In the past two weeks, I’ve spent over 25 hours playing video games. I haven’t played that much in a very long time, and I’ve had hours at a time pass me by as I play Fire Emblem: Three Houses (it’s so addicting, and I’m not saying it lightly).
Four hours at a time go by at a time without me being able to put the game down. I have a thousand other responsibilities, a thousand tasks between work, starting law school, my side hustle, and more. I used to be able to play Maplestory, a popular MMORPG during my childhood, for eight hours a day at times.
Except the problem now is I’m a grown ass man. I have responsibilities around the house. I have bills to pay. I have work, and I’m in graduate school. Yes, I have time to play video games, upwards of an hour a day during this summer. But when the game is in my hands, it seems like I just can’t put it down as I think about my next move and strategy, which isn’t a problem I have with other kinds of entertainment like TV or just scrolling through social media.
The problem with playing Fire Emblem so damn much is I don’t really feel like I’m in control, which I inevitably do when I’m playing this particular game. That probably means I shouldn’t play it as much, but, you know, life happens. It would be one thing if I felt completely justified in having four hours of my life sucked away by gaming. But I almost always feel like shit about myself for doing nothing of value during that period.
Recently, however, I also got diagnosed with ADHD, after an amalgamation of inattention symptoms where I’ve had difficulties staying on task and losing things. I’ve been taking a small dose of a non-stimulant drug called Strattera every day. I’ve noticed subtle gains in my ability to focus. So I wondered whether my addiction to video games in the past and feeling of loss of control now have to do with ADHD.
The fact is people might struggle with inattention and a lack of focus elsewhere, but a kid or adult who is super engaged in a video game exhibits a level of focus they just don’t have in most other areas of life. That’s true for me, and it’s true for other people who play a lot of video games and struggle to regulate themselves when they do — or else they wouldn’t play them.
I wanted to look more into the link between video games and ADHD, whether there is a link, and the picture of whether they’re positive, negative, or just complicated for people with ADHD.
What does the research say?
Colin Guare and three other authors in ADDitude cite a 2009 study from Iowa State University that finds a link between “pathological” gaming and ADD — particularly for teenage boys. Well, I was a teenage boy who was a pathological gamer once upon a time.
The study defines a “pathological” gamer as someone who averages 24 hours a week or more than other gamers and received lower grades as a result. This is most certainly a category I fell into.
But another study by Maria Panagiotidi in CyberPsychology, Social Networking, and Behavior found a link between problematic video game play and ADHD traits, particularly among adults with ADHD who struggle with inattention (like me).
The study found a significant positive correlation between the two, and that “inattention symptoms and time spent playing video games were the vest predictors” of problematic video game usage. Adults who exhibit hyperactivity symptoms also don’t find the same positive relationship between their ADHD traits and problematic video game playing.
It is important to note there’s a misconception among many parents in America that video games and excessive screen time as a whole cause ADHD. According to Temma Ehrenfeld at Healthline, this isn’t true. While the American Academy of Pediatrics found that up to 8.5% of U.S. youth from 8 to 18 meet the criteria for internet gaming disorder, there’s no evidence video games cause ADHD.
However, another study in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) foundthat heavy users of digital devices are twice as likely to exhibit ADHD symptoms as people who don’t frequently use digital devices. Correlation is not causation, so while excessive gaming doesn’t cause ADHD, it has been shown to exacerbate symptoms.
At the end of the day, it’s different for every person
I’ve tried setting boundaries around video games. I’ve tried only playing a couple minutes a day or an hour a day. I will say I’m a lot better about not letting video games get in the way of my personal responsibilities, and I don’t have a problem playing them if I’m away from home all day.
However, when I do have a lot of time to myself and still have a lot to do, it’s a problem if I can’t control how much I play.
For those of you telling me to take a break and rest, an even bigger problem is it not only disrupts my responsibilities, but it disrupts my self-care. On a long, 16-hour drive home from Florida, I hadn’t slept well the night before and needed to sleep in the car in between my driving shifts. Instead of sleeping, I started playing video games and just couldn’t stop myself for three hours at a time, making the dangerous choice to drive exhausted instead of laying down and making the safer choice. I’ve made the choice to game instead of get the right amount of sleep on way too many occasions in my life.
That makes it in my best interest to not play at all because I’m lying to myself if I say “I’m just going to play for 20 minutes then stop.” It’s different if I’m gaming at a social event because I usually just follow the crowd.
Regardless, for me personally it’s time to set new rules, but everyone else with ADHD has their own experience with gaming.
For a lot of people with ADHD and in the general population as a whole, video games are relaxing and can ameliorate ADHD symptoms. They can help people with ADHD who are understimulated find the stimulation they need. For other people like me who struggle to control their gaming and really lose track of time because they get so immersed, gaming can be overstimulating.
It’s different for everyone, so there’s not a clear-cut answer to whether gaming is bad for people with ADHD. Gaming can be bad for certain individuals with ADHD, and it can be good for certain people with ADHD. Adults with inattentive ADHD need to be careful because there is a link between inattention symptoms and problematic video game usage.
It’s not a satisfying answer, but whether video games are good for you or not depends on the person.
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Previously published on Medium
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