KOLKATA: Eight months ago, parents of a 24-year-old college dropout took him to a mental health clinic. Their concern was his gaming addiction. The boy used to wear adult diapers so that he would not have to waste a second answering nature’s call while playing.On Monday, when World Health Organisation (WHO) listed ‘gaming disorder’ as mental illness in the revised International Classification of Diseases, this was one of the instances that psychologist Dr Jairanjan Ram referred to. “He was academically bright, but got addicted to gaming at the age of 16. He told me that he understands the concerns of his parents, but his parents don’t understand that this lifestyle is an accepted norm for many gamers. Apparently, he was earning as well via gaming,” Ram said. Though Ram had prescribed a therapy for the boy, he didn’t return to the clinic.A few months ago, an addict was brought to the clinic of Dr Sabyasachi Mitra. “He didn’t even sit for the ICSE exams this year. When his parents scolded him and refused to give him money to recharge his mobile, he broke his father’s hand,” Mitra said. As part of the treatment, he was given some medications that kept him sedated. “But the boy, obviously, didn’t want to have them as it meant losing his hours of play,” Mitra said.On Tuesday, a 17-year-old boy from Midnapore landed at a city clinic with his parents. Till Class VIII, he was a rank holder. The mobile phone, which his father got him after he was promoted to Class IX, got him hooked to online gaming. He flunked his Madhyamik exams and physically abused his parents when they refused to foot the internet bills.Mother of a 13-year-old, who took her son to a doctor, said, “It was peer pressure that got my son addicted to gaming. He would get very upset if I didn’t give him my phone.”Though psychiatrists come across more cases of boys/ young male adults with gaming disorders, women too have been affected. Last year, an IT professional from the city lost her job due to this. Four months later, she got addicted to alcohol and drugs. Finally, she slipped into severe depression and tried to hang herself. She was put on ventilator support for a while. “After her discharge, I suggested behaviour modification therapy and gave her anti-depressants. In a month, I get at least eight such cases,” Mitra said.However, psychiatrists say the problem with dealing with gaming disorder is the difficulty in understanding when to ring the alarm bell. Not every gamer is an addict. According to clinical psychologist Parmeet Soni, “One can sound the alarm when the obsession to play reaches a level where the gamer is completely consumed by this. This might lead to lack of interest in socialising, academic decline, lifestyle that affects eating habits and personal hygiene.” Sometimes, addiction serves as a means to cope with the environment because they have underlying vulnerabilities that need to be addressed. “It could be a dysfunctional family background also. Some of these gamers are very good at team work with minimal social interaction and online strategy planning,” Soni said.

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