Gaming Disorder Is Bullshit

Gaming Disorder is now officially a thing according to the World Health Organization and when I hear news like this I can't help but raise an eyebrow and let out a rather exasperated sigh.  Gaming Disorder is where a person just wants to plays games SO DAMN MUCH that they let other aspects of their life fall into disrepair or it starts to have impacts on their own health.

Now I'm not saying that some kind of addiction to a game or gaming at large isn't a thing AT ALL.  We may have experienced or have known someone who has played a certain game and been absolutely OBSESSED with it.  In my teenage years I was guilty of letting my studies slip a little in favor of playing World of Warcraft but to turn my momentary lack of self control into a full blown "disorder" is just insanity.

From what I can gather it's mostly based on how much you game and where you priorities lie but this is a stupid way to gauge it because one might be gaming not because of an addiction to the medium but because they don't want to do something else.  For example when I was younger I'd game an absolute shit ton because I was being bullied at school.  I didn't want to study because that would just remind me of all the shit I was going through and I didn't want to talk about it with family because doing that never fixed a damn thing so I resorted to escapism through gaming.  It wasn't addiction to games as much as it was just wanting to think about ANYTHING else.  Funnily enough, it was when some other people in that school reached out to me to play Counter Strike that things started improving so if anything gaming helped and I can't imagine just how miserable I would have been if on top of everything I started getting diagnosed with bullshit disorders.

The other thing that irks me is that most of the stories around this topic that I've seen are involving children.  I saw one article that talked about a 10 year old who was gaming so much that he refused to go to the bathroom, fucked up his bowls and had to get surgery.  Of course the article was like "AREN'T THESE ADDICTIVE GAMES SO AWFUL?!" when the question that should have been asked is "Where the fuck are the parents?".  If you're such a weak piece of shit that you can't get a 10 year old away from Fortnite for a few hours then you probably should have never had children in the first place.  Don't demonize my hobby just because you can't take charge of your shitty kid.

Millions of people play games and the vast majority of them are fine, well rounded people.  Trying to lump some fakey illness on those that like to do it a little more than others is pathetic and damaging to those who might have an ACTUAL problem with addiction.  Still, there's a number of experts that have come forward and criticized the listing so it just goes to show that not everyone discussing the topic is a moron.