Damiano

Day 4. Today my girlfriend and I will be evaluating a piece of land to buy as a basis for a future home. Its quite a stressful time for me, and its one of the reasons I quit gaming for good. A new chapter in my life is starting and I want to own it! Also today I found out my car is broken, engine died, and will have to sell it, and get another one. Its so god damn hard on my finances. But I will manage. No games today.

Day 3. No cravings today. Busy day at work. Keeping busy at home.

Got stressed at work, this triggered cravings of gaming, to close myself in a intensive game session in the afternoon. But this is not my way any more.

Day 2. Yesterday i uninstalled everything related to games, removed all my bookmarks and browser history related to games. Everything else in my life is screaming for the attention games took, so I will keep myself busy. That is the key.

Hello again. A couple of years ago I had deep problems with myself, became a 30yo wizard and wanted to end my life. But i didn't, decided to give life a chance, and started to sort myself out. One of my obstacles was gaming. I didn't manage to get the confidence to do it quit gaming right away, but one day, i simply packed my computer in a box, and put it away for over 90 days. It changed my life!! I got in shape and started training myself to talk with girls and started dating from dating sites for first time in my life. One of the scariest experiences of my life, but also the most rewarding one. That was then, right now I am living away from my parents, in an apartment I rented with my girlfriend, for over a year. It has been the best year of my life, and after achieving all this, I thought that I could relax and play some games. Aaaaand i was wrong. The addiction is back, and the simple idea of not gaming again make one part of me scream in terror. Yeah, the addiction is back alright. My world got bigger when i quit gaming, and now it started shrinking again when i began playing. Its a terrible, terrible thing to fantasize about being home alone playing a game. Terrible, and sad. Yesterday my girlfriend mentioned marriage, and I was not surprised, I was ashamed, because I want to marry her, but I have been putting it off out of my mind, and have been filling my mind with games, and what i will do tomorrow in a game. Instead of thinking about taking my girl out, plan a vacation, or think on how to develop myself for the coming years. Its amazing how effective video games are at blurring the idea of what is important in life. Clouding reality behind imagined accomplishments. So now, here I am. With a plan, a vision, not for 90 days, but for the rest of my life. No more games, ever. I see myself realizing some of my plans I had when I was younger. I want a house of my own. I want a car which doesn't break down every couple of months. I want to visit Asia. I want to get into Aquaponics. I want to make a beautiful garden. I want to have deeper understanding of economics and markets. I know it all begins with a choice, and continues by choosing every day, the path that will lead to those things I want. So today is Day 1 of my new detox. My goal is 100 Days of no gaming.

@jay In my journal there was a lot of days where my entry was just "No games today", thats it. It is important to do this every day, not to write your feelings, but to have a continuum, reminding yourself every single day what is important to you.

Hi man, you seem to know exactly what you need. Purpose. I have had a similar journey, but i identified that all my addictions came from the necessity to release emotion that I didn't know how to process. Smoking, video games, porn, masturbation, movies. I used ll this as escapes and that was the addiction, not the action itself. So my work from then was to identify the moments where my feelings get affected by stress, shame, anger, disappointment, etc.. all those little moments in life that makes us miserable on a subconscious level, some examples: "Going to sleep with the intention of waking up early, but then ignoring the alarm and getting late to work" (Disappointed of oneself, ashamed of oneself) "Someone talking about irresponsibility, and you overhear them referring to you as an example" (Ashamed, Angry, Sad) "Making a commitment to eat healthy, but the event at work made you depressed and now you are eating ice cream watching youtube fails" (Shame, Depression, Feeling weak, unworthy) As I discovered all this small moments, I began to be aware of the tiny injuries they make on me, and eventually those injuries become so much, it might end very badly(almost ended badly for me). Identifying them is the first step, next is to let go of those feeling when they arrive, stand up, shake your body, make strange noises, breathe at increased speed, you know, shake the trauma. We cannot, of course, forget all the standard useful stuff we all should do, workout, learn something new, grow in any direction and work on your goals, in short, KEEP BUSY! Wish you all the best.

Day 96. Im doing great, no games so far. Going for the 100. I have been more interested in the gaming world, and have been reading on the games I really want to play that have not been released yet. I have realized I really like the concept of games, but the PROBLEM is to use games as an escape. Its all about balance, and type of consumption.

Day 90 and 91. I DIDI IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yesterday (day 90 of my detox) I brought back my gaming rig, and plugged everything together. Turned it on, Uninstalled all the games and deleted all the saves. And now I am watching this huge monitor and writing this. So how do I feel? I feel great, yesterday celebrated with my gf (u know what I mean), from 16:00 to 23:00. And the fact that I have a gf and am able to have sex is only because I quit gaming. Thank you all for the support, and specially thank you Cam, thank you for existing. I will not play video games soon, I still want to, and feel cravings for playing something, even visualize the game on my screen. And that is why I will not play, my brain wants it too much, wants to fill that hole inside. The hole is a lot smaller now, after those 3 months, but its still there. I think I will carry it for years, before I stop wanting satisfaction from gaming, because that is the truth, its not fun I crave, its satisfaction. This 90 days, its just a start. A whole new range of possibilities lies in front of me. I am conquering it all. Thank you again and farewell PS. If anyone wants to talk, send me PM, I might have some tips for you, that might pull you through your struggle just as I used the wisdom of those that came before me. We are all in this together. Lets make the world shine. Peace!

Holy crap man! That hits the spot, right on target. Thank you Cam.

Day 89!!! Oh man, this emotions are killing me!!! my mind is like "Im going to play something in 2 days!!" then its like "NO! I will never play anything again" and the "but just a little bit" "NO! damn it!" I dont know what is going to happen

Day 88. Normal day, no games.

Day 87. Holy shit!!! almost there!

Day 86. I feel like I'm getting sick. No games, a lot of work

Day 85. Damn!! this days flay away like crazy!! wtf is going on!! lol No games...

Day 84. A beautiful day today. Very productive and without vices.

Day 83. Okay, so... only one week left. I am going to make it, no problem. But I will not play games yet. I have alot more I want to do, and games will be too much of a distraction. That is why I am leaving games, without an expiration date. I might play some games later in life, but not in the close future, they dont have a place in my life anymore. Cravings and fantasies will be there, but the actual games wont.

I know, I already have a few, and started going out a lot more and adopted a new diet, My life is very different now and I have no need for games. But even if I do all that, and dont have time for games, I still fantasize about it. I dont see it as a bad thing, its just that I dont want gaming to take up the time I have for other things.

Day 82. Cravings are coming and going. I fantasize about gaming. About what I would do. I need to find a new thing to do.

Day 81. Almost there... but Im not quite ready to play again.

Day 80. Everything under control.

Day 79. Nothing special about today. No games.

It is really helpful to know that others experience similar feeling. If I hadn't put my gaming PC away, I would have broke. This removing of the possibility to play games "one click away" was of tremendous help for me.

Day 78. It has been a great weekend, and I am wasted, so tired... It was very strange, I had huge carvings and fantasies about gaming, planning what game I would play first... its official, my brain is an asshole. I have been going up and down weather I will play games after the detox or not. Right now i don't want to start again.

Day 75. Great day. LAst day of pure vegan diet. I must say, it has been a great two weeks, and im no going to stop this lifestyle, I like the fact that I have to think about what to eat. Im leaving pure vegan, and Im going to add some extra stuff, but vegan will be the core of the diet. I just like the other stuff too. I am going ona a trip with gf, will be gone for three days, so don't think I quit or anything