I know lots of kids who play WoW. Many of Josh's friends play WoW, but most of them are not addicted. They play recreationally and they enjoy it. But they do not play it to the exclusion of everything else. They do well in school and they have other interests.
Here are some of the ways I knew that WoW was not just casual entertainment for Josh:
- Over time, he quit doing extracurricular activities like soccer, fencing and basketball.
- He quit playing guitar, saying it was boring to practice and he wasn't any good at it.
- He would spend hours playing WoW and not even realize how much time had gone by.
- He skipped dinner in order to go on raids, saying he didn't want to let his guild down.
- He started staying in to play rather than going out with friends.
- His grades got worse and worse. He forgot to do or hand in homework. He ultimately failed some classes.
- He started falling asleep in class.
- He got neck aches and backaches.
- He was irritable unless he was playing.
- He started neglecting basic personal hygiene and had to be reminded to take a shower or brush his teeth.
- He snuck down to the basement to play at night after we were asleep.
- He used my credit cards without authorization., so he could switch servers or transfer characters to other accounts that we didn't know about.
- He refused accept any restriction of his gaming and used all of his energy fighting with us
about it.
If you are noticing similar patterns in your child, don't wait. Take action. It only gets harder the more entrenched they get.
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