They diagnose the first case of Fortnite addiction: symptoms, treatment and advice

Spanish teenager became the world’s first known clinical case with severe Fortnite addiction, forcing him to spend two months in hospital due to the behavioral disorder he experienced from use video game.

The news was released after the team from the hospital in the city of Castellón, Spain, where the teenager was hospitalized, released the case, the only one in the world so far.

The boy was hospitalized after showing symptoms of severe behavioral Fortnite video game addiction, including home isolation, rejection of social interactions and refusal to go to health services, persistent personal inflexibility, lack of concern for their environment. In addition, his activities would have been severely restricted and he had become very selective in his tastes.

He also presented disruptions in the performance of 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 who treated him.

The boy was doing very well in school, but his family had observed a absenteeism in high school, interruption of rest schedules and disconnection from the rhythm of the course.

The risks of misuse

According to specialists, the widespread use of new technologies in everyday life and leisure has highlighted the potential damage of the inappropriate use of video games and video games. need specialized treatment in those who show signs of behavioral addiction.

After the assessment, professionals said that video game addiction acted as a regulator of intense discomfort due to the loss of a loved one and anxiety derived from the increased level of demand in the context. educative.

The boy’s treatment has been done work with him and his family and the results showed a significant decrease in the use of screens (in a first phase after a supervised hospitalization and only as a means of contact with their peers to promote their socialization), as well as an improvement in their personal and social life. .

The specialists who participated in the study warned against the need to pay attention to behavior minors among whom the use of video games has spread given the “increasing precocity of their consumption”, in particular because of “the lack of maturation of executive and cognitive functions in adolescence”.

Advice for parents

In a column published in Clarín, psychologist specializing in families and adolescence Alejandro Schujman warned that “screens are addictive, and this is nothing new”.

And he explained three things associated with addictive pathology, which are compulsion, withdrawal, and tolerance, which may be related to the use of technology.

1- Constraint: the urgency that is generated when the need for immediate satisfaction arises.

2- Abstinence: Psychophysical discomfort when faced with the inability to respond to the compulsion.

3- Tolerance: the phenomenon that is generated, by which it is more and more necessary and necessary (whatever the addictive object) of the substance or of the activity to reach a temporary equilibrium.

“The screens are a refuge par excellence to avoid the sufferings caused by loneliness (huge challenge of post-modernity)”, warned Schujman and encouraged to have a “critical look” which makes it possible to differentiate “the genuine desire from the induced need. and the real enjoyment of virtual anesthesia as a patch on loneliness. “

“Critical gaze – he said – makes the difference between being an algorithm, being zombies hunting Pokémon in times of hyperconnectivity, or being men and women who choose and maintain their uniqueness.”

Below, Alejandro Schujman offers six tips for parents to promote the 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 keep staring at us. Consistency between what we say and what we do is good for our children.

And with the very use of technology, we have to educate from there. If a child speaks to us, we look him in the eyes and leave the screen we have in our hands. 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, it will be a fantastic antidote to reckless use of social media.

3 – Support parental control

The content that the little ones mostly navigate. The adult filter must be present in the use of networks in children, if they are not ready to enter the waters of either application then it will be a matter of waiting, but the risks different social networks should be considered from the family.

4-Manage when the monitors are off

Generate encounters without screens, look them in the eye and prioritize moments of share, talk, play, laugh. “At dinner there are no cell phones” and other essential sound rules, which are not lost, or which are saved in cases that have been lost.

5-Do not rush the entry times in social networks

We have to get out of the “everyone does it” trap, “everyone has it”. All in good time, said the aunt, and how right she was!

Cellphones, various applications and other tech-related issues that arise when common sense, good judgment and logical development times warrant it and not when “everybody does it” and gets carried away due to fatigue to the demands of the little ones. We are responsible for raising our children.

6- Educate reading habits, sports and artistic practices

Anything that contains passion without monitors or with them as a springboard to the real world. Social networks are a great tool if used well.