Thank you, and that's the concern.
Every waking moment, literally, is spent in gaming. Slept at 8am (not a typo), woke up at 2pm and went directly to game. How is that not an addiction?
Every waking moment, literally, is spent in gaming. Slept at 8am (not a typo), woke up at 2pm and went directly to game. How is that not an addiction?
What if he were studying the equivalent of "basket weaving"?
It's definitely obsessive behavior, but it sounds like that's how your son is wired. If you want your son to be happy, start supporting him unconditionally and stop making him feel judged. If you want him to be exceptional, be patient and odds are he will eventually direct his obsessive behavior towards something valuable.
When I was in college (before streaming TV) they played X-Files for 4-6 hours each night starting at midnight and I’d stay up all night watching.
After getting my first real job, I remember seriously trying to figure out how I would record all 6 hours each night (how many VHS tapes and if I’d need multiple VCRs), and how I would fit 6 hours of X-Files into my evening each night after work.
Then I realized, “I guess I can’t watch X-Files anymore”. And I stopped watching X-Files.
Discuss with him the options and paths in front of him, including your concerns that gaming might be the symptom of something more serious, and that you love him no matter what, are here to support him, and that even if he dropped out of school, while you’d be very disappointed you would still be there to support him no matter what.
Then you let him make choices and learn from them. Sometimes people have to fail in order to learn. You literally can’t convey to someone what it’s like to burn their hand on the stove. You have to give them the freedom to touch it. And then they know.
Or a person can be addicted to avoiding something (like his real-world life) via addiction- or OCD-like obsession with something that's both (1) readily available in quantity, and (2) well-suited to keeping his mind off whatever he's avoiding.
And of course there are overlap situations, and shades of gray, and possibly multiple things being avoided, being addicted to, and being used as distractions.