It is believed that this disease affects mainly adolescents and people under the age of 35, but there is evidence that those over 50 also suffer from it. Psychologists and sociologists are sounding the alarm, because this disease is dangerous, so it is important to know what symptoms indicate about its presence and how to get rid of such a problem.

Computer addiction

Experts say that anyone who devotes more than 2-4 hours a day to video games and Internet entertainment is likely to suffer from this disease. from the computer is a kind of slavery; a person stops paying attention to social communication, his own development, and is not interested in romantic and friendly relationships. All that matters to him is to pass a new level, earn virtual bonuses, become the best in the game, and study the forums.

Signs of computer addiction

In the early stages, it is difficult to determine the presence of a problem; it has not yet clearly manifested itself, but there are signs of computer addiction that mean that it is time to talk with the person about his priorities or direct him to see a psychologist. These symptoms include:

1. The presence of severe irritation in a sick person when loved ones try to limit the time they play or surf the Internet.
2. Increased mood during periods spent at the computer.
3. Computer addiction manifests itself in the fact that a person avoids personal communication and prefers correspondence via the Internet or social networks.
4. The patient refuses to go outside, is not interested in anything other than games or searching for something on the Internet, talks only about his hobbies, or simply ignores communication with relatives and friends.

The listed signs are basic, but even their presence is not always evidence that addiction has begun to develop. Sometimes it happens that they appear in workaholics or hyper-responsible people who sit at the monitor and try to complete an important project. At similar situation, the symptoms will disappear immediately after the end of the difficult period associated with large volumes of work. Therefore, it is important to clarify with your loved one what is causing his irritability and to monitor the development of events.

Causes of computer addiction

Psychologists and physiologists identify two main factors influencing the onset of the disease. According to research, the following causes of computer addiction can be identified:

1. Insufficient social adaptation, lack of a sense of security when communicating with people in person. This is a psychological factor; computer addiction occurs in adolescents who do not have closeness with their parents, do not have good relationships with peers, and do not have a sense of self-worth.
2. Release of the pleasure hormone. This reason is already physiological; when playing or communicating in a comfortable environment, the body synthesizes a special substance, it can be addictive and the person strives to do everything to get a new dose. The pleasure hormone itself is not bad; it is released both when playing sports and when eating chocolate; negative consequences begin only when people give up everything else in an attempt to stimulate its appearance.

Stages of computer addiction

The treatment time depends on how severe it is. There are such stages in the development of psychological dependence on computer games, where each has its own distinctive features:

1. Minor infatuation. A person begins to get involved in the game, but can give it up if the situation requires it. Irritation and negative attitudes towards other areas of life have not yet arisen.
2. Growing Passion. A person in his own hierarchy of values ​​gives increasing priority to games; he strives to spend more time at the computer, but still does not deny the importance of other areas of life.
3. Attachment stage. The game is becoming more and more exciting, but it is not yet the main value. A person controls the time spent at the computer, but does it less and less willingly.
4. Addiction. The game becomes the most important thing in a person’s life; when trying to remove him from the computer, hysterics begin and aggression manifests itself. He strives to do everything to stimulate the production of the pleasure hormone.

The stages of computer addiction to network communication and Internet surfing are exactly the same, but it is more difficult to notice the development of this disease, especially if we are talking about an adult working person. Experts recommend looking at your request history if you suspect a problem. This will help determine whether a person is spending time solving specific work or personal issues, or simply spending time online.

What does computer addiction lead to?

The consequences of this disease are the saddest. Negative changes manifest themselves not only in social life, but also in career and physiological level. The bad habit of computer addiction provokes the appearance of headaches, discomfort in the shoulder blades and neck muscles. The disease contributes to the development of inferiority complexes, self-doubt, and refusal to perform work duties. All this leads to the fact that a person loses his life, including prospects and the opportunity to start a family and build a career.

How to get rid of computer addiction?

A competent psychotherapist will help you cope with the problem. Treatment for computer addiction includes hypnosis sessions, conversations with a specialist aimed at identifying personal problems, group classes and training. The time for recovery depends on what stage the person is at, how long the disease has been developing, what complexes and psychological characteristics led to its emergence. You can deal with the problem on your own at the very beginning, when people still control themselves and set priorities correctly.

Computer game addiction

Similar problems are more common in adolescence, and in men from 30 to 35 years old. Computer gaming addiction is often caused by dissatisfaction own life, lack of vivid impressions. At the initial stage, loved ones do not yet notice the problem; they believe that this is a temporary hobby that will quickly pass. You should be wary if a person starts spending everything on the game free time. A dangerous sign is that he refuses other activities, communication and ignores his responsibilities, work and home.

Consequences of computer game addiction

Teenagers have problems with academic performance, they refuse to build social relationships, in some cases they commit crimes, and they cannot distinguish the virtual world from the real world. In adults, gaming addiction to computer games can lead to the destruction of a family and career; wives often leave their partners with such problems, because a guy’s behavior often resembles the actions of a child. The value system of men is changing, there is no longer a place in it for children, marriage, or material achievements.

How to deal with addiction to computer games?

In the early stages, limiting time or giving up completely will help. During this period, a person is still able to perceive the real state of affairs adequately. Starting from the attachment stage, psychological addiction to computer games can only be treated with the help of a specialist. All that relatives can do is take the teenager to him, or persuade an adult to visit this doctor.

Computer addiction - networkholism

If a loved one spends too much time on the Internet, makes acquaintances there, and simply surfs the Internet, perhaps this is a problem. Networkism is characterized by the appearance of sloppiness, failure to fulfill one’s work and household duties, and the appearance of an attitude that is only interesting in virtuality. A person often starts spending money on purchasing additional equipment and going online constantly. At an early stage, programs that limit the time of access to the network and actions aimed at creating other pleasures in life will help.

Prevention of computer addiction

Help prevent problems from developing simple steps. The fight against computer addiction begins with the fact that loved ones should do everything to make a person feel comfortable and happy, not only online, walking together, playing sports, talking and having family traditions - all this refers to preventive actions. It is equally important to set a time limit for Internet use; this is done using special programs or by agreement between partners or children and parents.

Interesting facts about computer addiction

Although the problem has arisen relatively recently, several shocking cases have already emerged that clearly show its importance. Facts about computer addiction indicate that teenagers and adults can even commit murder because of this disease. It is known that:

1. In China, games where physical injuries are caused to virtual characters are prohibited; according to experts, this provokes an increase in crimes among teenagers.
2. The American teenager who shot his teachers and classmates was addicted to the computer. He didn't realize that he was actually committing murder.

Computer addiction is dangerous, so it is important to monitor whether your loved ones and friends are suffering from it, and self-control when using the Internet will not be superfluous. If you suspect the presence of such a problem, immediately contact a psychotherapist. The positive effect begins to appear immediately after the first session, the treatment helps, but it needs to be started in a timely manner.

Computer games are an exciting process. We may not even notice how we spent several hours on it. It's quite easy to get lost in fantasy worlds and plot twists that will keep you glued to the screen for "another 10 minutes."

Psychologist John M. Grohol is confident Coping with Video Game Addiction, which in this case can help track time. Write down what time you start playing and what time you finish. At the end of the week, calculate how many hours you spent playing games. Most likely, this figure will make you think again.

2. Set a limit

Set a timer to help you with this. Even if you continue playing after his signal, you will still know how much time you spent. And knowledge is the key to your salvation. Perhaps it will help to develop a rule, for example, to play only with friends or only on certain days.

There is no need to limit yourself too much, this will make the situation worse.

In addition to the time limit, set . Determine how many games per month you can afford.

3. Choose your games carefully

Some games take a very long time to complete. Discard them in favor of those that can be completed in a shorter period of time.

4. Don't be afraid to finish a game if you don't like it

Many players try to choose more difficult games in order to prove to themselves and everyone what they are capable of. Calm your gaming ego. This is just virtual reality. If you don't enjoy a game, just don't finish it.

Don't take online gaming as a real competition. No one will judge you if you just quit the game. This is your life, and only you can decide what to spend your time on.

5. Earn play time.

If you neglect your homework, work and personal life because of games, then you have serious problems. Try to earn the game. Do not sit down at the computer until you have completed the tasks at hand. Remember that the goal is not to quit video games completely. It is important for you to realize that they are only part of your life.

Many people find live video game streaming on YouTube or Twitch weird and unhelpful. And in vain. Instead of wasting your time, you can watch how someone else does it. You don't have to sit in front of a screen. You can do useful things, for example cleaning.

7. Go on a gaming fast

Not everyone can suddenly give up video games for a while. But sometimes it works. If you feel that it’s time for you to return to reality, try deleting all the games from your computer or collecting all the discs and taking them to one of your friends for safekeeping. For example, for two weeks or a month.

You will have more time for important things and meetings with dear people.

You will understand that real life is much more interesting and games will not replace it for you.

8. Find the reason for your escapism

Computer games are a good way to relax. However, gaming addiction is a form of escapism. Think about whether you are hiding from something in the virtual world.

If you have problems in your personal life, discuss them with your partner. If you are feeling pressured by work, seek help and try to find a solution to the problem. This is more effective than hiding behind a monitor.

In the game we are all strong and resilient, but in reality - not always. But you will not acquire these qualities if you persist in the trials that life has in store for you.

Chapter from the book “I Can’t Stop. Where do obsessive states come from and how to get rid of them? Sharon Begley on how addiction to various computer games works - from Candy Crush Saga to World Of Warcraft.

Compulsive video game playing is different from all other compulsions. Most people do not become pathological hoarders, OCD sufferers, compulsive eaters, bodybuilders, or shopaholics. Due to their psychotype, they do not risk falling into the black hole of such behavioral patterns, since they have a fairly high resistance to painful anxiety.

But Video games and other electronic temptations exploit universal aspects of human psychology. As I have already noted, a person's compulsive behavior does not mean that he is crazy. On the contrary, an adaptive response to anxiety that would otherwise be unbearable is completely normal.

Nowhere is this more evident than in gambling addiction. Video games are extremely compelling because their creators have learned to tap into universal aspects of how our brains function. That's why Almost anyone can feel the attraction to games and the inability to resist it. John Doerr, the famed Silicon Valley venture capitalist who invested in game developer Zynga, told Vanity Fair in 2011: “It's true that these games aren't for everyone, but they're as close as anything to me. known."

I hoped that the reasons for this could be explained by game designers and scientists who have devoted themselves new field research - game psychology. But first we had to make sure that the games satisfied mandatory condition- the ability to reduce anxiety, - to be the subject of compulsion, and not, say, addiction.

In a 2012 New York Times Magazine article, consulting critic Sam Anderson described his compulsive need to play Drop7, a Sudoku-like game released by Zynga in 2009 where you manipulate balls falling from top to bottom in a 7x7 grid of squares.

“I played instead of washing dishes, bathing children, communicating with relatives, reading the newspaper, and most importantly, writing,” Anderson admitted. “The game became for me a painkiller, an emergency escape capsule, a breathing apparatus, a Xanax.”

The game has become a digital sedative. He realized that with its help he was engaged in “self-medication”, he grabbed Drop7 “in any extreme situation,” for example, “after a conversation in a raised voice with his mother; as soon as I found out that my dog ​​was probably going to die from cancer.”

One online commentator confirmed that video games, at least for him, are inseparable from compulsion. “They reduce my anxiety and I confirm that I play Bejeweled for that purpose,” he wrote. “I didn’t pay attention to how much time I was devoting to this game until one day I realized that I was playing it on the exercise bike during physical therapy,” before falling off it.

Screenshot from the game Bejeweled.

Neil Gaiman described this condition in his 1990 poem "Virus":

You play - there are tears in your eyes,
Wrist aches
Hunger torments... and then everything goes away. Or - everything except the game.
In my head now there is only a game and nothing more*.

Tens of millions of people could subscribe to these words.

In May 2013, Dong Nguyen, a previously unknown game creator from Hanoi, Vietnam, released Flappy Bird, which he told reporters the following year: “It was, perhaps, simplest idea, which only could come to my mind.”

The game turned out to be the embodiment of the “dumb toys” despised by serious gamers, in which the lack of plot, visual appeal and full-fledged development is compensated only by the complete thoughtlessness of the process. In Flappy Bird, the player pokes his finger at the screen, trying to make the barely animated bird (it doesn't even flap its rudimentary wings - in fact, they are barely visible) to fly into the gap between the vertical green pipes.

However, despite the stupidity - or, conversely, because of it - the game became a sensation. At the beginning of 2014, it topped the lists of the most popular downloads on both Apple and Android, to the utter bewilderment of its creator.

“I don’t understand why Flappy Bird is so popular,” Nguyen told the Washington Post. Ian Bogost, a professor of interactive computer systems at Georgia Tech and a game designer, wrote that countless gamers are "amazed and depressed by the fact that they both hate this game and are captivated by it."

Video games: normal or addiction?

Of course, games are also played to relieve stress after a hard day, to feel at least a little bit of pride in one’s achievements, or to simply relax and disconnect from everything. And not every activity that is spent too much time on is compulsive. Excessiveness is not a sign of compulsiveness (even if we leave aside the question that the very concept of “excessiveness” is subjective).

There are many reasons why people play video games at the expense of other activities and at the expense of work, such as to relieve boredom or procrastinate, avoid socializing, or cope with loneliness. But, as evidenced by the above examples, as well as the study of the phenomenon of psychological attractiveness of video games, for some people this activity still becomes a compulsion, including a destructive one.

Since the first decade of the 21st century, “reboot camps” have been opened in South Korea and China to treat children who are unable to resist the compulsive need to spend hours playing video games.

This does not mean, however, that compulsion is a mental illness. A panel of experts determining which disorders should be included in the latest edition of the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic Manual reviewed nearly 240 studies purporting to describe "online gaming addiction."

As a result, they decided not to include gaming compulsion among the officially recognized mental illnesses by science, agreeing only that this problem deserves additional study. Today, science says one thing with certainty: even a person with a perfectly sound mind can become addicted to compulsive gambling.

Flow, intermittent reinforcement and Angry Birds

Nikita Mikros appears for an interview in a T-shirt wet with sweat and with a helmet under his arm, rolling a bicycle next to him. We agreed to meet in an old warehouse building on the waterfront in Dumbo, a hipster Brooklyn neighborhood of cobblestones and coffee shops.

Mikros, a video game and arcade developer since the 1990s, invited me to spend the morning in his company and learn a lot of interesting things. For example, why the puzzle game Candy Crush Saga from the giant of mobile gaming applications King Digital Entertainment attracted 66 million players in 2013, Alec Baldwin allowed himself to be disembarked from a plane about to take off, just so as not to tear himself away from Zynga’s Words with Friends**, and Tetris According to the voting results, it turned out to be the most exciting game of all time.

Word With Friends

“We've learned a lot about how to make games seductive,” Mikros wrote to me in an email. “Unfortunately, some of the tricks make me feel creepy.”
Mikros quickly leads me into the premises of his game development company, Tiny Mantis. These are just two rooms and a dozen workstations. Among gamers, Mikros became famous for creating such things as Dora Saves the Crystal Kingdom, Dungeonsand Dungeons and Lego Dino Outbreak.

The rooms are filled with flat-panel monitors surrounded by disposable coffee cups, and the surroundings include exposed communications, painted brick walls, holes in the ceiling and posters of Mr. Spock and a panda.

Mikros leaves for a minute and returns with a fresh T-shirt - black, with a picture of the Mona Lisa bleeding. I've been tuning in all morning to watch him play Diablo and Angry Birds, but he loads the presentation he prepared for me. Instead of gutting monsters, we dive into the ideas of Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi.

Psychologist Csikszentmihalyi proposed the idea of ​​"flow" - a state of mind characterized by complete unity with the current activity.

In a state of flow, you are so immersed in what you are doing that the outside world barely enters your consciousness, no other thoughts overcome your mind, the sense of time disappears, even hunger and thirst are not felt. Having been “in the flow,” many are amazed: “Honest mother, where did the time go and why do you want to eat so much?”

The best game developers, Mikros explains, put players in a state of flow: “You forget yourself, your sense of time changes. You start playing, and you won’t even notice how it happened, but - oops! - it's morning already. The experience of the game becomes an end in itself. But each person’s flow zone has its own dimensions. If you give players too many challenges, they'll become overly anxious and give up, and if it's too easy, they'll get bored and quit.

But being in the central zone, they are completely immersed in the process.” The flow is so attractive that the experience of experiencing it sinks into the soul, and it is very difficult to refuse it.

One way to keep players different levels“with the flow,” according to Mikros, is to constantly adjust the difficulty. This method was used in the 1980s classic. Crash Bandicoot*. If the player found themselves fatally unable to, say, jump onto moving shelves, the game showed mercy by not rewinding too far back to the beginning if the character died, and by making it easier to navigate the obstacle-filled environment.

On the other hand, as soon as you gained experience, the game became more difficult. “Some people like it,” Mikros said. “Since I’m playing better and better,” they reason, let the tasks become more difficult, otherwise it’s just a walk.”

Another way to keep a player in a state of flow is to, for example, crush a monster by using a new skill against it, and then use only that skill in several subsequent situations.

“Your capabilities are growing, now you can defeat a monster that was previously invulnerable,” Mikros explained. “Good developers lead you through a narrow corridor in the flow zone, increasing the difficulty and then giving you a slightly easier task, increasing the level of difficulty again and again offering something easier.”

I admit that I don't see anything special about creating games that keep us in flow. Obviously, a game needs to have these characteristics to be attractive (since it needs to hold the player's attention long enough for them to be drawn in), but it seems to me to be a necessary but not sufficient condition. Universal recipe does not exist, agrees Mikros: “If we knew exactly what to do, every game would turn into Angry Birds.”

In the 4 years since the release of this game by Rovio Entertainment, it has been downloaded 2 billion times.

People can't seem to resist the temptation to use a virtual sling to hurl an enraged bird at an egg-grabbing green pig! Why? There are many reasons why Angry Birds is fun to play: it's a simple game, there's no learning curve, and when hit directly, the pig explodes, to the delight of any inner preschooler.

But the reasons for the game's compulsiveness go deeper. If an action is guaranteed to be followed by a reward (successfully throw a bird - the pig explodes), then the dopamine production system is triggered in the brain. It was previously thought that its sole purpose was to produce a subjective feeling of reward or pleasure, but it turns out that the system is more complex: it calculates the likelihood that an action will provide a reward and adjusts the expectation module in our brain accordingly.

“The presence of dopamine signals to the brain that a reward is expected—like the splendid sight of houses made of glass and wood flying into the air,” psychologist Michael Chorost (who deleted Angry Birds from his phone to overcome his compulsive need to play) wrote in Psychology Today in 2011. ). “However, the brain does not know how large the reward will be.

Will the bird just glide across the surface or hit the bull's-eye? This uncertainty creates tension, and the brain craves relief. As a result, you will go to great lengths to find that relief.” For example, you will use a virtual sling over and over again.

It's no surprise that many people who can't stop playing Bejeweled or even FreeCell have a less-than-pleasant experience. They feel forced, unable to escape the shackles of the game, and inevitably continue to play, receiving almost no pleasure, except for rare moments of success.

Video games somehow “tap into” deep-seated properties of our psyche that make us expect pleasure, cause us unpleasant experiences and force us to constantly repeat the experience, although we know that disappointment and frustration are inevitable.

Games can be compelling without being particularly fun because their developers exploit 2 very effective psychological tricks: variable and intermittent (or probabilistic) reinforcement.

Reinforcement is intermittent with a variable probability of reward: sometimes you get a prize for your achievement (for example, a game trophy or moving to the next level), and sometimes... nothing - for the same action.

Variable reinforcement is a reward system in which the value of the reward for a given achievement varies. Slot machines are the quintessence of variable and intermittent reinforcement. When playing, you always perform one single action - pull the handle of a one-armed bandit - or, with the transition from mechanical devices to electronic ones, press a button. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose - but most of the time you lose. The input signal is the same, the output varies from jackpot to ruin. It is not surprising that the textbook image of a slot machine enthusiast is a man chained to the machine, seemingly hypnotized, mechanically pushing quarters into the iron guts. Compulsively playing until he loses everything and having to take the bus back home.

Like a slot machine, "Diablo uses variable rewards, and that's one of the reasons why it's so addictive," Mikros explained. Let me explain for the uninformed: Diablo is a 2012 release within a gaming franchise founded way back in 1996 by Blizzard Entertainment.

All three releases are action role-playing games with an emphasis on mass extermination of enemies in close combat (the so-called hack-and-slash, or simply “slash”). The player, aka the hero, leads his avatar through the kingdom of Khanduras, fighting vampires and other enemies to end the reign of Diablo, the Lord of Terror.

If you manage to complete 16 levels of dungeons and reach Hell, the hero will face Diablo in the final battle. Along the way, the player casts spells, receives weapons and other useful things, and interacts with various characters - a warrior, a robber, a wizard, and others.

At the beginning of the game, the rewards are essentially fixed: you kill a monster and something good happens, like going up a level or increasing your "experience" (essentially, combat power). However, as you progress through the game, the likelihood of being rewarded with an effective new weapon or other means of survival and advancement decreases, but the value of the reward increases.

“You still expect it, but you don't get it every time,” Mikros says. - You are already accustomed to the fact that destroying a given demon or monster will provide you with something useful, say, gold, a special sword or bow. But now you don’t know if you’ll get anything, and you wait impatiently, even anxiously, for that moment.”

Game developers call this effect the “compulsive loop.” It is rooted in the way our brains work and allows us to understand the essence of the hybrid nature of games. Like other electronic enticements like email and messaging services, video games are a textbook example of an activity in which addiction and compulsion flow into each other like a demon changing shape.

Gaming Addiction: Access to Dopamine

Addiction is fueled by a desperate need for another dose of pleasure. The reason for this is that addictions are born from pleasure - the initial experience is always pleasant, exciting, bringing joy and buzz. These sensations are formed in the so-called reward system in the brain.

The system is activated when we experience pleasure and consists of neurons that connect into a network under the influence of dopamine. “Connection into a neural network” is that the electrical signal, having reached the end of one neuron, passes through the synapse to the next neuron due to the fact that the first neuron released dopamine into the synaptic cleft.

Dopamine bridges the gap between two neurons and is assembled by the recipient neuron, just like ISS modules are assembled spaceship"Union". The “gateway” of the neuron is called the dopamine receptor. The fact of docking promotes the movement of an electrical signal along the entire length of the recipient neuron, and the process is repeated many times until it is perceived by us as pleasure - a subjective feeling caused by food, sex, alcohol, nicotine, cocaine and the destruction of monsters in Diablo.

That is why all these substances and activities, being sources of deep euphoria, have such a pronounced reinforcing effect.

However, the processes occurring in the brain turned out to be more complex than scientists initially imagined, and the production of dopamine is no exception. The activity of the pleasure center is easier to understand if we think of it as an expectancy mechanism: it generates predictions about how enjoyable an experience will be.

To better understand how video game developers use the dopamine system, I turned to Jamie Madigan, a doctor of psychology who worked for many years at a game company. Madigan became famous in the gaming world thanks to the website psychologyofgames.com, where he posts materials on topics that interest me, including the “dopamine rush,” which, by his own admission, he himself could barely cope with while playing Diablo.

At the end of Diablo, he said, "you complete the storyline" of slaying vampires and monsters in order to get to Diablo and fight him, "and get increasingly more numerous and effective trophies to kill more monsters and get more stronger trophies." There are more than ten levels, “and the better equipment you acquire, the more tenacious the monsters become. There is no end to this. Gradually I realized that I was doing the same thing for 3 hours every evening, and I was no longer happy about it. If I, who knows what elements of the game make it sticky, got hooked...” He trails off.

But what are these elements that provoke compulsion? Nick Mikros gave another textbook example of a game that, like Diablo, exploits a variable/intermittent reward system. This is the super popular World of Warcraft, also known for its ability to drive players into compulsion by offering them unpredictable and unexpected finds.

World Of Warcraft

A massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG), released in 2004, it has more than 10 million subscribers, each of whom chooses a character and completes a quest through many levels of the virtual world. In World of Warcraft, players choose a profession, such as blacksmithing or mining, and can master any of four minor skills (archaeology, cooking, fishing, or first aid).

They unite to complete tasks, either situationally or as part of permanent associations - guilds, inviting each other through the game's built-in messenger, group "text channels" or, in some games, voice communication systems.

In guilds, players gain access to tools that will be useful in quests - missions that form the backbone of the game and give players experience points, useful objects, skills and money. In addition, World of Warcraft and other MMORPGs provide the opportunity to escape into a carefully crafted, complex, interesting world where there are no parental attacks, tyrant bosses or ungrateful spouses. They exploit our desire for achievement, even if the achievements - defeating enemies, destroying monsters, rescuing princesses, accumulating wealth or increasing status and moving to higher levels - are not entirely real.

This is, however, a psychologically obvious and relatively harmless pull factor for multiplayer games. Jamie Madigan fell victim to a different mechanism. He once virtuously exterminated bandits in World of Warcraft, earning a chance to replenish his arsenal of armor, weapons, or other consumables - trophies that would be useful in subsequent battles and quests.

Trophies come in different qualities, which are indicated by the color of the accompanying text: gray - the weakest, white - slightly more valuable, then green, blue, purple and orange. The character the player chooses as an avatar also has a specific place in the hierarchy. The “classes” - monks, rogues, shamans, warriors and druids - have their own style of behavior, determined by the weapons and defensive techniques available to them, as well as the skills, powers and magic that are earned by completing various stages.

His character was nothing special and could hardly count on valuable acquisitions, so Madigan “was shocked by the trophy that fell - a rare pair of “blue” mittens that perfectly met the needs of my class at that time,” he recalls. For a low-level character, “finding a blue item on a random enemy is a unique case, and I decided that I was in for a colossal breakthrough.

More importantly, at the same time there was a strong desire to continue the game and kill more bandits.” Intermittent rewards in the form of a rare trophy keep passions high in a way that expected and predictable prizes cannot. "This is incredible effective method keeping people in the game is due to the way the dopamine reward system functions,” Madigan explained.

As you may remember, “dopamine neurons” anticipate the surge of pleasure from a pleasurable experience, firing even before the reward arrives (for example, when the microwave signal tells you that your favorite dish is ready). “But this is just one of the reasons why games based on collecting trophies are so powerful,” he continued. - The main thing is that dopamine neurons simply light up as soon as your brain learns to predict an event, but they literally go wild when they receive an unexpected, unpredictable dose of dopamine, and turn you on even more. Something like “ Wow! One more portion - unexpectedly! Keep doing what you're doing while we try to figure out how to get a repeat!” And you keep playing».

So what if your rational brain convinces you to stop! If you're on an emotional high—for example, when you're slaying bad guys in an online shooter or hurtling through hellish Gran Turismo tracks with squealing tires—you don't remember that you have to take care of your daily bread, prepare for tomorrow's presentation, or finish your coursework.

« All intentions dictated by common sense are powerless - you are already thinking with a different brain, after some stinker broke your record in a shooter or you yourself accomplished an amazing feat in another game, Madigan explained. - Rationality creeps away with its tail between its legs, and you suddenly realize that it’s a quarter to three and there’s a work day ahead, but you still mutter that you’ll kill one more, and that’s all...»

Nick Mikros is not thrilled that video game developers have learned to exploit the dopamine system. It seems like half the basement spaces in Brooklyn are occupied by game designers building compulsion loops into their creations. However, not all people in this profession are proud of this skill of their colleagues, brought to perfection.

“The games that are the material embodiment of Skinner’s box make my hair stand on end,” Mikros admits at the end. - That’s not why I want to make games, not so that people can get food. I pressed the lever and got a pellet. I doubt that this is the path to human progress.”

Homegrown neuroscience

I was starting to feel like I was going through a Halo quest in hopes that the next room I entered—the next expert I interviewed—would reveal the rest of the secrets of the compulsive game. My next location was the New York University Game Development Center.

He was so new to the MetroTech business center in Brooklyn that his office key card, Frank Lantz, who met me at the elevators, did not work. (A graduate student helped us out.) The monitors in the break room were still wrapped in cellophane, and there were boxes piled up everywhere. Founded in 2008 as a department of the Tisch School of the Arts, the Center for Game Development offers a two-year master's program in computer game development.

Lanz is a legend in the gaming world. He is the co-founder of Area/Code (acquired by Zynga in 2011), which developed Facebook games such as CSI: Crime City and Power Planets (“Control the fate of your own miniature planet. Build buildings to provide happy life inhabitants, and... create energy sources to support the development of your civilization").

He has made many iPhone games, including Drop7. In Sharkrunners, which he created for Discovery Channel's 2007 Shark Week, players can feel like marine biologists interacting in the ocean with real sharks, which are equipped with GPS sensors that provide the game with telemetry data.

Lanz sat down at an almost empty table (his things had not yet been unpacked) and expressed satisfaction that game design was finally recognized as a full-fledged academic discipline, - especially since ideas from such disparate fields as architecture and literature converge in this area. "Most game creators have creative goals, and that's a stronger motivation for them than wanting to make a game that players can't put down," he said.

However, while developers may be driven by aesthetic and other lofty considerations, game companies are more eager than ever to get a compelling game for their investment. In years gone by, a teenager would have shelled out $59.95 for a Gran Turismo, and that would have been the last of Sony's money on it. If a player lost interest, no one cared.

In the 2000s. A different business model took hold: rather than paying upfront, gamers were given free, free access, often in the form of a download to a mobile device, but were then assigned “micropayments.” For example, in Farmville, for one dollar you can buy magic that restores crops (those withered due to your neglect, damn those homework!) or speeds up their ripening (so you can pick vegetables before they send you to bed).

Farmville constantly encourages players to return to the virtual fields because it has a timer: the crops will die if you don't check them often enough. Many people hate losing what they have gained, and this effect is so strong that psychologists have given it a name - “loss aversion.”

Other games ask you to pay $1 or $2 to get around an obstacle, access to a more exotic part of the game world, a cool outfit for your avatar, or virtual food and drink for the virtual inhabitants of CityVille.

In the micropayout model, stickiness—an attraction so strong that gamers can't stop playing—is the alpha and omega. “The commercial operation is built into the game,” says Lantz. “This is causing a really big debate around game design because some of the techniques are perceived as manipulative.” They are not designed to improve the player experience or fulfill the developer's vision, but to push you towards micropayments. I doubt that game designers use behavioral psychology in a calculated way to get players to stick to a game. Very few developers know that they are creating a compulsion mechanism. They want people to review the experience and say it was cool and fun. However, they understand that they are relying on knowledge of psychology.”

And that's putting it mildly. Whether through trial and error or deliberate search, game makers have become frighteningly powerful at creating compelling games. According to Lanz, even something as simple as a leaderboard contributes to this, awakening the desire to get into it and, thus, exploiting our deep-seated need for high status, for the satisfaction of which we are ready to play and play until we break through to the top hundred (or our fingers will not wither).

Or, for example, “nested” goals. In the 1991 video game Civilization, players took turns to “build an empire that could stand the test of time,” as the blurb read. Each began his journey as ruler of the future empire in 4000 BC. with a single warrior and several commoners, whom he could move to organize settlements. Through exploration, diplomacy, and war, players developed their civilizations, building cities, accumulating knowledge (what will you invent first, pottery or the alphabet?) and exploring the surrounding areas.

“Why is this so addictive? - Lanz picks up my question. - Because urgent goals converge here: say, the resettlement of peasants or successful completion your character quest, medium-term, which must be achieved in the next 3-4 turns, for example the creation of a city, and long-term, designed for 10-15 turns [achieving the flourishing of civilization]. The game is permeated with rhythm, and when the immediate goal is achieved and the mind could rest, you are already thinking about the next few moves. The overlap, or “nesting,” of near, middle, and long-term planning horizons is incredibly exciting. In the real world, we often don’t even know what’s connected to what.”

Let's say we don't know what momentary achievement could later result in something greater. The digital world of a video game gives certainty: from “A” necessarily follows “B”.

Another developer trick to make a computer game sticky is instant reward. “You do an action and the character jumps,” Lantz explained. “This is very attractive because in the real world a lot of buttons end up broken.” You click on "work hard in school" but don't end up getting into your preferred college as promised, or you click "graduate from college" but it doesn't help you get a good job.

In video games, the button works as promised, "which is what makes them so addictive". World of Warcraft, which induces compulsive gaming through variable/intermittent rewards, has another psychological appeal, like a good novel, detective story or thriller. “That’s why you open War and Peace every evening to read next chapter, says Lanz. “You want to know what happens next.” Ignorance causes anxiety - the same one that makes you compulsively gamble.“It’s not so easy to immerse yourself in a plot, follow it to the end and be able to part with it” - to overcome compulsion.

Ryan Van Cleve was convinced that not everyone can do this. Born Ryan Anderson, he adopted a new name in 2006, borrowed from World of Warcraft.

In 2007, on New Year's Eve, his passion for the game almost turned into tragedy. Van Cleve, a college professor, poet, and editor, was stripped of his teaching position because of his compulsive gambling: he gambled up to 80 hours a week and was completely alienated from his wife and friends. On December 31, he told his wife he was running to get cough drops, but instead drove to the Arlington Memorial Bridge in Washington, where he planned to jump. Slipping, he almost fell into the icy waters of the Potomac, but caught himself at the last moment and managed to crawl away from the edge. In 2010, he published the book Unplugged: My Journey into the Dark World of Video Game Addiction, which chronicled his descent into gaming hell. The game became the most important thing in his life, to the detriment of everything else: his wife threatened to leave, his children hated him, and his parents refused to come visit. “I was so immersed in virtual worlds,” Van Cleave wrote, “that I hardly remember what happened in real life. Almost everything passed me by."

Lantz is saddened to know that the skill and creativity he sees in game design can be the cause of such tragedies. “I think game development is a kind of homegrown psychology or neuroscience on the knee,” he noted. - An emotional experience is created, so, of course, the developers take psychology into account. Long before the advent of free-to-install games, the goal was to provide gamers with an immersive experience, but this meant creating a viable game, not just a slot machine.

The developers know that if they throw the resources players need: strength, opportunities, lives, weapons - for example, into every 4th trash bin, this will force people to continue examining the boxes. That’s the power of intermittent reward.”

“There is a lot of shamanism in all this,” Lanz concluded. - We still don’t know the exact reason for the popularity of Angry Birds. It's just something inexplicable." As I was about to leave, I asked him what his favorite game was. It turned out that go is an ancient Chinese board game, in which you need to make moves with black and white stones on a board of 19x19 cells.

Gaming Addiction: Digital Drug

The emergence of compulsion in a fan of video games is possible in an interval reminiscent of a narrow mountain peak: if you go down one step from the top, you will find yourself in a valley of excessive simplicity, in the other - in an abyss of excessive complexity. We quit games that are too simple or complex due to boredom or disappointment, so game designers use adaptations to always remain in the gamer’s “Goldilocks zone” (in astronomy, the habitable zone, or life zone. A conditional region in space, determined on the basis that the conditions on the surface of the planets located in it will be close to the conditions on Earth and will ensure the existence of water in the liquid phase).

One of the first such examples was Tetris. In this geometric puzzle, blocks of different shapes fall from the top of the screen to the bottom - in the form of the letters L, T, I, 2x2 squares - and the player must, during the fall, manage to turn and move them so that they form a solid wall below, Moreover, the filled lower rows disappear as the upper ones increase.

« They called it pharmatronic, this electronic thing that affects the brain like a narcotic drug " says Tom Stafford, a cognitive scientist at the University of Sheffield. According to him, Tetris is incredibly sticky, including because it uses a psychological phenomenon - the so-called Zeigarnik effect.

Once, sitting in a Berlin cafe, psychologist Bluma Zeigarnik (1901–1988) noticed that waiters perfectly remember orders that had not yet been delivered to customers. But as soon as the order is completed, it is immediately forgotten. “It's unfinished business that's remembered,” Stafford explained, “and Tetris takes advantage of that very well. This is a world of endless unfinished business. With each completed line, new blocks fall from above. Every block you put in place creates a new space where the next block can be placed.”

We remember unfinished tasks, and this makes us need to finally get things done and worry until it is completed. “The game of Tetris brilliantly exploits the ability of memory to latch on to unfinished tasks and draws us into a compulsive spiral of completing tasks and creating new ones,” continues Stafford. “The desire to complete the next task makes you play endlessly.”

If we started doing something, took certain steps towards the goal, then we feel obligated to finish it. However, unfinished actions take over our minds not only due to the Zeigarnik effect. There's also the sunk cost effect: We hate giving up something we've already invested time and effort into. If you have a task to write and send a letter and you are halfway through it, you feel the need to continue working.

Many MMORPGs exploit the tendency to avoid sunk costs by drawing us in deeply from the very beginning. “These games have what they call a high absorption rate,” says Zahir Hussain, a psychologist at Britain's University of Derby. - When you start playing, you find yourself in a very comfortable environment: pleasant colors and sound effects, simple quests that you can complete without any problems, receiving rewards for it.

This makes you spend more and more time playing." This is also facilitated by the use of another feature of the human psyche, discovered by behaviorist B.F. Skinner in the 1950s: If rewards become rarer and more difficult to achieve, as is the case with many online games, you not only continue to play, but become increasingly compulsive in your determination to get the damn prize that seems to be only 1 or 2 levels away. back .

In World of Warcraft and other MMORPGs, there's a status bar at the bottom of the screen that tells you how many quests you've completed and how close you are to the next level or reward, which Hussain says is "an incentive to keep playing."

Stopping so close to the next achievement, especially if it throws you back to the beginning of the level or quest, is a waste of time and effort already spent.

Regardless, Guardian readers voted Tetris the most addictive* game of all time in a 2014 poll, with 30% of the votes. Second place went to World of Warcraft (22%), third - Candy Crush Saga (10%).

Oh, this Candy Crush! To discover the secret of her devilish charm, I again turned to Jamie Madigan, whom I tortured about dopamine. I was intrigued by his analysis of the spirals of compulsion, and I thought that no one better than him could explain why millions of people are so immersed in Candy Crush that they pass their stop, spit on homework, housework, and just work and forget about the existence of children, spouses and friends.

For the uninformed, I’ll explain what the game is. The screen is filled with "candy" different color and shapes, and the player must, by moving them, collect three identical ones in a row (the predecessor game, Bejeweled, was designed in a similar way). Once the result is achieved, the trio disappears, the surrounding elements are rearranged, and you receive a reward in the form of multi-colored flashes, glasses, an increase in sound volume and the appearance of stimulus words on the screen, for example, “yummy.”

At the most basic level Candy Crush appeals to our mind's tendency to detect patterns in seemingly random groups of objects - because of this gift, the ancient Greeks and Romans saw a swan, twins and a bear in the chaos of stars scattered across the night sky.

candy Crush Saga

“Over the course of development, the brain has learned to notice something good even where it shouldn’t be there, for example, finding a food source that was previously absent,” Madigan explained. - Thus, due to evolution, we are why. We are wired to look for meaning in patterns, especially unexpected patterns.”

Besides, Candy Crush relies on our habit of putting things back in their place, organizing everything, and generally putting things in order. This is exactly what you feel you are doing when you look at the playing field, where complete confusion reigns, knowing that you can rearrange the elements so that the same ones are next to each other. Therefore, the game attracts and brings joy.

There are, however, plenty of activities—watching movies, gardening, cooking, or whatever you choose to do in your free time—that are enjoyable without being "sticky." What makes Candy Crush sticky, Madigan says, is that the rewards don't just keep coming, they appear unexpectedly.

Sometimes, when the triple of elements you have collected falls, a combination is formed in which there are many such triples, and they all immediately fall off the playing field, exploding with bright flashes, loud sounds, a demonstration of the points scored and congratulations in full screen.

Because of this, “the dopamine areas of the brain go crazy,” Madigan said. “Something similar was experienced by our ancient ancestors, hunter-gatherers, who knew very well where they were guaranteed to find food, when they suddenly came across a rich bounty in a completely unexpected place, for example, on a fish stream or thicket of berry bushes, which they had not previously suspected.

A 2013 study revealed the mechanism behind this psychological phenomenon. Psychologists Jordy Quaidbach from Harvard University and Elizabeth Dunn from the University of British Columbia divided the volunteers into 3 approximately equal groups and gave the following instructions:

1. Some were forbidden to eat chocolate for a week until a return visit to the laboratory.;
2. Others were given almost a kilogram and told to eat as much as possible so as not to get sick.;
3. The third were told nothing other than a request to come back in a week..

Upon returning, everyone was again treated to chocolate and asked if they liked it. " Participants who temporarily gave up chocolate found it much tastier and more enjoyable ” than those who were implicitly allowed to eat as much as they wanted or explicitly encouraged to binge on chocolate, the scientists reported in Social Psychological and Personality Science.

Potential gamblers

It's time to solve the next problem - to find out whether the danger of becoming a compulsive gamer depends on individual characteristics personality, age, gender or other variables.

The scientific study of this problem has “recovered” from a host of childhood diseases characteristic of new area research. Even basic concepts - say, what makes behavior problematic and what exactly such behavior looks like - are defined differently by scientists, each in their own research.

This behavior is "neither consistent nor specific," said Scott Kaplan of the University of Delaware. The problem is illustrated by the changing description of the individual who has the greatest risk of developing compulsive gambling addiction.

In the early 2000s, when fewer people were online than today, research into excessive online gaming (and excessive Internet use in general) focused on identifying predictors of such behavior. Unfortunately, even a cursory glance at the published results suggests that the scientists "found significant correlations with a large number of psychological characteristics," noted Daniel Cardefelt-Winter of the London School of Economics and Political Science in a 2014 article in Computers in Human Behavior. , he continued, “virtually all psychological characteristics make a significant contribution to the likelihood of developing gambling addiction. Calling a spade a spade, the most important risk factor is the presence of a human brain.

At first, the typical compulsive gamer was “a lonely, socially challenged type, maybe with social anxiety,” Caplan said, “but in those days, those were the only ones who played video games.” Thus, personality traits were an external manifestation of the true, deep-seated cause of excessive gambling, and not the actual cause. For example, such a feature as neuroticism is associated with the inability to tolerate anxiety, and therefore it is recorded in studies of the characteristics of gambling addicts. But it is not neuroticism as such that forces people to play online games, but anxiety, which they are unable to reduce by other means.

Similarly, scientists have found correlations between excessive online gaming and a wide variety of personality traits, such as loneliness, depression, anxiety, shyness, aggressiveness, interpersonal difficulties, sensation-seeking, and lack of social skills. These traits, however, were not so common among individuals predisposed to compulsive online behavior as they were among the majority of Internet users, both compulsive and non-compulsive. “Today everyone uses the Internet, including through smartphones, and the description of the type of people who do it compulsively must also change,” Kaplan added.

As with other compulsions, compulsive video game playing in itself is neither pathological nor a manifestation of mental disorder. People play games for many hours every day (using the Internet, Twitter, messaging services, or Facebook, as discussed in the next chapter) “for the same reasons that they compulsively do other things—boredom, escapism, competitive and sociable because that’s what their friends are doing,” Kaplan explained.

It is fundamentally important that online games, especially multiplayer ones, provide social interaction behind the saving guise of an avatar , which is attractive for people who find it easier to communicate anonymously than to personally contact people they know.

People with fragile mental health may prefer online communication simply because the personal is too stressful or difficult for them - virtual life is more comfortable for them. Thus, many people spend a lot of time playing video games to compensate. It's a coping strategy, a way to cope with stress or depression, to escape loneliness, a boring job, or any other nasty side of the real world.

In a 2013 study, Kaplan and colleagues surveyed 597 teenagers who regularly played online games. The most reliable predictor of problematic gaming behavior and the negative impact of gaming on the rest of a person’s life was turning to gaming to normalize mood (for example, to get rid of sadness, boredom or feelings of loneliness) and the inability to solve this problem in other ways.

“If I'm lonely and I go online, it's compensation,” Kaplan explained. “This is not a primary pathology.” Games give us something we need or want. If compensation turns out to be effective and becomes a routine means of getting rid of anxiety, it can become compulsive.

Are we all at risk? Not equally. As you may recall, massively multiplayer online role-playing games such as World of Warcraft are masters of the "one-armed bandits" trick that traps players - variable/intermittent reinforcement provided by lures such as unexpected valuable trophies that push our "dopamine buttons" " Susceptibility to such lures is an almost universal human trait., but, as in any other relationship, there are many weak points.

Madigan offered another thought regarding compulsivity associated with video games. Among other charms, simple games like Candy Crush and Angry Birds have the ability to be played during tiny periods of time, say, between tasks at work, chores, or on the way from point A to point B.

But this is only at first glance, because psychological dependence on a computer is no less strong than any other. In addition, modern computer games are becoming more and more “advanced” and imitate reality more and more perfectly, so more and more people are becoming their hostages.

Some statistics

Statistics on the prevalence of this dependence differ significantly among different researchers. Doctor of Psychological Sciences Alexander Georgievich Shmelev believes that about 10-14% of people who use computers are “avid gamers.” At the same time, Harvard University psychologist Maresa Orzak cites much less comforting statistics: she believes that among people who play computer games, 40-80% suffer from addiction.

There are some gender and age aspects of such addiction. The intensity of passion for computer games is more pronounced among boys than among girls. Young men, on average, spend twice as much time on computer games. The older and more educated a person is, the less time he spends on computer games (completely different goals appear, and it becomes a pity to waste time).

Causes

The reasons for addiction to computer games are as follows:

• lack of bright and interesting moments in real life. Everything is so everyday and ordinary that a person is looking for a simple and often cheap way to diversify his life. This is how he begins to join the virtual world;
• a hidden inferiority complex, various psychological traumas in childhood and adolescence are a consequence of the fact that a person “underplayed” in a timely manner, so he is trying to make up for lost time;
• Quite often, such addiction develops on the basis of sexual dissatisfaction, when relationships with the opposite sex do not work out, and a person tries to “switch” to something;
• sometimes the first step towards the development of this addiction is “extra” time. For example, people who are forced to stay at their workplace from 9 to 18, when this time is just needed to “sit”, begin to get involved in computer games or aimlessly wandering around the Internet.

Psychology

The mechanism for the formation of computer addiction is based on withdrawal from reality and the need to take on a certain role. In most cases this is a means of compensation life problems. At the same time, a person begins to realize himself in the game world, and not in the real one.

Now there are many computer games, fortunately, not all of them are equally dangerous. Conventionally, they can be divided into role-playing and non-role-playing. By determining which category it belongs to, you can assess how dangerous it is.

Role-playing games are distinguished by their pronounced influence on the human psyche. At the same time, a person “gets used to” a certain role, identifies himself with some character, while simultaneously escaping reality.

Among role playing games 3 types can be distinguished:

• with a view “from the eyes” of the character;
• with an “outside view” of your hero;
• leadership games.

The most addictive games are those with a view from the eyes. The gamer completely identifies himself with a certain computer character, enters the role as much as possible, because he “looks” at the virtual world through the eyes of his hero. Literally a few minutes after the start of the session, the person begins to lose touch with the real world and is completely transferred to the virtual world. He identifies himself so much with the computer hero that he can consider the actions of the computer character his own, and the virtual world itself begins to be perceived as real. At critical moments, he may fidget in his chair, trying to dodge shots or blows, and turn pale.

If you look at your hero “from the outside,” then the power of entering the role is less compared to the previous type of games. Despite the fact that identification with the computer character is less pronounced, emotional manifestations associated with the game are still present, as can be seen during the failures or death of the computer hero.

In leadership games, a person controls several (or many) characters. He does not see his hero on the screen, but invents a role for himself. Pronounced “immersion” is possible only among people with developed imagination. The psychological dependence that forms during leadership games is quite pronounced.

Symptoms

There are a number of signs of addiction to computer games:

• One of the main symptoms of computer addiction is severe irritation that occurs in response to the forced need to withdraw from a favorite activity. When the game resumes, you can immediately notice the emotional upsurge;
• a common symptom of computer addiction is the inability to predict the end time of the session; the player will postpone it again and again;
• the computer becomes the center of an addict’s life, so when communicating with others, the most interesting topic for him will be a discussion of his favorite computer game;
• as the addiction progresses, a person’s social, work and family adaptation is disrupted - he forgets about work, household chores, studies, and loses interest in them;
• the presence of psychological addiction is also reflected in a person’s habits: in order to spend more time at the computer, he increasingly eats without leaving the monitor, neglects personal hygiene, sleep time is reduced, and the computer sessions themselves are lengthened.

Fortunately, this addiction does not develop all at once; it goes through a number of stages. The sooner you notice its presence, the easier it will be to deal with it.

Stages of addiction development

There are 4 stages of addiction to computer games:

1. The initial stage is mild infatuation. It comes when a person has already played several times, and, as they say, “got a taste for it.” Such a pastime gives a person positive emotions. At this stage, the game is situational in nature, a person plays occasionally, only under certain conditions, when there is free time, but he will not play to the detriment of something important.
2. The next stage is passion. The transition to this stage can be determined by the emergence of a new need - play. At this stage, a person already plays systematically, and if this is not possible, then he can sacrifice something in order to make time for his favorite activity.
3. And finally, the addiction stage. In the pyramid of values, play is elevated to the top level.
4. Over time (this may occur after several months or even years), the attachment stage begins. A person’s gaming activity fades away, he begins to become interested in something new, and social and work contacts can be established. However, a person cannot completely “say goodbye” to the game on his own. This stage can last for many years. The emergence of new games can provoke a surge in gaming activity.

Dependency can manifest itself in one of two forms - socialized and individualized.

The individualized form is the worst option; it is characterized by loss of contact with others. A person spends a lot of time at the computer; he has no need to communicate with family, friends, or those around him. For such people, the computer and everything connected with it is a kind of “drug”; it is necessary to regularly take the next “dose”. Otherwise, withdrawal occurs in the form of depression and increased irritability.

The socialized form is characterized by the preservation of social contacts. People suffering from such addiction prefer online games. For them, such an activity is not so much a “drug” as a competition. This form is less harmful to the psyche compared to the individualized one.

Signs of computer game addiction

Doctors put it on a par with drug addiction and alcoholism. All these illnesses cause quick and painful addiction, subjugate people’s will, and “tear off” them from a full, socially adapted life. Rarely, a gambling addict can show willpower and give up a bad habit on his own. In most cases, such people need help and support from loved ones, as well as treatment from a psychotherapist.

What is gambling addiction

The mechanism of influence of computer games on the brain is the same as that of drugs or alcohol. It’s just that when using drugs, endorphin is produced as a result of chemical reactions occurring in the body, and in the case of gambling addiction, this hormone is produced as a response to a feeling of excitement, joy from virtual victories and achievements. Striving for a constant feeling of happiness, people spend more and more time playing computer games.

The disease develops gradually; if others do not notice changes in behavior in time, then over time it will develop into a severe form of gambling addiction. When a real gambling addict is taken away from his favorite pastime, he begins to experience physical and psychological torment. In such a situation, talking alone will not get rid of the problem; you will need treatment from a specialist.

In most cases, addiction to the computer, the Internet, and games is observed among the younger generation. It is quite rare for a conscientious adult to spend his days and nights playing online games.

Signs

Psychotherapists conditionally divide addiction to computer games into two groups: attraction to local games and craving for online network games. Based on certain symptoms, you can distinguish an ordinary computer fan from a gambler. An addicted person who needs treatment experiences the following behavioral changes:

• inability to manage your schedule and time;

• neglect of vital matters, for example, study, work, taking care of appearance;
• aggressive behavior towards factors that distract from games;
• no events can force a gambler to voluntarily take his mind off the computer;
• during the game the mood is always good, and when there is no opportunity to do what you love, the person becomes angry and irritable;
• constantly growing cash “infusions” into paid games and various additions to them;
• the time a person spends playing is constantly increasing;
• a constant desire to check if a game update is available;
• neglect of one's own hygiene, health and other factors in favor of the game;
• refusal to communicate with others, replacing them with virtual characters.

The last two points are the most serious symptoms. If you notice them in someone who likes to spend time at the computer, then you know that the person needs treatment from a specialist. Other signs are no less alarming, but in some cases the problem can be solved with a simple conversation.

Long-term games on the computer leave an imprint not only on a person’s mental health, but also on his physical health. A gaming addict constantly experiences the following sensations:

• pain in the wrists and back;
• increased fatigue;
• headache and migraine;
• sleep problems;
• constant drowsiness, fatigue, feeling of exhaustion.

If a gambling addict has already developed functional disorders of organs and systems, then treatment alone is not enough. psychological assistance. It will be necessary to consult a doctor to eliminate acquired physical diseases.

How to get rid

There is no clear answer to the question of how to get rid of gambling addiction. In each specific case, treatment should be individual, thoughtful and gentle. Psychotherapists consider radical measures unacceptable. Constant comments and reproaches, a ban on leaving the house, and deleting all games from the computer can only worsen the situation. The gambling addict will withdraw into himself, and psychotherapy will not give a positive result. Moreover, a person may refuse to communicate with anyone at all, he may experience attacks of aggression, and even suicide attempts.

Not only the gaming addict needs help from a specialist, but also his family, who are also experiencing stress. It is necessary to improve relationships in the family, understand how to communicate with a gambling addict, and how to help him return to normal life. Very often, family psychotherapy produces positive results. Thanks to such sessions, a person addicted to computer games can more easily give up his addiction and endure the rehabilitation period more easily.

Prevention

Preventive measures will help prevent the development of gaming addiction:

• consult a psychotherapist, offer the gambling addict a meeting with a specialist;
• try to understand the process and meaning of the addict’s favorite games, this will help you find common points contact, establish contact, move towards rapprochement;
• try to avoid negative and harsh criticism of the hobby of computer games, try to express your opinion as gently as possible;
• find out what exactly attracts a person in the virtual world, what he doesn’t like in real life;
• limit the addict’s access to games, books, and films containing scenes of cruelty and violence, this will help stop attacks of aggression.

Don't forget that a computer game addict is a person who needs help. If you notice signs of gambling addiction in a loved one, do not turn away from him; on the contrary, try to help. On his own, without the support of family and often the help of a professional psychotherapist, a gambling addict will not be able to get rid of his addiction and return to normal life.

The whole truth about computer game addiction

Young people are predominantly affected by gaming addiction. However, among people prone to gambling addiction there are many adults and seemingly serious people. But it is young people, children, who most often become victims of the harmful effects of virtual reality.

The essence of the problem

Although gambling addiction is not officially recognized by science, in some countries, at the state level, measures have been taken for several years to combat the harmful hobby of certain types of games. Such measures are not taken out of the blue.

A person addicted to computer games is easy to pick out from the crowd. In the later stages of addiction, the behavior of a gambling addict, separated from the computer, becomes inadequate and antisocial. A gaming addict stops taking care of his appearance, forgets to wash, cut his nails and even sleep. In such cases, we are no longer talking about normal nutrition; the person sits on water, chocolate bars and other fast food. And such a diet sooner or later leads any person to at least gastritis, and even to an ulcer.

There are cases all over the world, including in Russia, when teenagers, in order to continue playing, killed their brothers, sisters, who interfered with the game, and their parents, who hid a game console or keyboard from them.

By the way, restricting a person addicted to computer games from accessing the game leads him to a state similar to the withdrawal of a drug addict.

Games in which scenes of violence against people are regularly reproduced have a particularly negative impact on the fragile children's psyche. Children who are too immersed in the process of violence in the virtual world transfer this model of behavior into real life, having difficulty distinguishing between virtual reality and “real life.” Sometimes, when people get used to the role of their virtual characters, meetings between virtual opponents in real life end in injury and murder.

Except mental disorders, a person who plays computer games runs the risk of acquiring a number of physical diseases and related problems. When sitting at a computer for a long time (more than hours in a row), there is a risk of heart attack and stroke due to blood stagnation. In addition, non-ionizing radiation emanating from computers negatively affects the possibility of procreation in men and kills the gene pool. Continuous sitting in front of a monitor negatively affects the state of the nervous system, increases irritability and excitability. Often, people addicted to computer games suffer from hypertension and headaches, not to mention vision impairment, which can then be restored, but with great difficulty.

Causes of the problem

The reasons for addiction to computer games lie primarily in the human psyche. A gambler is a person who has failed to realize himself in real life. having significant internal problems and conflicts with society. Computer games, not necessarily online, often captivate a person during periods of destruction of hopes, in the absence of the opportunity to realize his dreams and plans.

It is known that addiction to computer games is most common among teenagers and young people in transition. Games give them the opportunity to psychologically assert themselves, to realize themselves, without risking anything.

The same thing happens with mature people who have crossed the threshold of their 40th birthday. This is another important and dangerous age period, when a person evaluates the results of the years of life already lived and begins to feel the approach of old age. If a person realizes that half, and perhaps most of his life has already passed, and he is not one step closer to his dream, life has passed completely differently than he once imagined, then a crisis begins.

Most try to drown their sadness in alcohol, others use drugs to escape an unpleasant reality. Some are trying to make up for in a short period everything that they missed, that they gave up in their youth. But some adults go into virtual reality, and some are drawn in by it irrevocably.

Today, it is not uncommon for summer men to sit at the computer all day long, playing tanks, quit their jobs, and forget that real life, family, and children exist. Computer games have become hell for these families.

Addiction treatment

Despite the fact that most doctors and medical organizations, dependence on virtual games is not recognized as a disease; in some countries, measures have been taken for several years and methods have been developed to treat and prevent the occurrence of this disease.

A department specializing in the treatment of computer game addiction has been opened in one of the UK clinics. In China for last decade Several children's camps have been opened in which teenagers who have gone headlong into the world of computer dreams are brought back to real life. And in South Korea, Internet providers are required to reduce Internet access speeds for users who spend too much time playing online role-playing games.

Unfortunately, the above measures are only general character and are accepted only in some countries. Thanks to this, the problem of addiction to computer games is slowly but surely gaining momentum against the backdrop of the increasingly accessible Internet and cheaper computers.

Alas, attempts by the patient’s relatives to independently cure him of addiction are doomed to failure, the more deeply the problem becomes entrenched. In the later stages of the disease, when a person neglects work, study, proper nutrition and sleep, when a person ceases to be interested in sex, he needs the help of a qualified specialist. It must be borne in mind that first of all, a person addicted to computer games needs to realize that he has a problem. Otherwise, he will subconsciously and consciously resist the treatment process.

The treatment consists, first of all, in the fact that when working with the patient, psychologists and psychotherapists lead him not just to a superficial understanding, but to a deep awareness of the meaninglessness and uselessness of games. Their task is to help the patient understand the importance of those things that happen to him in the real world while he is immersed in the virtual world. After psychotherapy supplemented drug treatment, it becomes much easier for the addict to give up computer games.

Drug treatment primarily consists of normalizing the body’s metabolism and restoring the functioning of its various systems. An important part of treating addiction is reducing irritability and nervousness with sedatives. Plus fortification of the body, depleted by a long period of insufficient nutrition and sleep.

Addiction Prevention

However, any disease is easier to prevent than to treat, and addiction to computer games is no exception. The conditions and circumstances under which there is an increased risk of becoming overly involved in computer games have already been described above. We must understand that people are not equally at risk. If we compare a group of people who are already quite familiar with computer games and a group that has not encountered games before, then, of course, the former will have an order of magnitude higher risk of becoming addicted to computer games.

To prevent the development of gambling addiction, you should monitor your emotional state during critical periods of life. If depression sets in, it would be a good idea to apply the methods for preventing and combating depression described in this article. They will help diversify life and raise the overall tone of the body.

If you have a desire to go into the virtual world, you need to consciously occupy yourself with real things, for example, reading books, putting things in order in the house, or playing sports. It would be nice to find some kind of permanent hobby. A regular walk in the fresh air or cycling is also a great opportunity to get distracted, get new impressions, and perhaps even interesting acquaintances.

The same applies to children. If they already know what computer games are and actively play them, there is no need to prohibit them from playing computer games. There is a saying: “if you really don’t want to do something, strictly forbid your children from doing it...”. You just need to pay attention to the interests of children that exist in addition to the computer and encourage them, support children in this direction, respecting their passion for computer games. After all, if a person devotes several hours a week to computer games, then this cannot be called an addiction. But the line between passion and addiction is thin.

Like many other diseases, gaming addiction is a treatable disease. However, it requires desire and diligence on the part of the patient himself and great patience, love and support from his relatives. Not much more than is required in order to return your loved one to the side of real life in time and not to advance the disease to the last stage.

Be attentive to your loved ones. Be healthy!

Computer game addiction

How to understand how harmless a computer game is? What is computer game addiction and how to deal with it?

Global technological progress has given us a lot of new and interesting things. The computer, which a few decades ago was a unique miracle of technology, accessible only to a select few, is now present in almost every home. To modern man It’s hard to imagine your day without this universal device - it is our faithful companion both at work and at home, when we “rest” after a hard day. Undoubtedly, there is nothing terrible about watching an interesting movie on the World Wide Web in the evening or searching for the necessary data. But this is not all that a computer can offer us...

There are probably few people left on Earth who are not familiar with computer games, or at least have not heard of them. According to experts, the history of computer games goes back a little more than half a century - the first of them appeared in the distant 50s. By definition, a computer game is a program that serves to organize the game process, communicate with gaming partners and/or is itself a partner. Often such games are created based on books and films. And since 2011, in the United States, computer games have been officially recognized as a separate art form.

IN last years The production of computer games has become a whole huge industry. Of course, demand creates supply, which means more and more people want to play. Naturally, an hour or two of gaming once a week “to relax” will not kill anyone. But is everything as simple with computer games as we would like to believe? Let's figure it out.

What is computer gaming addiction?

Computer gaming addiction, or gambling addiction, is a form of addiction that manifests itself through an obsessive passion for computer games and video games. Addiction forms especially quickly in cases where a person tries to solve his psychological problems and tasks with the help of games. For example, in the game you can feel like a completely different person, not the same as in real life; you can show feelings that are not customary to experience openly: aggression, anger; you can throw away real anxiety from the present time and go into the virtual world. According to research by experts, online games are the most addictive. History knows of cases of fatal consequences of such fun - for example, in 2005, a Chinese girl, who lost many days in a row at World of Warcraft, died of exhaustion.

At the moment, gaming addiction is not recognized as a disease. This disease is not officially included in the International Classification of Diseases. But debate over the adoption of this term is ongoing. According to experts, additional tests are needed to study in detail the impact of gambling addiction on the human body.

However, the results on the ground speak for themselves. Online games have captured the minds of humanity. The number of players is already in the millions. What is the catch in such a seemingly harmless activity? And the whole point is that, like any other addiction, it can drag you into its networks. The player forgets about everything in the world: food, sleep, basic hygiene, responsibilities to family, loved ones, children, not to mention physical activity and walks in nature. Unable to interrupt the gaming process, gambling addicts can lose their jobs and families. The real world for them is completely replaced by the virtual one.

But, naturally, it’s hardest for teenagers. These “no longer children, but not yet adults,” who are going through one of the most difficult periods in their lives, throw themselves into games “with their heads.” As a result, relationships with family deteriorate, exams fail, and exams fail. Former straight-A students fall into bad grades. In addition, over time, games begin to require more and more financial investments. Where can a person who does not yet earn money on their own get them? Many begin to beg from their parents, and when they stop giving, they take without asking. In such cases, urgent help is required - the young man is now unable to get out of this endless marathon alone...

Symptoms of computer gaming addiction

How to recognize computer gaming addiction? Experts call these symptoms:

1. Reluctance to be distracted from a computer game;
2. Irritation when forced to be distracted from the game;
3. Euphoria or just a good feeling while being at the computer and playing a game;
4. Inability to schedule the end of a game session and time spent on the computer;
5. Forgetting about home and work responsibilities, studies, agreements, scheduled meetings while playing on the computer;
6. Large financial investments to ensure that devices and computer software are constantly updated;
7. Neglecting sleep, hygiene, health, in favor of spending as much time as possible in the game;
8. Refusal of normal meals, preference for mechanical “absorption” of irregular, monotonous food in front of the computer;
9. Abuse of psychostimulants: coffee, various energy drinks;
10. An obsessive desire to discuss a computer game with everyone who understands at least something about it.

In addition, addiction to computer games negatively affects both physical and mental health of a person. The following physical symptoms are common:

• Visual impairment, dry eyes;
• Headache;
• Changes in sleep patterns, sleep disorders;
• Digestive disorders due to irregular and unhealthy diet;
• Frequent back pain caused by prolonged sitting;
• Problems with posture;
• Decreased immunity;
• Constant feeling of fatigue;
• Carpal tunnel syndrome is a lesion of the nerve trunks in the wrist area. This disorder occurs due to uncomfortable working conditions with the mouse and keyboard and prolonged muscle strain;
• Neglect of personal hygiene and related problems.

Psychological symptoms of addiction are less noticeable to the naked eye, but no less significant. The player himself may not even notice how much time he spends on games, how he forgets to eat and moves away from his family and friends.

According to psychologists, the most susceptible to computer gaming addiction are people who are insecure, have low self-esteem, have difficulty communicating, are dissatisfied with life and themselves, are naturally shy and have complexes. The game gives them the opportunity to escape into another reality, fulfill their desires, experience new emotions, feel strong, significant, and armed. That is, in essence, real life is being replaced by a virtual game.

Causes of computer gaming addiction

Psychologists include the following as the main reasons for the development of computer gaming addiction:

1. Lack of real quality communication. Most this problem affects children and adolescents whose parents are overly busy or overprotective. The lack of real communications forces people to look for them in the virtual world;
2. Lack of bright interesting moments in life. When a person’s everyday life is filled with dullness and boredom, he tries to “get” positive emotions in the game;
3. Sexual dissatisfaction. Basically, the “victims” of gambling addiction are people who are dissatisfied with their personal life or do not have one. Also, sometimes a pathological attraction to games disguises various sexual disorders and deviations from the norm. After all, the beauty of toys is that the player is essentially anonymous, no one will “see through” him or poke fingers at him, which means he can express himself in different ways;
4. Unformed psyche. Often players “get stuck” mentally in childhood or adolescence, not wanting to accept adult life with all her responsibilities;
5. Social fears, phobias. Often behind the increased craving for games is a fear of interpersonal relationships, society as a whole, and the inability to adapt to changing conditions external environment, lack of creativity, flexibility. In this case, the virtual world of the game can replace a person with the reality that he is so afraid of and provide a more comfortable environment. All this poses a serious threat to success in real life;
6. Conflicts, discord within the family. When everything is boring, “it’s not going well”, it’s not working out, there is a great temptation to go somewhere where you won’t be judged, and in general no one knows you;
7. A chance to escape real life problems. A person begins to think that with the help of a game he can relieve his stress, anxiety, depression, “escape” from problems in school, overload at work, discord in the family and circle of friends;
8. Presence of psychopathy. Psychopathy does not mean a disease, but pathological character traits, which under unfavorable conditions lead to prolonged stress and chronic diseases. Psychopaths are considered the most susceptible to various addictions.

According to psychologists, role-playing games pose the greatest danger. The very meaning of such games involves a person’s “entry” into the game, identifying himself with the character, the loss of the player’s individuality and his integration with the computer. And the stronger the immersion effect, the more difficult it becomes to tear yourself away from the game.

Stages and consequences of computer gaming addiction

Computer games attract many people, but not everyone becomes a gamer. Players can be divided into 4 categories:

1. Situational game. Such people play when there are external factors: free time, competition. If there is no external influence, there will be no interest in the game either;
2. Episodic game. In such cases, people start playing computer games from time to time, but they are able to control themselves and limit the time spent in the game;
3. Systematic game. Such players are fond of computer games, but wasted time and unfulfilled responsibilities cause them remorse, as a result of which they may stop playing;
4. Gambling. For people in this group, gaming becomes the meaning of life and takes up virtually all of their time. When at the moment a person does not have the opportunity to play, he still plans the course of the game in his thoughts, waiting for the moment to return to it. Unfulfilled obligations, unclosed cases, losses, instead of being removed from the game, on the contrary, provoke him to continue further and further. In this case, we are already talking about true gambling addiction.

The development of addiction to computer games occurs in several stages:

1. Stage of mild infatuation. At this stage, adaptation to the game occurs;
2. Infatuation stage. Sharp and rapid formation of dependence. There is an increased desire to play, and gaming sessions become longer. The stakes in the game increase (if the game is played “for money”). At this stage, there is still no struggle between the desires to play or not to play, and a person can still refuse to play even if he wants to sit at the computer;
3. Dependency stage. At this stage, the magnitude of the dependence reaches its maximum value. The struggle between motives to “play” or “not play” is clearly evident; it is becoming increasingly difficult to choose “not to play.” The time spent at the computer increases sharply, excitement increases, and it becomes very difficult to tear yourself away from the game. If a player receives cash winnings, they are immediately returned to the game;
4. Attachment stage. The strength of dependence remains stable for a long period of time, then declines slightly and is fixed again and remains stable. Now the game turns into the center of the player's entire life. Money becomes only a symbol of the game. At this stage, a person can no longer overcome the desire to play on his own. The goal of the game is the process itself, not winning. It is very difficult for a person to abstain from gambling; such intervals are extremely small and only arise forcibly. The player is always immersed in his gaming fantasies.

What consequences does computer gaming addiction entail? Psychologists include:

• private and protracted conflicts at home, often family breakdown;
• loss of friends and close circle;
• loss of social status;
• large financial debts;
• personality degradation.

Prevention and treatment

It is always easier to prevent any disorder than to cure it. And gambling addiction is no exception. According to psychologists, a very important part of preventing computer gaming addiction (as well as other addictions) is outreach work, primarily among young people. It is necessary to give them examples of how such addiction destroyed human lives, led players to poverty, to the loss of favorite activities and previous interests. It is important to point out that gambling addiction is often a consequence of a weak character and lack of willpower. Also in the prevention of gambling addiction among children, the positive example of the parents themselves and close adults is important - constantly observing how bright and interesting real life can be, independently taking part in it, the child is unlikely to want to exchange it for virtual life. And, of course, you should not neglect close emotional contact with your child - having found him among family and friends, the child will not be forced to chase him, running to the computer.

If such an addiction has already occurred, it is important to know that it is also treatable. But, depending on the stage of attachment to the game, its treatment may take months or years, full of prohibitions and restrictions.

Among the recognized methods of treating computer gaming addiction are the following:

• Conversations with a psychologist. The task of such sessions is to convince the player of the ephemeral nature of his virtual world, to show him all the beauty and perfection of real, real life;
• Drug treatment. An experienced doctor can prescribe special psychotropic drugs - antidepressants, antipsychotics;
• Attention to a loved one. It is very important to notice in time when a family member is immersed in games, try to pay more attention to him, diversify life, add new colors and impressions to it. After all, if a person, in addition to computer games, has other interests and hobbies, study, work, sports, a constant social circle, the likelihood of developing gambling addiction is negligible.

All these measures work best together, and under the supervision of specialists. Often, when treating a gambling addict, family psychotherapy is used - at the same time, many related problems of family members are solved.

If you are concerned about your family member's pathological passion for computer games, do not hush up the problem! It is very important to notice warning signs in time and seek qualified help. But don’t forget – a holy place is never empty. If you don’t fill the space freed up from games with lively, productive activities, there is a chance that other addictions will take their place - alcoholism or drug addiction. After all, in essence, a person who finds himself in such a difficult situation tries to find a way out for himself, a kind of “surrogate” for a normal life, which in reality does not exist for him. But helping her find, create and love her is already specific task the player himself and his loved ones. The task is difficult, but feasible, as many examples show.

“Be attentive to your loved ones, choose live communication, real life and always be happy!”

Computer game addiction

Gaming addiction is a purported form of psychological addiction that manifests itself in obsessive involvement with video games and computer games.

The most addictive games are often considered to be online games, especially MMORPGs. There are cases where playing too long has led to fatal consequences. Thus, in October 2005, a Chinese girl (Snowly) died of exhaustion after playing World of Warcraft for many days. Afterwards, a virtual funeral ceremony was held in the game.

Computer games are often the target of criticism. A number of scientists believe that they cause addiction, along with alcohol and drugs, but a consensus on this issue has not yet been reached.

German researchers at Charite University conducted an experiment in which a group of 20 people were shown screenshots from their favorite games. Their reaction turned out to be similar to that shown by patients with alcoholism and drug addiction when they see the object of their pathological passion. Research from the Nottingham Trent University International Gaming Research Unit found that 12% of a control group of 7,000 people showed signs of addiction to online computer games. 19% of Facebook's 250 million users say they are addicted to gaming. Some authors believe that gaming addiction occurs due to online games, and accordingly is a type of Internet addiction. There is also an opinion that some people have problems not from the process of playing, but from ineffective time management and even from the stigma associated with computer games.

A number of researchers believe that some of the criteria used to assess the prevalence of computer game addiction artificially inflate the prevalence rate, are not reliable, are not suitable for clinical testing and need to be revised - their studies are often criticized for using symptoms consistent with drug addiction and gambling addiction, but not suitable for computer games as a form of pastime. Psychologist Christopher Ferguson states that studies focusing on the extent to which playing computer games interferes with the lives of those who play them report it as a relatively rare phenomenon - estimated to be around 1-3% of the gaming population - while studies using more dubious criteria cite absurdly high 8-10%.

At the moment, gaming addiction is not officially recognized as a disease. The International Classification of Diseases does not contain such a disease. However, information about the imminent adoption of this term has appeared repeatedly. Since 2007, the American Medical Association has conducted research into the symptoms of the suspected disease. However, after lengthy debate, doctors came to the conclusion that at the moment addiction cannot be recognized as a disease. They believe that the issue at hand requires additional testing. At the moment, according to experts, gambling addiction is not a problem for society.

Debate continues as to whether computer game addiction is a distinct syndrome or a symptom of underlying problems such as depression or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

Psychiatrist Gerald Block notes that addiction to games is much stronger than addiction to Internet pornography. British GP Steve Pope, in an article Gaming addiction grips youngsters from the Lancashire Evening Post, said that two hours spent on the console is comparable to taking a line of cocaine. As negative examples of addiction, he cites situations where gambling addicts abandon friends, switch to unhealthy food, abandon their studies, they become more aggressive, prone to violence, and a number of other factors. The article received widespread attention in the press and was heavily criticized due to its biased nature and lack of any evidence.

Thus, the greatest danger, according to psychologist M. S. Ivanov, is role-playing games, since the mechanics of the game itself consist of a person “entering” the game, integrating with a computer, losing individuality and identifying oneself with a computer character. The researcher identifies his own criteria for “harmful” role-playing games: firstly, the strength of the immersion effect, and secondly, the absence of an element of excitement or a significant decrease in its value. It is believed that addicted gamers need psychological help; their problems are an unsettled personal life, dissatisfaction with themselves, loss of the meaning of life and ordinary human values. Other difficulties also appear - decreased mood, well-being, activity; increased level of anxiety and social maladjustment.

Penny: More to the point, I'm about to reach a new level!

Leonard: If a person in real life experiences dissatisfaction, it is very easy for him to disappear into the virtual world, where he supposedly achieves some success.

Penny: La-la-poplars. So guys, Queen Penelope is online again.

Penny: Get to the point. I'm about to level up here.

Leonard:If a person doesn’t have a sense of achievement in their real life, it’s easy to lose themselves in a virtual world where they can get a false sense of achievement.

Penny: Yeah, jabber, jabber. Boys, Queen Penelope’s back online.”

The scientist also highlighted the dynamics of the development of computer addiction, dividing it into four stages: initially there is a process of adaptation (the stage of mild infatuation), then a period of sharp growth and rapid formation of addiction begins (the stage of infatuation). As a result, the dependence reaches a maximum, the magnitude and nature of which depends on the individual characteristics of the individual and environmental factors (the stage of dependence). Further, the strength of dependence remains stable for a certain period of time, and then declines and is again fixed at a certain level and remains stable for a long time (attachment stage). Ivanov cites the impossibility of completely giving up computer games, despite the awareness of the futility of the gaming process, as a decisive factor determining addiction. The mechanism itself consists of “escaping reality” and “taking a role,” that is, isolation from real problems and identifying oneself with fictional characters in virtual worlds.

According to neurologist Baroness Greenfield, games are the cause of dementia, since modern means of entertainment lead to increased excitability of the nervous system. Over time, a person gets used to this condition, dependence occurs, and as a result, the risk of developing dementia increases. As proof of her theory, Greenfield cites the increase in the number of trolls on the social network Facebook - which, in her opinion, indicates the degradation of the mental abilities of the teenage generation. These claims have been criticized as unsubstantiated and speculative.

Douglas Janethal, together with the American Academy of Pediatricians, conducted a study on the effects of games on human health. About 3 thousand children were monitored; addiction was observed in every tenth child. “Children who became addicted to gaming had increased levels of depression, anxiety and social anxiety, and their academic performance decreased. When they got rid of addiction, these symptoms decreased to normal values,” the doctor noted. In response to this work, the American Software and Gaming Association said that no concrete evidence was presented, the methods were questionable, and the conclusions did not stand up to scrutiny.

Currently, in a number of countries, a number of medical institutions and programs providing treatment and prevention of gambling addiction are being created and operate. In England, at the Broadway Lodge rehabilitation center, a department specializing in working with gambling addicts has been opened. The program, consisting of twelve stages, is designed for both children and adults. South Korea's Ministry of Culture and Sports has developed the Nighttime Shutdown program to combat gaming addiction, which affects more than 2 million users in the country. The essence of the measures being taken is to deny access to gamers under 19 years of age to MMOG games for six hours a day. According to another program, the Internet connection speed of those users who play MMORPG games for longer than a certain time is gradually reduced, which ultimately leads to the impossibility of playing the game. In China, where, according to analytical data, about 13% of World Wide Web users are addicted to online games or the Internet, a summer rehabilitation camp opened in 2007. The treatment consisted of children and adolescents communicating with each other, a psychologist and nature for 10 days. Another, practiced method is the integration of a special system into computer games that prevents games lasting more than three hours. The longer the game time, the more abilities and skills the game character loses. The Ministry of Information and Communications of Vietnam plans to introduce strict restrictions - providers and owners of gaming cafes will be required to block the ability to play online games from 10 pm to 8 am. “Local departments of the ministry will inspect online activity throughout the country and take action against organizations that violate this ban, including terminating their activities,” Deputy Minister Le Nam Than said. This measure is aimed at improving the lifestyle of the younger generation.

Causes, symptoms and treatment of computer game addiction

Computer game addiction is a form of psychological addiction that manifests itself in a person as an obsessive passion for computer games. Such dependence is one of the forms of addictive human behavior, a way of escaping the existing reality by transforming one’s psycho-emotional behavior and requires competent correction.

Causes

Computer addiction in children has reached epidemic proportions. The average student spends 2 to 6 hours at the computer. About 70% of American children spend their free time playing games with scenes of cruelty and violence. In these games, killing is the goal and the main element of the game. Children confuse virtual reality with real reality, which is why more and more minors in America are opening fire with rifles and pistols at school.

Any addiction or mania is a consequence of deep psychological problems. With the help of computer games, a person tries to get away from what worries him life situation or replace some missing element in your life (the attention of loved ones, social status, absence of a loved one).

Possible causes of computer addiction:

• Various mental disorders (psychopathy). Pathological character traits of a person, unsociability, complexes and modesty often lead a person to Internet addiction. Some patients use a computer to realize their childhood fears and fantasies;
• Lack of communication. This problem is relevant for children and adolescents whose parents are constantly busy earning money;
• Intrafamily conflicts. To escape family scandals, some people immerse themselves in the virtual world, which further aggravates the situation and leads to divorce;
• Social phobias. A person is afraid of real society, interpersonal relationships. Computer games allow you to escape reality and feel strong and significant. A computer becomes a person’s interlocutor, life partner and sexual partner.

Symptoms

The pathophysiological mechanisms of the formation of computer addiction and gambling addiction are the same. They are based on stimulation of various pleasure centers in the brain. Both teenagers and independent adults become addicted to computer games.

This pathological condition manifests itself in the form of a feeling of euphoria and psycho-emotional uplift during immersion in the virtual world. The patient cannot plan his time at the computer. In order to overcome sleep and stimulate mental activity, he begins to drink caffeine-containing drinks and other psychostimulants. For some adult gamers, the main food product is beer and various fast foods. A person who is mostly immersed in the virtual world does not observe the rules of personal hygiene: he forgets to brush his teeth, comb his hair, and take a shower. He eats poorly, sleeps poorly and leads a sedentary lifestyle.

If the computer breaks down, the patient is upset and may be aggressive with loved ones and people around him. Such a person begins to spend all his money on updating programs, computer consoles, and new games. He doesn’t think about his personal life, work or school; his world narrows down to completing the next mission in the game.

As addiction progresses, a person cannot give up computer games, although he well understands their uselessness. He constantly leaves the existing reality and immerses himself in the virtual world, takes on the role of a certain character and lives his “computer” life.

The patient communicates with other people on various computer topics. Gambling addiction leads to an overload of the central nervous system; exciting impulses constantly enter the human brain.

After some time, the patient experiences a decrease in mood, general well-being, social activity, there is increased anxiety and disruption of adaptation in society. As computer addiction develops, adults become dissatisfied with themselves, lose the meaning of life, and develop deep depression.

In adults with gambling addiction, libido decreases and various disorders occur in the sexual sphere. “Addicted” people, as a rule, have an unsettled personal life, are withdrawn, and taciturn.

Manifestations in adolescents and children

Computer addiction in adolescents is usually severe. They become angry and aggressive if their parents ask them to break away from the computer for even a minute. Signs of gaming addiction in children are the fact that they start skipping school and lying to parents and teachers. Some minor patients ask for or steal money in order to spend it on their favorite computer game.

Computer games make children violent because they have to shoot and kill, and for this they are rewarded in the form of points, bonuses and gifts. The immature psyche of a child is overloaded with game effects. In the minds of a modern child, virtual reality is no different from real life.

Computer addiction in adolescents has a negative impact on their health and academic performance. The child begins to drink and eat without leaving the computer monitor. At school, all his thoughts and desires are focused on the anticipation of playing at home.

Teenagers with gambling addiction abandon friends, start eating unhealthy food, and give up school. Many minor patients become aggressive and prone to violence. Some scientists claim that computer addiction in children leads to dementia.

Consequences

Computer game addiction has a negative impact on human health. Over time, his vision deteriorates, problems with the spine and joints appear. Many “addicts” suffer from headaches and insomnia. As a result of sitting at a computer for a long time, a person develops weakness, increased fatigue, and a decrease in appetite. Sitting at a computer for a long time leads to the development of cardiovascular diseases: angina pectoris and coronary heart disease.

Long-term consumption of drinks containing caffeine and other stimulants leads to exhaustion of the nervous system and arterial hypertension. Considering that “dependent” people eat poorly, they develop gastritis and gastroduodenitis, and a tendency to constipation.

Computer games in children develop those areas of the brain that are responsible for vision and movement. Gambling addiction stops the development of the frontal lobes, which are responsible for training memory, learning, and emotions.

Children addicted to computer games spend little time outdoors and do not play sports. Most often, such children have a pale appearance, “bruises” under the eyes, and a poorly developed musculoskeletal system.

Diagnostic criteria

Before seeking qualified medical help, you need to make sure that your family member has a computer addiction, and not just an excessive passion for video games. There are a number of criteria based on which you can differentiate the problem:

• The patient does not want to be distracted from the game and reacts aggressively to such requests;
• Lack of a critical attitude towards one’s behavior;
• The patient neglects his social responsibilities (study, work), does not participate in family affairs, and his social activity is sharply reduced;
• The patient loses interest in the world around him, and experiences emotional uplift only during a computer game;
• Neglect of personal hygiene and social behavior;

In addition to deviant behavior, the patient experiences sleep disturbances, headaches, and discomfort in the back. Also, due to prolonged forced positioning of the hand, the development of carpal tunnel syndrome is possible.

If these criteria are met, the patient can be diagnosed as addicted to computer games.

Therapy methods

Computer addiction cannot be considered as a completely independent disease. It is a consequence of more serious psychological problems. Therefore, it is important for a specialist to identify the root cause of the disease and fight it.

To treat the consequences of computer addiction, psychotherapy, medication, and hypnosis are used. It is important to take an integrated approach.

For this addiction, psychiatrists use autogenic training, behavioral, family psychotherapy, and psychosynthesis. Psychotherapy is aimed at correcting the internal family relations, elimination of various human psychological attitudes (isolation and unsociability), treatment of childhood fears and sexual problems in adults.

Gestalt therapy methods have been successfully used in adults. This is due to the fact that passion for computer games is a way to get away from a previously unresolved problem. And these techniques suggest how to “close the gestalt”, i.e. resolve the situation.

Symptomatic drug therapy is aimed at treating insomnia, irritability, anxiety and depression. Adult patients with gambling addiction are prescribed herbal sedatives in order to reduce the excitability of the nervous system. These can be herbal tinctures, but most often doctors prescribe tranquilizers or antipsychotics. Sleeping pills are used to normalize sleep cycles.

Antidepressants are mandatory medications in the treatment of computer addiction. They relieve psycho-emotional stress, normalize mood and improve overall well-being.

It is important to establish proper nutrition, which takes into account already formed digestive problems. The patient is additionally prescribed a course of vitamins and restorative medications.

Stages of psychological assistance

Specialized assistance has a certain stage. This structure has been identified as the most effective in treating computer addiction.

At the first stage, it is important to help the patient overcome internal resistance to treatment. This key moment, without which further therapy becomes meaningless. The patient must recognize the problem and the need for outside help to resolve it.

The second stage is aimed at determining the depth of the problem. The patient, together with the attending physician, must identify all the pitfalls that may interfere with social rehabilitation. The doctor’s tactics in this case are supportive and guiding.

At the third stage, the doctor’s goal is to prepare the patient for real actions and changes. There is a gradual abandonment of computer games here. The patient spends more time walking and doing daily activities. The doctor records his progress and encourages him.

Psychotherapy for this problem takes long time and requires sensitivity and complete mutual understanding between doctor and patient.

There is a dependence on virtual communication or types of addiction typical for adults: online shopping, auctions, online casinos, studying information pages, watching movies. All this, no less than games, takes people away from reality into the virtual world. Computer addiction develops in 58% of cases within a year, in 25% - within six months, in 17% - after a year of active computer use.

Computer addiction is an obsessive need to use a computer and the Internet, accompanied by social maladaptation of the individual and psychological symptoms. A dependent person is characterized by an inadequate perception of himself and the world around him.

American psychiatrist Ivan Goldberg introduced the concept of “Internet addiction”, but preferred to use another term – “pathological computer use”. This is a broader term and is still used today. This concept includes all possible situations of using a computer, and not just online games.

There are three stages of development of computer addiction:

1. Familiarity with the Internet and interest in its possibilities. Their application in relation to your life.
2. The computer is gradually replacing the main areas of life: working online (some people even know how to make money from games), buying and selling things, ordering food, virtual excursions, etc.
3. Almost complete or complete escape from reality into the world of the Internet and computer.

Regardless of the expressed signs of addiction or behavioral characteristics of the individual, it is customary to focus on losses in real life, and not on the time spent at the computer. And losses usually occur in the areas of family relationships, daily responsibilities, sleep and rest, playing sports, communicating and walking with friends, reading printed publications, hobbies, and sex life.

Risks

Gaming or computer addiction in adults threatens, among other things, divorce. Financial problems often arise, such as unreasonable spending on a computer and the Internet (computer upgrades and fees for Internet services), due to taking out loans and going into debt (especially relevant for casino games).

Loss of Internet access or failure in a game can cause a person to experience a condition that entails nervous breakdowns and emotional disorders. There have been cases of death due to chronic lack of sleep.

In the course of real communication and social interaction, a person learns and gains experience and knowledge. With computer addiction and the accompanying social isolation, the individual loses the ability to interact with people. A person can communicate and assert himself in a circle of similar addicts, but in other respects he becomes untenable. For him, categories such as reflection and self-identification disappear, the ability to put oneself in the place of other people and imagine how others see the individual himself is lost.

For those people whose profession involves working on a computer (programming, writing articles, creating videos and photos, etc.), addiction borders on workaholism, that is, one addiction turns into another and vice versa. You don't have to just play on the computer to feel disconnected from reality. In terms of health consequences, all types of computer addiction are equally harmful.

Features of computer games

Most games are built in such a way that a person looks at the virtual space through the eyes of the hero, that is, maximum identification with the character occurs. It is this entry into the role that causes the loss of connection with reality and with one’s true “I”. A conflict gradually develops between the virtual self and the real self.

Signs of addiction

Signs of pathological computer use in adults include:

• feeling good or euphoric while spending time at the computer;
• inability or unwillingness to stop working or communicating on the Internet (in the real world there is nothing more interesting, more valuable or important);
• a systematic increase in time spent at the computer (increasing tolerance), the inability to plan a session at the computer, and, accordingly, other elements of life;
• unsuccessful attempts or unrealized desire to control spending time at the computer;
• a lot of time is spent not only on work or play itself, but also on computer-related activities (searching for programs and browsers on the Internet, increasing computer power, distributing information into folders, communicating on thematic forums);
• neglect of family, friends and work;
• , feeling empty and out of work at the computer;
• lying or concealing real activities (computer activity);
• ignoring physiological needs, skipping meals or eating irregularly;
• sleep disorders;
• neglect of personal hygiene;
• using a computer despite severe deterioration in health, family problems or professional field, care of loved ones.

In addition, they will hint about Internet addiction:

• urge to check every minute email or a web page, a profile in the game;
• anxious anticipation of a new access to the Internet, which happens, for example, immediately after work and against the backdrop of ignoring the individual’s everyday responsibilities and physical needs;
• complaints from others that a person spends too much time on the Internet;
• complaints from others (family members) that a person spends a lot of money on the Internet (many modern games require investment).

Physiological symptoms include dry and red eyes, blurred vision, muscle spasms and pain, joint problems, headaches, and back pain.

The diagnostic criteria are two: computer use causes distress; causes physical, psychological, familial, economic, social and interpersonal harm.

The fact that we are talking specifically about the problem of addiction is also evidenced by the withdrawal syndrome, which is observed from a couple of days to a month after the individual has stopped “communicating” with the computer. Manifestations of withdrawal syndrome include:

• psychomotor agitation and anxiety;
• obsessive thoughts about what happened during this time on the Internet;
• finger movements simulating computer activity (voluntary or involuntary);
• fantasies about what is happening on the Internet or what awaits a person when he returns.

Symptoms disappear as soon as the person returns to their previous computer activities.

Personal characteristics of addicts

It has not yet been established exactly what comes first: personal characteristics or computer addiction, that is, the question remains open as to whether the computer causes the following personal changes or whether these characteristics are prerequisites for the development of computer addiction:

• perseverance and perseverance in achieving goals;
• high ;
• disregard for social norms;
• developed abstract and creative and a penchant for;
• focus on the process of activity, not on the result;
• coldness and unemotionality in communication;
• lack of empathy;
• conflict;
• lack of responsibility.

It should be noted that these traits are considered not only in the context of gaming or network addiction, but also in conditions of dependence on a computer for the sake of self-realization and self-development. If we assume that these traits are primary, then it is not surprising that computer addiction arises - in real life, it is difficult for an individual to fully socialize with such a very contradictory set. Then a person finds work online, friends online, educational courses online, etc.

Often the development of addiction is preceded by the opportunity and ability discovered by the individual to regularly replenish knowledge and master new ones, which serves as a source of self-esteem. Along with this, an unexpected awareness of the individual’s own intellectual potential, new interests and hidden abilities or forgotten talents occurs.

Causes of addiction

There are several prerequisites for pathological computer use:

• low, tendency to depression;
• inability to independently plan free time and life;
• dependence on the opinions of others;
• feeling of insecurity and incomprehensibility;
• the hardships of work, study, family, that is, dissatisfaction with one’s life;
• search for new sensations and feelings, something new;
• the desire to receive support, to be understood and accepted, the opportunity to speak out, the desire to get rid of real troubles;
• the desire to stand out from the crowd and improve your computer skills, to become a “guru” in the world of technology and the Internet.

How to fight

Whatever activity a person does at the computer, if we are talking about addiction, then the purpose of such activity is the same - escaping reality, creating the illusion of safety and security, restoring balance and inner harmony. The more a person gets bogged down in the computer world, the weaker his ability to exercise volitional regulation becomes.

Thus, getting rid of computer addiction involves complex work, starting with identifying the specific reasons for leaving reality. These problems are individual, but all addicts are united by a weak ability to adapt, impaired ability, and a low desire to avoid decisions and avoid problems.

To cope with the problem, you need to remove the roots of computer addiction:

1. Eliminate the discomfort experienced by a person in everyday life, that is, increase resistance to stress.
2. Work to increase responsibility and determination. As a rule, computer-dependent people are endowed with increased sensitivity to life's difficulties, do not know how to withstand the blows of fate, and deny their own importance in the development of life.
3. Achieve a change in mental state and mood from negative to positive. That is, find interesting activities for the individual in the real world and form.
4. Work on overcoming.

It is impossible to cope with the problem of addiction on your own - the patient himself has an altered consciousness, those around him rarely have the appropriate competencies. To determine the true reasons for the desire to escape from reality and work through them, I recommend seeking a personal consultation with a psychologist.

Prevention

The goal of prevention is to help a person realize responsibility for his own health and life, to make the individual informed in matters of decision-making and their consequences, as well as in matters of risk in the computer world. It is easier to prevent computer addiction; every person can do it. Prevention of gaming and computer addiction involves:

1. Formation of media culture and development of personal resistance to the aggressive influence of the computer environment (more about this in the article).
2. To hone practical skills, they are suitable for increasing psychological stability, reducing anxiety levels, increasing self-confidence, correcting self-esteem, and overcoming difficult life situations.
3. Self-realization and satisfaction in the real world, respecting yourself as a person, following your interests.
4. The ability to express and regulate your emotions, relieve tension.
5. Improving self-organization skills. Start small - making a plan for the day and sticking to it.
6. Ability to rest and turn off the computer on time. At first the computer becomes a means to an end, but gradually it becomes the end itself. Set your daily computer limit and turn it into something meaningful for you. If the work involves a computer, then indicate your daily earnings, which will be sufficient. If you are addicted to networks and games, then translate this into the damage they cause - you missed dinner with your family, you don’t have time to read a book. At the prevention stage, you can still cling to this; at the addiction stage, no “translations” will help.

The main rule for preventing gaming and computer addiction is to live the life you want. Of course, there are generally accepted social norms that must be observed. But where you have the right to choose and vote (work, relationships, hobbies, self-realization), you need to use it.

And, of course, it’s important. People run away from themselves much more often than from reality. Actually, this is why reality does not turn out the way we would like - there is no self-love and understanding of oneself.