Back to Square One

Two weeks of non-stop gaming and I’m back exactly where I started when I first started writing this blog. Worse in fact, I’m deeper into a school semester of disinvolvement. Ah but what an exciting two weeks it was! (Sarcasm)

I uninstalled LoL two days ago, so I was a little bit bored and tried out the PS3 game my roomate was playing. Not much better, 20 hours of play in two days… I woke up yesterday at 12 and looked at the clock at 2pm, 6:30pm, 9pm, 12:30pm, 3:30 pm. It is remarkable how absorbed I can get with those games. At least in LoL, one gets to emerge every 30-50 minutes.

In a great interview, Dr. Norman Doidge describes how plastic the brain is and how it is both the cause and cure to addiction. Doidge’s uses an fun metaphor where the brain is a powdery ski hill where tracks in snow get deeper, faster and harder to get out off as the more you use them. My gaming track probably looks like the grand canyon by now. Whenever I fall in there I’m off for quite a ride.

That somewhat explains why one match leads to two leads 120, but what it doesn’t explain is the insane moods that come with it. I described in a previous article how dopamine contributes to video game addiction. When playing for 12 hours straight, you can imagine the amount of stimulation and dopamine the brain is experiencing. Normal life stimuli become irrelevant and unexciting.

Even if I haven’t played video games today. I’m still bored from my playing yesterday.

What brain plasticity tells us, is that any action you do now, not only has an effect now, but  leaves traces in the brain. On a more philosophical notes, brain plasticity entails that:

Future brain activity is affected by present brain activity.

Think of it as a building game where every time you put a block down, you will have to deal with that block afterward, want it or not. The game of go (chess-like board game) is also make an excellent metaphor of balancing present and future implication of a move.

Playing doctors

I am officially sick.

Addiction as a medical condition

The American Society of Addiction Medecine defines addiction as the following:

Addiction is a primary, chronic disease involving brain reward, motivation, memory and related circuitry. Dysfunction in these circuits leads to characteristic biological, psychological, social and spiritual manifestations.

The society has expanded the definition of addiction based on an understanding that both psychoactive drugs and certain behaviors that produce a surge of dopamine in the midbrain are the biological substrate for addictive behavior. (Smith)

To complete the reasoning:

Physical manifestations of video game addiction are evident in players: dopamine(a naturally occurring chemical that affects emotions and controls feelings of pain and pleasure) is released, producing a feeling of euphoria. (Anand, 2007)

Substances that cause the brain to release dopamine include cocain and amphetamines. Both are considered strong drugs with some degree of docial stygma. One starts to see why you might be in more trouble than you thought.

Symptoms

Maressa Hecht Orzack who is the founder and coordinator of the Computer Addiction Service at McLean hospital MA and a member of the Harvard Medical School faculty has identified the following psycological symptoms to video game addiction:

• Most non-school hours are spent on the computer or playing video games.
• Falling asleep in school.
• Not keeping up with assignments.
• Declining grades.
• Lying about computer or video game use.
• Choosing to use the computer or play video games rather than see friends.
• Dropping out of other social groups (clubs or sports).
• Irritable when not playing a video game or on the computer.

Add to that the following physical symptoms:

• Carpal tunnel syndrome
• Sleep disturbances
• Back and neck aches
• Headaches
• Dry eyes
• Failure to eat regularly
• Neglect of personal hygiene

I’ve already shared how many of these symptoms applied to me. It is striking that the clinical list matches so well my experience . . . hopefully not yours.

Hard to heal

To recap, there is a certain category of substances released by the brain responsible to reward behaviour positive for survival, dopamine among others. Ususally those substances are released by life-nurturing behavious such as eating, drinking or sex. Addictive behaviours cause the brain to release those same substances associated with survival. Over time addictive behaviour that have nothing to do with survival can climb up in the need hierarchy, leading to addiction.

In a letter to the editor, David E. Smith explains how once the reward paths of the brain have been hijacked by the addictive behaviour, addicts are logically aware that they do not need the drug, but survival drives tend to take precedence over logic.

Sadly it seems addiction cannot be cured but can at best be brought into remission through a program of treatment, abstinence from all psychoactive substances, and supported recovery. (Smith)

I hope this helps change your perception about your own and other’s condition. It did change mine.

“To heal and Protect” – Soraka