09/15/2021 9:38 AM
Clarín.com
Good Life
Updated 09/15/2021 9:39 AM
A Spanish teenager became the first known clinical case in the world to present a severe Fortnite addiction, which forced him to spend two months hospitalized as a result of the behavioral disorder he experienced associated with the use of the video game.
The news was released after the team at the Hospital of the city of Castellón, in Spain, where the adolescent was hospitalized, published the case, the only one in the world for now.
The boy was hospitalized after presenting symptoms of serious behavioral addiction to the Fortnite video game, which included
isolation at home
, rejection of social interactions and refusal to go to health services, persistent personal inflexibility, little interest in his surroundings.
In addition, his activities were reportedly severely restricted and he had become very selective in his tastes.
He also presented
alterations in the performance of the basic activities
of daily life, in taking the prescribed treatment in the day hospital and in the rhythm of sleep, according to the medical team that treated him.
The boy had a very high previous academic performance, but his family had observed, since the beginning of classes,
greater absenteeism from school
, breakdown of rest schedules and disconnection from the rhythm of the course.
Girls and boys have access to technology at an ever younger age.
Photo Shutterstock.
The risks of improper use
According to specialists, the generalization of the use of new technologies in daily life and leisure brought to light potential damages from the inappropriate use of video games and the
need for specialized treatment
in those people with signs of behavioral addiction.
After the evaluation, the professionals stated that the addiction to video games acted as a regulator of the intense discomfort due to the loss of a relative and the anxiety derived from the increase in the level of demand in the educational context.
The boy's treatment was carried out
working both with him and with his family
and the results showed a significant decrease in the use of screens (in a first phase after hospitalization with supervision and only as a means of contact with his peers to promote his socialization) , as well as an improvement in his personal and social life.
The specialists who participated in the study warned about the need to
pay attention to the behaviors
of minors, among whom the use of video games has spread given "the growing precociousness in their consumption", especially due to "the lack of maturation in the executive and cognitive functions during adolescence ".
Tips for parents
In a column published in Clarín, the psychologist specializing in families and adolescence Alejandro Schujman warned that "screens generate addiction, and this is not new."
And he explained three elements associated with addictive pathology, which are compulsion, withdrawal and tolerance, which can be linked to the use of technology.
1- Compulsion:
the urgency that is generated when the need for immediate satisfaction appears.
2- Abstinence:
The psychophysical discomfort in the face of the impossibility of responding to the compulsion.
3- Tolerance:
the phenomenon that is generated, by which it is more and more precise and necessary (whatever the addictive object) of the substance or activity to achieve a temporary balance.
"Screens are a refuge par excellence to avoid the suffering caused by loneliness (enormous challenge of post-modernity)", warned Schujman and encouraged to have a "critical look" that allows differentiating "the genuine desire from the induced need and the true enjoyment of virtual anesthesia as a patch on loneliness. "
"The critical gaze - he said - is the difference between being an algorithm, being zombies hunting Pokémon in times of hyperconnectivity or being men and women who choose and sustain their uniqueness."
They recommend limiting the use of technology in childhood and adolescence.
Illustrative photo Shutterstock.
Below, Alejandro Schujman offers six tips for parents aimed at promoting healthy use of technology in childhood and adolescence:
1-Educate by example
Children don't hear us all the time
(we make long, boring speeches), but they don't stop looking at us.
Consistency between what we say and what we do is good for our children.
And with the very use of technology we must educate from that place.
If a child speaks to us, we look him in the eye and leave whatever screen we have in our hands.
The parent-child dialogue spaces are SACRED and a source of TRUST, the essential foundation of the relationship.
2-Educate passion
If we can instill enthusiasm for personal projects from a young age and make them passionate, this will be a fantastic antidote to the indiscriminate use of social networks.
3 - Accompany from parental control
The contents that the little ones navigate especially.
The adult filter must be present in the use of the networks in the children, if they are not prepared to enter the waters of one or another app then it will be a matter of waiting, but the risks of the different social networks must be considered from the family.
4-Manage moments of monitors off
Generate encounters without screens, look them in the eye and prioritize moments of
sharing, talking, playing, laughing
.
"At dinner there are no cell phones" and other essential healthy rules, which are not lost, or which are rescued in those cases that have been lost.
5-Do not rush the entry times in social networks
We must get out of the trap of "everyone does it", "everyone has it".
Everything in its own time, said the aunt, and how right she was!
Cell phones, various apps and other issues related to technology that are when common sense, good judgment and logical development times warrant it and not when "everyone does it" and transfer due to fatigue to the claims of the little ones.
We are responsible for raising our children.
6- Educate reading habits, sports and artistic practices
Everything that encloses passion without monitors or with them as a springboard to the real world.
Social networks are a wonderful tool if they are used well.
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