World Health Organization (WHO) has announced that compulsive game playing is now a mental health condition.
According to NY Post:
The WHO defines a “gaming disorder” as having three major characteristics that experts say are similar to substance use disorders and gambling disorder.
“One is that the gaming behavior takes precedence over other activities to the extent that other activities are taken to the periphery,” Dr. Vladimir Poznyak, of the WHO’s Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse, told CNN.
The other two are impaired control over gaming and continuation or an increase in gaming despite negative consequences like “disturbed sleep patterns, like diet problems, like a deficiency in the physical activity,” Poznyak said.
The pattern of behavior must be present for at least 12 months before it can be officially diagnosed as a disorder.
“It cannot be just an episode of few hours or few days,” Poznyak warned.
The good news is it sounds like it only affects a small number of people. Click here to read more!