Does Your Child Have Video Game Disorder? A Place for Texas 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 teen™s video game use or cellphone/computer use results in a heated argument, please give us a call today.

If Your Texas 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:

  1. 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!
  2.  Theoretically speaking, we know that we need to intervene as soon as possible since the majority of a human™s 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.
  3. 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.
  4.  Sometimes excessive gaming and avoiding social opportunities is actually a sign that there are other problems occurring.
  5. 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.

Gaming Addiction Help that Helps Texas Teens

Our Pennsylvania based programs help teens from Texas and can provide academic opportunities to ensure your child does not fall behind in school.  Campers at Camp Pocono Trails that undergo video game disorder help are put into small therapy groups where they won’t get lost or fall behind. 

Often, academics fall behind when a student needs video game disorder help.  The problem is that it is almost impossible to totally avoid using the internet as a student today.  At Camp Pocono Trails, we help campers develop the self-regulation skills to go online responsibly and to quickly get back on track when they fall off.

Some of the emotional signs or symptoms that may require video game disorder help include:

  • Feelings of restlessness and/or irritability when unable to play
  • Preoccupation with thoughts of previous online activity or anticipation of the next online session
  • Lying to friends or family members regarding the amount of time spent playing
  • Isolation from others in order to spend more time gaming

Video game disorder help often means treating co-occurring issues concurrently.  Often, we find an underlying depression or self-doubt about the future. Focusing on Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs paradigm, we help Camp Pocono Trails campers find safety and security first by showing them how to interact positively with others, how to make and keep friends, and how to stand up to others when being bullied.  

ADHD is a common co-occurring issue when teens need video game disorder help.  As a result, habits and strategies need to be developed to use the internet successfully for research or writing papers in school.  This is simply what we do at Camp Pocono Trails- we help our campers to develop the intrinsic motivation to change their online behaviors and develop routines that will ensure their success.

Frequently, we’ve found that the typical Camp Pocono Trails student started excessive online habits when they began to feel more successful online than offline.  This can be a self-fulfilling prophecy, as campers lose social practice by spending more and more time online and losing opportunities to engage in face-to-face social interaction.

As a result, it’s not uncommon for a teen to lose the feeling of safety and security when walking the halls in high school.  This can lead to a snowball effect and only encourages the student to fall deeper into online habits. At Camp Pocono Trails, we can reverse these feelings of social insecurity by teaching concrete skills to interact and socialize with others appropriately.  

Who does Camp Pocono Trails help?

Camp Pocono Trails helps teens struggling with issues similar to those below:
– Depression
– Anxiety
– Technology Addiction
– Autism Spectrum
– School Refusal
– Low Self Esteem
– Impulse Control
– Family Conflict
– Social Anxiety Disorder
– Video game addiction
– Addictive Behaviors
– Social Issues
– Poor Communication Skills
– ADHD
– Social isolation
– Trauma

Resources

Gaming Addiction Help: Use Steam Accounts with Structure

Many gamers that come to Camp Pocono Trails use a Steam account to manage their game settings.  Here is a comprehensive guide for parents to manage your child’s Steam account.

Steam: Setting up Family View

We encourage you to create a Steam account with your child. If there are features of Steam that you would like to exclude from the experience, you can restrict access using Family View. You may also choose to enable Family View on your own Steam account if you would rather they share your Steam Account.

https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=5149-EOPC-9918


To enable Family View:

  • Log into the Steam account your child will use.
  • Click the Steam menu in the top menu bar.
  • Open the Settings option.
  • Go to the “Family” tab on the left side of the window that opens.
  • Click œFamily View to start the Family View wizard.
  • Step through the wizard to select the content and features you™d like to be accessible while in PIN-protected Family View.
  • Select and confirm your new PIN.

With any gaming company, we recommend you check game ratings and actually have your child demonstrate the game before allowing any unsupervised play.  You can also go on Youtube to watch a game walk through to see how violence and adult themes are portrayed.

Gaming Addiction Help: TechAddiction.com as a Resource

TechAddiction is committed to providing helpful, informative, and high quality links to services and individuals who provide help for or information on internet and video game addiction.

Reaching out to your local therapy network may also provide the solution you seek.  However, if you’ve already tried therapy and you didn’t get the results you wanted, or if your child refuses to go to therapy, Camp Pocono Trails may be exactly what you are looking for.

You can also reach out to your insurance company and see if they cover group or individual therapy, or if they cover summer camps like Camp Pocono Trails.

Camp Pocono Trails Helps Texas Families From Cities Such As:

Some examples of cities from Texas which may have families who could use Camp Pocono Trails: Houston San Antonio Dallas Austin Fort Worth El Paso Arlington Corpus Christi Plano Laredo Lubbock Garland Irving Amarillo Grand Prairie Brownsville McKinney Pasadena Frisco Mesquite McAllen Killeen Waco Carrollton Denton Midland Abilene Beaumont Odessa Round Rock Richardson Wichita Falls College Station Pearland Lewisville Tyler San Angelo League Allen Sugar Land Edinburg Mission Longview Bryan Baytown Pharr Missouri Temple Flower Mound town North Richland Hills New Braunfels Victoria Harlingen Conroe Cedar Park Mansfield Georgetown San Marcos Rowlett Pflugerville Port Arthur Euless DeSoto Grapevine