In an era where smartphones and PCs have become everyday life at your fingertips, gaming has turned into the closest escape route. For students starting out on their own after stepping out from under their parents’ protection, gaming is an easy way to briefly forget the pressures of academics and career decisions. The problem is that the comfort, however short-lived, hardens into a state where it becomes increasingly difficult to control oneself as it repeats. Researchers in South Korea have found a way to cut this vicious cycle without medication.
“Game Escape” Driven by Academic Stress
Sungkyunkwan University said on the 10th that its research team led by Yoon Seong-min, a professor in social welfare, developed a mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT-G) program to ease internet gaming disorder among college students and proved its effectiveness worldwide for the first time. Internet gaming disorder refers to a condition in which people become so absorbed in gaming that it disrupts daily life and academics, making them unable to regulate themselves. During the college years—when liberation from independence mixes with anxiety about the future—accumulated stress often gets released through gaming, and cases of crossing the threshold into addiction are far from rare. That is why voices calling for gaming disorder to be treated as a problem that shakes the lives of young adults beyond personal preference are growing louder.
Training to Look Instead of Suppress
Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy is a psychological technique that has shown effectiveness in preventing relapse in depression treatment settings in the first place. The research team reshaped this approach to match the characteristics of gaming disorder. The core is to step back and allow people to see emotions and thoughts as they are, rather than forcibly suppressing the impulse toward gaming when it surges. The team also added cognitive therapy to replace distorted thought patterns with healthier ones. Participating students went through meditation sessions every week for eight weeks, and they planned and carried out alternative activities—ones that took them away from the computer and got them moving—on their own.
Self-Control Returns to 46 Students After Eight Weeks
The research team conducted a clinical trial targeting 46 college students considered at high risk for gaming disorder. After completing the eight-week program, students’ gaming addiction symptoms dropped significantly, and the stress and anxiety rooted in those symptoms also eased at the same time. The most striking change was that self-control—overcoming gaming temptations on their own without any coercion—grew clearly stronger. The effect was confirmed to persist even after a month passed following the end of the program, showing it was sustained change rather than a temporary response. The results show that an approach focused on building the ability to handle one’s mind—not merely suppressing stimuli—also works in treating gaming addiction.
Possibility of Reaching the School Counseling Front Line
Professor Yoon Seong-min said the counseling intervention could become a psychological method to help students break the vicious cycle in which they impulsively immerse themselves in gaming due to burdens related to academics and the future. If the program spreads to school counseling centers or local public health organizations, it is expected to contribute to young adults’ mental health and their recovery in daily life. This study involved Professor Yoon Seong-min, as well as Kim Min-a, a professor in social welfare, Oh Ha-young, a professor in the College of Software Convergence, and Park Ye-hui, a Ph.D. student. The research was carried out with funding support from the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Korea Creative Content Agency for research and development of game-based digital therapeutics technology, and it is cited as a case that broadens the scope of domestic digital therapeutics research.