Addiction

There are many different games out there on the market, but by far, the most addicting types are those that are played online.

Addiction to video games that are played over the internet comprise a subgroup of a more global form of addiction, termed Internet Addiction.

There have been several attempts at defining what video game addiction is, and mostly it has been from the translation of the definition of Internet Addition. It must be noted that neither internet addiction, nor video game addiction are formal diagnoses as set out by the American Psychiatric Association (APA). However, in their published manual, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) IV, a related behavioural addiction, pathological gambling, is an acknowledged form of addiction.

Internet addiction, along with video game addiction comprises of six categories:

1.	Salience	when an activity becomes the most important in an individual’s life and dominantly occupies cognitive and emotional processing and behavior
2.	Mood Change	euphoric subjective experiences influenced by pursued activity
3.	Tolerance	an ongoing process, where experiencing original moods requires larger and larger “doses” of activity
4.	Withdrawal	negative feelings and emotions, that follow the termination of activity or inability to conduct the requested activity
5.	Conflict	interpersonal or intrapersonal conflict caused by the carried out activity
6.	Relapse	a tendency to return to addictive behavior even after periods of relative control

These criteria should be approached with care because an individual that has problems with video games might not be experiencing every issue listed above. In addition, these symptoms lie on a continuum, therefore using these criteria as focal categories will lead to over diagnosis.

Scientifically published rates of video game addiction range from 6-15% of the general population.

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