Game over? WHO classifies video game addiction as a mental health disorder

Moneycontrol News

UN's World Health Organisation has listed video game addiction as a mental health disorder. In WHO's latest disease classification manual, the addiction has been listed as a health disorder.

The gaming disorder will be considered as a separate condition and the organisation has warned countries to identify the mental illness among its citizens.

Dr. Shekhar Saxena, director of WHO's mental health department said that based on concrete scientific evidence, WHO has accepted the proposed idea that video gaming disorder should be listed as a new mental problem.

Dr. Joan Harvey, a spokeswoman for British Psychological Society was quoted in a report by Global News saying that only a minority of gamers will be affected by this disorder, and warned that this announcement from WHO might cause unnecessary concern among parents.

She also said, “People need to understand this doesn’t mean every child who spends hours in their room playing games is an addict, otherwise medics are going to be flooded with requests for help.”

Dr. Henrietta Bowden-Jones, a spokeswoman for behavioural addictions at Britain’s Royal College of Psychiatrists said in the report that: “We come across parents who are distraught, not only because they’re seeing their child drop out of school, but because they’re seeing an entire family structure fall apart.”

This decision from WHO was criticised by gamers around the world. For gamers, gaming is a daily routine and helps them de-stress, solve problems, and resolve complicated mental activities as well.

There are some young gamers who even look at video games as a perfect career option and even drop out of conventional education at an early age without completing their school level studies.