Mental Health Risk: Video Games on Addiction

Mental Health Risk: Video Games on Addiction
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Mental Health Risk: Video Games on Addiction
As an avid gamer, I played many games since my childhood days up to now. I play video games as a recreational activity with my friends, but that does not mean that my productivity is affected because of my time spent playing. In a way, these games help in balancing my social relationships and other responsibilities. Despite its potential benefits on my end, video games can negatively affect a person depending on their usages, which gives rise to different behavioral disorders such as addiction. Therefore, it is essential to know the risks of playing video games on the mental well-being of a person.
Video games significantly increased in popularity as technology improved, such as the improved levels of online interaction, the game design, in-game challenges etc. Also, video games are included within the features of our mobile phones, personal computers, and social networking sites, thus giving us easy access to play whenever and wherever we want. Annually, game developers release a hundred varieties of video games, so people can choose a game to match their taste. However, can addiction result from playing video games?
Hartney (2020) describes addictive behaviors as a range of activities that result in developing dependence-like behaviors to a rewarding stimulus despite knowing the harmful effects that it promotes to the well-being of a person. For example, alcoholics depend on the euphoric and numbing effects of alcohol on the body, thus making them drink alcohol regardless of time and place. Although many factors contribute to addictive behaviors, is video game addiction similar to substance addiction?
Lewis (2018) paralleled video game addiction as a similar kind of addiction to substance abuse and alcoholism. For instance, in ...