Gaming is Becoming an Addiction

In this day and age many individuals are becoming “gamers”. For some of us women having a husband who loves to play games can be not only hard, but emotionally difficult as well. Many of us think that once we are married and have kids that our husbands will stop playing games so often, but we soon find out that this is not the case. Many of us are confused about why it seems that games are more important that us, our emotions, our children, and basically our whole lives. It is a hard thing to cope with and becoming a problem in marriages more often each year. This article is to give advice to those women who like me, have had to deal with this issue and to offer support through my story.

Like many couples of today’s society my husband and I met online. We were talking on Yahoo Messenger and by some chance of fate he asked me to a movie and I had to tell him that I was babysitting for a friend who worked on the river for the weekend. He very quickly replied asking me who my friend was and said that he too worked on the Ocoee. I told him that my friend’s name was Mitzi and he again quickly replied asking if it was her youngest daughter Kharcie that I would be keeping. In complete shock and amazement I answered telling him that indeed that was who I was keeping. It boiled down to him being the man that Mitzi had been wanting me to meet and I was the girl she had told him about. This was definitely a chance of fate and after meeting the very next day we have been together every since. You may think that this is the end, a happy ending, but this is not true. My husband falls under the category of “gamer” and it is a lifelong problem that I have to face.

Typically most people think of gamers as young teenagers, however if you actually take the time to survey you find that most gamers are in the 20-50 age range. A very big part of the gaming community are male, however there are also many females and even couples added to the group. For women who marry a gamer it is very hard to get them to pay attention to you. It seems that no matter what you do their mind is always set on getting back to the game, or on telling you about it. For me my husband’s constant addiction to his computer has led me to feel alone and like a single mother. There is and never has been a doubt in my mind that he loves us, just that he may love his games and computer even more.

The typical gamer spends anywhere from 3 to 18 hours a day on the computer. They also drink mountain dew and eat hot pockets all the time, which causes bad health and shortens their life span. When you are married and have small children spending that much time on a computer makes a huge impact on your family life. Children begin to think that that is what daddy is suppose to do and even begin to mock playing on a computer. Children learn by example and may not understand why daddy ignores them and their mommy all the time, this in turn may affect their future relationships by thinking that the behavior is normal.

Gaming truly has become an addiction that needs to be dealt with. It is ruining lives just as gambling, drinking, and drugs do. I don’t think that gaming should be stopped or that games are bad, I just believe that the misuse has to stop. Children need to stop being ignored and wives need to have their husband’s active in their lives. If something is not done to help those addicted to games, more and more divorces are going to take place. I love my husband with all of my heart, but the games seem to take my place in his, as it does with close to one forth of the earth’s population here in the 21st century.