Video Game Addiction

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Does anyone else suffer from video game addiction? This is the only thing I've ever actually been addicted to in my life. I have played games since I was young (SNES) and now continue to play them. I enjoy them thoroughly and always feel like there's a goal to accomplish.

The problem with this is that I also have other goals that I want to accomplish but I can't seem to stop playing the games to move towards the other goals. I need to break this addiction because my other goals are more important than the video game goals. Even though I enjoy the video game goals more, I have other priorities that I need to take care of.

Anyone have any advice? Are there rehab clinics for video game addicts?

Ay, the entire concept pisses me off... but I'll stay rational.

There is no such thing as video game addiction. Some games are designed in such a way that you feel compelled to play, but no, as gaming does not alter your biochemistry to make you physically dependent, it is not true addiction. Something is lacking in your life, and you fill that void with positive stimuli (like games). That is the essence of video game addiction. Treat your life, treat your compulsion.

While I wouldn't be surprised at this point if there were rehab clinics for "Game Addicts", that is not what you need. Don't go to real rehab either, you will be a laughingstock, and for good reason. Those people have been shooting chemicals into their arms and up their nose for years, destroying their health and lives, you play too many video games. My suggestion? Examine your life. What do you want to be doing? Video games? Then ^&*% it, play video games. But if there's something you genuinely want to change? Change it. There is no biochemical process forcing you to game against your will. Go outside, get some sun, meet some people. Find the void, and plug it proper. Easier said than done, yeah? Well, therapy helps. Because if you're spending all of your time gaming, there's some psychological reason why.

If you really have to, get rid of all of your games. Throw out your systems, uninstall everything, have someone change the password on your steam account. ^&%* it, install Linux. Take away the temptation so you can focus on other stuff. Yeah, you're gonna be tempted to go out and buy more, or start Farmville or something, but at the end of the day, you have to sack up and take it. Because that's the only way to progress.

My 18 year old is totally obsessed with online gaming. He would spend every waking minute in front of his computer playing WoW if we let him. He is so bad that we still have to impose time limits on him. We tried leaving him to it in the hope that he would mature and realise that the real world is much better but in fact what happened was he really did spend every waking minute on his computer. It's not healthy. People have actually died in the past from dvt from spending all their time in front of their computers. Our son already has fatty tissue on his liver from eating junk, which we try to monitor but when he has money and he's at college that's what he does, eat junk. We don't know what else to do. He just thinks we're getting on at him if we say anything to him about his computer usage.

People would probably say I'm addicted to video games. In the past 5 years I've played about 400 days (over 10k hours) of Runescape plus other games. There are times when I'm on the computer from the time I get up until I go to bed.