Janet Hunt loves spending time with her husband Don. But a year ago, he only had time for one thing – his videogame.
"Sometimes he could play up to 20 hours straight,” Janet said. “He could be on there by 6am and by the time that 3am or 4am that night rolled around, he could still be sitting there playing."
"It's just total immersion into the game, as your reality, instead of the real reality." Don said.
It got so bad that Don lost his job and Janet filed for divorce.
"It was lonely. It was real lonely,” Janet said. “And it felt like I was like a widow. That I had lost my other half and just, I felt alone all the time."
Janet’s story is all too familiar to Ryan Van Cleave, author of the videogame addiction book “Unplugged.” He says more and more adults are becoming consumed by the games, and the consequences can be grave.
"They're killing careers, they're killing families, they're killing relationships, they're killing health, and literally now we're having people killing others and themselves over videogames." Van Cleave said.
How bad can it get? Police removed six children from the home of a mother in Pennsylvania, after finding them lying in filth and animal waste. The kids’ stepfather says the mom was too addicted to games to care for the children.
A Denver mother admitted she was playing an online Facebook game when her one-year-old son drowned in the bathtub.
And in Ohio, a teen was convicted of murdering his mother and wounding his father because they took away his Halo 3 game.
"Relationships fail and divorces happen and I've even heard of people - they don't want to leave the computer so much that they take every meal at the computer and then they wear diapers so they don't even have to go to the bathroom," Douglas Gentile, Assoc. Professor of Psychology Iowa State University said.
Gentile considers videogame addiction an impulse control disorder.
"You know you should go to bed but you just want to get one more level. And you're not able to actually control those impulses to play,” Gentile said. “And what people need to do is get that back into balance."
Problem is, since videogame addiction isn’t a recognized medical diagnosis, help can be difficult to find.
"You're probably going to need to find a therapist who is used to dealing with people with impulse control disorders or with substance abuse disorders because they have a lot of ways to help people who start getting things out of balance in their lives," Gentile said.
And if it’s your spouse that has the problem?
"The number one thing to do is not confront them while they're playing the game,” Van Cleave said.
“A calm, clear conversation with them at a moment when they're not gaming is a great way to start things moving in the right direction."
Janet’s husband was finally able to break his videogame addiction and they got back together. Today, they are working to get back on track both emotionally and financially.
“Life now is good,” Janet said. “I have my husband back. I have my best friend back.”
Reminder – we’re not just talking about World of Warcraft or Halo, here. Experts say even so-called casual games, such as the ones you might find on Facebook, can become just as addicting.
