The World Health Organization (WHO) has just created a new category of addiction: video game addiction (gaming disorder). It is defined as follows: “Gaming disorder is characterised by a pattern of persistent or recurrent gaming behaviour (‘digital gaming’ or ‘video-gaming’), which may be online (i.e., over the internet) or offline, manifested by: 1) impaired control over gaming (e.g., onset, frequency, intensity, duration, termination, context); 2) increasing priority given to gaming to the extent that gaming takes precedence over other life interests and daily activities; and 3) continuation or escalation of gaming despite the occurrence of negative consequences. The behaviour pattern is of sufficient severity to result in significant impairment in personal, family, social, educational, occupational or other important areas of functioning. The pattern of gaming behaviour may be continuous or episodic and recurrent. The gaming behaviour and other features are normally evident over a period of at least 12 months in order for a diagnosis to be assigned, although the required duration may be shortened if all diagnostic requirements are met and symptoms are severe.”
Although this pathology falls within the framework of addictions, it does not meet the same definition as addiction to alcohol or tobacco. It is what is known as a “behavioural” addiction. The main difference from addictions linked to toxic substances is that the drinker must stop drinking for good and the smoker must stop smoking, at the risk of relapse, whereas recovery from video game addiction does not imply total withdrawal, but the ability to return to a moderate use considered normal. It is obvious that using the same word “addiction” for two such different pathologies will cause a great deal of confusion… No one has ever denied that pathological uses of video games exist. The whole question is what is gained by placing them in the category of “addictions”.
Two reasons to be pleased
The ambition is meant to be humanist. Thanks to this official recognition, if it is subsequently confirmed by the DSM (the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, the reference work published by the American Psychiatric Association, which describes and classifies mental disorders), people who feel they suffer from such a pathology will be able to receive psychotherapeutic support, at least in countries where this provision exists. It will become easier to carry out specialist examinations such as electroencephalograms and brain MRI, which will help research to progress.
The risk of improper diagnoses: confusing the cause and the origin
The risk of the label “video game addiction” is that it makes us forget that such a symptom, as UNICEF points out, generally originates in a problem that the person is unable to overcome (https://www.unicef.org/french/publications/files/SOWC_2017_FR.pdf). For example, if someone feels sad or stressed, they are tempted to log on, in order to escape that sadness or stress, to an application that offers immersion and distraction, such as a video game. In the long term, the coping behaviour can become habitual, unless the underlying problem is resolved. The cause of the addiction lies in the video game, but its origin is in the difficulty, judged insurmountable, that led the player to flee into digital worlds. The essential thing is to tackle the underlying problems. Conversely, a forced reduction in screen time is only a superficial intervention that is unlikely to achieve its goal.
The risk of improper treatments
It is likely that the creation of a “video game addiction”, widely relayed by the media, will provoke panic among parents and trigger a wave of consultations! The danger is then obviously that overworked general practitioners will be tempted to respond to parents’ anxieties with various forms of medical prescription. And what else could they do, indeed?
The risk of reducing adolescent suffering to addictive pathology
In France, the creation of a “video game addiction” will not change the way care is provided. However, the places where care is provided may change. Until now, pathological gamers were treated in general care centres, such as medical-psychological centres (CMP) and medico-psycho-educational centres (CMPP). But strengthened by the WHO’s recognition, addiction treatment centres risk coming to the fore by demanding additional funding. With the risk that a large number of young people not strictly suffering from “video game addiction” according to the WHO definition will find there a form of care that is impossible elsewhere, thereby feeding the idea among their parents that it really is an addiction, even though it will probably only very rarely fall within the definition of the new international classification of mental illnesses.
S.T.
Find the full version of this text at https://sergetisseron.com/blog/addiction-aux-jeux-video-plus-dinconvenients-que-de-benefices/
Serge Tisseron is a psychiatrist, doctor of psychology with accreditation to supervise research, member of the Académie des technologies, and associate researcher at Université Paris VII Denis Diderot (CRPMS).
