By: Jonathan Shen

Nowadays, determined gamers suffer from health problems such as hallucination and disorder. Those gamers may mix fantasy with reality, which is a big issue.

According to Statista, in 2022, 24% of video gamers in the US were under 18. Some teens that play games for hours have reported seeing “health bars” on people’s heads and narration in their daily lives.

The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists—RANZCP— has discussed a condition known as Gaming Transfer Phenomenon in a recent meeting—GTP—, which causes gamers to see things that don’t exist in reality. This GTP condition is also related to Gaming Disorder—GD—where gamers skip meals to play their addicting games. The RANZCP believes that 10% of young people have GD, and those cases have boomed since the Coronavirus pandemic started in 2020. In the pandemic, people were told to stay home, stay safe, and take virtual classes. However, this only resulted in more use of devices, resulting in more usage of games.

Psychiatrist Kavita Seth has said that the problems start when gamers lose control and play to the point that when someone tries to stop them, they get angry. Dr Seth said, “They [Gamers with GD] prioritize it over sleep, over having meals, going to school, completing school homework, completing social activities.”

Some people with GD can also develop and experience GTP. Psychologist Dr Angelica Ortiz de Gortari said a 17-year-old gamer featured in a study started to see “health bars” in real life.

Mental disability and hallucinations are one thing, another byproduct of gaming can be poor physical health, such as obesity. According to the Harvard Medical School, “Gaming is also associated with obesity in teens and, plausibly, the same would be shown in adults, if studied. This is due to the obvious phenomenon that if a teen is sitting in front of a screen for hours every day, he or she isn’t getting much exercise.”