Does excessive music practicing have addiction potential?

Abstract

The concept of "musical addictivity" has previously been proposed, arguing that music activates the reward centers of the brain and thus can lead to behavioral addiction. Recent studies support this idea for music consumption. However, there has not been any research on whether these findings could be transferred to music practicing so far. Anecdotal evidence has shown that some musicians either continue to practice through practice-induced pain or have psychosomatic disorders at deprivation, thus transforming a former goal-directed behavior into a maladaptive one. In the present study, the hypothesis of music practice being addictive was first evaluated on a theoretical level taking into account psychological, clinical, and neuroscientific evidence. Additionally, an exploratory empirical study was conducted that adapted the Exercise Dependence Scale Revised (EDS-R), a psychometric instrument from sports psychology, to investigate whether musicians could fulfill the criteria to be classified as "at risk for dependence." Participants (N ϭ 25) were recruited from German conservatories. The results showed a classification distribution similar to studies from sports psychology: Three musicians were classified as "at risk for dependence," 20 "nondependent-symptomatic," and 2 "nondependent-asymptomatic." These results tentatively support the hypothesis of practice addiction but do not yet constitute sufficient evidence. In sum, the concept of practice addiction appears to be a promising concept for further research and may have implications for the understanding of mental health problems in musicians.

An investigation of the digital game addiction between high school students

“…The most dangerous consequence is a loss of control: unable to limit time or resources spent on the activity (Ahrends, 2017). And also it cause some other problems like; low selfesteem, high levels of timidness and loneliness (Julia et al 2014), heart rate increase (Griffiths and Dancaster, 1995), well-being (Demirci et al 2015), sleep quality (Espinoza & Juvonen 2011), aggressiveness and impulsivity (Wo, 2003), academic performance (Brunborg et al 2014;Skoric et al 2009), social life and emotional functioning (Turel et al 2011) psychological issues; depression, compulsion, suicidal tendencies, attention shortfall as well as hyperactivity (Julia et al 2014) and low self-admission (Montag et al 2011) positively associated with problematic gaming propensities.…”

Increased adolescent game usage and health-related risk behaviors during the COVID-19 pandemic

“…Generally, it has been thought that males are more impulsive (Ahrends, 2017 ), which affects autonomy and skills when it comes to gaming (Dursun & Capan, 2018 ; Reinecke et al, 2012 ). However, Lopez-Fernandez et al ( 2019 ) argued that game addiction research has been focused on male gamers, although there is a steady increase in female gamers (Savci et al, 2021 ).…”

Can risky behaviors, gaming addiction, and family sense of coherence accurately classify gender among university students?

“…When relevant studies are examined, although some researchers suggest that there is no significant difference between male and female gaming addiction (Colwell et al, 1995;Kim et al, 2008), other studies have consistently shown that males are more likely to experience problematic gaming and gaming addiction (Bonanno & Kommers, 2005;Ekinci et al, 2019;Greenberg et al, 2008;Kanat, 2019;Phillips et al, 1995;Saunders et al, 2017). The possible explanation for these findings are that men are heavier game users than women, gaming is perceived as male activity (Bonanno & Kommers, 2005;Fox & Tang, 2014;Kanat, 2019;Lopez-Fernandez et al, 2019), men are more impulsive (Ahrends, 2017), and based on selfdetermination theory, gaming offers the possibility to satisfy basic human needs such as autonomy and competence, particularly among men (Dursun & Capan, 2018;Reinecke et al, 2012). However, Lopez-Fernandez et al (2019) note that although gaming addiction studies generally focus on male gamers, there is an increasing number of female gamers.…”