Internet and video game addictions
An article58 illustrated the case of John, 16 years old, Internet and video game addicted, who spent about 10 hours per day playing electronic games online and downloading movies, series and music. The teenager had difficulty in waking up to go to school and to attend family programs, and also left the college basketball team. He consumed caffeine in excess in order to keep him online; urinated in a plastic bottle to avoid going to the bathroom and, when not on the computer, used the Smartphone to browse the Internet.
The case conceptualization identified automatic thoughts related to getting online and situations that precipitated the use of the Internet. The article did not disclose John’s case, but presented the interventions: a) monitoring; b) recording of dysfunctional thoughts; c) setting an alarm to go off after 45 minutes on the Internet and use the other 15 minutes to do an activity out of the Internet;
d) methodizing sleep time to use the internet during the day instead of the night; e) using of reminder cards that summarizes the treatment goals; f) performing distraction exercises.