Mad Pharmacist

Well, I thing that addicted people are addicted they're going always into something extreme. For me, once I played video games 7-8 hours a day, and then stopped it to work for 14-16 hours a day instead. It was drastically productive until I got neurosis. For me it was another outlet for my source of energy I have because I overplayed for long period of time. For you it can be anything addictive behaviour, like alcohol, masturbation etc.

All right, I had 105 day streak. On 14.04 played for 3 hours On 15.04 played for 4 hours Then one day of not playing at all And on 17.04 played 10,5 hours. Too much to get back to it. Since that day I'm 100% game free. So, it's committed!

I think it IS video game, specifically RPG. In my opinion you should answer to the question: are you seriously learning Japanese or are you more focused on just the game content like upgrading your character and their skills or getting as much points as possible. There's a difference between this and many other things like chains.cc, habitica or duolingo. All of them have some mechanisms from games, like most things if our lives (because life is ultimate video game), but we're more focused on doing our tasks/habits/studying languages than on getting the highest score. This score is just additional thing to control how hard are we working on anything. Ah, and if you want some inspiration for new habits, check out my latest journal entry.

Awesome, once you supported me on my journey, I'm here to support you. Wish you luck!

Are you going to keep journaling? This will probably help keeping your ship from sinking much easier.

Hello neighbour! I'm from Poland, so we're at least at the same time zone! If you're interested to speak in your native language let me know! You did a great job to overcome your screen anxiety. If you did it, then you'll also beat the video games. It's just another challenge in your life. Sounds tough, but what life would be without challenges?

Me too. Minimalism is very interesting topic.

Well Cam, that's probably because humans are constructed to be social, instead of isolate from each other. Nice to hear it!

@Revit Well, obviously we learn from every experience in our live. Even something that was completely terrible. I sometimes remind my own gaming as the time I spent in isolation, no friends, no free time for hobbies. I was alone. But thanks to that I know how it really is to feel alone in this world. And I don't want to get into the same place anymore. If you came here, games probably did have negative impact on you. That's the reason I wrote last comment.

Hell yea! Mad Pharmacist is proud of you! Once you supported me on my journaling, now I have to congrat you and your own. That's a great step and great beggining of the journey. Journey called game-free life. Just don't screw this up man like I did on 105th day. Never get too cocky like I was.

Greetings from Poland, Alexey! I can relate to your story, despite the fact that I never played WoW When I played I also couldn't stop in this moment I should stop. And this just went on and on and on, and then I played for 10 hours. Sad but true. If you got rid of smoking, you can also get rid of video games. And life your life to the fullest.

Greetings from Mad Pharmacist! I'm really impressed that you did your detox on over 90% and stopped masturbation at the same time! For me, I got 105 days of game free and 72 of masturbation free, and then I relapsed for 10 hours, because I got cocky. Now I'm back to square one (I mean day 2) However, learn from my mistake and don't give up so easily!

Hey Revit! You did nice work right now so just keep moving forward. Writing here, even anonymously will definitely help you. Also, throwing away your huge game library was a great step. Remember that you can get back your money you lost, but you'll never get back the time you could lose on these games.

I'm studying this kind of materials for couple of years, so let me give you an advice. I recommend Doc Love, he has much different attitude than others after spending almost the whole life on interviewing women. @FedererMagic I think that it's something on your head to tell you that striking up conversation, getting a phone number, making an appointment (date) with girl is something wrong. You should pay attention what exactly it is and then just crush it. It's a process which requires taking actions, but after doing this you'll feel much better.

Hey Matt! I see that you've started your adventure of being game free just about week ago and you've alreade posted so many posts on this forum! Great job! That's also great to have people to support you. I don't have so much people to talk about my gaming past, only my closest family, girlfriend and one best friend know about it. Maybe that's because I'm Mad. I mean, (Future) Mad Pharmacists. But sharing with others, even on the forum, helps a lot even subconsciously. However, remember that it's always on you, just like @Cam Adair said on his last video. I'm on 76th day of detox, and to be frank, I really appreciate every day of being game free. It's like living completely another life without any force controlling me. I know it's tough at the beggining with cravings and urges, but it will all wear off soon. So enjoy it!

I love this metaphor! Maybe you're not sleeping well because of coming exams? When I abstain from games, I feel calm during every exam. That's probably because I'm working on my confidence and broaden my comfort zone. That's important, because when you're less stressed you can just fall asleep at the end of the exhausting day.

Wow, you've written here a lot of content! I briefly look into it and I can pinpoint couple of very important points for you: hitting the bottom. I remember this point in my life, when I understand that I have to choose between video games 8 hrs a day and studying pharmacy, something I've been dreaming about. So I did everything to focus on second one and abstain from video games. This is the best motivation for me, to stay away from this, to do anything to just avoid this bottom, this mess, time when my life was f***ed up.

Hey accountability partner! Good to see you are working on habits we've been talking about last time. You're the first person on Gamequitters that was able to stand Mad Pharmacist for more than an hour! Haha. I've posted my list of habits in my Quitting Journal to remember about them. And if you need rest after tiresome day in school, then you can take quick nap. 15 minutes is optimal lenght, but no more than 20. That will give you more energy for the rest of the day and make you feel fresh instead of feeling like a zombie. All thanks to not falling into deep sleep phase. Scientifically proven!

Hi, nice to see fellow-countryman! I'm from Kielce, how about you? I see we're almost on the same boat! I'm struggling with games and masturbation, and what I can tell is that the girls on porn are fake. Totally The best way to deal with it is to start meeting girls in real life. In ordinary daily situation. It helped me a lot. Even short conversation encourages and gives positive energy. And busy lifestyle is something I'm still working on. When you're busy with things to do, you don't have time to even think about porn/gaming.

Well, I have very interesting case to disagree with you. I have flatmate, who is 100% stay-at-home. Each of us have different room, so I don't know what he is doing in his room. He doesn't speak with me if it isn't necessary, I once asked him for something, and he said to come into his room. I'd been talking to him while he was driving a tank in some kind of video game. This way I can also talk to wall. He doesn't hang out with anybody, I'm not sure what he's doing in his room all day long but sometimes I see some of his behaviours I used to have while gaming. For instance drinking coffee at 11p.m. to study for night. Once I saw him sneaking at night for sweets. He was crouching and gathering some of them from cupboard. He reminded me Gollum for Lord of The Rings. I though "I don't want to be like him, so I don't want to have anything in common with him". And sometimes when I have cravings I mention this situation and just ask myself: "Do you want to be like him? Really?" And I do complete opposite what he's doing with his life. So I don't see any correlation between him and me.

Hey Luke! Nice to see you here. I'm from Poland by the way, so we are living in neighbouring countries! By the way, I know German language a little bit, so if you want to talk in your native tongue, I'm all ears. I know it's fuckin' tough at the beginning, but remember that everything is tough until it'll become easy. And also, gaming nostalgia could be strong, but remember that it's going to fade away. You should feel 4 voids that you have: being social, challenge, constant measurable growth and temporary escape with different activities. No ideas? Well, that's not the excuse, just download Hobby Ideas. Also, if you have the money from character sell you should purchase the Respawn, it'll be reassuring for you that you've invested money into your personal development. And I know what I'm talking about. I'm free since 31st December 2016. And I know that you're gonna be asskicker!

Hell yea you'll be! It's just a process, remember about that! And that's awesome that you're able to work out despite the tiredness. Being able to train on the gym is something you should be grateful for, I'd been trying couple of time to do it when I was younger, but doctor had forbidden me to do it because of problems with spine.

Well, I think that our productivity time depends on our type: We can either be night owl or early bird (in Polish called skylark). That's interesting theory because it's based on prehistoric times: some people in the group have to stay late at night to protect others who were sleeping. And then, the rest of people have to wake up early to guard those who need a rest during that time. However, I don't think it should be an excuse to stay up late at night. I'm definitely a skylark (I have couple of months in my life when I was able to wake up 4.15 a.m. and be productive), but I was able to stay up to 2 a.m. at night when I was playing video games. So, the best way to discover what type of human we are, we have to just test it out and see at what time of the day we're the most productive.

Also, "7 Habits of Highly Effective People" by Stephen R. Covey. I started read it once, but didn't read the whole. However, my friend said that this book includes the fact there are some principles in our world and we have to understand them, instead of wishful thinking.

All right, I've just implemented f.lux. It's 9P.M. in my time zone so we'll se how it works on me I haven't heard about 5HTP (future pharmacist! ), but if I'll have trouble sleeping I'll check them out.