By: Kaydence Yung
Gamers are at risk of a disorder that makes them hallucinate sounds and images from the games they play in real life. Some teenagers who play video games for hours claim that they sometimes see health bars above people’s heads and are hearing narration while doing stuff in their life.
A meeting of Australian and New Zealand psychiatrists took place recently and they discussed the condition, which is known as Gaming Transfer Phenomenon, or GTP, which makes gamers hallucinate. This condition is thought to be related to video game addiction or gaming disorder (GD) when gamers can’t stop playing and even skip meals just so they can keep playing. The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists said they believed that about 10% of young people have Gaming Disorder and cases have increased since the pandemic. Perth’s Fiona Stanley Hospital even opened a clinic dealing with cases of GD in 2021. Psychiatrist Kavita Seth said the problems begin when games are played to the point when the players are unable to stop themselves and become angry if someone tries to stop them. “They prioritize it oversleep, over having meals, going to school, completing school homework, completing social activities.” Dr Seth said.
Some GD patients can even develop GTP, which is when gamers start seeing elements of the game or hearing audio long after they put down the device they are using to play games. Psychologist Dr Angelica Oritz de Gortari claims to have come up with the name GTP during a study in 2010. She said that a 17-year-old gamer that featured in the study started seeing “health bars” in real life. The gamer said that “When I was a hardcore player in WoW (Word of Warcraft), when I got my adrenaline pumping, I started seeing health bars above people’s heads.” Daniel Owens, another gamer described his experience with insomnia when playing Portal 2. “It was to the point that it interrupted my sleeping patterns,” he said. “It felt as if my body went to sleep but my mind was still working. It seems to happen in games with frequent sidekick interaction or a narrator.
Some of the key factors in prolonged gameplay, such as sensory overload and entering a trance state, may contribute to the condition, according to Dr. de Gortari. GTP is a good reason to consider how well the human mind will adapt to technological advances as they progress.