Video Game Addiction Treatment in India

WHAT IS VIDEO GAME ADDICTION ALL ABOUT?

The definition of addiction must be tweaked a bit just for the 21^st century with the birth of technology. Traditionally, addiction was associated with alcohol and drugs. Of late, addiction now encompasses any strange activity, where a dopamine hit is claimed, which is a hormone that is released during any pleasure seeking activity or behavior.

The millennials are not in the safe and sane arena, the geriatric population is not and let alone children and teenagers born in the era with smartphones and air pods and ipads for anything and everything. The adults of this era are more so waking up with the thoughts of what could be a potential aesthetic for a new Instagram post over what should be cooked for breakfast. Video game addiction is the repetitive behavior of playing games that holds unhealthy repercussions. This is frightening and alarming as it elevates its intensity and frequency over time.

Video game addiction treatment must become the need of the hour to resolve this endless crisis of gaming addiction at hand.

Video Game Addiction Victimization: Quite literally tied with gadgets

Video gaming addiction treatment among young teenagers and adults is necessary as it is a recent phenomena that has evoked threat to stay mentally and physically healthy. A classic chore of sending kids to go buy milk or groceries has alarmingly gone down due to their preoccupation in laying back with gadgets to play games, sometimes with strangers altogether. This is a serious concern amongst parents who suffer with getting them off to get to more productive duties of the day.

This begins as some time off for socializing but goes on to kill all the time one has in a day that kids of this era end up conveniently neglecting their primary needs of living that includes eating and sleeping.

Hence, Video gaming addiction heavily impacts an individual’s diet and sleep schedules too.

HOW VIDEO GAMING TRANSITIONED TO BECOMING A FULL BLOWN ADDICTION DEMANDING TREATMENT:

Signs of a growing Video game addiction

This is the interesting switch where a fun sidekick translates into a full blown addiction, and it can be identified in the following ways as shown below:

• Growing restless to a very high extent and even anxious when the opportunity is delayed or denied.
• Constantly feeling the need to go back and grab that video game. It becomes a hardcore routine challenging.
• This is the phase wherein all the caregivers realize that this has to be dealt with clinically. 

HOW DOES ONE IDENTIFY THE DRIFTING AWAY PATH TO VIDEO GAMES BECOMING  AN ADDICTION? 

Psychological symptoms of Video game addiction

The initial signs start from not wanting to participate in essential activities of the day and this slow behavioral digression can be understood through many variations as listed below:

• Growing restless when away from the game
• Prioritizing it all day everyday

Therefore, there is an alarming need for video game addiction treatment.

Personal and social setbacks experienced due to severe Video game addiction

• Facing significant issues at school or back home.
• Social issues arise as the kids can grow prone to becoming more and more socially aloof and feeling alienated from social interactions slowly settles in.
•  The urge to play exists all along
• There is a massive neglect when it comes to self-care.
• Playing video games as a distressing activity is genuinely not a pleasant experience as it has become a protective mechanism now.

IS THERE A RELIABLE CURE THAT EXISTS?

 Video Game Addiction Treatment plans

There are very many measures to tackle this trap. The consistency of this will prove no relapse or recurrence of the activity, gaming in this case. These are as follows:

1.     High self-focus
2.     Discipline is worked up on by creating structure
3.     Getting rid of any external environmental cues that pulls them back into the endless loop
4.     Enhancing other social activities, often called overcompensation to eventually desensitize the original liking to begin with.
5.     Sleeping and eating is monitored to not get into the vicious cycle all over again
6.     Social support is an absolute game changer.

These are some voluntary actions taken to not get victimized to gaming. However, the same measures are more religiously practiced in rehabilitation set ups and that can perhaps do wonders for the addiction without having to rethink the choice. This is because it heads towards a direction of healing that is practically doable given the consent and will to recover. Consistency is the key to begin with.

Therapeutic techniques that can work for Video game addicts to overcome the addiction

1. PSYCHOTHERAPY: This process revolves around attempting to gain an understanding of where the addict comes from by a Psychotherapist. This is a structured method and has multiple modalities. For instance, a Humanistic therapist might have an interesting take with this case in terms of perspective and approach where the focus will be upon healthy compensatory behaviors and playing to strengths like engaging in physical activity if the client is into sports.
3. BEHAVIORAL THERAPY: This predominantly allows for Behavior modification to occur in the long run wherein the aspect of what is noticeable is targeted instead of digging into where this behavior stems from. So, video gaming addiction is directly addressed by sharing an outlook on overt behavior and how that can be practically tackled by means of reinforcements and punishments.
4. REAL WORLD REINFORCEMENT: This is an extension of Behavioral therapy where therapist attempts to get the addict accustomed to world outside the Video gaming by exposing them to other engaging activities like art for instance that acts as a source to withdraw from the original video gaming addiction that might have taken place otherwise.

Therefore, a holistic approach is what seems to work the best for any form of addiction with bits and pieces from everywhere like owing some to therapy, medication to attain a full on behavior modification in individuals. This does not happen overnight, it demands dedication and zeal to keep working on self regardless of the deadly internal drives that want to do otherwise. Despite the first instinct being otherwise, choosing to live this way, over time helps overcome video game addiction.

Why CoachForMind?

• Experienced Psychologists: We are a team of licensed RCI-registered clinical psychologists. Our team is well-experienced in various forms of therapy such as CBT, DBT, Narrative Therapy, and other therapeutic techniques used in Video game addiction treatment
• Personalized Approach: We are dedicated to treating our clients in the best-suited way, carefully curated as per the client’s needs, and adhering to one-on-one, client-centered therapy.
• Scientific Techniques: Our treatment plans and therapeutic methods are based on highly researched scientific findings such as CBT, DBT, and Narrative Therapy among many other therapeutic techniques used in Gaming Addiction Treatment.
• Quality service: We at CoachForMind ensure quality services in our treatment regime and therapeutic approaches. Our clients hold most value to us, so we ground our techniques in empathy while maintaining professionalism.

For more information, please visit our website or contact us directly at coachformind@gmail.com