Episode 5: ADHD & Video Gaming – What’s Helpful, What’s Harmful, and What to Watch For

Is video gaming just harmless fun—or something to worry about when your child has ADHD? In this episode of The ADHD Connect Podcast, Dr. Tish Taylor breaks down the latest research on ADHD and video gaming, highlighting what’s beneficial, what can become problematic, and how to know when it’s time to intervene.

Whether your child is deep into action games or spends hours gaming with friends online, this episode will help you better understand what this activity results in.

In This Episode, You’ll Learn:

✔ The potential cognitive and social benefits of video games

✔ Red flags for problematic gaming or gaming addiction

✔ Why kids with ADHD may be more vulnerable to overuse

✔ How to ask the right questions about motivation and balance

✔ What the latest research says (2019–2023)

✔ Tips for parenting and supervising gaming in a healthy way—especially during summer months

🔗 Additional Resources for Concerned Parents

If you’re feeling unsure about your child’s video game habits, you’re not alone. These trusted resources can help you better understand video game overuse and how to create healthier digital boundaries:

📺 Preventing a Video Game Addiction in Kids – Watch on YouTube
🧠 Video Game Addiction – Cleveland Clinic
📱 Are Video Games and Screens Another Addiction? – Mayo Clinic Health System
🌐 Screen Sanity – Visit ScreenSanity.org
A nonprofit helping families raise happy, healthy kids in a digital world.

If you’re a parent, educator, or professional supporting kids with ADHD, this episode is a must-listen.

🔔 Don’t forget to subscribe for more expert-backed insights on ADHD, parenting, and practical strategies that actually work.

Episode 5 Transcript:

Hi! This is Dr Tish Taylor with the latest episode of my ADHD podcast, where we talk about all things ADHD, especially as it pertains to children and teens.

Today, my topic is ADHD and video gaming. So video gaming actually is can be a wide topic, because it depends on the kind of games that you’re playing. Some of the most common games, though, that teens and adolescents are engaging in are action games, but there are a variety of games like strategy games and puzzle games, and they’re even, you know, games created to be helpful and assisting with people, and maybe used in terms of education or rehabilitation. I’m talking more about the most popular gaming and should we have any concerns when it comes to game addictions and ADHD or, you know, what would be considered problematic? Or is there an overreaction to people who are really concerned about the time spent video gaming.

So what I did is I did my own literature review, and so I provide that caveat. It wasn’t, you know, overly extensive, but I did go through as many as I could find literature reviews, some single studies and some a conceptual piece, but I went through the most recent, like, the last four years, because there’s, you know, such an advance in games and gaming and behavioral change. I mean, more and more, especially since COVID, we see children and teens playing, or gaming, playing video games, and they are becoming more sophisticated and entertaining. So with all of that in mind, and working with many families and kids teens with ADHD, I’ll add in a few of my own thoughts, but I do want to summarize in regards to what I’ve read and what I’ve known about it and and try to give a balanced perspective, but also to provide you know, as a parent or somebody with a child with ADHD, or working with children with ADHD, what things should I just be aware of? So I’m going to really highlight those.

So the first thing I will say is, is you could find different different features within the literature. So some literature will talk about, well, there’s really some positive benefits to video gaming, for example, we can see some neurocognitive benefits right in processing, speed decision making, maybe visual spatial skills. So you could find literature that says that and, and I’m not going to argue with that. And some literature will say, well, video gaming can also assist with emotional regulation, right? Because I learned, have to learn how to manage my frustration when something doesn’t go well, or I lose or I don’t level up, I have to learn how to do that. It’s social, right? There may be some social there’s socialization that goes on when kids or teens are playing with other people, or they’re playing with their friends. And there’s some aspect of that, some people will use it as a distraction to manage things such as chronic pain. And so there are some pros and some benefits.

So you could certainly consider that what I want to, want to highlight a little bit more is, you know, here are some maybe, here are some important questions to think about, like, Should I be concerned? Or, you know, how do I parent? Or how do I monitor, how do I supervise, or when should I be concerned? And so these are those things that I think you would want to consider. The first is that we do know, you know, especially into adulthood, individuals with ADHD have higher rates of Addictive Disorders, especially when it comes to substance use and abuse. So we don’t know exactly why that is. We have, we have hypotheses around why that is, but we do know that that is the case. There are different things that a person can be addicted to, as you know. And now gaming addictions, or Internet gaming addictions, are a part of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual. Happened in 2013 and so there’s been more studies looking at that. Is there a connection between ADHD and gaming addiction? Now addictions are typically get diagnosed when the thing, let’s just say gaming, or it could be food or other things, when the thing supersedes other areas of our life, when it becomes a dominant force, if you will, in our life, and it affects other areas of our life, it’s difficult to stop, even if we want to, or say we will, or have some motivation to stop, but we just can’t seem to do that.

So as you know, that’s just an informal definition of addiction. But. That’s essentially what we’re looking at and so. So here are some important questions. When you think about a child or a teen’s role in gaming, the time they spend, is it interfering with other important areas of their life? Are they not getting to other important areas of their life? Because gaming is substituting for that, that might be sleep. Is there a significant sleep disruption? I mean, I have known teens who are up until 234, o’clock in the morning, gaming and even during the school year. And so to me, I would consider that a significant impact in their health and well being and attributing to a sleep disruption. So you might think about, is it really throwing off or and I’ve known some teams who who won’t eat, they’re they’re so into their gaming for hours that they are skipping dinner and not eating. So is it disrupting a major health area or a typical routine within their life that’s really important for their general functioning. Is it impacting or interfering with their socialization?

So, you know, that’s kind of a two edged sword, right? Because so many kids and teens are gaming with their friends, so they’re interacting. But is it interfering with other avenues where they could be socializing and doing other activities that some of their many of their other peers or their other friends are engaging in, but they’re choosing to just be online or game. So really making that comparison, is it interfering with other areas of their functioning, their health and physical functioning, their social functioning and getting in the way. Does there need to be a better balance?

So that’s really an important question to consider. It might be important to consider, why are they playing? What’s their reason, right? So often, is for entertainment. It might be for socializing. But is there reason for escape? Are they trying to escape something? Are they trying to escape any emotional or psychological challenges they’re having? Are they trying to escape loneliness? So really thinking about that, is it, you know, is there reason, you know, kind of maladaptive in terms of coping, or is it just, hey, my friends are on and I want to play, you know, that might be a different reason, and there may be a mixture of reasons. But as you know an adult or a parent or somebody who’s working with a child or teen trying to understand what that motivation is, is it contributing to this a rise in immediate gratification, right? Because within gaming, you get immediate gratification, or pretty immediate gratification. And is it superseding? Is it getting in the way or interfering with other activities that don’t give you immediate gratification?

So especially with ADHD, learning to engage in activities that are less stimulating but give you a longer term gratification, such as, you know, I’m finishing a report, or, you know, I’m learning a skill, or I’m getting better at something that’s important to me, or I’m engaging in my schoolwork the way that, you know, helps me it so. So is it creating an imbalance in terms of I’m just engaging in things that give me something immediate versus I am learning the skill of getting longer term gratification? Does the content? So most gaming content has some aggression and violence in it. Is the content impacting behavior? Aggressive behavior? It might even be verbal. Is it impacting or increasing? I’ll just say rudeness, you know.

So it might be in subtler ways. It might be in, you know, less severe ways, but in some ways, is it increasing their, you know, weaker socialization, more aggressive behaviors? Is it increasing their sedentary behaviors? So, you know, is video gaming getting in the way of them being physically active or going out and doing things that would be healthy for their body, is it in some way affecting their emotional well being, and that I’ve seen happen when really there’s some withdrawal, and I’m not out and about interacting with others in a way that, You know gives more confidence and satisfaction, and is increasing my friendships. Have some having some satisfaction in my relationships and friendships, is it, you know, providing something else that’s more surface level and not as meaningful? And you know, do we need a better balance? That way.

Okay, so those are really the major and then again, just really, and so knowing that with ADHD, there does tend to be an increase in terms of addiction, kinds of behaviors. And so certainly not all kids have have an addiction, or, you know, have addictive behaviors when they have ADHD, but we just see an increase of numbers with ADHD. So they are important, like screening questions, I would say, to ask, and, you know, just in terms of supervision, you know, are, this is something I really need to think about with with my child or team. So all important questions. I’m always open for other conversation or questions or other thoughts around this topic, but I think this is an important one, especially in the summer months, as it’s pretty easy for children and teens to be gaming even more since there’s no school, all right, so thanks for listening, and I will see you next time you.