Recently, gaming disorder was considered by the World Health Organization to be a mental health condition. You may be wondering what it is about video games that are so addictive. In order to understand why you or someone you know is addicted to video games, it is important to know what features are in video games that makes it hard for you to stop.

Some games have no ultimate goal. That means that there will never be a game over when you are finished with your quest. You can just keep playing to try to achieve as many levels as possible. Another reason is because video games encourage people to interact socially with each other. Maybe you have trouble talking to people in person. In video games, you can look like anybody and speak through chat or microphone which can replace real-life relationships. It can also be an interesting fact to know that you are playing with people from the other side of the world joining together in the same quest. You can make teams and want to improve your strengths in order to continue being on this team. You can also feel pressured to play when your teammates are playing as well no matter how late or how long.

Video games can also be time-consuming where it can take a long time to complete a level. It can take weeks or months to move onto the next level and you always want to improve no matter how long it takes. Getting prizes and rewards can improve your confidence, power, control, respect and status whether it is real money or virtual money. Plus, the longer you play, you will be able to reach the levels where you will be rewarded. People also do not want to stop playing since games continually update or there are new rules so you do not want to be out of the loop.

The most common reason why people prefer the gaming world to the real world is you can make your character have attributes that you wish you had in real-life, form relationships, your dream career, and accomplish tasks that would either require big efforts or nearly impossible in the real world. It is important to remember that video gaming should be a fun activity to do and should not take over your whole life or you can miss out on real life experiences.

Located in Tacoma, Washington, Bayview Center’s mission is to offer clinically-driven programs and services to treat a number of substance abuse disorders along with anxiety and depression using cognitive behavioral therapy, dialectical behavioral therapy, trauma therapy, yoga therapy, and more for a successful recovery. For more information, please call us 888 570 7154 at as we are open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.