Can Video Game Addiction Lead to Death?

Video game addiction continues to rise, and in some cases, it can even be deadly.

Around the world, boys and girls, men and women are staring at computer and television screens, holding various “controllers” in their hands, and experiencing alternate worlds through alternative personalities.

With “gaming” going mainstream on the international scene, video game addiction has been on the rise. "It's a clinical impulse control disorder," an addiction in the same sense as compulsive gambling, says Kimberly Young, PsyD, on WebMD.

Young says she has seen severe withdrawal symptoms in game addicts. "They become angry, violent or depressed. If [parents] take away the computer, their child sits in the corner and cries, refuses to eat, sleep or do anything."

Gaming may also lead to more than addiction. It’s been a contributor in a number of deaths. According to the Washington Post, “10 South Koreans -- mostly teenagers and people in their twenties -- died in 2005 from game addiction-related causes, up from only two known deaths from 2001 to 2004, according to government officials. Most of the deaths were attributed to a disruption in blood circulation caused by sitting in a single, cramped position for too long -- a problem known as ‘economy class syndrome,’ a reference to sitting in an airplane's smallest seats on long flights.”

A number of other deaths have been reported with possible factors such as inactivity, insomnia and possible heart problems that were also attributed to video game addiction. With an ever-increasing selection of games and more advanced game systems, the problem is only bound to get worse.

While this disease hasn't been given a formal diagnosis by the DSM-V, video game addiction is still a present problem in today's society.