I am looking for a face-to-face meeting for my 18 year-old son. We have taken away his computer, phone, access to all eletronics. He is depressed, grades are droppiong, losing weight and we are at the point of telling him to leave the house. He refuses to cooperate. Today was one of the worst days ever. I need to find him some help. We have tried counseling in the past. I'm hoping someone can help or offer a suggestion to this madness.
I'm so sorry you're having to go through this awful nightmare. Is your son willing to attend meetings? Face to face or online? I'm on the parent side so a recovering/recovered gamer will be much more help with meetings but for the time being will share what I know. I don't know about face to face meetings, but there are online meetings here almost every night if not every night. You may consider a Narcotics Anonymos and Alchoholics Anonymous meeting in your area if you're seeking face to face only. FTF meetings for gaming are few and far between, unfortunately. I realize gaming is not a hard drug, but their are many similarities in the nature of the addiction, but you would have to decide the appropriateness. I can say that my son went to individual counseling for a while which only helped to a point. If your sons desire is to quit, then I agree a support group would be good.
It sounds like your son is going through withdrawls which is a miserable state to be in. I hope you can join the Thursday night parent meeting where you will find support and ideas to help get you all through this transitional period.
It sounds like you're doing the right thing by removing access. It's tough. When my son refused to cooperate, we were able to send him to a ranch to "detox", but he was 17.5 then. When he returned and was still uncooperative, we decided to step back and give him time to process, be depressed, work through things. Eventually, he was able to get a job and start back to school, but with much angst on our part (and lots of prayer and "letting go").
Please keep checking back and don't lose hope.