Gaming addiction: Disorder diagnosed, antidote awaited

This February, T T K Hospital in Chennai, which specialises in combating alcoholism and drug addiction, had a first. It admitted a 27-year-old with gaming addiction. An IT professional from Delhi, the youth was brought to the hospital by his parents.
"He had cut himself off from everyone and survived on chips and processed food as he played online through the day," said Dr Anitha Rao, director-medical services at the hospital.His parents realised he needed medical intervention when he stopped going to work and spent all his savings on upgrading his computer and gaming devices. "We admitted him for a month and cut his access to gadgets," said Dr Rao. Doctors also prescribed mood stabilisers to cure him. "We treated him the same way we would an alcohol addict or drug addict. Only the counselling differed," said the doctor. During counselling, the man revealed that family disputes were among the reasons why he turned to virtual gaming and seek an escape route.
Dr Lakshmi Vijayakumar, head of the department of psychiatry and de-addiction, Voluntary Health Services, said she saw at least one similar case every two days. "Not everyone is an addict. Many of them are children brought by parents anxious over their dipping grades as they are unable to focus after playing games online," said Dr Vijayakumar. People categorised as addicts are usually between 15 and 30 years. Most of them compete with people from other parts of the world, and play for more than eight hours.

Most games, experts say, involve multiple players. The most common ones that surface during interactions are Dota and Candy Crush. Despite the growing number of reports of people having difficulties, the scale of gaming addiction is not yet known. "As a result psychologists categorise the problem using their own criteria as internet addiction-gaming addiction-mobile phone addiction," said Ram Attur, advisor, Address Health, which focusses on the health needs of schoolchildren.

Although there is no standard treatment for addicts, doctors said cognitive behavioural therapy is effective. "We combine this with medication as 50% of them have some underlying psychiatric condition like mild depression or anxiety," said Dr Vijayakumar. "We give them a daily chart and gradually limit the hours they spend online," said the doctor. Many addicts undergo withdrawal symptoms like increased restlessness and occasional violence.
Reema Gupta, psychologist & manager, Nurturing School Program at Address Health, said identifying the trigger is critical. "We try to ascertain why the person took to video games. It is generally either because he lacks emotional skills or social skills and plays a game to reduce anxiety or anger. We use this as a starting point to bring about changes," she said.
In the absence of a standard process, doctors go by standards followed in other countries, which may not be effective in the Indian context. In 2014, the first internet de-addiction centre was opened in the country at the National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences. "Initially we had three-month and six-month sessions to cure addiction," said clinical psychologist Dr Manoj Sharma. However, within the first month, the dropout rate was 90%. Last November, Dr Sharma charted out a treatment module, including CBT, that would last a month. "We started it as a pilot on eight people who had come to our clinic. The results have been encouraging," said Dr Sharma. He said although gaming addiction has finally been recognised as a mental illness by World Health Organisation, it will be a while before India catches up with countries like South Korea and Japan which treat gaming addicts as inpatients.