by Victoria L. Dunckley, M.D.
Discovery of Video Game-Induced Seizures Transforms a Teen's
Health: A Mother's Story
Mother warns video game-induced seizures may go undetected.
Published on December 30, 2011 by Victoria L.
Dunckley, M.D. in Mental Wealth
Some seizures are hard to "see."
This
week, I invited mother and medical writer Jessica Solodar to share her story:
Jessica's daughter Alice experienced daily seizures triggered by video games,
but suffered for years before she was properly diagnosed. My clinical
work and writing often focus on electronic media precipitating nervous system
dysregulation, but this case was an eye-opener even for me.
Removing
Video Games Can Transform a Teen's Health
by Jessica
Solodar
Volatile
behavior, impaired cognitive skills, and
poor physical health are not uncommon in young people who spend many hours in
front of video games and other electronic screens. These symptoms and others
can be the result of hard-to-detect seizures that are triggered by flashing,
fast-moving images. Video game seizures are more common than people think-they
can happen to anyone, not just people with epilepsy. Although researchers have
studied them extensively and game manufacturers provide seizure warnings, there
is still little awareness among consumers and clinicians.
The
primary reason you don't hear much about these seizures is that many seizures
are never noticed or diagnosed. Because seizure events may not be noticed, and
their disabling after-effects can linger, it can be hard to pinpoint the cause
of disability. This is a serious and largely unrecognized public health problem
that is still growing as the pervasiveness of video screens continues to
expand.
I learned
about video game seizures only after my daughter's health, behavior, and
cognitive functioning had suffered for several years. The effects of video
games on her health and her daily function were pretty devastating. We didn't
fully realize how much she'd been impaired by all of the seizures until she got
away from the screen. Fortunately, we were able to restore her health and
greatly improve her daily life "just" by helping her eliminate video
games from her life.
As a
pre-teen Alice was addicted to video games and played several hours a day on
weekdays. Weekends were much worse. With a great deal of effort, she finally
went cold turkey about four years ago. Like anyone with an addiction, she still has
cravings every day. However, she's had only a few brief relapses now that she
knows how disabled she becomes from visual overstimulation.
Alice's
addictive gaming caused constant friction at home-any limits we set on her
screen time never worked. "I just want to play for ten minutes,"
she'd say, which sounded just like someone pleading for just one drink. Nearly
every time, by the time those ten minutes went by, something in Alice's brain had
unmistakably shifted. The very sincere promises she'd made to stop the game
without a fight no longer were inaccessible to her. I felt I was talking to a
different person once she'd been in front of the screen again.
Here's a
glimpse of what life was like at home when she was gaming for hours each day.
Alice seemed "out of it" a lot. Sometimes at the end of the day after
lots of screen time she seemed to be on autopilot, in a dazed state. At times
she didn't seem to hear us talking to her. She began showing some odd behaviors
that she didn't remember later. Alice was alarmingly volatile, abnormally
fatigued, and she struggled to concentrate in class. She missed a lot of
school, because many days she couldn't be awakened until the afternoon, despite
our vigorous efforts. This wasn't ordinary sleepiness. She was often
unresponsive after an hour of constant attempts.
For
several years we had absolutely no idea there was any connection between the
video games and her health problems. We didn't know that Alice was having
multiple seizures every day while gaming. She had no seizure history we were
aware of, so we gave no thought to the seizure warnings printed in the game
instructions. We didn't notice anything that resembled a seizure, either. We
certainly didn't know then that many seizures don't involve a person falling to
the floor with convulsions.
Seizures
typically leave behind symptoms such as extreme fatigue, dysregulated
moods, memory problems,
and poor concentration,
often for as long as a couple of days while the brain recovers. These symptoms
can be expected after most types of seizures, including those with no
convulsions. In Alice's case, she played video games so much that there was no
chance for her brain to recover from each seizure before the next one happened.
She was in a chronic post-seizure state. When we found out that she was
experiencing seizures every day while gaming, we finally had an explanation for
the cause of many of her health issues.
After we
explained to Alice that video games were affecting her physical and mental
health, she cut back just enough to see a difference for herself. Then it still
took about a year until she was ready to give up video games entirely. It was
very hard, but she was motivated by the knowledge that she would feel a lot
healthier without all the seizures.
We had
underestimated the effect of the seizures on Alice's mood, behavior, energy,
working memory, and ability to focus. It was exhilarating to see her real personality emerge
and blossom. It was also quite frightening to realize how much and how long she
had been disabled, and how there must be many other young people with similar
situations.
We took
Alice for neuropsychological testing before she gave up video games and
repeated some of the tests a year later with the same clinician. The
neuropsychologist was amazed at the changes in her from one year to the next
and said she presented as a different girl. He saw notable gains in her
maturity, mood, focus, reading fluency, and working memory. Most important, she
was able to work for more than an hour at a time during the testing. In prior
testing she had been able to stay focused for 20 minutes at most and needed to
take many breaks during testing sessions due to lack of mental stamina.
In short,
although it may sound too good to be true, it was possible to restore Alice's
health simply by eliminating screen entertainment and without adding medication.
The big improvements from a few years ago have endured as long as she continues
to avoid exposure to anime and video games. In our house we keep the computers in
a locked room, which is the way Alice wants it. If I forget to close the door
when leaving the computer room, Alice brings it to my attention. She still
needs help to resist the impulse to get in front of the screen. As a precaution
we still use cell phones without touch screens, game software, or Internet
access.
You can
conduct your own experiment at home by removing and (and locking away) video
screens. Explain to your child that you want to see if several days without
games will lessen fatigue, moodiness, irritability, and struggles with
learning. You and your child will probably have to work hard at removing the
video games even for a short time. If you do see improvements brought about by
abstinence from gaming, you'll need to remain vigilant thereafter in order to
protect those gains.
It's
well worth the effort!
Jessica
Solodar writes about video game seizures at http://videogameseizures.wordpress.com and
www.videogameseizures.org
Dr. Dunckley's
note: Seizure activity can be triggered by intense visual stimuli in some
children -- which is simply a more extreme version of electronics-induced
overstimulation. Video game-induced seizures are not as rare as
manufacturers claim, and can cause cognitive, behavioral, emotional, and
physical health problems, just as overstimulation can.
For a thorough
review on photosensivity and seizures, see Fisher et al, 2005.
For help with
liberating your child from electronic screens, visitwww.drdunckley.com/videogames/
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/mental-wealth/201112/discovery-video-game-induced-seizures-transforms-teens-health-mothers-stor
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