Behavioral Conditioning

With new advances every day, process addictions seem to be rising specifically internet game addictions in adolescents. The DSM-5 does in fact include internet gaming disorder as a condition but does not endorse a current diagnosis because of its similarity to gambling and video games (Capuzzi & Stauffer, 2020).

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Along with new technology and research, providing new information treatments have only become more beneficial and efficient to those experiencing mental health disorders even in process addictions. There is not a lot of clinical research for effective treatment for internet gaming since it is new but so far there has been success with cognitive behavioral interventions along with motivational interviewing (Capuzzi & Stauffer, 2020).

A case study on internet game addiction examines a client named HC who is a sixteen-year-old boy who was referred by his mother. HC’s mother had noticed a negative attitude, depression, and overuse of the internet. They came to the United States four years ago but with a language barrier that he struggled with, naturally HC drew away from his friends and started spending more time playing internet games (Lee, E.

J. 2011). He has admitted that he does not have healthy social relationships or with his brother and parents. With the change in attitude and behavior and a developing addiction to internet games, HC’s parents hope that through cognitive-behavioral therapy, behavior modification, and a twelve-step program he can get back on the right path.

Cognitive behavioral therapy is behavioral conditioning and cognitive processes which makes it the most common practice for addictions treatments (Capuzzi & Stauffer, 2020). In this specific case cognitive behavioral therapy would first off, encourage HC to be conscious of just how much time he was spending on games and what kinds of emotions were contributing to that overuse. Secondly, he would have to think about the helpful factors which reduced playing time, reasons and disadvantages of playing, as well as how to improve his general health. As the sessions went on though HC allowed boredom and lack of motivation to help him cognitively and behaviorally work through his gaming addiction on top of his relationships with others.

According to (Milani, L., La Torre, G., Fiore, M., Grumi, S., Gentile, D. A., Ferrante, M., Miccoli, S., & DiBlasio, P. 2018) the results of one of their study’s evidentially showed problematic video gamers tend to preferentially adopt dysfunctional coping strategies as distraction and avoidance. The client’s parents had mentioned they saw a change in HC’s overall attitude which was also present during the 12-step program questions in counseling sessions.