About Hooked on Games
The multi-billion dollar video game industry is in the business of creating fun and enticing games that can be addictive. As addicted gamers feast on digital indulgences, their reality crumbles around them due to neglect.
Headlines related to video games:
"New Mexico mom gets 25 years for starving daughter." - Fox News
"China used prisoners in lucrative internet gaming work." - Guardian News
"Online gamer killed for selling virtual weapon." - Sydney Morning Herald
"S. Korean dies after games session." - BBC News
A national, cross-sectional study at Iowa State University of 1178 children ages eight to eighteen showed that 8.5% of the children demonstrated behaviors of addiction similar to other behavioral addictions like pathologic gambling. The kids addicted to video games demonstrated lower grades in school, attention problems, and other health problems. The video game addiction rate is between 8% and 12% worldwide based on research by several research groups and Douglas Gentile, PhD [1-2]. The problem is, as a society in general, we are not educated about the long-term mental and health risks of video game addiction. Video games are free and available everywhere, and people are unaware of the one in ten who can and will be addicted to video games. The video game addict destroys his or her life and the lives of the people they love. It's time our society understands this addiction, prevent it, and help the one in ten who are addicted to video games.
Andrew Doan, MD, PhD (Author of Hooked on Games)
About the Book
Hooked on Games is written by Brooke Strickland and Andrew Doan, MD, PhD, a physician with a research background in neuroscience, who battled his own addictions with video games. Dr. Doan was an addicted gamer, who at his peak, invested over 20,000 hours of playing games over a period of nine years. Dr. Doan’s reckless compulsion to play games transformed him into a monster that almost destroyed his family, marriage, and career. He shares his expertise to educate others on the dangers of video game addiction and to provide hope for video game addicts and their families. Dr. Doan shares steps for gaming addicts to achieve recovery and steps for families and loved ones to intervene. Without attention to this quickest growing addiction, our society will suffer from the creation of Generation Vidiot, millions of people devoid of innovation and skills to live in the physical world.
References
1. Gentile D. “Pathological Video-Game Use Among Youth Ages 8 to 18.” Psychol Sci. 2009 Jun;20(6):785.
2. Gentile et al. “Pathological video game use among youth: A two-year longitudinal study.” Pediatrics, 2011, 127, e319-329.