Addiction or Compulsion?

24^th-30^th January – (Posted this last week, but it clearly didn’t work)

I have been hearing psychology professionals and many laymen suggest 'addiction' is synchronous with video game culture for years. Addiction is a broad term that many use to describe excessive video game play and abnormal psychological dependency, which can be related to other pleasure and enjoyment channels (porn, TV, food and exercise etc…). This dependency is said to be essential to the individual, and one must persist in engaging with the game even it is harmful to themselves, family, and other routines one must cohere to throughout life. Such compulsive behaviors encourage gamers to become so enthralled in the fantasy world of gaming that they neglect their family, friends, work, and school.

So, is Compulsive behaviour the same as addiction? I believe compulsion is a small part of addiction and a much more narrow term. One primary distinction between addiction and compulsion is the experience of pleasure – when one engages in a video game, there is an expectation that it will be pleasurable. People with an addiction suffer all manner of uneasiness; something I don’t witness in even my most devoted gamer friends. I am sure many have experienced video game pleasure; I have many friends/family who play games, and I have never seen a severe case of addiction that these so called ‘professionals’ assert. What I see as ‘pleasure’ and ‘compulsion’ is seen as ‘addiction’ by the World Health Organization’s criteria for addiction. This association could view people who bring their work home with them as addicts? Work can isolate one from family, friends and school, and there should be more investigations into the so-called psychological hooks placed into addiction, then maybe we can work less and have a more pleasurable life.

Another distinction between addiction and compulsion is to do with the gamers’ awareness of reality – whilst observing my ‘gamer’ friends, it is very clear they are aware of the video game as a way to obtain pleasure and at times procrastination. My friends are well aware of the fact that by engaging with a video game, it is taking them away from other routines (important activities perhaps). Video games are built to be enjoyable, therefore more focus, time and study should be spent on teaching parents how to be aware of their children’s need for pleasure and how to allow it in moderation.