How Video Games Kinda Were A Mental Health Disorder For Me - Personal Story
Recently, The World Health Organization has classified "gaming disorder" as a diagnosable condition. All video game enthousiasts were mad about this, but little of us know that this may actually be the case for some people.
For me it was actually happening... For a long period. I’m not a hardcore gamer, merely want to try out new games, appreciate their artstyle and spend some hours getting to know all kinds of genres that could benefit my work.
This wasn’t the case though. Video games were a scapegoat for me. A way of making days go by without having to worry about daily tasks and things that grown ups were supposed to do.
The problem wasn’t even the fact that I was spending too much time playing. I would think about video games pretty much the whole day, talk about it, manicly search for new titles to try and feel anxious and bad for myself when I didn’t have the means to buy them.
This escalated though as time went by. When I had to spend vacation time at my parents’ house I would get angry and have no willpower to do anything since I couldn’t spend time on my PC. I even got to the point that where I would frantically ask for money from my sister to go play at a gaming station when my PSU exploded and had no PC.
It’s easy to think of gaming as a hobby, but it can as easily become an addiction and make your mindstate go down the hill. I wouldn’t go as far as to call myself ill, since the factor that made me stop thinking about video games so much was actually finding a job as a journalist in the industry and managed to turn my “hobby” into a career.
I practically knew everything. From the single unknown indie game to free RPGs and AAA titles. I knew I could now put all that knowledge to a good cause. I’ve learned to criticize games and could be a video game reviewer and more. People in my country think of me as an “expert” in video games, something that I couldn’t see since I would think of me as a slack in front of a screen.
I do believe that for certain people gaming addiction is a disorder. Most of us don’t even realise the downhill. We would stop looking after ourselves, stop eating or eating junk, don’t sleep or sleep too much, get tired eyes and back pains and sleeping legs, like we are some kind of old people.
Video Gaming needs boundaries. If you can’t have them in your life then put a person close to you set them. Then start working on yourself, find something that can power that love for gaming of yours.
As for me, I can now put all that energy into writing about video games. I was a dreamless person that couldn’t get to finish her degree. Now I can express my love for games through my writing and play casually for 2-3 hours before I go make myself better by doing healthy activities.
Do yourself the favor, be aware. If you find yourself nervous and anxious and angry when you can’t play video games, start looking for a solution. You can do it. I know I could and I am the worst at setting boundaries and have willpower.
Hope this could help at least one person that might have struggled the same as I did.
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