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B_Lestrange

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  1. Today is Day 10. I'm happy to report that I did NOT fall off the wagon yesterday. Instead, I went through my kitchen and threw out expired food and various tools, utensils, etc. It's not much, but it was satisfying to get something done. I might be able to game this minimalism thing: How low can I go? The brother of a friend of mine died this weekend so I spent about two hours on the phone. He was severely mentally ill and lived in institutions since he was a teenager; my friend had been his caretaker/executor for nearly 50 years. He died in his sleep, with no pain. Hopefully we'll all be so lucky. Thanks to the Canadian wildfires, the air quality was very bad this morning. I had this idea I was going to walk, but I lasted about 15 minutes before I had to go back home.
  2. Today is Day 9. The weeks leading up to a release are always a challenge. It's 5:30 pm and all I want is to turn my brain completely OFF. Not gonna lie: I'm hearing Lloyd Bridges from Airplane! in my head. "Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit video games..."
  3. Today is Day 8. I had my first therapy session with a new therapist today. She's kind of brusque and no-nonsense, which I guess is a good thing? Part of me struggles with the idea of even needing therapy: "You're an adult! Just get over it! Just do it!" etc. However, I get a set number of sessions for free, so I'm going to see it through, at least for now. At Saturday's outing with the relatives, we got to talking (as usual) about how we were related to each other. Genealogy has always been an interest of mine and I actually have my mother's research files from 40+ years back. Yesterday another relative asked me if I had any data I could pass on. Um, yes...but it's all on paper and very little of it is digitized. Talking to them, I saw an opportunity to put my relatively new but still fairly underused web development skills to work. I have a general idea of what a family tree website would look like, but I don't want to have an individual page for each person. I think a database containing individual records would be best but I don't know how to tie that to a website. As usual, I'm really good at turning something simple into something super complex, overwhelming, and ultimately incomplete. I may end up taking all these files to Staples, copying them, putting them into some kind of a binder, and dropping the binder in the damn mail. In the meantime, though, I may still try to build a website.
  4. Today is the start of Day 7. Last night, I was invited to an outing with some relatives of mine who I don't see regularly for a couple of reasons: 1) they're distant in terms of relationship and 2) they're distant in terms of distance. However, we had such a good time that we decided that that distance, at least the first type, doesn't have to stay that way. I so rarely go out on Saturday nights these days that it was honestly weird to be around so many people in such a busy setting. The weather was beautiful, though, and I was reminded that there's a whole world happening outside my apartment. I know how I got to this semi-hermetic state; now I want to figure out how to get out of it, preferably before winter sets in and the sun goes away for three months. (No, I don't live in the Arctic Circle, but winters in my neck of the woods are typically dark, cold, and overcast.) This morning I had breakfast with one of my other siblings. We didn't talk about the rest of the family; instead we talked about what it means to grow old in a country that should have as its slogan not "E pluribus unum" but "If you've got money, we're going to do our best to take it from you." (Not going to discuss politics in this journal or anywhere else on this forum; I prefer to keep my blood pressure at a normal level.) After breakfast, I went for a long walk. Then I came home with a strong urge to play a game...but I'm going to read outside instead.
  5. Today is the start of Day 6. I noticed something yesterday: I was consuming more social media and videos than usual. To be fair, it was a long work week and next week will probably be worse. We have a major software release going out next month but I've optimistically penciled in PTO for the remainder of the July 4th week (we get July 3 and 4 off as holidays). Normally I have a time limit on my phone for the social media apps but yesterday I said "fuck it" and turned it off. However, if it becomes a problem, I may remove the apps from my phone. I've done it before... YouTube on the other hand...I watch quite a bit while doing art stuff (#7 on the list: make more art). I'm on the fence about whether that's a bad thing, since I often watch to learn new things and there are so many interesting things to learn. As I was telling my niece, this is something I've always done, except instead of getting it from the Internet, I got it from the library. I'm not going to worry about it right now.
  6. Today is the start of Day 5. My sibling still isn't speaking to me, but their social media activity over the last 24 hours suggests that something I said had an impact on them. Looks like they may have had a necessary conversation with the person who they needed to have the conversation with (not me). I'm not going to mention it; I'll see if they bring it up...but I'm hoping it'll mean that our relationship will improve. Going back to when I first started this journal, I mentioned having a colonoscopy. Is it clear, then, that I'm older than many of the people I see journaling in here? Okay. So I recently switched primary care physicians and with that I seem to have been upgraded to a new level of care technology. I have access to data that I've never had access to before...and all of it is telling me that I'm well on track to becoming yet another American statistic, metabolically speaking, unless I get serious about turning things around (#6 on the list: eat better, exercise more). The scariest thing is seeing that although I'm not pre-diabetic, I'm definitely heading in that direction. I have seen what diabetes can do and yeah...that's a hard NO for me. It would be great if I could find a way to gamify my health care AND make it stick. I'm sure the tech is out there!
  7. Today is the start of Day 4. Yesterday, Day 3, I scheduled a remote appointment with a new therapist. I am grateful for good insurance and being able to work from home full time. I realized that 2:30 pm is my witching hour (half-hour?). That's when I start getting the urge to play a game. I'm having visitors tomorrow so I got up from my desk and spent time decluttering and tidying (#3 on the list: you deserve a tidy place). It's crazy to me how there are YouTube videos on literally EVERYTHING, including the finer points of cleaning. One bad thing that happened: I got into a bit of a tiff with one of my siblings. Normally I let a lot of the things they say to me go because (thanks to my previous therapist) I know they're just exercising their personal shit out on me (I'm the oldest; we had an "interesting" childhood). However, yesterday I pushed back in a way I haven't done in a while. They haven't responded and part of me wants to reach out but part of me is also like: I've got my OWN shit to deal with, okay? I also got a lot of good sleep last night, which is another benefit of not being on a screen. *deep breath* I got this...
  8. Guess who's back... (insert Eminem/Slim Shady/Marshall Mathers lyric here) Long story short, I relapsed sometime around Christmas when I was snowbound for a few days. Now I find myself again having to climb back on the wagon...older but hopefully a little wiser. I say "wiser" because I'm starting to realize that I don't think it's possible for me to be a healthy gamer as described previously, at least not when it comes to those video games that are designed to purposely keep that dopamine flowing. The things I still have left to do in my time on this earth require more focus than I've been able to give lately. Thing is (I may have mentioned this in a different post) I have known since undergrad that, as my signature says, video games are my kryptonite. It's why, for as long as I've lived on my own, I've never owned a gaming console. I knew then that it would be far too easy for me to become a hermit. Now, older and wiser, I believe that no matter how small the carat size, any amount of kryptonite is bad for me. So today is Day 2 of yet another 90 day detox. Hopefully this one will stick. I will try writing a little something in here every day just to keep myself accountable. Yesterday, Day 1, I made a list of 10 things I could be doing other than playing video games. Predictably, last night, none of them sounded anywhere near as appealing as playing a video game. Dopamine withdrawal is real...yet I made myself clear off a couple of surfaces (#2 on the list: go minimalist; get rid of shit) and read a little bit of I Will Teach You To Be Rich (#8 on the list: do better with your money; #10 on the list: stop stacking books and start reading them). Not having video games to numb me out means certain feelings/emotions are starting to come to the surface. I was in therapy for much of 2021 and part of 2022; unfortunately my therapist changed practices. I should probably start looking for a new one to talk to. I'm also getting caught up on some of Cam's videos. It's been a while...
  9. Yesterday, I spent a total of four hours playing this one puzzle game on my iPhone. Despite my best efforts -- "it's a holiday weekend! give yourself a break! stop being so hard on yourself!" -- I went to bed feeling bad about myself, thinking I'd wasted four hours. This morning, I deleted the game from my phone. I'm giving myself credit for recognizing it and taking the correct action. "Healthy gaming" for me may mean playing once every once in a while.
  10. So I decided not to take my iPad with me on my trip to see my parents. I did, however, load a simple puzzle game on my iPhone. During the time I was there, I'd say I spent a good 3-4 hours of each day vegging out watching TV with them. I only spent SOME of that time dual-screening. Most of it involved watching the game shows they'd DVR'd...and competing with them on the answers. It reminded me that this love of gaming is something I actually inherited, because we used to do this (watch game shows and try to answer the questions) when I was a kid. It was a lot of fun, then and now. I've been home for a few days now. I haven't taken the game off my phone; in fact I've actually played a little bit each night after work. However, at least right now, I don't see myself spending hours upon hours playing, the way I used to. For one thing, I simply have too much to do. I've got several different personal projects going on plus work is kicking up quite a bit. The one thing I could probably stand to do is get out and meet people (as much as possible given that we're still in a pandemic), but for now I'm experiencing a level of personal and professional satisfaction that I haven't felt in a very long time. I'm not going to say I've fallen off the wagon...because I'm nowhere near where I was when I first discovered GQ in an attempt to regain some control over my life. I will say that I'm trying to see if I can truly become a "healthy gamer." Only time will tell...
  11. Today marks 200 days since I (unintentionally) started the 90 Day Detox. I'm proud of myself and have made real progress in several areas of my life but...the pull of gaming hasn't truly left me. If I said that the thought of playing occurred to me during 100 of those 200 days, I'd probably be understating the number (of thoughts as well as days). I'm going to visit my parents next week, and dual-screen activity (playing games on their iPads while the TV's on) takes up a big chunk of their time. Note that my parents are in their 80s and have long since retired from their jobs, their sports (they were both avid bowlers) and really anything that requires a lot of activity. Church, grocery shopping, and visiting friends and family (until the pandemic, of course)...that's pretty much it. For the last couple of weeks, I've been thinking about loading up a game on my iPad just to see whether I can be a "healthy gamer" as Dr. Alok describes it. I have been using the Pomodoro technique to keep me focused on work and personal tasks and it's really helped a lot in terms of that progress I mentioned earlier. I thought maybe I could use gaming as a treat I could give myself during "long break" periods. Alternately, for this specific trip I'm making, I might not put any restrictions on the amount of time I play. I could treat it as a legit vacation activity. Part of me is scared I'm going to go completely off the cliff (again). Part of me is also like: Don't underestimate yourself. You know where the edge of the cliff is now. I'll report back after my trip.
  12. I wanted to report two things today: I went through my journals going back to 2015. Between then and February of this year I think I mentioned gaming -- and how much I hated myself for doing it at the expense of having something resembling an actual life -- at least 50 times. 🙄 My current web development class assignment is to create a simple blackjack game using Javascript. 😆 It's a different (and FAR more challenging) experience building a game than playing one. It's also -- dare I say it? -- kind of cool.
  13. Thank you. I'm inclined to agree with you about the dangers of re-exposure. That said, in about three weeks I'm going to visit my nieces for the first time since before the pandemic started. They have always known me as a gamer (among other things, of course). If they ask to play a video game with me I'll probably say yes. We'll see how I do. Good luck with your 90 day detox! Hang in there. Very good point. Thank you so much. Also, I used to meditate...that's something else I'd like to get back into.
  14. So yeah, it's been a while...but I wanted to share that today, I completed the 90 Day Detox. 🙂 What finally made me do it? Several things, but in general the realization that life is way too short, I'm not getting any younger, there are still a lot of things I want to do before I leave this plane of existence, and I don't have the luxury of beating myself up anymore. I actually hadn't planned on doing 90 days. I woke up on February 1 feeling super sad about everything and in an attempt to take some kind of control I said: "Just for today, I'm not going to play any video games." I took all my games off my phone, work and personal laptops, and the refurbished iPad I'd specifically bought for gaming (along with other things, but mainly for gaming to be honest). Each day I made the conscious decision: "I'm not going to play any video games." It was really hard, but I kept it up. On February 13 I went on YouTube intending to watch some of the GQ videos and found the HealthyGamerGG series of videos on video game addiction. I sat down, watched the entire series, and TOOK NOTES. Honestly if I hadn't already gone 13 days without playing, and if I weren't genuinely struggling not to play, I'm not sure that series would have sunk in as deeply as it did. And then when I realized that the following Wednesday was Ash Wednesday I said, well shit...let me see if I can keep this going through Easter. I'm not super religious but if I'm going to give up something for Lent, it might as well be video games. And then when I hit 60 days I went back to YouTube and GQ and that's when I remembered: oh yeah, Cam did say something about 90 days... 😆 In the HealthyGamerGG series, Dr. Alok talked about finding a "competing interest." I believe I've found a few of those, some old (art, writing, music, exercise) and some new (full-stack web development bootcamp). Still, I've spent the week leading up to today wondering: what happens on day 91? Can I be a "healthy gamer" who's able to enjoy playing games without guilt while still working towards achieving my life's goals? Many times during these 90 days I've thought about gaming -- along with "What harm can playing one game do?" -- and I can easily imagine what that first, glorious hit of dopamine would feel like. If this isn't addiction, I don't know what is...Am I going to have to stay away from video games for the rest of my life? I keep reminding myself that this is something I have struggled with ever since my freshman year of undergrad. It's why I've never owned a true gaming console as an adult, and why I quit playing multiplayer games long before World of Warcraft and League of Legends came out. The bottom line is that I don't want to lose any more huge chunks of time doing something that ultimately isn't improving my life in a real way. Maybe when I'm comfortably retired I'll see if I can compete in whatever senior citizen version of e-gaming exists. Until then...one day at a time, as they say. If you've read this far, thanks for listening.
  15. More great insight...thank you so much. I am regularly reminding myself of why I'm doing this and where I'm trying to go. I keep telling myself I need to take a morning or afternoon to really chart out my path, but I've been very busy these last few days with work and other commitments. On the bright side, I've been too busy to play games, lol. I should be able to take the time at the end of the week after our releases go out. Last Sunday I dreamed that someone put a laptop in front of me with a game on it (don't remember which one; it had a lot of primary colors) and I started playing it. It felt so real that for a moment after I woke up I thought, oh well, that's that, I was only able to go a week. Today marks 10 days since I last played a game. Also today at work I listened (couldn't watch because I was at work) to the first half of Cam's Start Here video series on YouTube. I took notes and began making a separate list of productive and engaging ways to fill my time, and looked up helpful Web sites and books. It helped to be reminded that there are good and bad days on this journey and that it takes time to unlearn behaviors and reprogram oneself.
  16. I have to work tomorrow so I took today off. Normally I would have spent a big chunk of it at home playing games. Instead, I ran a bunch of errands, practiced for a couple of holiday concerts that are coming up, talked with my neighbor, cooked a couple of meals, and prepared gifts for family and friends. Gotta be honest, though: Right now I really, really want to play a game. It's what I'd normally do after a long day. Again I'm telling myself, what's the big deal? and again I'm hearing myself answer: the big deal is that there's more to life and you're missing it. Is it okay if I play a puzzle game that's not a video game? I have a bunch of these I haven't looked at in a while.
  17. Thank you for the feedback. Much appreciated! This morning I was thinking about what I'm going to do over the Christmas holidays when my niece asks to play a game with me. We've played all kinds of games for years and it's one big way in which we bond. But I'll cross that bridge when I get to it... --- Normally I would journal at the end of the day but I wanted to write this down in case I forgot: For most of my life I've had a recurring, relatively infrequent nightmare in which I'm in a vehicle, usually a car, that goes over a cliff. Before I learned how to drive, I would be in the driver's seat with no clue how to stop or steer the car. After I learned how to drive, typically somebody else would be driving. As always, there were those moments of horror after the car sails over and down, and then I would either wake up on impact or just before. Well...in last night's dream I was in a mini tour bus (driven by an elderly Bobbie Gentry; I'd fallen asleep listening to a podcast on the history of 20th-Century country music) but this time when it went over a cliff she said, "Don't worry, it's okay," and pushed some kind of button that deployed parachutes. We landed in a river, gently and upside down, and we just pushed out the windows with our feet and swam to safety. That's literally the first time that's ever happened in all the years I've been having this dream. And it didn't end there...Somehow I made it back to my Airbnb and while decompressing in the tub, Queen Elizabeth barged in on me wearing a hair bonnet and a bathrobe and asking how my day went. ?
  18. Bunch of stuff today, lots of mixed emotions. This morning I got to listen to some of my coworkers talk about their own Thanksgiving spent gaming. Some of them have family and friends who are older than me for whom gaming is an enjoyable way to spend time with people. I was angry at myself (You're making this a bigger deal than it is. There's nothing wrong with gaming. Everybody does it!), then ashamed (You weren't put on this earth to waste your valuable time playing games that you won't even remember a month from now), then sad (Am I going to have to be one of those people who avoids gaming like alcoholics avoid alcohol? Is it really that serious?). Later that day there were two times -- once during a videoconference and once when I was just tired of staring at the screen trying to get some code to work -- when normally I would have started playing a game on my laptop or my phone. Again, I felt angry: Don't I deserve a break? If that break involves playing a game, is that a bad thing? It's only going to be for a few minutes. (I'm laughing now as I write this because I know good and well it's never for a few minutes.) Wednesday evenings I rehearse with a musical group I belong to. I do enjoy music and performing for people. This is just one area I think I can move more strongly towards.
  19. Still having urges to play, particularly during downtime, but knowing I was going to write in here at night kept me on the wagon... I'm kind of amazed at how much time playing games sucked up. Without games, I find myself with a lot of free time in the evenings. It's not like I don't have things to do with that time -- in fact I can come up with a long list of things I can do with that time -- but I struggle to focus and in the past that struggle has often led to me throwing my hands up and playing games. I have seen mention of the Pomodoro Technique on this forum. I have used this on occasion but I'm thinking I need to start using it again if for no other reason than to bring focus, concentration, and especially purpose to these free hours I find myself with.
  20. By getting straight up with the alarm and not lying in bed playing games, I got a great start on the day. I was able to get some of my normal (offline) journaling in before heading off to work. It was my first day back after a week off. This message popped up on my screen about 30 minutes after I logged on: I had to laugh...Microsoft Solitaire Collection was one of the five apps on my Most Used list in the start menu. I almost always played during lunch and sometimes during videoconference meetings (don't tell anyone). Needless to say, I uninstalled it from my work laptop. The rest of the day went pretty well. Vacations are good...I may have spent most of mine playing games but I was relaxed and calm, which is what vacations are for. Getting home though...there were a couple of moments when I felt the urge to play a game. However, I'd given myself a number of tasks to do this evening, with this (writing in this journal) being one of the last ones before bed. As I've described above, I'm trying to use the meditation technique of observing the feeling (urge to play a game) with detachment, and then mindfully making a different choice. This time around I'm contemplating what it means to have to be this mindful on a daily basis. On one of the podcasts Jason (I think it was him) mentioned creating a values list; I think I will do that tomorrow.
  21. So yeah, it's been a while... I had all of last week (Thanksgiving week) off from work and I'm embarrassed to admit how much of that time I spent sitting on my ass playing games. For the first half of the week I was actually in a different COUNTRY and yet I still ended up spending a couple of hours on my phone each evening. You know how sometimes you can hear or read something that is so true that it knocks you back a bit? Sometime in the last few days a thought occurred to me: Video games are my kryptonite. It doesn't get much more real than that...and what's really amazing is that (as I described in my intro to this forum) I've known this since undergrad. For well over half my life I have known how easy it is for me to fall down this rabbit hole...and yet I keep on falling down it. This morning I deleted my games from my phone and laptop. I came back to this site when I started feeling the urge to play a game. So here I am again, starting back at zero, hoping I can stick it out for good this time. Thanks in advance for the support.
  22. The first thing I thought of when I entered this part of the forum and saw all the newer posts was, "Daily means DAILY." I get it... So yeah, I fell off the wagon. I'm sure these sound familiar: "I've had a long hard day and I need to unwind. Playing games for an hour won't hurt." "I'll just set a timer and when it goes off, I'll get up and do something else." "I can manage this! It doesn't have to be a big deal." Etc., etc. I don't think I'm ready for the actual 90-day detox yet. A couple of Cam's videos (which I haven't watched yet but plan to) speak to something that's been a particular thorn in my side: being a consumer instead of a producer. Lately it seems the only producing I've been doing is for my job, which to me is the very definition of "living to work," which is something I swore I was going to stop doing once I got this particular job. (Very long story short: I spent most of my career in one field, then went to graduate school, then worked in nonprofit, then went back to my original field when my money started to run low.) Next week is going to be very stressful as we have a bunch of releases going out on the same day. Let's see if I can try a more reasonable approach to quitting gaming, simply by using this space for its intended purpose...to help me be mindful on a DAILY basis. (BTW: My colon is fine.) (ETA: I just watched Cam's video "What To Do If You Relapse And Start Gaming Again" and it's like...fuck, man, get out of my head. LOL. The idea of turning quitting into a game appealed to me instantly, though. Sometimes it feels like I'm hard-wired to compete...now if I could only rewire that competitiveness towards more productive endeavors...)
  23. *rolling up pajama sleeves* Technically today is the end of Day 2. Day 1 was relatively easy because I was busy all day helping with and then attending the annual neighborhood Fourth of July party. It was lots of fun, as always. There are a lot of elderly people here and I often marvel at how, the older I get, the younger they seem...and I mean that in a good way. I suppose it may have something to do with convergence. Anyway, I woke up before the alarm as usual and because I'd deleted my games from my phone, I didn't play them...but I did spend a good 45 minutes on Facebook (FB). I'm at my mental best first thing in the morning, and being on FB at that time is almost as bad as, if not worse than, playing games. Now that I'm deliberately doing something about these habits I'm going to see if I can sidestep it without taking the next step and removing FB from my phone. While at work I had a couple of slow periods where I felt the itch to play a game, but instead I pulled up one of the Udemy courses my company paid for and ran through a few quick lessons. We need more web development experience on our team but they don't want to hire an actual web developer so we're playing catch-as-catch-can. At home I talked to my neighbor for a half-hour or so, then went inside...and while I was fixing dinner that's when I REALLY felt the pull to play a game. I remembered in one of his videos Cam said that it's the brain that wants to play video games, not you. I have been trying since Memorial Day or so to get back into a regular meditation routine, and so I found myself taking a page from that and observing with detachment, and then making a deliberate decision to do something else...in this case, tackle some mail and other paperwork that had been sitting on my end table for at least a month. I succeeded in handling each piece only once -- act on it, file it away, or throw it away -- rather than reshuffle and reorganize into a different-sized pile. It took about two hours, time that I know I would have normally spent playing games. The next 48 hours should be interesting since I'm scheduled to have my first-ever colonoscopy on Friday morning. (TMI? Hey, I know we just met, but we're friends, right? ) Before I found this site I'd kind of given myself permission to play games during this period because I knew I'd need something to alleviate my anxiety over the procedure. However, I'm going to see how I do without them. Today I'm grateful for elderly people who've been through it all and come out the other side smiling with a drink in each hand.
  24. Thanks! Simply reading these threads is making me feel better. See above. I'm sure you already know you're providing a really great and important service to those of us who are trying to make the most out of our lives. As one of the newest members, I'm saying thank you in advance. Thanks! You know how they say hindsight is 20-20? It certainly is for me. I'm guilty of not taking video game addiction as seriously as I probably should have. A big part of that is because I have people in my extended family who have struggled with alcohol, drugs, and/or overeating. Video games can't kill you physically -- at least not that I know of! -- but they can kill your willpower, motivation, and taste for life.
  25. I was 10 and my parents bought it for me but anyway...that should give you an idea of how old I am and how long I've had this Achilles heel. No, I have not been gaming continuously for 40 years. Rather, I have had periods in my life where gaming basically took over. I'm in one of those periods right now and that's why I sought out help online. Cam's TEDx video led me here and I'm happy it did. Like him, I found previous sets of advice largely unhelpful. I knew, though, that this type of community would come eventually. I have been to therapists off and on over the years but I never brought up this subject, largely because I feared being shamed for it. Silly, right? My immediate family knows I play games -- ironically all of us with the exception of one sister play games daily -- but they don't know how much time I've spent on them, nor do they know (but I'm sure they can guess) how much I've missed out on because of them or how much distress missing out has caused me. I knew I had the potential to become a serious addict when I entered college. This was at the height of the video arcade craze, and during my freshman year I spent more time in the arcade than I did in class or studying. I no longer remember exactly what happened to get me to modify (not stop) my behavior, but by some miracle I actually graduated and, later, began the life of a working, independent adult. I believe this was when the first Nintendo gaming consoles came out and I remember making a point of not buying one because I knew how easily I could fall down the rabbit hole. I'd been a shy, bookish kid, with few friends or social skills, and I purposely set out to outgrow what I perceived as limitations to my becoming an adult. At that time I was an extremely nervous flyer. During an especially turbulent cross-country flight that had me literally quaking with fear, I saw a guy about my age engrossed in a Game Boy. I got one the very next week. The way I saw it, it beat taking Xanax and/or getting drunk in an airport lounge. Sure, I spent a lot of non-flight hours playing too, but looking back, it doesn't seem like it was as big of a deal: It was a tiny monochrome screen, it was only meant for gaming, and I didn't bring it with me everywhere I went. Because this is already quite long, I'll just fast forward to my typical weekday: I wake up before my smartphone alarm goes off, and then I spend at least an hour playing games before forcing myself out of bed. At work, depending on what's going on, I might sneak in a half-hour or so of games either on my phone or my work computer. Once home, I spend the rest of the evening playing games on my phone and/or laptop (I still don't own a console), berating myself much of the time, until I force myself to go to bed usually by no later than 11. On the weekends I find myself overwhelmed with all the things that don't get done during the week, so I end up doing the bare minimum, saying no to a lot of invitations because, again, I have all this stuff to do at home, and at some point I'll retreat back to these addictive, mind-numbing games. So we're looking at a significant chunk of my free time spent numbing out on games...and a big reason why I'm here is because of the negative feelings that come rushing in within minutes of my putting the phone or laptop down. I KNOW what's going on; I'm pretty sure it has something to do with dopamine. I KNOW I'm wasting valuable time that I'll never get back, but I can't seem to stop. And again, I've had these periods before in my life, but this time around I feel it's extremely important that I get serious and, once and for all, fix whatever it is that's got me back here. My birthday was last month and I resolved to quit cold turkey. I lasted six days. I found this site late last night and as of today, Independence Day, I haven't played a single game. If you've made it this far, thanks for "listening." I look forward to participating.
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