Video 'gaming disorder' to be officially labeled as a disease
It was only a matter of time before health officials diagnosed video game characters such as Mario and Super Mario as addictive, as the World Health Organization basically will do when it adds "gaming disorder" to its disease list this year.
The decision is cause for celebration in mental-health circles, with therapist Jef Reiland saying, "I'm excited about it - not that I'm looking for more labels. ... We've been dancing around this for a decade."
The addictive nature of video gaming has been a matter of conjecture, and the WHO designation affirms it as a mental-health issue, says Reiland, a child and family therapist at Gundersen Health System in La Crosse, Wisconsin, who also teaches a class on addictive behaviors at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse.
