in a familiar sign of the times, the former sailor told doctors he had been playing candy crush saga on his phone all day — every day — for two months straight while he was “between jobs.” according to the case study, published in the journal of the american medical association internal medicine in 2015, the excessive activity eventually caused the tendon in his left thumb to rupture. he was too busy crushing colourful pieces of sweet digital candy to notice.
“we need to be aware that certain video games can act like digital painkillers,” said andrew doan, co-author of the study and head of addictions research at the naval medical center san diego, according to livescience . “we have to be very cognizant that that can be abused.”
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“the problem is when we play video games it can stimulate the mind and body to release natural chemicals, such as adrenaline and cortisol, doan said . “we also believe endorphins, which are natural painkillers, are released.”
the sweet spot for gaming is around one hour per day, doan said, explaining there are social and emotional benefits to be gained from such activity. too much time in the digital world can produce the opposite result, however, and there are support groups available to help those unable to log off, such as computer gaming addicts anonymous .
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dave yasvinski is a writer with healthing.ca
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