- Parents living in the UK sent their nine-year-old daughter to rehab after she became addicted to the video game "Fortnite."
- The girl played for up to 10 hours a day, slept through classes, and wet herself instead going to the bathroom, according to her mother.
- The therapist treating her says she's not the only person seeking help for "Fortnite" addiction.
A nine-year-old girl living in the UK was sent to an addiction rehabilitation program after becoming addicted to "Fortnite," the wildly popular video game with more than 125 million players, the girl's parents told British newspaper The Sunday People.
The girl's mother, Carol (whose last name was not used to protect the family's privacy), told The Sunday People that they bought their daughter an XBox in January, where the daughter played the game. By March, the parents noticed her grades were slipping, she'd been neglecting extracurricular activities, and racking up charges on their credit card for in-game purchases. Her teachers told them she was falling asleep in class.
Carol said they decided to seek therapy after the daughter began wetting herself because she didn't want to stop playing.
"We had no idea, when we let her play the game, of the addictive nature or the impact it could have on her mental health," she said. "She is in therapy for the addiction after she became withdrawn, agitated, and disturbed from playing up to ten hours a day – sometimes playing until dawn, wetting herself so she didn’t have to leave the screen.
The parents tried limiting her time on the XBox, but she continued anyway — and often didn't get up to go to the bathroom.
"My husband saw her light on in the night and found her sitting on a urine-soaked cushion playing the game," Carol said. "I found her backside was red-raw. She was so hooked to the game she wouldn’t even go to the toilet."
After their daughter admitted her habits to them, the parents sent her to be treated by Steven Pope, a Lancashire-based addiction therapist.
Pope said "Fortnite" is a highly addictive game, and he's been contacted by multiple parents with the same concerns.
"Over the last two months I’ve been contacted by dozens of parents with children as young as eight showing signs of addiction to 'Fortnite,'" Pope told The Sunday People. "I’ve been working in this field for three decades and never seen anything like it, how widespread and potentially damaging this is."
Pope didn't immediately respond to INSIDER's request for comment. Epic Games, which produces "Fortnite," didn't immediately respond to INSIDER's request for comment.
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https://www.msn.com/en-us/lifestyle/whats-hot/parents-sent-their-9-year-old-daughter-to-rehab-after-she-became-addicted-to-playing-fortnite/ar-AAyDYAf
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