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I sent the below email out a couple of weeks ago in my newsletter and decided to put the action plan for dealing with video game addiction here on the Improvement Warrior Blog. This is serious stuff that needs to be dealt with NOW rather then later.
I would love to keep updating this blog post with positive things and changes that parents and kids have made as a result. So if you took some action in regards to this video game addicts blog post please send me an email or leave a comment with your results and permission to use your information in the post.
I watched a video the other day of a dad who made a video a couple of days after his son commited suicide. Couldn't find the video again (I found it- posted below) but the jist was his son was a video game junkie and kept saying how good at fortnite he was.
Then one day he got beat or killed or whatever happens in Fortnite and got super mad and threw his controller and broke his screen. Dad had talk with him about it and son did extra chores and stuff around house to pay for new screen.
Then it happened again where he broke the screen and it was a few days before his 12th or 13th birthday where he was supposed to be getting sometthing related to fortnite or the game system. He thought he ruined the birthday for everybody and so he went into his closet and hung himself.
Obviously nothing any parent should ever have to go through.
I remember my video game playing days and I can definitely relate to the anger issues they caused. The games I played were nintendo and sega genesis mostly so I knew it was always just a game. Genesis my main game and time waster was NHL 95. If I didn't beat the other team by at least 100 I turned it off and started over and if they scored more then 3 goals on Eddie the Eagle I threw a tantrum.
One thing I remember was when I had stopped my own video game playing of my own systems, I got re-addicted in my mid-20's when I had just finished college and was working a job at Discover Card. My roommate, Travis, had gotten an X-Box and the Knights of the old Republic, a star wars game. For about 2 weeks I stayed up all night, skipped workouts, ate like crap. Would go to work, think about the game, come home and just play. I think I only got 2 workouts in in 2 weeks when normally I would get 10. I ‘won' the game but who knows what would of happened if I didn't.
Today's games are so real and life like. Plus you have all the other distractions and nnEMF (non-native electro-magnetic fields) around them. But I was addicted to them, just like somebody would be for food, drugs, cigarettes, etc…. I now know why I was and the health detriments I suffered from them.
Addiction happens quick. No one wakes up and says ‘I'm going to be an addict.' All it takes is one exposure.
I became myopic around the 5th grade–I didn't stop playing routinely until around 22-24– my set up at my dad's house I was literally less then 2 feet from the TV.
I was a very angry person back then. And held a lot of it in, which is also horrible for your health.
Video games are not babysitters. They destroy health and dopamine. The games give a fake ‘hit' of dopamine but then you always need more—which is why cigratte smokers have hard times quitting, or anyone with any kind of addiction.
But once you run out of that fake hit, suicide can be the ultimate tragedy. I hit my rock bottom around 05-06- anxiety, depression, thoughts of suicide (my story). I know the games had a big part of it.
I went through all the systems- starting with Atari then Nintendo, computer games (anybody remember King's Quest?) Game Boy, Genesis, Artari Lynx, Sega CD, then my roommates Xbox and some other nintendo system. Then eventually cell phone games. Every week me and my brother would go with my grandpa to Westland or Northland mall to play at the Aladdin's castle arcade.
Here is something all parents and grandparents should read and re-read:
“Parents today are told to keep their kids out of the sun that makes melatonin, dopamine, serotonin and POMC. Kids today stay up all night on screens = melanopsin/retinal disfunction/lowered melatonin. The combined effects of blue light and nnEMFs on children who need a lot of melatonin for growth, myelination and learning during sleep is enormous. Parents do not realise how dangerous this is for their child until they are dealing with a crazy teen. By then its too late to make any changes because they have addictions and will not listen to you. Parents always overestimate their influence over their children until they have had to deal with the consequences. Early morning sunlight makes melatonin, dopamine and pro OPIOmelanocortin (POMC). POMC stimulates Beta Endorphin, Adrenocorticotropin hormone (ACTH) and alpha melanocyte stimulating hormone. These are all mood moderating in different ways providing calming and anti inflammatory effects. Non native EMFs raise blood glucose & turn off fat burning and cause intracellular dehydration. Myelination requires ketosis (fat burning) so kids can not myelinate their brains = learning/behaviour/mental illness/addicitons. Believe me trying to tell your teens to sun bake and stay off screens is a lot harder than never buying them in the first place.”
Richelle Jones
The story of Brad Hunstable and his son Hayden is truly heartbreaking and watching just as much. But he got the message out there. And that is what I am trying to do.
Any addiction is not good. Especially one that starts at a very young age and is surrounded around by non-native EMF and blue light.
You never know where an addiction or habit is going to take you or someone you love.
And everyone always thinks ‘that will never happen to me or my kid.'.
Don't let it. Step in, be a parent. Not their best friend.
My kids will never have a system as long as they are in our house. But I understand if you are neck deep in a video-game addicted kid then making them stop will be next to impossible.
I'll be back with a later post with some rules for video games that you can implement immediately.
Would love to hear other parents experience with this now or in past.
Here is another tragic story about addiction and suicide. Sean Wooley who got addicted to the game Everquest.
Please udnerstand that this is just some options that I came up with based on my experience with videos games, my experience as a fitness/strength coach, and my recent experience/education with light (natural and artificial) and nnEMF (non-native Electromagnetic Frequencies.
Right now the list is not for video game addicts with cell phone or Ipad games, more towards the big systems with monitors- I will add that as part 4.
I also realize that I have been out of the loop with video games for awhile and I know there is new tech and gear, so if I miss something please let me know.
By no means is it set in stone and you will have to make adjustments based on your situation.
Most of these rules can apply to the parents and grandparents lives as well. Health is not just fixing your diet and exercise.
This should go without saying……..this should never happen
Coming Soon.
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