Video Game Addiction

Addicted to Video Games

When you think of video games, you don’t think of an addiction, but video games can be as addictive as gambling or alcohol.
When my son was around 3 years old, I bought a PlayStation video game system and he would sit and watch me play. One day my son asked me if he could play, it was a 2 player game, so I showed him how to play.   I would play from time to time, and as time went on he became better and better. It was like nothing I had ever seen, he was a natural.
As the years went by and my son grew older, he was playing more games and he had asked for a Nintendo Gameboy. He soon grew bored of it, he asked for a Nintendo Wii for Christmas and Santa made his wish come true. As the months went by, as a reward for doing chores he would receive a game instead of money. Before long, he had every accessory and he had received 22 games. The years passed and again he grew bored of the Wii, so he asked for the Xbox 360 video game system, and of course I gave in. He became more involved in playing games as the years went by. He always would ask for the newest games, the newest wireless controllers, or headsets. He began to play more in the multiplayer online game venues, and had a list of friends from all over the world.
He plays the Xbox any and every chance he gets, beating complete games in as little as 4 hours, or playing campaigns in the online multiplayer area for hours on end. When he plays the game so much, it tends to get in the way of his everyday life. He and I will fight to have him stop to eat, to do his homework, and even to go to bed. He has become very good at games, knowing tricks, cheats, and becoming a very skilled player. He plays so much that he has said, that when he gets older he wants to design video games for a living. His relationship with his Xbox has gotten to where, at times, cause’s fights and has to be shut off.
Over the last couple years I have noticed and came to realize that he is addicted to playing...