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Addicted gamer shares his struggle to find balance between the real world and the virtual world
While Tucson's KVOA may not be so well-versed in MMOs as to distinguish between Gears of War and Dark Age of Camelot, the local news station put together an interesting little piece on online game addiction nevertheless. The brief report highlights the story of Elijah Oster, a father and husband who got so pulled into MMOs that he began to neglect his family and suffer from insomnia. He admits that he failed to "budget enough time" for his loved ones, and would grow irritable when his wife interrupted his play sessions. Behavioral health counselor Jeffrey Friedman was brought in to comment on game addiction, which he says is similar to most forms of addition in that people's actions are dictated by what will cause them the least emotional pain. In this case, it's becoming overly dependent on an online world instead of the real one. Friedman works at the Cottonwood Tucson center. The report concludes with Oster sharing what he realized after treatment: "I started understanding the concept of balance."
