[HenryBemis]

This. When someone has to do their own laundry, and get a job that will keep them busy 8h-10h per day in order to pay rent, etc. the gears shift, priorities change. Even if he/she manages to find a flatmate (or become someone's flatmate) for lower cost of living, the reality will catch up with him/her (I'm not a pronouns-warrior, it's just the term "child" that is purposely vague).

I've been through my Diablo2, then MUD, then WoW addictions and I know the story from the inside. A j-o-b is the path forward.

Also, as Dave Ramsey frequently says, "don't give a drunk a drink", so.. do the thing that hurts-but-helps and cut him/her off (but do stay close and vigilant).

Also.. talk to some specialists/therapists with experience, they may also have some helpful (clinical/hands-on tips).

[mettamage]

I'm a counter example to this. I've stayed for a long time at my parents. I also had gaming addiction. My parents let me do whatever I wanted. In part, this was because they recognized that they didn't have the knowledge or wisdom to tell me what to do. All they could do was to provide me: love, food and a roof over my head. We all knew this.

One big difference though is that I come from a family of abuse and they scared the living hell out of me by showcasing all the addicts in our family and their educational obtainment. So for me, school was a flight to safety, despite being game addicted as well. At the time, game addiction wasn't a well understood thing. I barely scraped by in high school, but I got into university.

University felt much more like a game to me anyway, so I decided to gamify it and make a whole game out of it. Then studying at university became my addiction.

Oh, and I was still living at home all this time.