Many parents name their children as “Kids with game addiction” when they see them spend too much time with playing games until it affects their development in each life stage, health problems, mental problems, lack of responsibilities and skills to learn other areas. What is more frightening that parents may not know is psychiatric disorder hidden in their mind and picking games to heal. To help parents differentiate between Gaming disorder and Psychiatric disorder, Dr. Sunida Sophonnarin, MD., Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at Phyathai 2 Hospital, would like to pass on some information below…

The indications of children with game addiction (Gaming disorder)
The World Health Organization or WHO has officially defined that Game addiction or Gaming disorder is categorized in disease list or health problems based on statistics globally in their International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11).

The indications of children with game addiction classified by WHO are as follows.
1. Preoccupation with playing games persistently, unable to set priority
2. Gaming becomes the dominant activity causing a significant impairment in personal, family, education, relationship, social and occupation etc.
3. Having been evident for at least 12 months

No need to stop! Just reduce being on screen…problems will decrease
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends that children younger than 2 years should not watch digital media and when up to 2- 5, they can watch appropriately (not over 2 hours). Dr. Sunida Sophonnarin, MD. advises that children should spend not over 15-30 minutes in order to experience other activities to reduce the risks of gaming disorder and the negative impact from playing game as follows.

1. Health problems: Sitting with long-term video game activity without exercising may cause obesity or growth disorder as muscles rarely move, eyestrain or digestive problems. For mental disorders, it lowers the capacity of self-control, analytical thinking and decision making.
2. Movement problems: It hinders children’s development with movement and muscles such as romping, climbing, hanging, balancing or distance and direction shifting which may make them unable to play with friends and get social isolation.
3. Learning problems: Children with game addiction will pay less attention to their study and lower their responsibilities in every area. Poor grades will contribute low self-esteem and make them escalate significantly in playing games as it can serve their imagination as a winner.
4. Violence problems: It depends on the game content which young children can fully emulate. If they gather as a group, it may develop to violence in teenage.
5. Family problems: Dr. Sunida Sophonnarin, MD. mentions that if children can take responsibility and play games as leisure, there’s nothing terrifying, However, if parents feel that they spend less time with their children, they should come back to talk to them more, allocate additional time and join activities with them such as practicing music, sports and arts together to decrease the possibility to addict with games.

I don’t addict with games…but there’s a disease hidden inside.
Dr. Sunida Sophonnarin, MD says that it more concerns if some children have any diseases hidden but parents don’t even know. They may think that their children addict with games in order to vent, not to participate with others, deviate negative thoughts or make themselves feel better.

The common diseases found are Depression disorder, Anxiety disorder and Bipolar disorder which make children worried, irritated, nasty, aggressive and isolated. Some are also under the delusion and scared. In this case, game is not a problem but it’s something else children use to heal a hidden disease. This is what parents have to strongly pay attention to.

Therefore, for the Diagnostic procedure, the psychiatrist will take away gaming disorder and diagnose children to find and treat a hidden disease behind them and follow up whether the degree of game addiction is lower.

Recommendation to parents…by Dr. Sunida Sophonnarin, MD
Parents or guardians always play an important role of gaming disorder in children. Dr. Sunida Sophonnarin, MD recommends that parents have to be firm in disciplines and time limitation and should not give up due to family displeasure or children’s defiance. They must importantly not forget to express loves and praise when their children behave well. These are important factors to help decrease family problems which parents can follows the guidelines below.

1. Parents should find more time to spend with their children, join any activities together to develop their skills such as travelling, watching documentary, going out to play or playing brain development games.
2. To change from stopping them from playing games to helping them to select good contents of games suitable to their age and development. And do not forget to arrange appropriate time to do other helpful activities to enhance their life skills.
3. To have a positive attitude towards playing games and consider it as personal preferences which can help enhance children skills such as languages, solving problems and planning. Parents must allocate appropriate time for them and not cause anybody any troubles.
4. If children choose proper games challenging their skills of planning, language practice, patience and working as a team, parents should link them to the real world by playing with them and taking game problems as experiences to solve problems in the real world.

No matter our children have Gaming disorder or Psychiatric disorder hidden, to blame games is not the best gateway. Don’t let the word “Kids with game addiction” to be a wall to hide the psychiatric disorder. Parents should hold their children’s hand to break that wall together and support the doctor’s treatment to clear the path for them to achieve their strong future and happiness.