WHO to recognize gaming disorder as mental health condition in 2018

This has been a growing concern for many people over the past few years. I have seen the destruction video game addiction (or you can use the word compulsion) has done in families and in the lives of students. This is not saying that it is bad to play video games just that if you play video games to much or have trouble separating fantasy from reality that there could be problems.

The WHO defines the disorder as a “persistent or recurrent” behavior pattern of “sufficient severity to result in significant impairment in personal, family, social, educational, occupational or other important areas of functioning.”

Gregory Hartl, a spokesman for the WHO, said the new ICD-11 entry on gaming disorder “includes only a clinical description and not prevention and treatment options.”