Posting in Reddit’s “Am I The A**hole” (AITA) forum under the username u/passionfruitmami, the woman said she found her fiancé gaming in her son’s room at 1:30 a.m. after he promised he’d stop gaming late at night. So, she shut her fiancé’s computer off mid-game, and a couple of days later, he left.
The post has garnered nearly 13,000 upvotes and hundreds of comments from Redditors who agreed the breakup was for the best.
Gaming Disorder
In 2018, the World Health Organization (WHO) officially defined gaming disorder, or video game addiction, as “a pattern of gaming behavior characterized by impaired control over gaming, increasing priority given to gaming over other activities…and continuation or escalation of gaming despite the occurrence of negative consequences.”
To be diagnosed, the WHO says the behavior pattern must result in “significant impairment” in social, family, educational, or other functioning and have been present for “at least 12 months.”
Unfortunately, researchers still aren’t sure what causes video game addiction; however, they posit that winning video games may “trigger a release of dopamine,” the Cleveland Clinic said.
“Dopamine is a brain chemical (neurotransmitter) that plays a key role in several bodily functions, including pleasurable reward and motivation,” the Cleveland Clinic said. “Dopamine is the same neurotransmitter involved in other use disorders, including gambling disorder and substance use disorder.”
Some research indicates that as many as 60 million people suffer from gaming disorder, according to Game Quitters. And a 2010 study found that this addiction was the cause of 15 percent of divorces, Deseret News reported.
‘AITA’
In her post, u/passionfruitmami said her now-ex-fiancé previously moved his gaming station into her son’s room because they had “a limited amount of space” in their home.
“My fiancé and I have a baby who sleeps in our room, there is literally no extra space at all in our bedroom,” she wrote. “I agreed to let him have his computer and desk in my son’s room as it was the only room out of the two with just enough space.”
However, u/passionfruitmami told her ex not to play games late at night because she didn’t “want him to disrupt [her] son’s sleep.” But her ex didn’t listen.
“Over the past year, my fiancé hasn’t respected my request as has continued to play video games [until] pretty late at night, sometimes up to 4 a.m. on weekends,” u/passionfruitmami said, adding that she found her ex vaping in her son’s room about a month ago.
“I made a very big deal of this and gave him an ultimatum that he needed to stop gaming late at night and to never vape in my son’s room again or we were done,” she continued.
u/passionfruitmami’s ex promised to stop, and for a while, he stuck to his word. Over the weekend, however, u/passionfruitmami woke up to her ex gaming at 1:30 a.m.
“I demanded that my fiancé get off his game, and he said he was, ‘Almost done, just 20 more minutes until the match was over.’ I told him to get out of my son’s room or I would be turning off the computer…I ended up pushing the power button to turn it off,” she said.
In the comments section of her post, u/passionfruitmami said she gave her ex a second ultimatum—they could either go to counseling to address his video game “addiction” or they were done.
“[H]e said he is done and not remotely interested in counseling,” u/passionfruitmami wrote.
Redditors React
Many Redditors said the breakup was for the best and that u/passionfruitmami and her son “deserve better.”
“My ex-husband had a gaming addiction and it never got better. It’s part of the reason why I left him. It was awful. It’s good he’s moving out. You don’t want to marry that,” u/KittyDuMaurier said.
“Glad that guy is packing up and leaving. Kiddo [definitely] deserves better,” u/helpfulnothelpful wrote.
In response to another commenter who echoed the same sentiment as u/helpfulnothelpful, u/passionfruitmami said: “We all deserve better.”
Newsweek has reached out to u/passionfruitmami for comment.
More Viral Posts
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And commenters blasted a man on Monday for refusing to eat his wife’s food.
