Addicted

How do you know if you do 'too much' of anything?

I turned on the telly just now and caught the tail end of a program discussing addictive behavior, addiction to online poker/games in particular. Apart from the program host there was a mother of a teenage online poker addict who tragically committed suicide, an ex-poker addict and an ex-warcraft addict. They spoke about the importance of laying down rules, limiting the time allowance for games early on.
That's all well and fine (albeit not an easy task) for children and young teenagers. But what about people my age?

We play warcraft a lot. I mean, really a lot. But the times I've recognised that it's too much are very very few. Even when we've prioritised gaming before food. But still. How do you tell, yourself? Someone else could probably look at my gaming habits and tell me whether it's too much or not, but I am unable to.

It may be easier to tell if it were online poker you were addicted to. At least because of the financial impact it would have. But I suppose the core of any addiction is denial. So it wouldn't be obvious to you even if you didn't have enough money left to pay your bills.
Are all addictions bad for you?

Things are QUITE different now though, with the marvel of a newborn son making us giddy with all sorts emotions and completely engulfed in all the parental fun he offers. Not to mention too tired to turn on the computer some evenings.
8-)

I'll have to keep an eye out and monitor my gaming habits, just to see if I can spot an addiction if it's there.

Anyways, after just having spent well over an hour, with tears flowing, reading the page dedicated to the memory of the boy who committed suicide I must link to it:
http://www.christiansellergren.se/text1_1.html
They think the debts and the state his life had turned into after playing too much poker online contributed to his decision to end his life. But as with anything as horrible as this, it's impossible to know for sure.
:-(