The conversation of whether videogame addiction qualified as an actual addition began when my friend called me on the phone crying. Her husband had stopped to buy an X-Box on their way home from her surgery. She was in immense pain and completely powerless to stop the allure of the X-Box. This sparked a conversation between us about whether or not gaming addiction was, as we assumed, an actual addiction. From what she shared, the counselor she and her husband went to see dismissed the problem of his excessive video game playing. The counselor considered it an outlet, and suggested they work out a schedule when he could play. The problem was, he did not follow the schedule. The first step to finding the solution to a problem is admitting there is a problem. I initially thought this would be a relatively simple task. It should be easy to tell what is an addiction versus…show more content… The website, in addition to providing a short definition, also provides a longer definition of addiction as well as many of the criteria and consequences of it. I found it especially helpful when the website discussed addiction in early adolescence. The development of an addiction is more likely when an adolescent is exposed to a substance, because they are still developing. This is a valuable point to my research, as it focuses on adolescents and not simply addiction in general. While the ASAM website is a valuable resource to my research, it is also somewhat limited. This is because it does not focus on videogame addiction, but on other types of addictions such as substance, sex, and food. I understand why this is, it is because videogame addiction is not yet recognized as an addiction by the ASAM, or any other health organization currently. This does not mean it will never be recognized, I believe it means that it is not yet recognized because there is not yet enough data on videogame addiction and not enough prevalence of the
