Has Halo Intruded upon Your Family Life? You are not alone Internet Addiction Linked to ADHD, Depression As Noted by CNNhealth.com article

CNNHealth.com posted an article about a Link between ADHD and Internet Addiction.

Read the story at this link: cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/10/05/depression.adhd.internet.addiction

This summer I watched a special on television about how Asian children tend to be the highest users of the Internet. The story was intriguing and I had not realized that there was such a high use of the Internet differentiated by countries, particularly in the East. I can tell you this. Halo has intruded upon our family in the past year, how about yours? I have three sons.

Halo is an online war game. It like those described in the CNN article. Games like Halo are potentially the most addictive. Part of what is addictive about these games is that you get real time feedback and they are stimulating, very stimulating. Back several years ago I did a series of television interviews for Fox TV in Evansville, Indiana about the impact of violent television and violent video games. It was a fun interview. I had my kids watch the Power Rangers. Almost immediately when we turned off the show the kids started kicking and hitting each other. The kids who were 7 or younger were especially vulnerable to this.

The research at the time stated that kids 8 to 11 were a little less vulnerable to immediate acting out of what they had seen and those older than 11 even less so. This tended to be true with both violent TV and video games. One way to understand this in my view is the idea that as children get older they have a greater ability to inhibit their responses and playing such games are not as problematic. Yet, ADHD kids have a more limited ability to inhibit their responses.

The CNN article even suggests that such games or ‘role playing’ games are therapeutic. I would argue yes, and no.

Consider this. Occasionally I will go down in the basement and play these games with the kids. First of all, I am terrible so I am a laughing stalk. I provide comic relief. What begins to strike you as you play these games is that this game, Halo is brutal, savagely brutal. The game is simply about killing, over and over again. This in itself is disturbing, very disturbing, but, yes, I hate to admit, the game is captivating. You are running around, hiding, looking around corners, trying to stay alive and trying to get the bad guys. Before you know it you are at war too. And, yes, I hate to admit it, especially because I am so bad it, it is captivating. The other thing is that the kids tend to get more and more irritated with each other. It is as if the violence of the game seems to feed increased irritability. Kids who are depressed obviously might derive some pleasure out of ‘killing’ the enemy. Kids with ADHD surely love the total lack of inhibition in these games. And, obviously those less socially skilled can crawl into these games and roles and engage from an arm’s length away. The overkill of violence is disturbing and definitely makes you wonder.

So, anyway, the story gets a little more perplexing. Last summer my oldest son, who had been diagnosed with ADHD previously as discussed on this blog, but due to my intervening with him is no longer medicated and is essentially asymptomatic. So, last summer he decides that he is essentially “beyond most online games”. He is 14. He is a techno-file. His classmates dubbed him the ‘technology-genius’ and, yes, all proud pappa stuff aside, is unusually talented with technology and he foreswore online games.

How did this kick in? When I asked he simply said that they were a “waste of his time”. His explanation is a little limited. After reading this CNN Health.com article I am really wondering what happened.

Now, back to my two other sons. I am not thrilled at the hold these games have on my 11 year old and the more limited interest of my 8 year old. Now you may or may not be aware of this but the kids get online and play with other kids. They meet kids online, kids they have never met before. It is truly a social event. You have to admit, it is a pretty cool phenomena for all these kids to be sitting in their own homes online playing a game together when they can see the same things on the screen and talk to each other via head sets. It is very cool, no way around that. The downside: the violence and the fact that some of them use profanity online. My kids turn off the speakers when I am down there. They have a good deal of control over who is playing the game with them. They shut out the kids with the bad mouths.

My kids have a balanced life. They get excellent grades. The two younger kids are both playing football and they play soccer. One will play basketball and the other might too. They have good social lives. We do various family games. Keep in mind that addictions, as do most mental health diagnoses, involve functional impairment, meaning that the behavior intrudes upon the rest of their lives or their ability to function.

Technology is here to stay. The Internet and online games will be around too. They are just too captivating to leave. But you need to get down there and play those games with your kids or at least watch them a few times. It will be worth your time.

Yet, most perplexing is that my oldest found them passé. Why? I am still unclear. I will ask him again tomorrow.

Charles Shinaver, PhD.

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