Infromathic gambling addictions and other Internet addictions are already part of the psychopathological arsenal. According to Dr. Elena Padrell, a psychiatrist and member of Top Doctors, it is now common for some patients, mostly adolescents brought by their parents, to show symptoms of dependence on video games.
Addiction is always enhanced by the immediate pleasure one gets from a certain behavior. They all have an impact on stimulating the pleasure centers in the brain. Once we have felt this pleasure, the body will fight to feel it again.
Moreover, according to Dr. Padrells, the body will always want to reach at least the same level of pleasure registered during the first experience. The problem is that in front of the same stimulus, the brain receptors will not react over and over again with the same intensity of response. To register the same or even a higher level of pleasure, we would have to increase the intensity of the stimulus.
On the subject of video games, the pleasure is connected to the possibility of winning the game and the challenge of beating the level. The games are stimulating, appealing for their richness of design, their immediacy, the unpredictable change of strategy, the escape from familiar surroundings and the illusion of “control” over characters that one has sometimes created oneself.
Addiction to video games can occur at any age, but adolescence, according to the doctor, is a critical period, since it is when one is most curious to try things that involve an unknown risk, and even more so if there are no established limits. It is a period of rebellion and continual testing. Video games are a channel that provide this false illusion of “control” and authority, at least over what happens on the screen.
Even so, this addiction, especially in adolescents, can lead to problems of school failure, breakdown of family relationships and social isolation.
Treatment
The first step for therapy will be the education of all those involved, since often it is only the parents who are concerned, while the patient or adolescent is the one who should become aware of his or her problem. Therefore, it is necessary to proceed to involve the patient and to carry out with him a balance of possible benefits and risks of starting a treatment or not.
Once motivation has been obtained, tools similar to other types of pathological gambling, i.e. without the use of chemical substances, are used. It begins with a psychiatric evaluation, where the existence of other addictions or psychiatric disorders is ruled out, the patient’s cognitive capacity is assessed and possible medical and psychiatric history, both personal and family, is studied.
Normally, if there is no co-morbidity and a good therapeutic alliance is obtained with the patient (i.e. his or her sincere trust, commitment to participation and desire to improve), then the enhancement of personal motivation with close monitoring of self-discipline is initiated.
Together with the patient, short-term and long-term goals are identified, ideally with positive gratification associated with the achievement of these goals. For example, in video games, you can set a limit of days per week and progressively decrease the time invested in the game or establish that when a certain goal of the game is achieved, it is turned off unconditionally.
It is about creating behavioral patterns based on planning when and how I will perform this activity. As a reward or positive reinforcement, you can celebrate with the patient the capacity for self-control and explore what other positive effects derive from their new “liberated” situation.
If the patient does not respond to individual cognitive-behavioral therapy (as described above), it can be enhanced with family therapy, self-help group therapy and even in certain circumstances a psychopharmacological approach may be prescribed, aimed at reducing anxious-depressive or obsessive-compulsive elements typically associated with addictions.