UNITED KINGDOM – A 9-year-old girl was placed in rehab after becoming so addicted to the video game Fortnite that she wet herself rather than quit playing.
The Mirror reports a U.K. couple originally bought their daughter an Xbox in January, and it wasn't long before they noticed the girl was becoming obsessed with the game that has been downloaded millions of times around the world.
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“We got called in by her head teacher asking if everything was OK. She had fallen asleep twice in lessons and her grades were slipping," said Carol, the girl's mother. “When we asked our daughter what the problem was, she became unusually argumentative and aggressive, which we just put down to her hormones.”
Even though the family limited their daughter's time on Xbox, the girl began skipping church and was too tired to attend extracurricular activities.
The final straw came when the girl's father found her sitting on a urine-soaked chair while playing the game.
“I found her backside was red-raw. She was so hooked to the game she wouldn’t even go to the toilet.” the father said.
When confronted, the girl admitted to waiting until her parents went to sleep and would play the game until 5 a.m. The couple realized their daughter had been playing the game up to ten hours a day.
The family contacted an addictions counselor and the girl was admitted for psychotherapy.
The counselor told the report that he had been contacted by dozens of parents over the last few months, concerned their children were addicted to Fortnite.