VIDEO GAME ADDICTION

VIDEO GAME ADDICTION

Doing things that you enjoy is a great feat. However, in retrospect, did you go overboard with your hobby? At what extent did it become an addiction? Those are the questions that experts are continuously seeking for an answer especially in the case of playing video games.

Different groups cannot agree on a unanimous conclusion as to whether playing too many video games should be considered as an addiction.

In its latest medical reference book called the International Classification of Diseases, the World Health Organization has listed “gaming disorder” as a medical condition. This is not in congruence with the American Psychiatry Association’s manual, the DSM-5, which did not list video game addiction as a disorder.

SYMPTOMS

These problems could appear whether you are on or off the computer.

Here are the things that you need to find in yourself or your peers. You need to exhibit five or more of these signs for you to be considered of having a problem. According to the DSM-5, you might be:

  • Having persistent thoughts about gaming
  • Feeling guilty when you can’t play
  • Not being able to quit or even play less
  • Not wanting to do other things that you used to like
  • Playing despite these problems
  • Having problems at work, school, or home because of your gaming
  • Lying to people close to you about how much time you spend playing
  • Needing to spend more and more time playing to feel good
  • Using gaming to ease bad moodsand feelings

It doesn’t entail that if you are a person who plays a lot of video games, you already have an addiction. Experts agree that labeling someone who is just enthusiastic about gaming does more harm than good. One area where they do agree on is that they are only a few people who meet the proposed criteria for video game addiction. It is more prevalent in men than in women.

TYPES

Other common types of leg ulcer include:

  • Arterial leg ulcers
  • Diabetic leg ulcers
  • Malignant leg ulcers
  • Traumatic leg ulcers
  • Vasculitic leg ulcers

Ulcers in the foot are usually caused by diabetes.

 

SYMPTOMS

Itching, pain, and swelling in the affected leg are characteristic symptoms of a venous leg ulcer.

Discoloration, hardening of the skin around the ulcer, and presence of a foul-smelling discharge may also be present when you have a venous leg ulcer.

If you have a venous leg ulcer, you may exhibit the following conditions:

  • discoloration and darkening of the skin around the ulcer
  • swollen ankles
  • red, flaky, scaly and itchy skin on your legs
  • swollen and enlarged veins on your legs
  • hardened skin around the ulcer, which may make your leg feel hard
  • a heavy feeling in your legs
  • an unpleasant and foul-smelling discharge from the ulcer
  • aching or swelling in your legs

 

Signs of an infection

Opportunistic pathogens could cause secondary bacterial infections due to the ulcer. 

Symptoms of an infected leg ulcer may include:

  • a green or unpleasant discharge coming from the ulcer
  • fever
  • redness and swelling of the skin around the ulcer
  • worsening pain
  • an unpleasant smell coming from the ulcer

DIAGNOSIS

Diagnosis usually starts by asking yourself a few questions about your current situation: Do playing video games affect my daily activities like my job, relationships, or school? Am I using gaming as a coping mechanism for much greater problems such as depression and anxiety?

Spotting this problem for yourself can prove to be difficult. The time spent for gaming might be okay to you, but if people around you think it might be overboard, then it might be high time for you to consider cutting back.

 

TREATMENT

Seek professional help either from a psychologist or psychiatrist if you think you or your peer is getting out of hand with his or her addiction.

Research on treating video game addiction is also in its infancy. A kind of treatment that can help is called cognitive-behavioral therapy or CBT. This is a type of counseling that replaces troubling behavior with solutions on how to cope with your disorder or addiction.

Some psychiatrists prescribe antidepressants and anxiolytics for the symptoms of withdrawal of playing video games. Antidepressants like bupropion (Wellbutrin) and fluoxetine (Prozac) and anxiolytics like alprazolam (Xanax) have shown some benefit in curbing their addiction. However, research is still needed since the sample size was small in that particular study.

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