Her actions may be numbing pain she feels in other areas of her life, so you must approach the issue thoughtfully
My mother is in her 70s and addicted to playing video games such as Tetris, many different versions of solitaire and slot machine gambling games.
In the 1990s my parents bought a desktop computer and my mum started to play mostly card games on it for hours. As technology has progressed, she moved to a laptop and now a smartphone. When my sisters and I were younger, we used to joke about her gaming, but we’ve come to realise it has affected our relationships as she has never been emotionally available. When I’m with Mum now, she always has her phone in her hand and will be playing a game even when I’m talking to her. I never feel I have her full attention. She is like this with other family members too and it’s become a bit of a family joke.
Since my dad died nearly four years ago, I feel the addiction has become worse. Mum spends hours sitting at home playing games, sometimes on several devices at once. When I’ve raised my concerns, she has just laughed and said it’s not doing any harm. My feeling is that she is now partly using the games as a way of coping with difficult emotions (she refuses to discuss her grief or seek any support). The addiction started long before my dad passed away, though, so I wonder what else is going on.
