Caged Rats and Video Game Addiction

Estimated reading time: 7 minutes

When we hear the words video-game addiction, our minds generally leap to an image of a teen guy hunched over a game controller—empty Red Bull cans and chip bags at the side—glaring at a screen with bloodshot eyes at 3 a.m. Some of you might actually picture your bleery-eyed male family member in that visual. (Why “male” you ask? It’s because gaming obsession generally hits teen and adult guys the hardest.)

But … is it real? Can you really be addicted to a video game? And if you can, what do you do about it?

It’s a scary visual. And we as a society have been worrying over that mental image and the idea of gaming addiction for a very long time. Gaming addiction has been a part of our vernacular since the 1980s when the first reports of it started popping up in psychological and psychiatric papers.

Is It Really, Really Real?

Well, the answer to that first question is a qualified yes.

Researchers have been studying the game-addiction concept—equating it to the likes of gambling addiction—and suggested that somewhere between 1.7 to 10% of the American public may fall into that category. Yeah, I know, that’s a huge range. But that’s because even experts can’t agree on what criteria constitutes gaming addiction (also called internet gaming disorder). So, let’s start there.

In general, “addicted” gamers have:

1. Lousy performance at school, work or home because they can’t stop playing video games.
2. Withdrawal symptoms if someone snatches the games away.
3. A need to spend more and more time playing to get the same level of enjoyment.
4. An inability to quit even when they try.
5. A marked decline in personal hygiene because of that ever-present controller in their mitt.
6. A compelling need to play in order to escape depressing or stressful situations.

Now, if you scan down that list, those problematic bullet points might sound similar to your teen’s compulsive connection to her cell phone or stories you’ve read about people hooked on porn, binge eating, thrill seeking activities or even … obsessive shopping!

Yep. That’s the rub, isn’t it? We humans can go overboard in just about everything. And those compulsive behaviors are particularly strong and damaging for some of us. In the gaming category, for instance, I recall a terrible story from 2009 about a Korean couple who were so obsessed with their online gaming that they actually let their young infant starve to death during their all-night gaming binges.  

It’s terrifying to think someone could be that disconnected from reality. But that’s the problem. Addictions of every stripe tend to be all about disconnecting from the world at large. (More on that idea in just a bit.)

Gimme a fix

So, if someone in your orbit is demonstrating a level of obsession in their gaming lives, what are the experts saying you can do?

In the 1990s, families wary of gaming addiction were encouraged to simply ban all forms of gameplay, period. Experts said they should unplug those machines and chuck ‘em in the trash. But that wasn’t always as effective as some hoped. After all, Junior’s friends still had gaming consoles at their houses. So, Junior was eager for play dates, sleepovers and any excuse to go to their bud’s place.

Besides, this approach pretty quickly showed us that the real problem wasn’t the gaming console: video games aren’t evil, scheming entities waiting by with nasty intentions. It’s our own behaviors that cause issues.

Then came the era of therapy—structured, goal-oriented strategies designed to get parents and kids thinking about their choices and then establishing better patterns.

That can be a positive step. Certainly, the more problematic the level of addiction is, the more counseling might be the best way forward. And if that’s a route you want to go, Focus on the Family’s own counseling services just might be able to point you in the right direction. (You can connect with them by calling 1-855-771-HELP or you can contact our free counseling service.)

But families can lean on some other strategies, too. One of the most popular strategies you’ll find online influencers suggesting is something called the 5-R approach.

Essentially the five Rs involve taking time to record just how long someone is actually spending on gameplay so they can then realize the amount of productive time it’s sucking out of their lives. Then they should analyze what they’re actually getting from all that invested time. In many cases, it might come down to just a pleasant injection of dopamine—the neurotransmitter that plays a key role in several bodily functions, including pleasurable reward and motivation. Games are built on that dopamine-rush reward system boost.

After that, gamers can consider how to replace that boost. Are there other more productive activities (exercise, team sports, music, dancing) that might deliver a similar positive boost during their spare time?

Then the next R involves creating rules that will help keep things in a healthier balance. For example, gamers might establish an “if-then” or “reward-focused” rule. “If I get an hour of study and homework completed, then I can reward myself with an hour of play.” That sort of rule system puts the onus of responsibility on the gamer himself. 

The last R then is removal. If all else fails and things are really bad, then, yeah, getting the game out of sight is probably best. But the idea is that if the gamer goes through that five R process, then they will more likely recognize the wisdom of stepping back rather than having Mom or Dad make the iron-fisted decision.

The rat theory and game addition

I’ll offer one other idea to consider. And I like this one a lot. It centers on Dr Bruce Alexander’s study of rats and addiction in the 1970s.

Common thought at the time was that if you set something addictive in front of man or beast, the subject would naturally turn to that addictive substance. And the theory was “proved” when scientists put a rat in a cage with access to either water or water laced with heroin or cocaine. In every example, a caged rat chose the drugged water. And it chose that substance to the point of its own death.

However, Alexander said, Hold up, what if it’s not the drug, but the cage?

He duplicated the same water-or-drug options for his subjects, but instead of sticking the rat in a cell with nothing to do, he plopped the rat in an environment with a pack of other rats and ratty amusements. He put the rats in a happy little rat city, in other words. And in those cases, the rats chose … the water. And even if they sampled the drug-laced substance, they only did so infrequently. And they never did so to their own extinction.

What’s the point? It’s the community interaction that makes a difference. And that’s also a natural instinct that’s baked into we humans, too. We thrive in community. We long to belong.

And in these days of wine and, uh, social media, we rarely do.

Studies show, for instance, that 60% of Americans report feeling lonely on a regular basis. And 35% say they’re lonely frequently. That same 35% report not having anyone they can go to in a crisis. And loneliness has been shown to be more deadly than obesity and deliver the negative health equivalent of smoking a pack of cigarettes a day.

When things aren’t working in the healthy, life-flourishing ways that we naturally want them to, then what do we do? We turn to things that give us some escape, some disconnecting sense of relief. And video games definitely fit that bill.

So, my suggestion for families mulling over the game (or social media, or binge eating, or binge streaming, etc.) addiction question is to think of ways to build your community in positive ways. Get your kids out of that rat cage. Make things happier and healthier outside the game room and immersion inside the game world becomes less of a necessity.

Yep, that approach will take more time, more money, and more effort on a family’s part. But it’s for a much bigger purpose than just a fear of games. And anyway, aren’t those non-bloodshot eyes worth it?