Over the past two years, video games have helped millions of people beat the pandemic, establishing themselves as the most popular entertainment sector of all time besides music. According to a 2019 report, more than 2.4 billion people play video games, either on consoles or smartphones, and the global average is around one hour of gaming per day. However, for a growing number of people, electronic games are becoming an addiction, some members of the National Center for Gaming Disorders have explained to mics. BBC.

In 2019, the World Health Organization (WHO) recognized video game addiction as a real disease and launched a series of incentives to try to persuade an increasing number of associations to provide relief to those in need, also by creating the private sector. clinics. In the same year, the UK’s “National Gaming Disorder Center” was born, which was set up specifically to allow treatment for people with pathological gaming disorder.

The BBC was only recently able to visit the clinic, and in an interesting in-depth analysis, the newspaper revealed that it had seen some people (mostly teenagers) quite addicted to video games such as world of cans e counter strikeIt is enough to give up sleeping and eating just to play another game. Therapist, Becky Harris, said the number of cases doubled from 2020 to 2021, from one hundred to two hundred patients a year. At first glance, it may seem that the number is running out, but in fact it is a new case that is recognized every 2.5 days, and therefore it is a rather significant figure.

Psychologists say that although gaming disorder is a very rare condition, symptoms can be very severe.https://t.co/h79nZMKsNp

– BBC London (@BBCLondonNews) December 22 2021

In general, the number of players developing addiction is small when compared to the total number of players, especially in the UK where there are literally millions of players, but there is still a disease that should not be ignored, as Becky Harris herself points out: “We in the clinic accept the fact that games for For many people it is a positive, but it is important to take care of that percentage of people who appear to have major problems managing this medium and thus spoil their quality of life playing.”

As therapists explain, video games can be a great pastime, but playing for more than fourteen hours a day can seriously damage a person’s function, and after long periods without the intervention of psychiatrists and therapists, problems become difficult. dealing with.

What do you think? How many hours do you play in a day? Tell us in the comments! In case you are interested in learning more about the topic, you can Click here to read the full article.