Greg was in his early 20s and loved to play online games. He had been enrolled in university, but as soon as he discovered World of Warcraft, he started missing classes and failing. Instead of studying, he decided to defer from university and get a basic job so that he could spend all his spare time online. Even though it made his parents unhappy and made family get-togethers uncomfortable, he continued to play the online game. Soon enough he found that he preferred to play the game rather than see his family or friends and he simply stopped going to family gatherings and ignored most social invitations. Greg was soon playing in his online world late into the night, and was surviving on only a few hours sleep each night. (This article is electronically protected – Copyright © Associated Counsellors & Psychologists Sydney PTY LTD)
When he reached his 24th birthday, he realized that he had not been on more than one or two dates in almost three years. He was always exhausted from lack of sleep, and he was already on his second warning at work. He hardly saw his family and rarely spoke to friends. Greg felt guilty for neglecting his family and was starting to recognise the negative impact of his gaming addiction. So he tried to cut down the number of hours that he spent playing his game. However, instead of being able to play his game less, he found himself feeling anxious and depressed until he gave in to the impulse and let himself go back to playing.
More and more, Greg found himself preoccupied with playing World of Warcraft and eventually lost his job because of being late and missing entire shifts. Without any income, Greg found himself unable to pay his rent and his electricity bills. Without intending to, he found himself cut off from his favourite game and from his online friends. His family begged him to get help and he gave in, thinking that maybe they had a point.
On his first visit to his counsellor, Greg was surprised to discover that Steve was quite willing to listen to him and let him tell his story, instead of moralising about how bad or selfish his behaviour was. Steve challenged Greg to make a list of what was great about World of Warcraft and where he could find those same things in alternative activities.
As they progressed through the therapy sessions, Greg found that Steve was compassionate and understanding and was even willing to play the game every once in a while to understand what Greg found really appealing about it. However, Steve also continued to gently challenge Greg’s sense of the world and point out that the world was bigger than World of Warcraft. He even pointed out that maybe one of the reasons Greg was not dating regularly was because the girls he dated did not want to compete against a game that was always present. After several weeks of thinking over this particular point, Greg had to admit that if the roles were reversed, he wouldn’t put up with it either. (This article is electronically protected – Copyright © Associated Counsellors & Psychologists Sydney PTY LTD)
Once he made that admission, he then began to reexamine the amount of time he invested in the game and why he was playing it. It dawned on him that the reason he was so attached to the game was because he didn’t know how to relate to other people very well. When he talked to Steve about this, Steve offered to help teach him better social skills and how to deal with uncomfortable feelings of anxiety that drew him to playing the game instead of dealing with social situations which he found difficult. Soon, Greg was playing less and less and was out finding new friends and learning that he wasn’t such a bad guy after all.