Sanity In Times Of Anxiety: Video Games And The Elche Familicide
Society has been shocked again with the tremendous murder of a father, a mother and a brother at the hands of the eldest son. Doubly so, if we add the fact that this 15-year-old He spent 2 days playing Fortnite living with the corpses until he was discovered
In his own words “I knew I wouldn’t be able to play once they discovered me.”
A priori, a family with no apparent problems, only a “not serious” academic decline (considering not repeating a grade not serious), playing Fortnite, the presence of a shotgun locked in a closet whose key was accessible to the children. minors, the reading of the book “The Age of Wrath”, in which the protagonist, a teenager, ends up killing his family, and also the possibility of the family contemplating demanding that their first-born son and executioner join the to work in the field.
Is this information enough to determine that video games are the main cause? No. Is this information enough to diagnose video game addiction? It is enough to state with certainty that we have to wait for the psychological forensic report. The most likely thing is that we will see a mental clinical picture in the young person added to the use of video games.
How bold would it be if I thought I was raising a rabbit by saying that the media constantly searches for clickbait and sensationalism as a way to survive in a society that may still be sensitive to it! However, it is striking and is the headline. Is this something that everyone would talk about even if no media had emphasized it? Probably yes. And at the same time, it is our job as professionals in this sector to restructure the expectations and information given.
I embarrass myself by repeating once again that video games alone can hardly be the only or main (beating the other causes by an absolute majority) problem. Is there a correlation? If they are a cause that, if poorly managed, can precipitate negative aspects ? Yeah.
The causes are never so simple
How easy it is to kill the dog and not kill the rabies. Let’s be skeptical and rigorous. How much monitoring is done on interventions based on absolutely denying the use of video games? How many results are published? How much “relapse” rate (very much in quotes) is there? I tell you. 0.
Intervening video games without intervening the rest of the variables does not make sense In fact, I don’t think even the professionals who advocate for even banning video games don’t intervene in those other areas. However, we cannot lose sight of the fact that many times the problematic use of video games, being the consequence of the problem and taking up a lot of time and exhausting us physically and mentally, means that we need to stop their use so that all those underlying problems resurface and flourish. .
But once you have effectively intervened in its use, is it realistic to advocate abstinence for the rest of your life, especially in a person who does not even have Gaming Disorder? No, maybe you have to redirect its use in conjunction with the new lifestyle
The media will continue looking for the most striking. We also started conversations about the owner. Health professionals will continue to dedicate ourselves to repairing the unavoidable media impulsivity and now, more than ever, each of us will believe what we want to believe, since the free buffet of information that we can choose at will to satisfy our beliefs without the need to question them.
And in this case of Elche, I repeat, there is a lack of information, a forensic clinical report is missing. Even so, politeness does not take away courage and by intuition I can affirm that video games at that time did not have a positive impact on this young man’s life, but nevertheless, it does not smell like it is even remotely the main cause
This poor young man could have condensed several critical life experiences at the same moment, added to a character, a personality, a family environment and other psycho-emotional problems and he saw no other solution to dissociate himself from his act than to play the game. Fortnite.
