Electronic screens, and especially video games, can be a colossal challenge for a child or teen with ADHD. If your child or teen becomes dysregulated around screen time, if you notice they are less active outdoors and have poorer sleep due to screen time, then you should give very serious consideration to removing video games from your home.
Most children and teens with ADHD have some degree of screen dependency or addiction, resulting in emotional dysregulation and generalized irritability. Often times challenges that cause the most family stress are related to video game use.
The problem with video games is that they provoke excessive dopamine activity in the brain. Dopamine works in the reward system and it makes one feel happy and good about whatever they are doing in that moment. Some stimuli of dopamine are actually very healthy. These include social relationships, physical activity, playing or listening to music, etc. But other drivers of dopamine, especially video games, are comprehensively unhealthy for the brain causing a dopamine overload. And this can result in dopamine dependency or addiction.
Dopamine overload manifests with a child or teen unable to gently walk away from a screen. It can also manifest with them unable to perform undesired tasks, such as chores or homework, after playing video games. This is because their brain was over stimulated with dopamine from video games, resulting in the brain needing an ever increasing surge of dopamine just to stay regulated. So, after the screens are shut off, your child may not be able to perform a less desirable activity (such as chores or homework). Their brain needs an unnatural and increasing surge in dopamine, such as more video games, for them to stay regulated.
—Does your child’s mood worsening after playing video games?
—Does your teen become more irritable the more they play video games?
—Does your child battle for more screen time once they’ve reached the time limit you have set?
These signs of irritability and dysregulation around screen use may indicate it is time to make a plan to remove these devices from your home. This issue will only get worse.
I have helped many families of children with ADHD remove screens from their home. Never in my career have any families regretted this decision. That is, once the difficult decision to remove screens was made and implemented, the child or teen, and their parents, have remained overwhelmingly relieved and happy.
When video games are removed from the home, children and teens truly shine. They are happier and have better social skills; they benefit from more deep and restorative sleep; they are better regulated emotionally, have more outdoor play and have better academic performance from now - through college.
Please know that video games, including the classics such as Minecraft, Roblox, and Fortnight, are not a true social experience. Children learn social skills by interacting in person. The development of social skills and executive function is actually suppressed by playing video games.
If you desire help with electronic screen management, please reach out to me anytime.
Visit my website at www.lifestylehealthconsultants.com
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Resources:
Podcast: The ADHD Parenting Podcast
Book: Reset Your Child’s Brain by, Victoria Dunckley, MD
