Can video games cause an anxiety disorder?

The answer is YES.

In an earlier post I briefly talked about my hypothesis about video games causing my own anxiety disorder. As a college student (and former video game addict), I have been much too busy recently to play video games. While one would expect that the demands of college would make anxiety worse, the opposite was true for me. Today, for no particular reason, I tried playing some old-school Super Nintendo Donkey Kong (the original).  I noticed that the game REALLY PISSED ME OFF. My heart was racing, my chest was tightening, my hands were becoming sweaty--I was having a fight-or-flight reaction. It made me wonder if playing video games heavily since the age of 4 has had an effect on my psychology. I then began to think that perhaps the video games themselves don't cause the anxiety disorder, but a symptom does. A symptom of chronic fight-or-flight reactions is paranoia. If a person is constantly (more or less) in a state of paranoia (in whatever degree) this will impact how they perceive the world. In other words, being chronically in the 'offensive/defensive' causes a person to always be on the lookout for potential danger, causing them to see the world as being a dangerous place.

My anxiety was at its worse during the time I played World of Warcraft (from person experience, this game can cause intense adrenal rushes). The vast majority of games exploit the craving people have for excitement. It's counter-intuitive that people would love to do something that makes them angry, but I hypothesis that it is precisely this reaction that cause the video game craving. Essentially its an addiction to anger/stress

Random thought: wife-beating husbands also crave this anger induced fight-or-flight response which provides an emotional high.

This semester at the college, there was this kid that was on the other end of the hallway where I was. I would always hear him yelling and swearing up a storm (at first I thought he was insane, then I found out he was a video game addict). In short, it seems very plausible that video game addiction (or more specifically a stress addiction) can be the root cause of anxiety disorder (social phobia, general anxiety, etc). Video games may not only be linked to a way array of anxiety disorders, but may also be linked to anger problems, hypertension, depression, paranoia etc.


For more information on this, surf the Google, and/or check out the link below.
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/she-bets-her-life/201101/video-gaming-can-cause-depression-anxiety-and-social-phobia-2

Affirmation Mindfulness

Affirmation mindfulness is truly an amazing technique. If you suffer from disorders like anxiety, depression, poor attention span, anger, etc., you may want to pay attention (in fact everyone should, that's the purpose of mindfulness).

The Buddhists often use labeling during their meditations (such as labeling their breaths..."rising....falling"). This is kind of similar, but instead of using labeling to create a concept to view a sensory experience (which causes a person to swap back and forth from actual experience to a concept and vice versa), the purpose here is to make an affirmational word become a trigger to lock a person into a deep state of awareness. I believe the best thing is to focus, not on an interpretation of what we experience, but the sense itself. The following is the list of the affirmational words to be used...

• "Seeing..."
• "Smelling..."
• "Tasting..."
• "Hearing..."
• "Feeling..." 
• "Thinking..."

Basically, the point here is to be aware of the senses. We often get so wrapped up in focusing on our perceptions (a product of the imagination) that we lose touch with reality. This technique is incredibily useful for emotional disorders like anxiety, a problem caused by an overactive imagination (people with anxiety disorders are habitual when it comes to perceiving the world with concepts instead of the senses...)

The importance of falsifying emotionally charged-thoughts

Anxiety, depression, anger....how do we get rid of these nasty things? Well, one way that I have found to be incredibly effective is to falsify habitual thoughts.

Emotionally negative thoughts are the biggest source of stress, and some people obviously have more emotionally negative thoughts than others. Issues with anxiety, depression, anger, etc. are linked to thinking behaviors that have become a habit. I say the behavior is a habit because nobody consciously chooses the way they think on a day-to-day basis. The majority of our thought process is reflexive depending on the signals our nervous system receive (i.e. the environment). For example, if you have social anxiety disorder, the problem is that when in a social situation you habitually think emotionally-charged thoughts that cause a painful physiological reaction. We are creatures of habit, we have to be because our day-to-day life is so damn complex we are forced to rely on habits. That said, habits can be changed if they are consciously overridden. The way to change the habit of thinking emotionally-charged thoughts when in certain situations is to do the following things:


1. Become fully aware of your thought process (many people with problems like anxiety and depression are not aware of their thoughts)


2. Realize that the thought is not reality, but is just a thought (like realizing a nightmare was just a dream, this removes the emotional power of the experience)


3. Find a way to discredit the thought, view it as being ridiculous in some way (finding a way to laugh at the thought is a good way to change the perception of it).

I know as well as anyone that anxiety and depression are not pleasant, I've experienced both at an extreme level. A lot of anxiety and depression is more physical than anything, but those feelings (we feel emotions) are caused by emotionless thoughts (thoughts =/= emotion, but are associated with emotions). The key here is to falsify the thoughts and disconnect the emotional associations.