What Effect Does Video Game Disorder Have on my Rhode Island Teen?
Video game disorder is very hard to treat. In one surprising study, In one study 84% of addicted gamers were still addicted two years later, demonstrating how difficult gaming addiction is to treat. In the same study, 7% of online gamers were classified as psychologically or behaviorally dependent on online gaming.
This begs the question, “why is gaming so addictive?” According to research in the Journal of Mental Health and Addiction 41% of people who play online video games do so as an, “escape from the real world.” Another risk factor is found in players with strong social motivation. Some games involve social obligations, where players have to work together. This can mean a player feels obliged to play along as the rest of the group wants to play. Farmville strives to ensure participation at regular intervals by making gamers dependent on each other for daily allotments of fantasy resources.
Putting together role play and social use in one game should yield a highly compelling game. World of Warcraft, a massive multiplayer online role-playing game, fits this description and is, anecdotally, pretty addictive.
There is much debate currently about the effect of video game violence on the real world. According to a study in Pediatrics, as much as 20% of real-life violence may be attributable to media violence. Why is this? Researchers speculate that there is a two-fold issue here. First, constant exposure to video game violence decreases our sensitivity to real-world violence. Seeing a fight at school might seem more normal to a child that has been exposed to ongoing video game violence, making them less likely to intervene or even more likely to instigate violence themselves.
Does Your Child Have Video Game Disorder? A Place for Rhode Island Families to Start
Based in Pennsylvania, our program helps teens from across the country with video game disorders. Many parents that enroll their child at Camp Pocono Trails try in-home interventions first. A behavioral contract can work, but parents need to remember that a contract is like a marriage. Both parties need to agree. You can’t just force the rules upon your child. Ask them what they want to work for, and how much time is reasonable to play online after homework is done.
Some clients need a higher level of care than what a therapist can provide, and this may not have been initially been clear to their therapist. For example, if your teen has co-occurring depression that is not responding to once per week outpatient psychotherapy, they might need more intensive care, including psychiatric medication, more frequent visits or inpatient care with a therapist who has greater training in treating depression, and/or a therapist who specializes in treating severe depression along with video game disorder and working as part of a help team.
If video game playing is an ongoing source of tension in your family, you may be beyond the stage of trying an in-home intervention. If any attempt to curb your teens video game use or cellphone/computer use results in a heated argument, please give us a call today.
If Your Rhode Island Teen Only Feels Successful Online, Now is the Time for Gaming Addiction Help
Consider the cost of doing nothing. If you send your child off to college not prepared to deal with unstructured time, how likely will they be in the 50% that fail to graduate college? Consider the cost of wasted tuition, wasted time, and the cost of supporting your child back at home if they fail to thrive. Investing in Camp Pocono Trails is insignificant compared to the cost of failure.
There are several reasons why you should NOT wait:
- Parents know their teen best, and parents have good instincts about possible problems their teen might be having. If you have that little nagging feeling in your gut, trust it!
- Theoretically speaking, we know that we need to intervene as soon as possible since the majority of a humans brain development occurs in the early years. Think about the social level of a 10-year-old versus an 18-year-old. It’s only 8 years but the differences in development are vast.
- The effectiveness of early intervention has been demonstrated by plenty of research studies that went beyond the theoretical and actually investigated clinical cases. Teens with social, developmental, and addiction issues that get early intervention have better outcomes.
- Sometimes excessive gaming and avoiding social opportunities is actually a sign that there are other problems occurring.
- Missing social learning opportunities results in later frustration. Teens that have difficulty communicating have difficulty connecting with others socially. This leads to frustration, tantrums, and potentially unmet needs.
Who does Camp Pocono Trails help?
Camp Pocono Trails helps teens struggling with issues similar to those below:
– Family Conflict
– Impulse Control
– Video game addiction
– Addictive Behaviors
– Low Self Esteem
– ADHD
– Poor Communication Skills
– Technology Addiction
– Depression
– Social Issues
– Trauma
– Social Anxiety Disorder
– Social isolation
– Autism Spectrum
– Anxiety
– School Refusal
Resources
Gaming Addiction Help: Setting up Controls on Your Apple Computer and Phone
Apple brand products offer some of the best and hardest to get around controls for parents.
You can learn how to set up parental controls for Apple products here: https://support.apple.com/kb/ph18571?locale=en_US
As a parent, you want your kids to have a safe and happy experience on the Mac. Using Parental Controls preferences, you can manage, monitor, and control the time your kids spend on the Mac, the websites they visit, and the people they chat with. After you set restrictions for a child using a Mac, you can manage parental controls from a different Mac. Both computers must be on the same network.
Smartphone and Tablet Resources for Teens with Video Game Disorder
Teens are becoming increasingly tech-savvy these days. Its hard for us as parents to keep up. At Camp Pocono Trails we’ve heard it all – campers bypassing routers, logging on to friends routers next door, creating proxies, you name it and we’ve heard it!
Here are some resources specifically for smartphones and tablets. These devices are especially problematic for parents because they are portable and you cant just block them through your router if your child is connecting at school or a friends house:
Android Devices: https://www.techadvisor.co.uk/how-to/google-android/android-parental-controls-3461359/
Apple Products: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201304
Google Play Store: https://support.google.com/googleplay/answer/1075738?hl=en
Camp Pocono Trails Helps Rhode Island Families From Cities Such As:
Some examples of cities from Rhode Island which may have families who could use Camp Pocono Trails: Providence Warwick Cranston Pawtucket Jamestown