Cam Adair’s life started spiralling out of control with video game addiction at the age of 11.

He stopped going to school due to intense bullying and sought refuge in video games. 

While his friends finished their education, Cam was gaming for up to 16 hours a day. Battling depression, he seriously contemplated suicide. 

It was a wake-up call, and that night he made a commitment to change.

After undergoing therapy, Cam found Game Quitters, the world’s largest support community for video game addiction, with members in 95 countries, and INTENTA, an internationally accredited training programme for mental health professionals on problematic and disordered gaming. 

He has been named one of Canada’s top 150 leaders in mental health.

Widely hailed as the world’s leading expert on video game addiction, Cam has featured in two TEDx talks and worldwide media outlets, including The New York Times, Forbes, BBC and CNN. 

He was recently invited to speak at the World Health Organization, sharing his knowledge and insights on lived experiences of gaming disorder.

Here is Cam’s journey from addict to advocate:

“By the age of 21, I was playing video games for up to 16 hours a day. Video game addiction had consumed my life for over ten years. 

I dropped out of high school, never graduated or went to college, and battled depression throughout my teens. 

I don’t want to vilify gaming. 

Playing video games has many benefits. I want to share my personal story of addiction and how seeking help changed my life.

I had a happy childhood, and my life was pretty uneventful until I turned 11. 

I went to school, played hockey, hung out with my friends and enjoyed video games. 

That all changed in the 8th grade when I began to get badly bullied at school and in hockey. 

After that, I avoided going to both whenever possible.

The time I would usually spend at school and hockey I filled with playing video games. 

They were a safe space for me to escape the constant bullying, somewhere I felt happy and in control. 

Eventually, I dropped out of high school and quit hockey, which was once my greatest passion. Life became very insular.

For the next few years, I battled with depression and tried to hide the extent of my addiction. 

My parents said if I wasn’t going to school, I had to find a job. 

But gaming was consuming all my waking hours, so I never managed to hold down a job for more than a month. I even pretended to go to work sometimes. 

After my Dad dropped me off, I would sneak back home, creep into the house and go to bed. I was exhausted after staying up all night playing video games.

In hindsight, I’m ashamed of my, behaviour but I could not stop gaming. I had become increasingly dependent on video games as a way of alleviating my depression. 

My life continued to spiral out of control until I hit rock bottom and wrote a suicide note one day. Fortunately, I stopped myself from going through with it.

Hitting rock bottom made me realise my life was in imminent danger, and things needed to change. 

I asked my Dad for help and started to see a counsellor. 

I was determined to give it my best shot and made myself attend every therapy session. 

I was in it for the long term and vowed never to give up.

After overcoming my addiction, I realised that millions of others worldwide were also struggling with video game addiction, but there were few resources to help them. 

I, therefore, decided to take matters into my own hands and, in 2015, launched Game Quitters – an online support community for people who want to quit playing video games. 

We work with parents, gamers, teachers and helping professionals in over 95 countries, providing practical support and advice.

However, it soon became apparent that gamers and their loved ones found it difficult to find professional help because therapists and counsellors struggled to understand gaming disorders. 

That’s why in 2020, I co-founded INTENTA to provide mental health professionals with Gaming Disorder Clinical Training. 

After completing the online course, therapists have up-to-date tools and strategies to support problematic gamers and their families.

There are moments when the confident choices you make change the direction of your life forever. 

Deciding to use my experience to help others with video game addiction was one of those for me.”