WHO Lists Excessive Gaming As A Disorder

If you spend over three hours playing FIFA or PES or candy crush on your mobile phones, you might be suffering from Excessive Gaming Disorder.

WHO’s International Classification of Diseases (ICD) defines addiction as

 “a pattern of persistent or recurrent gaming behaviour” that includes “impaired control over gaming, increasing priority given to gaming to the extent that gaming takes precedence over other life interests and daily activities; and continuation or escalation of gaming despite the occurrence of negative consequences”.

Naturally, gamers who play for a long time exhibit these symptoms of addiction. Last month, the World Health Organization (WHO) listed it as a deadly disease with disturbing side effects ranging from insomnia, depression to physical health issues.

That is not all, it was listed under the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorder (DSM), a publication of the American Psychiatric Association in 2013. Some gamers who tried to stop completely at once have said that they exercised thoughts of committing suicide more than once.

Although there is no known stipulated hour, people (especially parents), are advised to limit their gaming time to 2 hours or less rather than bringing it to a full stop abruptly.