A Gaming disorder. Let’s think about that for a second. Gaming is the action or practice of playing a computer game. When played to “excess”, because there is now some measurable barometer for excess, is defined as a disorder, an illness that disrupts normal physical or mental functions of the afflicted. Yes its seems gaming, a recreational activity enjoyed casually by millions across the globe persists in its dubious aspirations to subvert the whims of our most vulnerable. Those poor wretches most susceptible to the provocative allures of virtual convalescence.
The “World Health Organisation” has concluded that too much gaming is bad for productivity and most importantly our mental health. But never fear, people who suffer from this clinical addiction can now receive treatment on the NHS, an already overwrought and desperately underfunded service that struggles to support patients with even minor ailments with any prompt efficiency. The World Health Organisation, ironically abbreviated to “WHO” have classified the specifics of its diagnosis that blights our once great nation as exhibiting behavioural symptoms of “sufficient severity to result in significant impairment in personal, family, social, educational, occupational or other important areas of functioning”, such as eating, pooping or breathing. Okay I may have elaborated a little there, but if these are truly the defining manifestations of a disorder, then I need genuine psychological therapy immediately!
If playing computer games too much can be recognised as a “Disorder”, what else can be classified as one merely because of how it makes us feel and the length of time committed to it? Because by that rationale I have many innumerable concerns that require treatment, including:
- “Working Disorder”
- “Tea Drinking Disorder”
- “Not Giving A Damn Disorder”
- “Mumbling Disorder”
- “Swearing Disorder”
- “Hugging My Daughter Disorder”
- “Disorder, Disorder”
- “Continually Living, Breathing Disorder”!
How long before parents blame their child’s poor behaviour and illiteracy on Gaming Disorders rather than the absence of parental guidance? It’s the parents responsibility to set boundaries, to discipline and instruct as well as nurture. You can’t plonk your 2-year-old in front of TV for hours then complain when that’s all they want to do?! They are conditioned by the precedent we establish through our own inactivity, not by the un-demanding comforts of electronic stimulus. I’d venture that a parents daily “Candy Crush” sessions is in no way associated with this disorder their kids suffer from.
As for adults who engage in computer games for exorbitant periods of time, to the ludicrous extent that you actively avoid showers and urinate in an empty Lucozade bottles because using the toilet would exhaust valuable time, then yes you have a problem, but it isn’t gaming. Games are made as a fun distraction to amuse and entertain in the same way as a film or a book. Is bingeing the entire “Lord Of The Rings” trilogy in a day unhealthily compulsive? Is reading Tolstoy’s “War And Peace” over the course of a long weekend obsessive? Take some responsibility people and stop inciting misconceptions about a routinely mocked form of entertainment just because you don’t understand it! Moreover stop undermining the real debilitating mental health issues that kill thousands every year, and blaming a stimulant like computer games that can actually be beneficial for cognitive function!
Gaming is not a source for people’s indolence, that’s an excuse.
Game, Complain, Repeat 