The World Health Organization Determines New Addiction Category: Internet Gaming Disorder
The last couple of years have underlined an incredible development of internet games and mobile devices, a process that managed to capture people’s attention to a greater extent than ever before. The World Health Organization has come to a startling conclusion; the once considered ‘innocent’ passion has turned lately into an obsession for a greater and greater number of people.
Entire livelihoods are transformed and sometimes altered towards the worse because of the internet gaming disorder; there are certain categories that share a greater exposure to this newly identified affliction;
“In 2013, it appeared that Internet gaming disorder was most common in males between the ages of 12 and 20, and that the affliction was more prevalent in Asian countries than in North America and Europe. Experts estimated that close to 10 percent of kids in China and 1 to 2 percent of kids and teens in the United States were affected. That may explain why the WHO recognized it first, while the APA demurred.”( Melissa Healy, July 2, 2018)
People might not perceive this as an addiction or disorder since they are not actually hurting anyone and they suffering any sort of physical pain, but there is a downturn hardly noticeable. Intense online gaming affects the brain in ways most people can’t imagine, affecting at the same time people’s perception over reality and how they interact with those around them. Anxiety, rejection and even depression can be the result/manifestation of this internet game addiction, but things don’t stop here