Important things to ask when you are looking for help
in treating video game addiction:
Do you believe that video games can be addictive?
Have you ever treated anyone for computer or video game
addiction?
If not, what is your approach for treating addiction?
Do you believe that video game addiction needs to be
treated directly as a primary problem? Or merely as a
symptom for an underlying problem? [You want to work with
someone who will treat video game addiction as a primary
problem, not as a secondary issue.]
On-line resources and specialists:
The National Institute on Media and the Family
does not endorse any of the following resources.
We offer these resources as information.
Dr. Maressa Orzack, Licensed clinical psychologist,
on the Harvard Medical School faculty, Coordinator
of Computer Addiction Services at McLean Hospital,
at www.computeraddiction.com.
Dr. Kimberly Young, Executive Director,
Center for Online Addiction, at www.netaddiction.com.
TechAddiction.ca:
An information & treatment service for
internet addiction, computer addiction, and
videogame addiction. Learn helpful tips, strategies,
and interventions offered Clinical Psychologist
Brent Conrad who is based in Halifax, Nova
Scotia, Canada and also works at Saint Mary's
University. (http://www.techaddiction.ca/home/index.html)
Further research and print resources:
"Video Game Addiction Among Adolescents:
Associations with Academic Performance and
Aggression" (April, 2003). A paper presented
at the Society for Research in Child Development
Conference by Dr. Marney R. Hauge and Dr.
Douglas A. Gentile, at www.psychology.iastate.edu/faculty/dgentile/SRCD%20Game%20Addiction.pdf.
"Measuring Problem Video Game Playing
in Adolescents" (December, 2002). By
Salguero, Moran, and Bersabe in Addiction,
volume 97, page 1601.
"Video Games and Public Health"
(February, 2004). Journal of Adolescence,
27, 1.
"Internet Addiction: A New Clinical
Phenomenon and Its Consequences" (December,
2004). By Kimberly Young in American Behavioral
Scientist, 48, page 402.
