Since the World Health Organisation classified gaming addiction as a mental health disorder in January 2018, it’s been at the heart of an ongoing conversation. About its extent – how many gamers are undiagnosed addicts? – the nature of its treatment, and in some quarters, about its validity as a recognised disorder.
As if that conversation wasn’t knotty enough, it’s happened in tandem with Fortnite’s ascension beyond gaming popularity and into the kind of social phenomenon that’s referenced by footballers’ celebrations in the World Cup final and, inevitably, vilified by the tabloid media. While the WHO’s classification cast previously accepted gaming habits under new scrutiny, front page newspaper headlines like ‘Fortnite made me a suicidal drug addict’ seem intent on sending gaming to the guillotine before the debate about addiction has really begun in earnest.
There’s a danger of these two separate entities – the medical world recognising a new disorder and the tabloid media recognising a new villain for its front pages – becoming conflated in popular consciousness. A danger that we dismiss the notion of gaming addiction out of hand, because of the absurdity of its depiction in tabloid stories. And perhaps even a danger that we see the disorder, like the salacious headlines, as a phase, a ‘trending’ mental health condition, the causes and effects of which will all die down once the bubble of Fortnite’s mainstream relevance bursts. That’s a myopic view, and one that fails to acknowledge that gaming addiction was being recognised and treated before the WHO’s updated International Classification of Diseases (ICD) last January.
Source: Eurogamer Inside the rehab clinics treating gaming addiction disorder