My 14 yo son is addicted to WOW.

I have known that Sam has been spending way too much time on gaming specifically on WOW. He spends at least 6-14 hrs/day playing it.

He is now doing internet HS as he refuses to get up and go to school with me when I leave for work. We live over 9 miles from his school so he realy needs to ride into town with me.. He has no trouble getting up to play WOW however. As far as the internet HS goes, it was that or enter the court system for truancy.

I thought I was so lucky to have a teen who does not smoke cigarettes, use drugs or alcohol. I am now learning that this gaming addiction of his can ruin his life as well.

I am a recovering alcoholic and know all to well how small my world got before I finally quit drinking. But that took a lot longer than the 2-3 yrs Sam has been playing WOW. His world is very small. He rarely sees friends as he considers that he does see his gaming friends daily and that it is the same as face to face contact with friends/family.

This is pretty scary.

I know Sam is going to deny, deny, deny just like all of us addicts do.

Any suggestions on ways to help Sam see the light w/o completely alienating him?

Thanks, Gail

I think the only alternative is to forceably limit access to a few hours a day and try to find some alternatives. The latter is the more difficult because my son, at any rate, doesn't want to do anything else. But that is my approach at this point. It isn't pleasant to force the issue, but the alternative is worse.

Gail,

I am just finding this forum, and I am interested to know how things are going with your son. I have a 9-year-old step-son (lives with us full-time) who is addicted to the game, WOW. I am just curious if you have had any luck with Sam.

Hope to hear.

Thanks,
Deb (WOWwife)

Also extremely needed this answer. While we have only common family computer, games was not a trouble for my son, but since we presented to him his first smartphone - it's just awful! Games and internet take all his attention. And now he beg us (me and my husband) to buy notebook for his birthday. I understand that nowadays it is good to improve computer skills for kids because computers are almost everywhere, I don't mind if I can be sure that it will not turn into whole day and night games.