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Video Game Addiction
Witnessing Internet Gaming Disorder
How could concerned people help the gamers?
Posted October 25, 2022 Reviewed by Gary Drevitch
By Yihua Pei and Ye Zhang Pogue
In addition to being a high school student, Yihua Pei, my co-author on this post, is also a game playmate and game streamer with more than a half-million followers on Tik Tok. I researched serious mental disorders and substance abuse in her Ph.D. study. The two of us have witnessed and experienced internet gaming addiction.
During Yihua’s gaming career, he met more than 1000 other players. The majority spent their days playing games and dreaming of becoming professional gamers. Their actions seemed like an escape from reality for him as they did not really make money to support themselves. Their behaviors upset him, as it simply seemed to him that they lacked self-control. Though Yihua loves to play games, he puts his study first.
Yihua reached out to me, a health policy researcher studying serious mental illnesses and addiction issues, to talk about what might be behind these “irresponsible” and “self-destructive” behaviors. Interestingly and frustratingly, I love to play games myself, especially a match 3 game. I have spent quite a bit of time on that game (more than 7000 levels!) and feels like it has taken too much of my time. I would stop playing it for a few days, then come back to it and play even more, and then regret it.
Internet Gaming Disorder, also known as gaming addiction, has been classified by the World Health Organization as a mental illness since 2018. According to Chinese media, studies show that 27.5 percent of young people there may be compulsive gamers. But few have heard of this problem, or believe that playing too many games could represent a mental disorder.
Excessive gaming is common in China. According to Yihua’s observation in his gaming career, high-school and middle-school students are less likely to be addicted to Internet games than many people think. In most families, children are supervised by their parents before entering college. Instead, it is college students who are most likely to be addicted to games. In China, there is greater pressure to attend a good college than in other countries. Preparing for extremely competitive college entrance examinations takes up most of the students' time, leaving them little time for themselves at all. After they enter college, this pressure suddenly disappears, and thus many young people spend their newfound “free” time on games and become hooked.
I went through my college entrance exam in China, and undergraduate school, then went to the U.S. for graduate school. I would not call myself a “game addict," but I developed a passion for games after having more unstructured time. I crave games more when I am under stress as well (when I need to focus on work and study the most).
One common theme about addiction is feeling ashamed and guilty—the feeling of “I should not have done this. I am better than this!” Yet, the next day, they do it again. Using my own experience as an example, I am more open to talking about my struggle with bipolar disorder than talking about my problem with games. A behavioral health researcher is troubled by reducing the time on games; it makes me feel I have failed as a researcher because I am part of the problem.
At the same time, Yihua, the popular gamer, starts to question his own ethics. He feels his platform may have exacerbated the gaming addicting problems. Is he responsible for their behaviors? How much are they, the gamers, responsible for their own problems if excessive gaming is in fact a mental disorder?
I have an answer for him. I feel I am completely responsible for my own behaviors, and any other answers are making excuses — even though I know this is not true scientifically. Various types of addictions and serious mental illnesses have a very high rate of being co-occurring. A person with bipolar disorder may be more susceptible to becoming addicted to games or stimulants. Yet, I still feel I am at fault for everything even though this thought itself is not constructive in solving my gaming problem.
Both of us believe tough measures are no cure for compulsive gaming. We also believe personal responsibilities are part of the solution to this behavioral issue. We made a video together, featuring Yihua’s experience, trying to start a conversation with concerned people.
Yihua Pei is a student at Catholic Memorial School, MA
