A Cautious Note

I think that this community rising up to help those people who cannot get themselves off the gaming hook is a wonderful thing. All of us need a hand at different times in our lives, and that there are people willing to offer that hand is an encouraging thing to see.

However I hope to offer a cautious, or cautioning, note. At one point I played EQ a lot. FAR too much in fact. It was right after a surgery put me out of action. I was depressed. I was bored. I started playing and played an incredible amount of hours in the ensuing weeks and months. I may well have been addicted.

What is important to look at here is *why* I played. I did not start on my obssessive trip because EQ was addictive. I started because I was depressed, it was an easy escapist outlet, and once I started, it was a lot more fun than dealing with my injury and rehabilitation. It was easier than dealing with being bird with broken wings.

Realizing that it was a problem is indeed a crucial step. But one has to think of the frightening consequences of claiming to be "powerless" in the face of gaming and that life is "unmanageable" (first of the 12 steps). To do that is to admit defeat, not only in relation to one's gaming, but to life in general. To declare that one needs to be returned to sanity by an outside force is abdicate all responsibility for the situation one is in and for getting oneself out of it.

I believe entirely that faith has a place in healing of all sorts, but victimhood does not. It is a cold, cruel truth to put to someone who is already suffering, but one has to take responsibility for onself. Once a problem is realized, it becomes the individual's responsibility to deal with it. I urge them to ask God for help, to ask friends and families for help, and to ask communities like this for help. But the important point is that they ask for help, not for God to do it for them.

Biblical history is replete with tales of people who have struggled mightily, and because they struggled, because they showed that they were willing to go the distance, the Lord reached out and gave them a hand. But these people still had to work for themselves.

I would urge this community to take the time to think about the root causes that make consumers of such online products susceptible to addiction. After all, if not EQ, it will be another game. Or another form of entertainment. Is the addicted player online because Sony made the game psycho-suggestive and he can't escape, or is it because the game is the only place the player has any kind of social circle? Is the game's no pausing feature making it impossible to stop or is there a critical lack of willpower in the individual playing? Does addiction arise because the player can't exit the game quickly or because the player feels they cannot deal with their own real life and so turn to the game?

As much as it would be easy to blame our entertainments for our troubles, there is a need to address the underlying causes.

Please, have faith in God's willingness to help. Please, ask God for help, seek the peace that is found in honest meditation. Please, admit that there is a problem in your life and seek to remedy it. Please, take control of your own life, realize that just as you got into your problems, with some help, you can get back out.

And please, have some faith in yourselves.