Online Gaming Addiction has Increased During COVID-19

 Tips That Can Help:

• Experts say online gaming  addictions are on the rise during the COVID-19 lockdowns.

• They say the social isolation combined with stress and perhaps monetary concerns are some factors why.
• Experts say these “process addictions” are usually accompanied by other disruptions in home life or on the job.

• Although there are no approved medications to treat these addictions, other treatments, such as cognitive behavioral therapy, can be helpful.

If you’ve recently experienced serious withdrawal when not playing video games and you could be living in lockdown with a serious addiction. While addiction is most commonly associated with substances like alcohol, certain human behaviors can be addictive, too. Internet gaming disorder  are what’s called process addictions. And with so many people stuck in their homes right now, these struggles are amplified.

“Because of the COVID situation, we’re opening a new residential treatment center because the demand is becoming that high,”

Mechanisms Of Gaming Addiction:-

Video game structure: 

Some theories focus on the presumed built-in reward systems of video games, such as compulsion loops to explain their potentially addictive nature. The anticipation of such rewards can create a neurological reaction that releases dopamine into the body, so that once the reward is obtained, the person will remember it as a pleasurable feeling. This has been found to be similar to the neurological reaction of other behavioral addictions such as substance abuse and gambling disorder, although not to the same magnitude and with some differences.

 online video games are potentially addictive is because they "can be played all day every day." The fact there is no end to the game can feel rewarding for some, and hence players are further engaged in the game.

Addiction circuits in the brain:

Long-term internet video/mobile game playing affects brain regions responsible for reward, impulse control and sensory-motor coordination. Structural analyses shown modifications in the volume of the ventral striatum, possibly as result of changes in rewards, and video game addicts had faulty inhibitory control and reward mechanisms. Video game playing is associated with dopamine release similar in magnitude to that of drug abuse, and the presentation of gaming pictures activates brain regions similarly to drug pictures for drug addicts.

Treatment studies which used fMRI to monitor the brain connectivity changes found a decrease in the activity of the regions associated with cravings. Although there are evidences that video game addiction may be supported by similar neural mechanisms underlying drug abuse, as video game and internet addictions reduce the sensitivity of the dopaminergic reward system, it is still premature to conclude that this addiction is equivalent to substance addictions, as the research is in its early stages. There is evidence of a dual processing model of digital technology addictions characterized by an imbalance between the reactive and the reflective reward systems.

Other studies shown increased difficulties in decision making in specific contexts, such as risky situations but not in ambiguous situations, and an increased preference for short-term rewards. Although the number of neuroimaging studies on internet gaming disorder is rising, there are several methodological shortcomings, particularly in the inconsistency of psychometric assessments. Furthermore, the conclusions on reduced inhibition should be moderated, as only one study included a functional control, which then showed no difference in inhibition.

Vaibhav Soni