It’s not a surprise for any game be it an online game or an old fashioned game to become addictive. In the world of solitaire today, a large number of people have been playing it for a very long time and they are not ready to stop anytime soon. I myself I have fallen in the same global category of people playing the spider solitaire whether online or the old way. I just love it no matter what. Am now like glued to my pc almost up to dawn and even while sited in my office during those hours when you feel office work is way too boring. For my own reasons, I have find solitaire addictive. I am going to share with you some of these reasons, just read to the end of my piece of writing.

Solitaire game can be dated back to 30 years, when it was first introduced by Microsoft into the personal computers. Now solitaire can be played from tablets, computers and phones. For the last 30 years the game has been a digital gaming mainstay. Originally, according to what I have learnt from various articles by different authors, the game was only integrated into the Microsoft OS to help people to learn how to navigate the computer mouse which was introduced to replace some of the keyboard commands those times when technology was gradually advancing, and since then, the game has gained hearts of people globally and recently it has been inducted into the video game hall of fame in the global world. The game is now celebrated world wide and embraced by not only adults but also the kinds and not forgetting the aging group who has turned it into a tool to increase their social presence and maintain a healthy and sharp memory. There is now an annual national solitaire day being celebrated to stress out the importance of this game.

When I say am getting addicted to this game, some may even think am just someone who is so idle and has a lot of time to waste glued into a computer just playing the classic solitaire. But the fact is, I have found myself playing this game and my obsession with it has made me to lose sleep and keep dozing during then day. I have been playing it more and more until I have to be reminded that it’s time to sleep and I have a long day the following day and waking as early as possible is what I have to do to avoid ruining my day schedule.

As if this is not enough, my love for solitaire has gone too far to an extent that I have forgotten that it’s a game am playing just by me. This is funny, right? Imagine a game that all you can do is to play against yourself, your previous best, forces of chance and the law of averages. All you are doing is to take random elements, try matching them by putting them together and making sure you place them perfectly to come up with a perfect order out of chaos, and this is why I love it the more.

However, different people have different opinion when it comes to what addiction is. For example, someone like Christopher Ferguson, talking to then business insider said that the difference between liking something and having a clinical addiction is something that should be understood keenly to help in differentiating the two. Remember this is not just anyone saying this but a clinical psychologist at Stetson University. Looking at the psychologist point of view, I might not be addicted after all. I might be just a lover of this game. You know when you like something so much, and start saying ooh am addicted to this, to that and all that stuff, when what you really what to drive at is that you are just a fun of such things and like them a lot.

Currently, the debate is on. The field is arguing to find out if gaming can be compared to substance abuse, or it is just like hobby, just something people are crazy about and might end up overdoing it. Addiction to substance is actually something that creates a biochemical reaction leading to addiction, while on the other hand, looking at the solitaire game is more of a behavioral addiction. This is where you only experience an obsessive behavioral pattern. Solitaire is something fun and distracting. It tends to attract more people who use it as a tool to relieve stress and the more they play the game they start treating hit as an escapism.

People suffering from mental illness and people with stress have found free solitaire to be the best mechanism to deal with their situation due to the solitaire’s characteristics such as quick play and easy to achieve rewards. They have used such characteristics to escape from their conditions and at the same time improving it. However, when such people use such a mechanism to cope with their circumstances, the results can be positive or negative. In some cases, it can escalate the condition or become disruptive to the subject’s quality of life. Actually, the solitaire card game might be playing a vital role is someone’s life without even knowing whether it’s happening at all.

Having said it all here, I will still stick to my thinking, that, solitaire is addictive. If you are not careful to come up with how to balance things in your life, then you will find yourself in real trouble. It’s a nice game actually, but you should be extremely keen not to put more of your time into it and forget that you have a family to pay attention to, or maybe a job to go to everyday, or a business to attend to, or even your studies. In as much as we all need some time to do our own things to relax our minds, it’s important to know that we must balance everything to fit in our schedule and avoid overdoing things.