
The World Health Organization plans to classify "gaming disorder" as a real mental illness in its 2018 report.
If you love to fire up the Xbox or Playstation more than you like doing other things in life, you may have a mental disorder, at least if you believe the World Health Organization. The WHO has decided to add “gaming disorder” to its 2018 update of the International Classification of Diseases, the first update in 27 years.
Under this classification, gaming disorder will now be termed as a serious health condition that requires monitoring. While it’s not certain how the wording will address the issue exactly, the ICD will probably clarify that a true gaming disorder would involve gaming habits that are so over the top that one is neglecting other things in life to satisfy it.
The term “gaming disorder” or “gaming addiction” has certainly been around, but this move would certainly raise its status in medical circles as well as raise questions over whether gamers are being labeled a bit too freely as having a mental disorder.
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