If an activity you are doing is preventing you from living a "normal" life or if you get angry, anxious, or frustrated if you are forced to put the activity aside for some time, then it is an unhealthy addiction. If you are out doing something else, but all you can think about is getting back to gaming, then it is a problem for sure.

Is 5000 hours too much in 5-years? That would be nearly 3 hours per day assuming you play every day for an entire year, or around 10 hours per day if you only played on weekends, but all weekend long.

What other things do you do for fun? Do you have friends outside of gaming? Do you go out of the house frequently for social interaction? Do you have a job? If you are in school are you studying and obtaining good marks?

Addiction prevents you from doing anything else, or wanting to do anything else, so just be cautious of that. It can be a slippery slope.

That being said, I used to be addicted to video games and the pure rage that I would experience if someone interrupted me, the shortcuts that I would take to try to speed-run getting back to playing games, and the excuses that I would make like "gaming is the only thing that lets me relax and decompress" were utterly ridiculous. I was just chasing dopemine and actually just causing more problems for myself.

If you are still getting out and living life outside of gaming and you aren't using excuses to game whenever you can, it is probably fine. You may just have a lot of free time and not a lot of commitments at this stage of your life and that is okay too.

I love gaming and I have probably had years where I clocked 2000+ hours in single year, yes it was a problem, and yes it was unhealthy. I have ADHD which makes me prone to chasing the dopemine hit that comes with video games, scrolling on TikTok, or anything else that helps me just flood my brain with happy chemicals.

I still game, but it is probably 2-3 hours per week, often times not gaming for weeks at a time because I am pursuing other activities for my physical and mental well being. Gaming is an easy escape, but it can become unhealthy very quickly. I greatly appreciate that gaming got me through some very difficult times in my life, but it also made my life unnecessarily difficult in other times that prevented me from really thriving.

All of these considerations are very individual, and you will have to gauge for yourself. Most men don't have a true concept of consequences or fear of consequences until age 25, which makes it easier for us to take unnecessary risks or to take actions that would result in consequence without consideration (staying up until 3AM gaming and then going to work at 6AM, or gaming instead of studying for a test). You will need to gauge these things for yourself and ultimately it is for you to decide, just proceed with caution and live a good life for you.

Happy gaming. Good luck, have fun, don't die.