Addiction Creaps Up on You

I know about substance abuse from going through the 60s and 70s and the time of the flower child. I tried all of that out but didn't dwell on it for very long. Didn't do much for me. Now my boys are growing and another type of abuse has raised its nasty head: internet video games. This is not just an addicion to a single game, it is like gambling and an addiction to the actions of gaming themselves.

It is great when a child learns the latest technologies to survive in this world but it is tragic when they feel a need to spend 12 to 20 hours at a shot to do it. According to research shown in the Associate Press, 2007, "The telltale signs are ominous: teens holing up in their rooms, ignoring friends, family, even food and a shower, while grades plummet and belligerence soars." It alludes to internet video gaming addiction.

This has happened to us with one of our boys and this is serious. In a report prepared for the American Medical Association's annual policy meeting the council asked the group to lobby for the disorder to be included in a widely used mental illness manual create and published by the American Psychiatric Association. Up to 90% of American youngsters play video games and as many as 15% of them (5 million kids) may be game addicted according to data cited in the AMA council's report.

Confronted with this we looked at medical solutions and social solutions as well. We were looking for that minical pill that would simply make this go away. That wasn't the case and will not be the ccase for many folks out there that are trying to help their children through the teen challenges and frustrations. What we hadn't considered was the "hard" solution. Remember the hard solution? It was when mom or dad or both yelled and screamed at you and you constantly claimed you didn't understand.

According to Marybeth Hicks, "We're capable of much more and when given the challenge to live up to a higher standard, we can do it." When parents feed that myth by consoling one another for enduring our children's teen years, we do our youths a disservice. Instead, we ought to raise the bar of our expectations so that as they grow, they gain the maturity and genuine self-esteem that comes from treating others with courtesy and respect.

Do my teenagers make me feel lucky? Every day of my life. Just not because they refrain from talking to me like I'm a potted plant. Do Hard Things is NOT a cure for video game addition but it does provide a wholistic solution to the difficult road of raising your teenage children. If you implement its principles video game addiction simply turns into another bump in the teenage road parallel to I want to "stay out all night with friends tonight." It should be standard reading for any parent willing to take the hard but sometimes fruitful road of living with your children through their teenage years.