Thanks to advancing technology, video games have never been so popular as they are today. Combined with a post-COVID pandemic that forced most people to stay home and indoors, video gaming addiction has skyrocketed. While gaming with a friend or family member online can seem like a healthy way to connect with someone, it is still quite an illusion. Real connection comes with everyday interactions from sharing anything from a beverage or meal, talking in-person, to enjoying physical activities. While gaming can be enjoyed leisurely, for some it is their only comfortable form of interaction. At Omega Recovery, helping gamers regain balance and control is our aim and focus. Our incredible team of experienced professionals have first hand knowledge of how video gaming can control a person’s mental health and life. Which is why seeking video game addiction treatment in Austin: helping gamers regain balance and control is the best first step a gamer can take. In order to better understand how video games can have such control over a person’s life, let’s explore what video game addiction is and how video gaming interacts with the brain.
Defining And Identifying Video Game Addiction Today
The difference between leisure video game play and addiction is substantial. For some people playing a video game in their leisure time (mind you, NOT every day) is something of a pastime and fun activity to do with friends. However, for anyone experiencing addiction, playing video games is a way of life and oftentimes their only source of enjoyment. Video game addiction affects a person’s mental health, emotional health, physical health, school or work, and especially personal relationships. In a nutshell, if time spent playing video games has had no adverse effects on your everyday life- you are most likely in the clear. Video Game Addiction is considered a compulsive or uncontrolled use of video games that negatively affects other areas of the person’s life. It is also considered to be a form of tech addiction, computer addiction, or internet addiction. Video game addiction can severely negatively affect not only a person’s life but communities at large, as an addicted gamer’s ability to function in society is challenged. Gamers usually have above average intelligence, however, they often get so stuck in their gaming obsession that they fail to thrive in their normal life. Video game addiction treatment in Austin: helping gamers regain balance and control is imperative in today’s world as technology grows heavily integrated in everyday life.
Whether it is yourself or a loved one that is concerned about video game use, identifying an addicted individual can be complicated. The biggest indicator of someone experiencing video game addiction is their sudden or gradual loss of interest in their life outside of gaming. Addictive video games have become more commonplace, and startling enough- they most often target children and young adults. One survey found that of over 150 million people in the U.S. alone, 97% of male teens and young adults play video games. With 41% of those surveyed admitting that they spend too much time playing video games- addiction support has never been more needed. Video game addiction awareness rises from the fact that 10% of gamers will develop obsessive and compulsive behaviors that root from playing video games. Seeking video game addiction treatment in Austin: helping gamers regain balance and control is key, as an obsession grows even stronger with time when left unchecked. Omega Recovery founder and team understand first hand how video game addiction can run a person’s life. Affecting not only the gamer but the family, friends, and community at large. Which is why we walk the path toward recovery with each and every one of our clients, not matter the severity of their addiction.
How Video Games Interact With The Brain From A Scientific Perspective
Video games can impact the brain in several ways and certain changes are more obvious than others. The age of the person also plays a role in how much video games have an effect on the brain. For example, if video gaming is balanced with other healthy interests like a sport or hobby, the brain will receive small doses of dopamine that leave the gamer feeling happy and motivated. However, frequent and long video gaming sessions can release an unhealthy amount of dopamine repeatedly. In turn, this can cause the brain to try to keep its own function in balance and essentially shut down its ability to release dopamine naturally. This instigates an individual’s want and need to play video games even more- chasing the same gaming high. The brain then will compensate, by shutting down even more of its ability to release dopamine. Eventually this cycle ends poorly, where the brain doesn’t produce enough dopamine and the gaming individual becomes dopamine deficient. Which is why seeking video game addiction treatment in Austin: helping gamers regain balance and control is so important. The health of a person’s brain plays a huge role in how they live their life on a daily basis, good or bad.
From a scientific perspective, the other part of our brain affected by video game addiction is the natural fight-or-flight response. Designed to protect us when we sense danger, our amygdala is a roughly almond-shaped mass of gray matter inside each cerebral hemisphere, involved with the experiencing of emotions. When we experience fear, worry, shame, or other negative emotions, the amygdala becomes active. Essentially, the amygdala is the part of that brain that governs these negative emotions. It is also integral to our learning circuitry as it creates connections to the hippocampus, the center for learning in our brain. Thanks to our amygdala the body releases hormones that increase our heart and breathing rates and gets our muscles ready to respond. In some situations, it can be a lifesaver by helping us stay alert, focused, and able to react quickly. However, there is a point at which our natural fight-or-flight response stops being beneficial and starts causing problems. These problems can happen when playing violent video games, hence the need for helping gamers regain balance and control. Gamers who choose violent video games sail dangerous waters, as over time the brain cannot distinguish virtual illusion battle and actual real life battle. This can cause the player to react angrily and aggressively as the fight-or-flight amygdala denies the gamer access to the logical part of their brain. Interestingly enough, fMRI studies have shown that if a person starts to play video games when their amygdala is active, it calms down. The effects of this are two-fold:
- Constant suppression of negative emotions can lead to a condition called alexithymia. If a person is alexithymic, then that means that they have trouble determining their internal emotional state. Alexithymic people find it hard to pinpoint the emotions that they are feeling. However, that does not mean that those emotions do not affect their behavior.
- The amygdala is a core part of our learning circuitry. Painful experiences get imprinted onto our memory, and we learn from them. However, people find it hard to quit playing video games because their amygdala does not make connections with their hippocampus as smoothly. They don’t learn from the painful experiences of not doing well in school or at work. Their learning circuitry gets sabotaged, and it becomes difficult for them to quit gaming.
After recent studies, there is no denying that playing video games, let alone video game addiction, has an effect on our developing brain. Effects can also pair with a gamers emotions, feelings, relationships, school studies, workplace, and every day choices in life. This supports the need for video game addiction treatment in Austin: helping gamers regain balance and control again in their life. Omega Recovery in Austin understands all too well how to break free from the grips of video game addiction to reclaim your brain and your life. We combine the best forms of video game addiction treatment to treat not just the disorder, but the person at core.
Video Game Addiction Left Unaddressed Can Explain A Person’s Lack Of Social Skills
Social disconnection is a real problem in the video gaming community, as we now understand how video games affect the brain. In fact, an Iranian study done on second-grade students in 2009 found that individuals who were addicted to video games tended to have lower social skills than those who were not. Social interaction is a skill, and if you spend most of your time alone in your room, playing games, and not interacting with other people in real life, then that skill will deteriorate. That can lead to social anxiety, not only making the problem worse but affecting humanity as a whole. Multiplayer games are often touted as a way to ‘connect’ to others, but very rarely do the actual gamers meet up in real life and enjoy an outside connection from gaming. An authentic human interaction with others can in many ways help shape our social skills, or we physically and emotionally interact with others in an environment. Why we need video game addiction treatment in Austin is largely due to unhealthy isolation, which can be extremely detrimental to mental health. We all need some alone time, yes, but human beings are not solitary creatures. Humanity thrives when we work together in healthy groups, ones where we can support each other and have a balance. Helping gamers regain balance and control is essential if we hope to have a future of mentally healthy people who can fully function in living their best life.
Dr. Kardaras Explains Why He Provides Video Game Addiction Treatment In Austin: Helping Gamers Regain Balance And Control
As the author of the best-selling book “Glow Kids”, Dr. Kardaras is dedicated to enhancing wellness by offering clarity, direction, and results through extensive diagnostic evaluations and holistic treatment for gaming addiction. Dr. Nicholas Kardaras, Omega Recovery’s founder, is one of the country’s foremost experts on treating tech and gaming addiction. After a dedication in understanding video game and tech addiction, he has developed a very comprehensive and immersive 8-week program for successful recovery. One designed to not only treat the video game addiction, but one that also addresses any and all contributing underlying issues. Many addicted video gamers struggle with depression, anxiety, substance use, self-esteem, low resilience, shame, and trauma. Oftentimes, experiencing a real struggle to find real purpose and meaning in their own life outside of gaming.
“Unfortunately, it seems that we, as a society, have entered into a Faustian deal. Yes, we have these amazing handheld marvels of the digital age – tablets and smartphones – miraculous glowing devices that connect people throughout the globe and can literally access the sum of all human knowledge in the palm of our hand. But what is the price of all this future tech? The psyche and soul of an entire generation. The sad truth is that for the oh-so-satisfying ease, comfort and titillation of these jewels of the modern age, we’ve unwittingly thrown an entire generation under the virtual bus.” – Dr. Kardaras
Dr. Karadaras and his team know first hand the devastating effects that untreated video game addiction can have on a person’s entire life. Which is why Omega Recovery takes pride in providing the best video game addiction treatment in Austin: helping gamers regain balance and control in their own life. Our team of dedicated professionals use both experience-based and experiment-based and/or holistic forms of treatment for video game addiction. Offering a recovery path that fits best for each client’s needs, wants, and severity of addiction so that successful recovery becomes a reality. We help create a “digital reentry” plan so that our clients and their families have a clear road-map of the transition back to our highly technological world. Helping gamers regain balance and control is essential as they look to reenter school, find a job, and pursue other passions they may have in their life without video games. Dr. Kardaras has found that this type of treatment setting has better recovery outcomes as it is a more authentic and organic living and therapeutic environment.
