stolen money to support his computer game addiction.
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About six months ago Sally*, of Launceston, realised that Liam, 19, was spending up to 48 hours at a time on multiplayer internet connected computer games such as World of Warcraft.
She has joined a growing number of desperate Australian parents who are unable to find specialised support for their childrens’ addictive computer habits.
Sally said Liam quit his job so he had more time to play, and was failing to eat properly because he did not want to leave his games.
‘‘His hygiene suffered from not showering or cleaning his teeth for days, he gained weight, and was suffering from a sore back from leaning over the computer,’’ she said.
In an attempt to get Liam to stop playing, she cancelled the internet and removed all computer devices from the family home.
‘‘He ended up spending a couple of nights on the streets and was stealing so he could go and play these games at internet cafes,’’ she said.
‘‘He told us yesterday that if he had money he would go straight to an internet cafe´. He cannot
help it. He just cannot stay away.
‘‘I had a great kid who did well at school, was very polite, and was loved by everybody.
‘‘Now, it is like he is another person, like someone else has taken over.’’
Gaming addictions have caused numerous deaths across the world, where individuals die from cardiac arrest after continuously playing for days at a time.
Video Game Addiction Treatment Clinic psychologist Emil Hodzic began his specialist centre in
Sydney after he noticed an increasing number of teenagers who had developed behavioural addictions to video games, which he compared to problem gambling.
Mr Hodzic said video game reward structures offered a ‘‘kick’’ to players who repeated and accomplished certain behaviours.
‘‘Over time, people develop a dependence for the reward and the need to play increases,’’ Mr Hodzic said.
‘‘There is a lot of distress and a lot of hostility when games are interrupted, delayed or stopped, and that of course impacts on relationships, typically, the parent and child relationship.’’
Mr Hodzic said he had received gaming addiction referrals for teenage boys as young as 12, and men up to 32 and older.
He said some individuals were more susceptible to the reward structures within video games.
‘‘Games are excellent at distracting and shifting your state of mind away from whatever you are feeling, and you can have teenagers or adults who are mostly using to moderate and deal with their emotions,’’ Mr Hodzic said.
He said this further impacted on the individual’s ability to deal with daily stresses.
‘‘Any conversation about video games with the person becomes problematic because it increases the person’s stress, which makes them turn to the game again.’’
Once games are taken away from the individual, they may experience various withdrawal symptoms which include anger, feelings of emptiness, rampant mood swings, excessive sleeping, dreams about the game, a lack of motivation, and an urge to return to the game.
The emergence of these addictions has led ‘‘Internet Use Disorder’’ to be entered into the internationally recognised Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.
Video gaming addiction would fall under this category, although it has not been formally recognised as its own addictive disorder.
Mr Hodzic said he believed internet use disorder would be separated into categories in the future, which would divide social media, video game and cyber porn addictions.
