UPDATE! Day 6, Sept 10th, 2017 ~ I've become incredibly productive... Countless hours are wasted everyday with gaming... once you take that distraction off from your day you become so much more efficient... at least that's what happened to me... I've been working happier, I won't lie... I haven't been gaming but I do putup gameplays or streams on my second monitor, I feel like that is a nicotine patch for me... I'm not even putting attention to it. I just need the "noise" to get the dopamine rushes and try to keep my cool ... I'm working on this, I promise... On another note, I'm physically suffering the consequences of prolonged sitting, both because of gaming, work and a lack of exercise... My lower discs hurt soo bad... I can't remain a long time sitting... to deal with this I have scheduled self working hours... I'm going to bed at 9pm and waking up at 6am. Here is a diagram explaining my pain I just ordered an inversion table: This is to help me release pressure on my lowerback and hopefully regain enough mobility to start working out... Being in shape has now become my top priority goal! I refuse to live a life of sedentarism and low energy!! Another thing I noticed about quitting games is that our brain is so use to the dopamine rushes videogames provide... that causes our attention span to seriously decay... you get "bored" fast and nothing really interests you... I think I just need to power through the abstinence symptoms until it is out of my system completely... Today I talked about my decision to quit gaming to a hardocore gamer friend and he kind of agrees with my point of view but at the same time he thinks: "what am I supposed to go if not gaming? this is the one thing im good at"... I know it can be harder for people who are really into competitive gaming because it's like giving up a part of your life... the countless hours you've put to master a skill... plus he said: "it's not like i'm harming anyone..." and I said: "that's not true... and you know that..." I finished that talk saying that I don't want to pressure him to quit games or anything, just that I hope it's not too late or have to lose something to come to that conclusion... I'm not trying to be a preacher, I just want to share what makes me feel good, I appreciate the time he took to hear me out and I completely respect his decision. ----------------------- TL;DR: i'm being more productive, i use streams as a nicotine patch (trying to cut off on it though), my back hurts, i ordered something to help me out with it, a talked to a friend about my decision and reasons to quit gaming... i'm still hanging in there!