A desperate mum has been in touch with our community of local service professionals to find a hypnotherapist in a bid to cure her son’s Fortnite addiction.
The working single mother has said the half-term holiday was the last straw, as she’s worried her 11-year-old’s ‘unhealthy obsession’ is impacting his education, health, and social life.
At the start of 2018, gaming addiction was recognised as a mental health condition by the World Health Organisation. The NHS started a pilot programme in September to treat 15 children with gaming addiction, with the aim of creating a model for diagnosis and treatment*.
Her full request is below – can you help?
Not sure if this is even possible, but I need help with gaming addiction in children. I’ve just spent half-term fighting non-stop with my 11-year-old son and am at my wit’s end. Like most kids his age, he’s a fan of the game Fortnite, but things are getting out of hand. He spent all day, everyday of half-term playing and nothing I did made him stop.
I’ve turned his console off, confiscated it and even changed the Wi-Fi password multiple times but it makes no difference and as a single working parent I can’t deal with the tantrums. Grounding him doesn’t work and I don’t have the strength or energy left to fight with him anymore.
What started as a fun past time has now become an unhealthy obsession with Fortnite. I’ve caught him playing at midnight when he’s supposed to be asleep, he didn’t touch his homework during half-term and the game is all he can think and talk about. On the rare occasions I can get him off it, he’s sulky and miserable, and I don’t recognise him anymore.
A friend of mine used hypnotherapy to break her 30-year smoking habit so I’m hoping this will work in the same way. Our GP was dismissive and unconcerned when I went to her over the summer holidays but my son has agreed to try hypnotherapy after we came to blows over his addiction tonight and he finally admitted he might have a problem.
Ideally, you’ll be CRB checked, have previous experience working with children and addiction, and have a recognised counselling qualification.
Thanks in advance.
Do you think you can help? Register here to respond to the request: bark.com/en/gb/sellers/create/
Bark.com co-founder, Kai Feller said,
“This request is actually quite sad, you can tell how stressed the mother is and how she’s at the end of her tether. Gaming addiction has garnered a lot of attention this year. In fact, our own research over the summer showed that more than 1,500 parents in the UK had sought gaming addiction counselling for their kids in the last year.
“It’s important that our health system has a treatment plan in place for children with gaming addiction, so they and their families don’t have to suffer long-term. Until that service is widely available, alternatives like hypnotherapy might be the best option, especially in cases like this where the mother feels her GP isn’t taking her seriously. I hope she finds the right professional for her son and gets the right help.”