Games online - a real "virtual society." This is where acquaintances take place, friendship is born, and sometimes romantic affection, people communicate, engage in an important "toy" business, temporarily forgetting about "adult" problems and the daily craziness of everyday life. However, such leisure is not so harmless and there is a danger of getting into a game addiction, which will inevitably affect real life. How to identify the first signs of addiction?
The era of instant communications has spawned new entertainment. One of the most popular is online games. On the one hand, this is a wonderful relaxation, moving consciousness into virtual reality, the ability to disconnect from annoying problems. Most games are paid, but is it a pity to pay for the pleasure and light adrenaline that a favorite toy brings to life? Some games enter human life so much that they play them for years. However, gradually the game draws deeper and deeper, it takes more and more time and money, and once reality shifts to the periphery of consciousness, while the virtual “second life” becomes paramount. A person, as it were, loses a sense of reality, constantly solving game problems, a personality degrades, full connections with society are lost. How to recognize a threat?
- A new day begins with the question: what new happened in the game in your absence while you were offline?
- Do you feel uncomfortable and anxious if for some reason you can’t get online or enter the game?
- Do you constantly, at the first opportunity, check and control the gameplay, even if you are visiting?
- Are you ready to postpone necessary household duties for later - breakfast, bathing, washing dirty dishes, cleaning the house, walking your favorite dog?
- Are you ready to postpone, reschedule an important meeting if any important events from your point of view take place in the game?
- Do you stay up until the morning of the game, risking oversleeping and being late for work or study?
- Reduce the time of communication with loved ones to finally enter the network and enter the desired link in the browser bar?
- Are you ready to run in the rain and slush to the terminal to "pour" some amount of money?
- Ready to pay for the game values, sacrificing the necessary costs for those who are nearby?
- Game relationships become important to you, do you attach importance to game conflicts arising between players?
- Do you feel aggression, ready for "chat wars"?
- Does it not seem to you that hating people you are not familiar with is at least weird, and by and large - a mental disorder?
- Mentally continue to ponder the strategy of the game or argue with your gaming opponents, being outside the Internet network?
- Have you started a romantic relationship and “virtual love” with one of the game characters, and you feel how imperfect your real partner is?
- You don’t like the fact that you spend too much time and money on the game, problems at home, at work troubles, and, having decided to limit yourself, did you feel that the desire to enter the game has become even stronger?
- Are you ready to spend days in the game world on weekends, on vacation or on vacation?
- Are you increasingly identifying yourself with a game character, and your game nickname is gradually becoming your middle name?
If at least some points correspond to your behavior, then this indicates that your consciousness is in danger, and you yourself are immersed in a game addiction. Gamer, gamer is not such a harmless psychological diagnosis. Of course, gambling is not a drug or alcohol that destroys a person at the chemical level. Here the effect on your psyche is more subtle and insidious. Gaming addiction distorts real connections and relationships. You experience strong positive or negative emotions towards people you don’t even know. This is like schizophrenia. Your time belongs to virtuality, consisting of pixels, but you could devote it to reading books, traveling, fishing, walking with your loved ones, watching interesting movies, parties with real friends, sex, hobbies, landscaping an apartment, making money in the end!
How to get rid of gaming addiction?
It will not be as easy as it seems at first glance. You can try to show willpower and part with your favorite game - for a while or forever. But, most likely, the game will take its toll, and after a short break you will return to it with redoubled energy. Perhaps it is best to change the situation, go on vacation or to the cottage, where there is no Internet. Make yourself walk. In love, in the end, having crossed out one dependence - another, more real and reasonable. And if the game is firmly established in your life and you devote more than 2-3 hours a day to it, it is best to contact a professional psychologist.
Indeed, if you face the truth, it’s foolish to deny the fact that a strong dependence on an online game is like real voluntary online slavery, thanks to which gaming business companies cynically and shamelessly sell you an electronic-pixel existence, a virtual illusion in exchange for time your life and the money you earned.