The headset on the ears, the eyes fixed on the screen, computer mouse in one hand, the other on the keyboard. At first it was only a few hours in the evening that Ronald Stolz spent like this. At some point he sat in front of the PC all night. Nights turned into days until the computer ran 24 hours a day. At the time, Ronald Stolz was not aware that he was addicted.
The 41-year-old’s story of suffering began in the early 2000s. A sales colleague brought him to the game “World of Warcraft”. “We then met regularly and gambled together,” says the Swabian. At some point, however, that was no longer enough for him: he wanted to explore the online world and meet new people there. “Of course friendships developed there,” says Stolz. Through gambling, he built a bond with others. “You notice when you’re drinking, lighting a cigarette, opening the window or the train is passing outside. That’s why you have a very strong connection to the others.” Today Stolz knows that his media addiction was also triggered by a social dependency.
“I didn’t have a lot of self-confidence at the time. But online you were suddenly needed, people took care of each other,” says Stolz. In addition to the fear of missing out, there was also a feeling of letting others down when he went offline. The real world became increasingly meaningless: instead of spending time with friends, he built a world of lies to gamble. It took ten years for Stolz to break out of his addiction.
He is not an isolated case. “Sick media consumption is becoming more and more widespread,” explains Steffen Schmid. The psychological psychotherapist works at the Tal 19 am Harras counseling center. He diagnoses media addiction when consumption has negative consequences for everyday life. This occurs, for example, when those affected can no longer cope with their work. Similar to alcohol or drug addiction, it is not just about the amount of consumption, but about the consequences. The ability to control consumption and the importance of consumption in everyday life also played a role in the diagnosis.
Media addiction has only been officially recognized as a disease since January 2022
Ronald Stolz also felt the negative consequences: he often changed jobs, became unemployed, and his wife separated from him. “It made me realize that it couldn’t have been that,” he says. Stolz tried a fresh start, left home and began retraining as a mechatronics technician. Today he says of his addiction: “It’s like hibernating, opening the newspaper and noticing everything that has happened in the last few years.” Although he met a lot of great people during this time, addiction stole ten years of his life.
He found a way out through distraction and discipline: he threw himself into his new work and set up rules to keep a digital balance. Therapy didn’t make Stolz: “Back then there was absolutely no access point for therapy,” he says.
Media addiction has only been officially recognized as a disease since January 2022. Since then, the costs of treatment have been covered by health insurance companies. The Tal 19 counseling center introduced an official media addiction outpatient clinic in May, which makes therapies possible. But those affected have not only been around for a few months. “In recent years, more and more people affected have come to us,” says Schmid. On average, he has one new patient a week, he estimates. According to a study by the Federal Ministry of Health from 2013, around one percent of 15 to 65-year-olds in Germany suffer from media addiction.
You can become totally abstinent from drugs or alcohol. But with the media?
The sick people who turn to Steffen Schmid are mostly men and students. Especially in exam phases, the rush in the advice center is large. There, the individual media consumption is then examined under the magnifying glass. “It is checked whether there is harmful use or whether there is already an addiction,” says the therapist. Depending on the result, various treatment methods could be considered – from a five-hour short program to a twelve-month therapy. “An important component of therapy is the quality of life, because excessive media consumption means that other important components of life are lost, such as social contacts, exercise or nutrition,” explains Schmid. In therapy, patients not only learn how their addiction came about, but also how they can develop control strategies to prevent harmful media consumption and improve social skills.
Ronald Stolz found his own way out of the dependency. Self-help groups, which he initially organized privately, still support him today. He now shares his experiences with the Munich association “Aktiv gegen Mediensucht”, where he conducts education and prevention.
There are numerous prevention programs to prevent addiction from developing in the first place. The district youth association or the health insurance company IKK Classic offer, for example, media skills training for young people, children, but also adults. There, participants learn how to use media responsibly, sensibly and self-determinedly. “The aim of the media seminar is to set incentives to deal more closely with the topic and to find an entry point,” says IKK spokeswoman Viktoria Durnberger. Schmid thinks parent training is particularly important: “We all learn from models. Today’s children learn from their parents’ models how to use digital media.”
Stolz has had his dealings with the media under control for seven years now. But the danger of relapsing is still there: “When it comes to media addiction, we can’t speak of complete abstinence, as is the case with drugs or alcohol, because we simply need it to live,” says Stolz. Despite his past, he still gambles from time to time. “But when I play, it’s only for me and not for others.”