Virtual Game Addiction: You Bet It’s Deadly

There are many many online virtual games such as WoW (World of Warcraft), Runescape, EverQuest, There, Trivian and many more and millions among millions of players. Some of these players have been addicted to these games since they started playing, and friends and family noticed their fellow role-player getting more and more depressed as they get sucked into the game. Some even commit suicide. Here is a typical story of such case:

Image by Lisa Andres via Flickr

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Liz, the mother of Shawn, a 21-year-old young man, knew that her son was getting sucked in deeper and deeper by his virtual game , but what she didn’t know is that he was slowly being eaten by depression until he was suicidal. One day, Shawn logged into his game account with a rifle in his hand, and shot himself “logging into his account, logging out of life”. His mother heard something so she came rushing to his room and knocked on the door screaming his name. With no answer, she barged in and found him lifeless, with the game running in front of him.

You can only imagine how Liz feels now, devastated is too little to describe, as is everything else. Be your own judge, Liz lost her son to what? Yes, a game.

Reasons:

There are usually issues with the kid or video-gamer that lead him to killing himself. Shawn had epilepsy for example. All the seizures might take a toll on his nerves or just psychologically. Most if not all video game addicts have a gap in their social life and they find it in MMORPG games, such as no friends; they have many friends in their virtual cyberspace so they develop an addiction here, and so on.

Other consequences:

If not death, credit card debt, all while on a game. 34 year old Fred, addicted to World of Warcraft, was about to lose his marriage because of this game, and has ignored his whole family until he was surprised with about $24,000 in debt.

Fred was on the Dr. Phil show and Shawn was mentioned in an episode called: “Virtual Chaos”.

Brad a former video game addict, also appeared on the show and he talked about how ridiculous it was, remembering his dark days. He also said that he was up late at night the day before his wedding, and was married with burning eyes… Is that where you want to end up?

Some moms might think that video games are the ‘Perfect Babysitter’; it’s not the case, not even close. Not only are you fuelling their addiction, but studies have it that most people while playing their virtual games DO open pornography sites, what no mom wants.

Asking for help:

Usually game addicts with depression try briefly to talk about their problem, then they take things into their own hands. There IS a US toll-free hotline for suicide prevention, it is: 1800-273-TALK (8255).

Conclusion: Virtual addiction is the “Hidden Danger” in all video games, so do not walk towards it like these men did and ruined their life in the making, some literally. I’m not saying don’t play games, have fun! But then again, fun isn’t with excessive playing and eventually depression.

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