Online conference on the topic: “Emotional dysregulation and stress in gaming addiction: Gambling addiction (GD) and Internet-gaming addiction (IGD)” was held on October 31, 2020.
It was attended by psychiatrists, psychotherapists and psychologists from different countries: Switzerland, Egypt, Ethiopia, Russia and others.
During the meeting, specialists working in the field of mental health shared the results of their clinical studies and observations.
Contents of the meeting.
Doctors noted an increasing number of cases of constant problem and pathological games in their countries, especially in quarantine conditions.
This includes both gambling and online video games on the Internet. Symptoms of gaming addiction were most often observed in adolescents, high school students and young people under 35 years old.
All participants unanimously agreed that gaming information technologies were created with manipulative content to involve into the game and to keep the user’s attention in the game. As a result, they promote development of addiction to such degree that participation in games becomes a dominant need in their active users.
Also participants have made a conclusion that gambling, Internet games and a problem of social networks usage created an illusion of relaxation at the expense of temporary removal of problems during the time of immersion in game activity. This is actively popularized by the game industry as recreational effects. But in fact, players experience constant stress and emotional disbalance from euphoria, excitement to anxiety, fear, anger with aggression during the game itself. Dependent players experience astheno – depressive states for hours and days long after the game sessions.
The emotions and mood of the players are influenced by the increasing negative social consequences: debts, destruction of relationships in the family and team problems with productivity at work and difficulties in learning.
Chronic emotional distress and emotional dysregulation, in turn, contribute to the development of mood disorders, anxiety disorders and conflict, addictive and suicidal behavior.
The result of the meeting:
- The participants of the conference planned to conduct comprehensive joint research on the problem of game dependencies and dependence on social networks.
- They developed a complex of actions aimed at informing scientific, professional community and general public about negative influence of game information technologies on consciousness, brain and integral development of a person, especially children, teenagers and youth.
The next online conference on the topic: «Comorbid psychopathology in case of gambling addiction, Internet gaming disorder and addiction to social networks» will be held on December 6, 2020 at 17.00 CET (UTC +1).