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Video gaming has had a huge impact on my family

What started out as a fun activity for my son, has to a large degree taken over his life. He is a bright and creative young man but in the last couple of years has dropped all other interests and activities. He is angry and sad, and has lost initiative as well as dreams for his future. I have tried various strategies for limiting his computer game use to no avail. His desire to play, and to escape whatsoever is painful for him seems to be the main driving force in his life right now. It has meant that he has not graduated with his class, has lost his job, does not have his drivers license and has not participated in lots of what life has to offer in terms of activities outside of the virtual life. I'm hopeful that some time away from technology will remind him of important parts of himself that have been put away. I'm grateful for this program and that my son now has a desire to move beyond gaming and back into his life. --Peggy

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I play WOW until I pass out in the chair

After I get of work I detour to the store pick up food, get home and get on the computer and WoW it up till I pass out in the chair, wake up in the middle of the night, make my way to bed, get up when the alarm goes off, go to work and repeat the cycle all over again. The biggest problem in my life is trying to enough time to play WoW and CoH (City of Heroes), but is that really a life? I don't know anymore

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I can see the tech addiction in the modern age is a problem

However, apart from looking at and breaking the addiction, there is also the need to learn how to live with the tech without letting it control your life. In today’s modern age, where the majority of employment relies on the use of computers and or internet, and more the likely, 18+ year old have a job that involves IT or the internet, when they return from their recovery programme what is to prevent them from becoming addicted again. They will have to learn that it okay to leave the mobile/cell phone and laptop at home and just get away somewhere.In saying that, when I first started using the internet back in 1997, I did spend a lot of time on it. For almost 3 years, people would say that I was spending an obsessive amount of time getting lost in the virtual worlds. Depriving myself of sleep, spending only a few hours a night sleeping and not looking after my health properly (I missed the signs of the onset of Essential Tremors). One day I woke up to myself, I am not sure what did it, but something in me snapped and I thought this wasn’t good. For whatever reason I began to reconnect with other interests and the like and seeing more of the wide world in real life rather than from a computer screen. I was hard and I fell back into old habits a few times, but in the end it was worth it, and I feel stronger for it.Now days I rule the tech in my life, the tech doesn’t rule me. I can leave my cell/mobile phone at home, I can read a book, I can go for a walk and not feel the pull of the computer calling me back. I still use the computer for work, I am starting my own computer business, I play on-line games and use the computer for other purposes, but I control them, I know when to turn them off. Occasionally I will play a game, on or off line, late into the night, but that I because I want to, not because I have to.Having access to help, and having it recognised as an issue is good thing. I can see tech addition is like any other kind of addiction, the only problem can be here that if somewhere does spend a lot of time on the net or computer they came be labelled as a “geek” and the addiction not be recognised.

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