According to World Health Organization, the WHO will start recognizing Gaming Disorder as a proper disease starting as early as 2018.
There has always been a negative stigma attached to gaming addiction, with many parents touting the addiction to gaming as a proper disease. There has not been a lot of actual scientific evidence to back it up, so organizations have usually steered away from this issue.
However, in an interesting development, the World Health Organization has decided to officially recognize ‘Gaming Disorder’ as a proper disease, as witnessed through their 2018 International Classification of Diseases.
As for what actually classifies as fitting into the disorder, a ‘Gaming Disorder’ is characterized by a pattern of inconsistent behavior in which the user recurrently spends time playing games. This can be on any digital device or on offline machines. Essentially, if you are unable to stop yourself from playing games, then you may have a dire infliction.
Essentially, what WHO is saying is that if gaming takes over your life to the point where you are unable to focus on other important aspects such as eating, sleeping, and socializing. There is no remedy or treatment for the infliction nor is there any prevention technique mentioned by the WHO.
However, this does mean that doctors or insurance companies can treat people for a Gaming Disorder, as it is officially a disease now. As for testing whether or not you have the disorder, simply do the alcoholism test and replace the word alcohol with gaming.
Gaming addiction is a very controversial topic, and this revelation will surely add fuel to the fire. So be sure to let us know what you think of WHO’s decision using the comments section below!
Image Credits: Valve.
