Gaming & your everyday life
Gaming can be enjoyable, social and important to you. If it is becoming hard to control or crowding out other parts of life, you can explore that concern without treating all gaming as a problem.
Look at control and impact alongside the time spent.
ICD-11 gaming disorder concerns a pattern of impaired control, gaming taking priority over other activities and continued gaming despite negative consequences, with significant effects on everyday functioning. Time spent gaming alone does not establish it.
Enjoying games or being strongly engaged in them is not the same as a disorder. An assessment considers the pattern over time, its effects and other explanations. You can seek help with a difficulty before deciding whether a diagnostic label applies.
Based on World Health Organization · American Psychiatric Association
Look at gaming alongside the rest of your life.
- What it provides
Enjoyment, connection and your reasons to play
- Your control
How the pattern fits your intentions
- Everyday impact
Sleep, health, relationships and responsibilities
- Your priorities
What you want support to make room for
Enjoying gaming is different from losing control of it.
Gaming can offer enjoyment, skill and connection. ICD-11 gaming disorder concerns impaired control, gaming taking priority and continuing despite negative consequences, with significant effects on functioning. Hours alone do not establish the diagnosis.
You can discuss a difficulty before knowing whether that label fits. Your own goals, the benefits of gaming and the costs of the current pattern all belong in the conversation.
Two frameworks need different names.
WHO includes gaming disorder in ICD-11. In DSM-5-TR, Internet Gaming Disorder remains a condition for further research. The terms and requirements are related but not interchangeable.
IGDS9-SF was developed around the DSM research criteria. Naming it accurately helps you understand what a study or questionnaire is measuring, without claiming that it confirms an ICD-11 diagnosis.
Based on World Health Organization · American Psychiatric Association · Dr Halley Pontes
Describe what is becoming difficult outside the game.
These examples help explain an impact. They are not a checklist that treats ordinary enthusiasm, professional gaming or a preferred hobby as illness.
Control
Finding it difficult to control when or how you play.
Other activities
Gaming repeatedly displacing responsibilities or other valued activities.
Sleep & relationships
Continuing despite effects on sleep, health or relationships.
Changes you want
Wanting a change but finding the current pattern hard to shift.
Based on World Health Organization · American Psychiatric Association · CNWL · NHS National Centre for Gaming Disorders
Look at the relationship between gaming and the rest of life.
A clinician considers the pattern and its impact over time. These areas help explain the concern without turning a hobby or one busy week into a diagnosis.
Choice
How much control you feel over starting, continuing and stopping.
Priorities
What happens to other responsibilities and activities.
Consequences
Whether the pattern continues despite important difficulties.
Connection
What gaming provides socially and what support you would like to preserve.
Bring gaming's role and the wider context.
A professional can ask what gaming provides for you, how control has changed, the effect on everyday life and relevant sleep, health or social circumstances. You can discuss the concern without keeping a perfect hours log.
Research questionnaires and clinical diagnostic frameworks serve different purposes. IGDS9-SF is not an ICD-11 diagnostic algorithm. A screen should not decide that a particular amount of gaming is safe or unhealthy for everyone.
Based on World Health Organization · American Psychiatric Association · CNWL · NHS National Centre for Gaming Disorders · Dr Halley Pontes
- 1What gaming provides
Enjoyment, connection, relief or something else?
- 2What becomes harder
Which part of everyday life is affected?
- 3What you want
What would a helpful change look like for you?
Different diagnostic frameworks use different terms.
WHO includes gaming disorder in ICD-11. The APA describes Internet Gaming Disorder as a condition requiring further research within the DSM framework. A questionnaire based on one construct is not automatically an assessment of the other.
Bring examples of the impact and what you want to change. For a young person, assessment should include their perspective and developmental context.
Based on WHO · American Psychiatric Association
Support can work toward balance and your own priorities.
You and your clinician can discuss what fits your needs, preferences and health.
Support can focus on control and everyday functioning.
Specialist care may include psychological work, individual or group support and family involvement where appropriate. The CNWL service describes a focus on greater control and balance, rather than presenting one universal ban as treatment.
That service is an England-specific example with its own eligibility rules. It does not provide crisis intervention; urgent concerns need a local urgent-care route.
Understand the pattern
Discuss when gaming helps, when it becomes difficult and what else is happening.
Agree meaningful goals
Choose changes related to health, daily life and relationships.
Review together
Ask how progress and barriers will be discussed without relying only on hours.
Based on CNWL NHS
Start with curiosity about the person’s experience.
For family or supporters, ask what gaming provides and what the person finds difficult. Concern about school, sleep or relationships can be discussed without assigning a diagnosis from the outside.
Gaming and gambling are distinct concerns. If spending or betting is part of the difficulty, describe that separately so it can receive relevant assessment and practical support.
- Gambling-related concerns
Different information for betting, gambling harm and financial support.
- Teen mental health
Put a young person’s wider wellbeing and support needs in context.
A little clarity. A place to start.
Explore a tool, prepare a conversation or find someone to talk to. Choose what feels useful to you.
Prepare for a conversation
A few prompts to help you explain what you have noticed and what you would like help with.
- A simple notes builder
- Copy your notes to keep
- No account needed
You decide how much to write and share.
Find your wordsFind your next kind of support
Explore where to begin with everyday support, professional help or an urgent conversation.
- Ways to ask for help
- Country-specific crisis contacts
- Support at your own pace
If you need urgent help, go straight to support.
Find supportYour first sentence does not need to be perfect.
You could tell a clinician how gaming is affecting something important and ask what support exists locally. If you are concerned about someone else, describe the impact respectfully and seek support for yourself rather than screening them without their involvement.
“Gaming matters to me, but its impact has become difficult. I would like help finding a pattern that fits the rest of my life.”Make it sound like you
Your questions, with room for nuance.
You can read just the answer you need.
Does playing for many hours mean I have gaming disorder?
No. The WHO definition includes the pattern of control, priority and consequences with significant impairment. Time alone cannot establish it.
Based on WHO
Do I have to stop gaming completely to seek support?
You can discuss your goals with a service. The CNWL example focuses on control and balance; the right plan depends on individual assessment.
Based on CNWL NHS
Can a family member diagnose the problem?
No. Their observations may help a conversation, but assessment should include the person who games and the broader context.
Where this information comes from.
Use this hub to learn and prepare questions. It does not diagnose you or recommend a personal treatment plan. By Selfmora editorial; sources checked . Updated .
Additional explanations and examples: sources consulted . Examples illustrate ideas; they do not assess your personal health. Your questions
- Gaming disorder: ICD-11 definition and impact
- Gaming and mental health: DSM-5-TR research context
- Assessment and therapeutic support for gaming difficulties
- IGDS9-SF: author information and exact language versions