WorkInProgress

Good job. Great that you are feeling better.

Detox: 09.10.2017 - 16.01.2018 Week 3 (7.11.2017-14.11.2017) I am still sugar free and have an almost daily routine of excercise established. I am sometimes forced to take pauses from the daily rhytmbecause my family still is more important. If my wife needs support I'll be there even if this means I can't go jogging ( I jog when my muscles need a rest from bodyweight training). But whenever I catch myself with phony excuses I go out there. My skin isn't improving so far though. It seems like I scratch a lot if I am stressed. This happens i.e. because I can't help my wife with here struggles (sleep depraved and still wounded from the birth). It isn't as I use scracthing to ease the stress it feels more like I can't control myself because my emotions take over and my self-control flies out of the window. The good thing at having a lot to do at home right now is that it forces you to do a lot instead of beeing lazy and searching for excuses ( as I usual do). My self-improvement over the last two years is helping too ofcourse but I never thought how easily a lot of things can be done if you don't have the time to argue with your self. Another idea I have right now is very simple and could be therefore very effective. Like at gamequitting where I installed linux to remove the games I wanted to play out of my reach I could just cut my nails very very short so scratching is harder. We'll see how it works this week

Yeah I think this is true. But german bread is so delicous and such an easy snack . But cool that you are able to keep yourself motivated to be as healthy as possible.

I think it is sometimes a question of clearness. Sure there are the here to start posts but there is a lot of "not so important" subtopics like books or health on the same level as the journals. I feel like people want some real live contact more then long conversations in forums our days.. Discord helps there, but to be really effective there should be an experienced gamequitter at strict times there. Like a live Q&A.It is like the forum is still to big for the community using it right now. There is so much content from Cam (All this youtube videos, thepodcast all this journals) that even with some clear guidance like Respawn there is an easy way to use the forum to mindlessly surf and use it as a (worse because content starved) quora. Of course there are no easy solutions but I would start by putting the two parts which are most active more in the front of the page and less clicks away from the people needing help. This would be the Introductions, the daily journals, the success/failure story's and the discord chat. The whole idea here is imho to connect like minded people. And these is the thing we should focus on. Then it would be easier to streamline the helpful content here on this page in a better faq where these recurring questions are sorted and answered. Respawn should be a useful addition but not needed to quit gaming. I would recommend it to everyone because it is a great resource but a lot of people learn the important steps i.e. easier with youtube. Because here is no voting mechanism like in quora/reddit/stack overflow there is a need for moderation to keep the important and "good" topics in front of the forum. Maybe an featured content of the week could be a good idea. Another nice idea to use the community to reach something could be monthly events. For example "The club of the iceman". Everyone gets the right to use the tag "Iceman" who did 30 cold showers and described its effects in an extra thread or his journal (people could ask to receive the trophy and then you or someone else could check the receivers journal or thread for validity). Other ideas would be "Early bird" ( 30 days of getting out of bed before 6am), "Zen Master"( finishing headspace trial). I am sure there are more similar things around which could make people stay active even if there detox is over. Also there could be a thread where. To keep people around in the forum helping other people we need to give them more incentives. Successful gamequitters tend to improve their lives instead of sitting online in a forum. That is why I would suggest to list the reasons why staying here continuing after your detox and helping new gamequitters can be beneficial to you ( harder to relapse, leadership skills, development of emotional intelligence, sense of purpose by helping other people with your experiences and ironically maybe some gamifaction content where you can be proud on your real life achievements (for example the custom titles i mentioned on top). Also some content which changes in a regular time intervall (article of the week, youtube video of the week... Something like this). I am shooting just out of the hip here but these could be some topics which could be realised with moderator time spent. This forum isn't set up to be self-accumulating because community work has no incentives. This makes it less addicting and less interesting over time. I personally need no incentives to be here, because I like to interact with the other gamequitters in a constructive way and trying to help them by following cams example (as he did answer here a lot).But I don't feel like this spirit or idea of helipng other gamequitters is strong enough to motivate a bigger amount of people. This fire needs some fuel or it will burn steady in this size (which isn't a too shabby thing either!).

It seems like you want the motivational boost of the day counting to continue. This fulfills a need for accomplishment. To keep some counters up are a nice way to fulfill this need because you also improve your life by this daily routines. You can use this tool to do anything you want. For example you could make a new counter after the 90 days for no games and daily excercise. Or maybe you want to tackle mindless surfing? There are a lot of possibilities. But I can't give you special recommandations without knowing more about your goals and living situation

That was a little bit blunt. It is my opinion but it sucks that your struggling Rem. I hope you can overcome this and hopefully see it as a struggle which pinpoints an area you should improve instead of life screwing you

Thank you. Wow your going a rather extreme route then. How does this influence your energy levels? with a carbohydrate percentage that high I am usually pretty sluggish. But I guess it is pretty challenging to go higher up in proteins in a vegan way. Why do you want to ban Oil and Salt? Only because of the mentioned cravings or are their benefits I am nor aware of?

Thanks for all that heartfelt advice. Luckily my little boy has no colics and it seemingly was just a phase of 1-2 days. He is still awake a lot and has a grumbling stomach but usually it isn't worse enough to cry about. It is really nice that we got some time together, because I did take a break before starting my first job after my studys.

As I had a daily journal I usually journalled in the morning and in lack of this whenever I had time. If you want to participate more with the forum it is best to pick 1-3 journals of other gamequitters and try to give them feedback or advice. But be careful. It can be addicting in its own way

Detox: 09.10.2017 - 16.01.2018 Week 2 (30.10.2017-6.11.2017) I am still sugar free! An impressive week done But without kidding I am kind of proud to stay persistent with my pledge because it was a challenging week with out son. Little sleep and a lot of stress if he cries and we can't figure out why. I started a daily work-out routine which helps me a lot to stay sane an energized. It is a beginner routine out of the book I talked about the last entries. Pretty simple stuff but starting with a split routine. It will need some adjustments in the future because the core work uses some bad exercises (sit-ups) and the warm up is to challenging for me (no I can't do a pyramid of pull-ups just for warm up...).

Because you joined a gamer clan and sourrounded your self with people who have different ideas of life right now.Maybe it is time to expand your social circle.

I see the logic in this and it is great that you'll process your feelings into something more productive. I see the logic of resistance training with stressful thoughts but I doubt that it is helpful if yu'll have no way to measure your success. Can you specify the amount of stress a youtube video produces. Or how your stress level diminishes if you watch more later on? Maybe of there are finer ways to develop resistance against stress. Exercise for example is shown to decrease the general stress level. Is there a common theme in what leads to anxiety and this anger? What is the root cause for you getting angry? At this work your meditation practice can come in handy because it'll help you to observe yourself. I am usually getting pissed if I am feeling insecure. For example if my wife points out what still needs to be done, I tend to criticize myself for not doing it all ready or feel guilty. In the moment this leads to snapping and aggression. Another common thing is a relation to stress. Are there a lot of stress factors in your life? something traumatic? Or maybe ur feeling vulnerable or sad and to mask this feeling you go towards anger. I just pinpoint this different root causes for anger because I have no idea what is yours. You'll need to find it if you want to get on top of this thing. Anger is never a good emotion, not even as motivation. I don't say don't criticize bad things. Or stop feeling bad for people. But if it affects you in a way that it affect your personal life in a negative way it is destructive.

What are you doing with the time you freed with not gaming? To fill the time with something positive can make a big change with the whole feel of a day. Does anything come to mind you could try right now until the meds kick in? I would suggest some sort of mild exercise to use the body's own hormones to feel better. Something like dong a few push-ups (or kneeling push-ups) and squats a day. Just something which makes you sweat a bit and increased the heart rate. Exercise is also a great daily habit because any progression is easily measured. Other things are learning something new ( a language, a skill an instrument whatever is easily practiced daily). It is ok if some (or all) of these suggestions aren't suitable for you right now. But maybe you find something you can work towards to. Otherwise your motivation to do anything will usually not appear out of nothing. Motivation develops after doing something for an amount of time. Sadly it isn't the other way around.

I know that feeling. But procrastination is the evil. If you are able to get in the habit of doing such stuff immediately (or at least give it a fixed calendar date and time range) frees up a lot of mind space. Because this sort of things stay in the back of our head and hinder us in being productive. To set a time and date and get done with it helps a lot. That being said I have to follow my advice there . That is a great thing at writing at other peoples journals. It is easier to give someone else good advice then yourself if your attached. And problems are similar. So it seems like vim was a good starting point for my c++ adventures on linux

In my opinion there is no need to upgrade anything just to stay modern. If you actual need smth buy it. If not it doesn't matter what other people use our days. Laptops are super handy and can free some space. You can store your data in the cloud if you want so it wouldn't be the end of the world if you lost it. If your thinking about vr-films I would just wait another few years and get a new set-up then suited for a specific task.

Good Job man!

Hey that sucks. Do you have any goals beside not gaming for the next few months? If your days feel long and boring thinking about stuff you want to do and actually doing some of them on a daily basis can help a lot.

Hey there, great start in the detox. As I stopped gaming I suddenly had a lot of free time and felt like a burden was lifted from my shoulder. Now I had the choice to invest the time in things I wanted to do instead of defaulting into gamebinging whenever free time was available. Be aware of the fact, that you seem to have all ready an active life with work and family. So be realistic about the challenges you set for yourself. It is nice to have lofty goals if they inspire you to become better you while you try at achieving them. But be aware of the downside that if you'll fail it can lead to a big loss of motivation. The same happens to people who break their streak at the detox. They feel like they failed. But instead of learning from the failure and keep fighting they give up. So even if you fail some of your goals remember to be grateful for you progress and use the lessons learned to become even better in the future. PS: Vim is the better editor Just kidding. I did dabble a bit with learning software development but never got to try emacs out of time limits. What sort of coding are you doing?

HI there, I just stumbled about your Journal. What steps are your taking to become more disciplined and less emotional? Some sort of daily routine? Meditation can help a lot at self regulating your brain in a better way. Politics are interesting but they can poison your mind if you consume to much of them. There is just so much evil in the world and even democracy feels like a flawed system. The best system I know of but still way from an utopia and with a lot of room for improvement. The thing is, if you leave this thoughts too much room in your mind you loose room for different more important things. Gratefulness, Happiness, Goals and Family. It is also true that if you don't consume politics a day you won't miss anything which is of actual importance to your life. Not that other lives and the state of your country or world does not matter, but if your own life looses value because you make too much sorrows about the world then your priorities are wrong. And you should maybe take a break from that news circus. I personally watch daily news from time to time and nothing more. It helped me to become more content with myself and focus on the important things in my life. As my own life gets better I have more capacity to give back to the world around me by being a good friend, brother, father and community member. Of course I go voting and choose a party which agrees best with my views but if I am not voting or actively fighting injustice by going on the street or similar actions, politics are a terrible use of my time. Maybe your situation is different but I thought I share my take on the subject. Best of luck to you.

Welcome to the forums. It was a great decision to search help. Especially if you feel like games are damaging your real life. For me personally it was really helpful to make it through the 90 day detox and write a journal here in the forums. My original Detox journal is somewhere back on the later pages but feel free to check it out (it isn't a nice read though: A lot of rambling in bad English ;)). But putting my experience at the detox down in this forum and getting feedback from the community was really helpful. It also keeps you on track because you can see your progress and are held accountable. So my advice is do the 90 detox and keep a journal. Read some of the other stories to. There is a lot to learn from the experiences of our other game quitters. If you'll need anything just ask in a new topic or in your journal. Glad you are here. We got your back.

Thanks. It was a great moment and very interesting to see my wife in labour and how my little baby boy cam to this world. It wasn't beautiful though

I used to know how to delete these quote frames, lol. Anyway, so are you still counting the time since you've stopped gaming? To delete the frames you'll need to enter something in front of them (i.e. an empty line and then they'll get deletable. No I don't keep counting but I know that I started my detox in January 2016. I also had a little relapse in the end of 2017 (1-2 days) But all in all I would count myself basically game free since then. That makes soon two years. And finally I stopped watching game related stuff lately. Lately it feels like books are more interesting then the web which is kind of crazy for me but very welcome. It helps a lot that I got a job a few days ago and don't have to worry about studying or job search anymore. Pressure and Stress was always the main reasons for me to go back to gaming. I spend all my time right now with my wife and my newborn son so I don't have time to watch shit on youtube anyway. Reading is quite possible with a sleeping baby in your lap though. So yeah I am very thankful for my life right now. That's also why I always feel a little hippocritical if I offer advice to you or other guys. I feel like most of my luck is actual good luck. Good genetics good psyche and lucky environment. Of course this oversimplified but only lately I started to benefiting my own life in a meaningful way and it pays off. I just had the luck to start from a very lucky point. That is why I admire it if someone with mental problems and much harder circumstances fight through them to a new life. You rock man. I am sure that that website problem will get solved by trying and trying again . It is no use to compare yourself to others or judge things as simple or hard. The only thing it gets you is a bad self-esteem. If you are stuck maybe you can reach out to someone who has the necessary skill? Most people are surprisingly willing to help strangers because it makes them feel good about themselves.

Detox: 09.10.2017 - 16.01.2018 Week 1 (22.10.2017-29.10.2017) Entry 2 Thank you. I am very much in love with him all ready and very happy that I have over two months with him before I start into full time work. I think I will widen my focus here. I lately found a full time job as atlassian-consultant and will start there 1.1.2018. Because I'll get educated on the job and there is no formal education for this job I don't need to spend a lot of time learning to be better at programming. I will still do though for fun and profit. That means I have time for my little family and improving myself which is great. That is why I want to use excess time for fitness related goals. I started today an daily routine where I alternate between push pull lift and leg-work. I took it right out of the beginner section from the book "Discipline equals Freedom". The training is mostly calesthenics so I need only a pull-up bar which is in my possession all ready. Herein I will do some sort of training every day. Of course this will vary in intensity and time. It is also all right if I have a lot of muscle aches or less time if I only get some stretches in. But I think building a daily workout routing will be very beneficial for me and I am excited to fight through the obvious roadblocks in motivation. I am also interested in joining a local muaythai/kickboxing school. It isn't expensive and close by. The time commitment is a little scary though especially now when my wife needs me a lot after giving birth to our son. I will consider going to some tryout training session in two weeks (6.11.)

Hey I need to read that study soon Good job on moderating lately. You are everywhere!

Hey good job on reflecting so deeply. Especially with your workload this is important. Make sure this is only temporary or you will suffer from this. A weekend camping could be a great way to get some distance and replenishment. How many kids do you have? Is your wife a stay at home mom? My first son was born last friday, so I am right now in the process of figuring the whole father thing out. Do you have any tips and tricks for me?