Mother loses family and job due to popular mobile game

gloria mari

January 15, 2018 3:13 PM

She spent up to Sh700, 000 on the game

A young mother has lost her job and her boyfriend after racking up debt playing Candy Crush up to 18 hours a day.

Natasha Woolsley, a 34 year old Fleetwood, UK native, opened up about the trying time, "It’s broken up our family, pushed my son’s dad away and, even then, I couldn’t stop.”

This is after the World Health Organisation declared video game addiction a health crisis calling it "gaming disorder".

Candy Crush is a free game but asks participants to pay to unlock more advanced levels.

“Friends sent me requests to play the game via Facebook and in an idle moment I thought there’d be no harm,” Ms Woolsley opened up to The Mirror- stating that she was introduced to the game in 2014.

She would get so caught up in the game that she would forget to pick up her son, Taylor, from school.

She lost track of time, and would go on binges like an alcoholic where she would lose awareness.

Her boyfriend, Rob, threatened to walk out if she didn't straighten out.

Ms. Woolsley would then try to uninstall the game only to find herself playing it again.

“Rob and I had explosive arguments, him telling me I had to stop or he’d leave,” she said.

“Rob was coming home to a filthy house with no food in the fridge and our son Taylor sitting alone in front of the TV."

She was fired as a shelf stacker in a local supermarket when her boss got fed up with her playing candy crush all the time.

Ms Woolsley estimates she was spending around Sh57, 000 a month on internet data. She believes she spent up to Sh700, 000 on Candy Crush.

It was only after her mother noticed her problem that she introduced the mother of 1 to an addiction counsellor from Blackpool.

The expert warned about the dopamine rush that users got from playing the video games stating, “These addictions is exactly the same as taking a line of cocaine, and wanting the next rush. The gamer then turns to drugs."

gloria mari