The Head of Addiction Services at St John of God Hospital has cautioned that shopping, video gaming, and gambling are contributing to a rise in behavioural addictions in Ireland, with the issue being “all predicated on the smartphone.”
While most individuals can engage in these activities without serious problems, a “significant minority” may develop addictive or compulsive traits, Professor Colin O’Gara said, reports RTE.
Prof O’Gara explained that in such cases, people continue with the behaviour despite suffering negative consequences.
Behavioural addictions are characterised by compulsive participation in certain activities and differ from substance addictions, which involve dependency on chemicals such as alcohol or drugs, reports RTE.
Speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland, Prof O’Gara said that when it comes to video gaming, some children play “in a very harmful fashion,” causing them to withdraw from sports and other social or recreational activities.
“The harm can be when we see these people as adults, where there’s very much decline of other activities,
“So, kids will not take part in, for instance, sports; adults will not perform at their work in a way that they should, or relationship difficulties as we see with all addictions,” he said, reports RTE.
Prof O’Gara said the problems “are all predicated on the smartphone. Gambling and gaming addiction as well,” while also noting that “shopping addiction is also a big problem.”
“We might joke about somebody being addicted to shopping, but that has a very destructive financial impact and wider impact on the person and those close to them,” reports RTE.
He added that the increasing prevalence of addiction stems mainly from the rising use of smartphones and similar devices.
“I’m very worried about how kids are in particular [affected], but also adults.
“We keep talking about kids as if they’re the only people,” he said, but “adults as well, we’re all scrolling and scrolling and scrolling,” reports RTE.
He continued: “This is definitely an issue that wasn’t there before … and it’s not going away. There’s no question about that,” reports RTE.
The causes behind behavioural addictions and potential strategies to address them will be explored at the 35th St John of God Research Conference in Dublin.
It will also be revealed that 69% of people are increasingly concerned that technology is damaging children’s communication skills, while 37% believe it is negatively affecting home life, reports RTE.
Among those aged 15 to 29, research indicates that around seven in ten are likely to check their social media when having difficulty sleeping, reports RTE.
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