Video games are gaming software that most teens and young people use for enjoying and passing their time. When you are tired after working for a long time at work, it can be a good option for your mental pleasure. But we all know the proverb that excess of anything is not good for us. Excessive use of anything can be the cause of addiction. And addiction makes an impact on your daily routine as well as your health. When your playing video games turns into more preferable than your other important work, it’s called addiction to video games. Does addiction to playing video games harm health? Let’s check the whole article to know the harms and solutions.
Can video games harm our health?
Playing video games for a limited time couldn’t harm your health. But when you are addicted to playing video games, most of the time, day and night, playing it without a break can harm your health. Video game addiction, like any other compulsive disease, can have serious repercussions. While this may cause appetite and fatigue shortly, it could ultimately lead to sleep disturbance or nutrition health problems. Not only teens are addicted to it, but also a large number of young people can’t stop themselves from playing video games for a long time. Research shows that 21% of children under 18 years old are addicted to video games, 38% of gamers are 18-34 years olds and the rest of the 7% are above 65 years old.
What Types of Health Risk Playing Video Games Cause?
Playing video games for long periods might harm both your eyes and your health. If you didn’t find out sooner, you could be in trouble for a long time. Let’s find out more about them.
1. Eye Strain
Eye strain is a common problem among gamers. For extended periods, looking at a screen. On a video screen, the eyes focus completely different than on any other horizontal plane, such as a notebook. Staring at a notepad is less taxing since the pitch is stable and the eyes determine where to focus. On a video screen, however, the focus changes frequently, causing visual fatigue. Even after the playing period has ended, it remains difficult for the eyes to focus on other items.
2. Affect Brain Functions
Video games do not always result in mental health issues. If you have depression, anxiety, or any mental disease, you are at a higher risk of being addicted to video games. This is related to the psychological effects of video games. Problematic gaming habits were linked to adaptive coping methods, unpleasant feelings, low self-esteem, a tendency for loneliness, and poor school achievement, according to research that examined the impact of playing on mental health.
3. Carpal Tunnel Syndrome
An RSI that can be triggered by playing too many video games is carpal tunnel syndrome. Tiredness, numbness, or weakness in the hands are some of the most common signs. It happens as a result of stress on the nerve root. This nerve runs from your forearms to your hand through the carpal tunnel, a section of your wrist.
4. Enhance Obesity
Gaming addicted people are out of their daily routine. They sit or lie down in a place for hours and hours and quickly forget to eat, walk, and so on. It makes a bad impact on their health and enhances obesity.
5. Muscle Pain
Tendonitis can also be caused by playing video games. Tendonitis occurs when the ligament that connects the bone and muscle becomes inflamed as a result of excessive usage. In your hand, you may notice discomfort or an aching, and it may enlarge. When playing video games, the thumb joints are more susceptible to injury. The so-called “mouse shoulder” is also common among video game players who use computers.
6. Seizures
Photosensitive epilepsy is a kind of epilepsy in which seizures are provoked by conflicting patterns or lighting up lights. It affects up to 5% of people with the condition. According to Epilepsy Action, computer screens pose a relatively minimal risk of seizures unless the visuals are flickering or flashing. The gaming business is governed by standards set by the World Wide Web Consortium to ensure that content does not break any rules.
7. Lack of Vitamin D
Most of the gamers are playing games for hours and hours in their room. They don’t go outside and their skin doesn’t get sunlight. For this reason, most gamers have a chance to suffer from rickets. It’s a disease that occurs of a lack of Vitamin D.
8. Sleeping Deprivation
Some American researchers published data that most gamers go to bed at late night, 36% nights the delay for playing video games. They don’t maintain a healthy sleep circle. Maybe at present, they don’t understand the negative sides of it, but in the future, they may suffer from insomnia.
How Can You Prevent the Health Risk of Video Games?
1. Keep Phone and Gadgets Outside of the Room at Night
Try to keep your phone or other gaming gadgets outside of your room at night. It can keep you away from these devices. Also helps to adjust your sleep cycle and recover your health.
2. Set Time Limits
It can be an effective way to reduce gaming time. Just set time limits and strict your mind that you won’t play video games after this limited time. If you can control your mind, you can easily control your gaming time.
3. Create a Daily Routine
When you bound yourself in a daily routine, it would be easy to maintain all the tasks in time. Firstly, create a routine and divide all the work at different times. Then maintain the routine strictly. It can make you punctual and decrease the habit of excessive video gaming.
4. Do Regular Exercise
Build up the habit of doing regular physical exercises. When you are addicted to playing video games, you are used to sitting in a place for a long time. You don’t walk much or even don’t move. It creates a bad impact on your muscles and overall your body. So, doing exercise is the best option for gamers for sound health.
5. Take Healthy Food
The food you put into your stomach has a significant impact on your health and how you feel. Unless you’re a professional bodybuilder, you won’t need to monitor calories or calculate macros. A better diet, on the other hand, would benefit almost everyone. Take the time to prepare your meals, avoid eating too many manufactured or sweet snacks, and be proud of the outcomes that will emerge rapidly.
6. Take Frequently Break
Long periods of continuous gaming can be taxing on the body. As previously indicated, being refreshed and preparing nutritious snacks will aid in the development of natural breaks. You will be forced to take a break and walk about if you drink a lot of water. Getting up to make your food will keep you from overeating.
7. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
Some of the more serious approaches for coping with addiction include ensuring that the cognitive process is switched from thinking about gaming to thinking about more useful things. You can divert your attention to enjoying playing outside or spending time with your friends.
Conclusion
We should consider the advantages of anything when we focus on these disadvantages. Video games also have some good sides. Playing video games may give a method for people to communicate with each other and build up a virtual community. They work together to complete tasks, in addition to being interesting and an enjoyable pastime. Furthermore, in this pandemic situation, we are locked in our homes and feel depressed. In that case, video games help to pass our time. There is conflicting evidence suggesting gaming has mental benefits, such as greater sustained attention and spatial awareness, yet it is unclear how far these effects are felt outside of the video game environment into real life. But if you are addicted to video games, it can have some major negative impacts on your health. We have already mentioned all the possibilities. To prevent these negative impacts, follow our preventing steps. It will help you more.
