I have a friend that refuses to play FFXIV again because how addicted they felt towards it. That came off the back of a WoW addiction that led them to mix up their priorities between food, alcohol and playing the game. The whole addition to both of those was a way for dealing with other mental health issue, yet only made matters worse with how those games work.

I also had my own issues with game addiction when I was dealing with grief over a death. Fortunately it didn’t impact my physical health but it did impact other areas. I certainly wasn’t looking after myself and my surroundings as best as I could back then, and neglected a lot in my life.

My friend found a way of dealing with game addiction by removing them entirely, I found ways to prioritise other areas of my life and continue with that while keeping gaming strictly as a hobby.

Often I think people become addicted to games like any other substance due to dealing with external factors in life that they’re not getting help for. It takes a lot to realise there’s a problem, it takes even more to deal with the root causes. Some people also have low thresholds for addiction and which exacerbates it.