Elaine Uskoski supports families with child video game addiction after helping their son
Guelph’s mom felt that her son was struggling.
It’s only been ten years since Elaine Uskoski saw her son in the doorway of her dorm room at Guelph University, in the midst of her addiction. She didn’t recognize him. At 6 feet 2 inches, he weighed only 127 pounds. His hair was greasy, trembling, there were mites on his face, and the way he smelled was clear.
He was in the pain of video game addiction. He was up for 16 hours all night and his research went to the roadside.
Jake settled down eight years from the game in June, celebrating his mother for helping him.
When he needed support, there were few specific gaming and mental health resources. He had a therapist who helped him tackle his self-esteem and the core issues surrounding his anxiety and depression.
Uskoski understands what video game addiction is, as she seeks more funding from frontline healthcare workers.
“I’m probably one of the few people who only see video game addictive clients, but most therapists have a variety of things their clients see,” Uskoski says.
She is a clinical expert in the Game Disability Training Program, Family Coach at Game Quitters (a program that helps people control the game), and author of the Game Quitters. Cybersorber: A Caregiver’s Guide to Video Game Addiction.
Her long-standing work in video game addiction has been recognized after being selected as a finalist at the 2025 Women Change The World Awards. Women all over the world have been nominated for awards aimed at recognizing women’s work in business, sustainability, leadership, health, education, product development, innovation and technology.
She shed tears when she learned that she had made a cut, as she felt that she had been validated about the time she spent bringing awareness to her video game addiction.
The biggest misconception is that video game addiction is not addiction, Uskoski said. It is different from substance use disorders. It’s a behavioral addiction like food and sexual addiction.
Those who struggle with it will not give up on it completely. “We build a life and activity that makes the game more meaningful outside of the game and makes the game more meaningful and it becomes a recreational activity in the backseat,” Uskoski says.
Generally, people with this addiction are men between 18 and 25 years old. Some of the symptoms are loss of interest, risking relationships, using video games to escape, deceive family members, or meltdowns if you can’t play video games.
Her advice to the family is to keep the game in a supervised place and not allow the gaming system in the bedroom.
“The bedroom is a place of rest, and when you’ve been playing games in the bedroom for hours and it’s very exciting, it’s not helping your body prepare for rest,” she said.
If they feel anxious or bullied at school, it is important to pay attention to the child’s emotional health, as the game can be used as a coping mechanism.
When it comes to esports, people think they have to play games as much as possible to do something good enough to compete. In sports like hockey, athletes don’t practice for 12 hours.
She spoke at the World eSports Summit a few years ago, where she talked about setting parameters to protect a child’s physical and mental health. Currently, esports tournaments have fitness breaks and time limits.
The game draws in with rewards to keep gamers playing. She hopes that the games they create are addictive and therefore take more responsibility for video game developers. Less rewards to help players level up and fewer in-game purchases. She wants more games with a start and ending to limit the amount of time she plays.
She remembers when her son was going through it, she told him, “You can hate me for the rest of your life, but I’m not going to stop saving you from yourself. Give me a laptop.”
He doesn’t hate her. He graduated from university and has a full-time job, and speaks with his mother at the Mental Health Forum.
