Living With An Addiction

Many people pooh, pooh the very thought of someone being addicted to online games. The very mention of it to people who play games online is one of amusement because they don’t ever see themselves as being addicted to a game.

But if you were to mention this to a family member or friend of someone who they know plays these games continuously the reaction is very different. Their reaction is one of … ‘you too!’ ‘I know what you mean!’ ‘I thought I was the only one recognising so and so problem!’ ‘He doesn’t go to school!’ ‘He makes threats!’ ‘She won’t go to work!’ ‘She lost her job because of the game!’

These things may sound familiar to you…

Some of those online games include; World of Warcraft or WoW (as some may call it) and Everquest.

There are possibly others but these ones stick in my mind especially World of Warcraft. This game even though the owners and the people who sell this game and make millions of dollars from it, refuse to believe that this game can cause an online gaming addiction.

It’s like smoking and alcohol addiction. Fortunately other people have recognised that there are problems with this game and others and if you get hooked there are places online you can go for help and support.

What amazes me is that there are blogs out there where people can share their stories and other players come in and tell everything that they do… they play for many hours a day to build up their character, build up their gold and aim to get to levels that are higher than they have ever conquered… but they don’t see that as a problem nor do the game owners and operators. And they tell people that they are not addicted…

I admit some people aren’t. Some people can shut themselves off from the game once they close down. But others can’t. Many sit for hours in front of their computers. They sleep for a few hours or they sleep during the day so they can be awake at night to play for many hours with people around the world.

Men and women prefer to play the game over going to work, some go to work and continue to play the game. 8 hours a day is nothing really when they want to get ahead in the game. I’ve had people tell me that they watch their friend’s business not decline but run on auto pilot because the friend goes to work just to play the game while his business runs around him.

I’ve read of people who lose themselves in the reality of the game but when they shut the game down, they are lost in the real world. They live for the game because they see that as reality.

There is no age discrimination. From as young as 13 to men and women in the 50s and 60s play… they live for the game…

School children from the age of 13… refuse to go to school. They are fine the night before, the next day they are sick… they want to stay home to play the game. They want money to buy gold; they need more money to move up the levels in the game, the requests for more and more… go on and on…..

The get abusive, threatening and demanding…. They become almost reclusive. They push family away and yet they want them close when they want something, they find ways of selling things for more money to spend on the game… they threaten suicide… they commit suicide…

They don’t go to school, they lose touch with their friends and they abuse their family… and to think they are only kids in their teens…

To be continued…

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 23rd, 2007 at 5:06 am and is filed under Addictions, Online Games. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.