Hmmge

There's rising percentage of erectile dysfunctions? Damn ? I would not say men are not receiving enough support, it's just that the support for men and women tends to be different in the society. For women, it's common to talk about feelings and struggles - whether it's in communities, magazines, friend circles or other media(think Oprah). This is something that is lacking in support for men - handling depression, sexuality problems, identity problems, relationships etc. On the other hand though, the vast majority of the 'self-help' community is male and provides advice for (mostly) young men. Its focus is generally more of a "buckle up and start hustling", but still there is a lot of value to be gained(think Gary Vee, Eliott Hulse, Tony Robbins). Perhaps both sexes would benefit from taking part in each other's communities. However, that is difficult to achieve since it's usually specific people that give advice, seminars, speeches, articles etc. These people know how to give advice to the group they're focusing on, but not the other way around.

I only have experience with Melatonin, which is a natural hormone your body produces when you are in the dark, makes you a bit sleepy and improves the quality of sleep. When you stare at screens until the very end of the day like I do, it's a good idea to use it as a supplement, because your body is not gonna produce enough of it. That's how you should treat it - as a supplement, not medication. You will still need to exercise your will to go to sleep. The only medication that would completely put you down is dangerous and unhealthy in the longterm and will definitely not solve your problem. Anyways, I think there can be three reasons why you're not going to bed: You don't want the next day to start; you don't want the current day to end; you are deeply immersed in something and not present(movie, gaming, browsing..). Which one do you think it is?

Hey I obviously don't know you personally, or your relationship or your environment, but I think this can be good for you. Maybe you even know it too. Fresh start and all that biz. Especially now that you're in a new city, it's the perfect opportunity to build up that social skill!:)

Inspiring! ????

I've also caught myself doing this once. During a time when I wasn't watching many videos at all, I just started watching this guy's travel vlogs and fantasizing about seeing all these places for myself, getting to know the people, just enjoying life, I was looking at prices of rent in different cities etc. Day-dreaming, basically. After a few days, I just got tired of it and moved on. Might not be a big deal.

@karabas Oh we responded at the same time haha, that's some advice overload right there! ? Did you really ask her to marry you after a few conversations? That's pretty extreme compared to western standards huh

Good decision to start a journal, it will help you with consistency tremendously. I also played sc2 a lot, it's crazy how the community is motivating itself to push for higher rank, to improve, believe in yourself, ignore the nay-sayers, work hard every day, research strategy, hustle, don't falter if you are on a losing streak etc. And yet all this is just to gain an arbitrary rank that nobody cares about. Although these are good skills to use in real life, I find it so bizarre how delusional the starcraft community is about where to apply them.

Don't worry about it my dude. Do progress for yourself, not for a girl you barely know. It's fine to use it as motivation, but don't get attached or beat yourself up for getting rejected. Dating is in many ways a numbers game - some people like you, some people don't and there's little you can do about it. In fact, you can, but that requires long-term effort to improve social skills, which only supports the frame of not getting attached to a single girl. Don't forget that it's called "social SKILL" for a reason. Like any other skill, it can stay the same, it can be degraded if you don't use it, or it can be improved if you deliberately take steps to do so. Humor, attraction, storytelling, confidence, spontaneity, all these are just skills.

Cool article. Indeed a lot of gaming principles can be used in real life. ESPECIALLY if you've been into competitive gaming, climbing that ladder for those arbitrary points. The result is useless, but actually, the mentality that I adopted in order to reach higher ranks? I use that in real life everywhere. Just because I'm curious about business - does the blog drive some decent traffic? If so, does it lead to sales? It's kind of a strange combination to pair acupuncture and gaming addiction.

Good luck man! Moving to a new city is a fantastic opportunity for a fresh, successful start. How did you manage to study for the exam? Going to the library, a study group or just hustling at home?

Is this the first time you're trying to properly do the 90-day-detox? I think around day 7-14 there tends to be this second resistance wave(right after the first two/three days) and cravings intensify. This is because you've pushed yourself for some time, you've done some progress and now your old gaming identity doesn't like it. It's like your old you is feeling that you're starting to change, but it doesn't want to change. The ego always tries to preserve the status quo, because that's how we've survived as species. Maximizing survival, not maximizing happiness. Because you've been surviving for so many years in your cushy, gaming life, your ego thinks that the set of actions that maximize the probability of surviving is to stay home and game. But you want to go out and change - well that's risky! What if there's a razor tooth tiger out there??? You see what's happening here? It's change and your ego rebelling against it. Just be conscious of it and accept that it's going to suck for a while, but will get better. Another factor is that after you've been doing good for a few days, you feel like you should reward yourself, relax, ease off. This is a trap that backfires every single time. It's an illusion, a craving in disguise. Don't get fooled. Good luck!

This is a big benefit as well. Standing, walking or stretching out throughout lengthy work periods at a desk is pretty much the only thing that can save future back problems. I don't use them that way because it breaks my focus too much, I usually just ignore the break period and continue working, or skip it, but if you can walk, that's big. I would just leave it as it is. Just forget about it. There will always be ways to play games, there's free to play stuff, there's easy piracy etc. For me, going back to exchange e-mails with the support staff to delete steam would actually be considered procrastination at this point.

The best case scenario is if you have a single thing you have to work on for a long time, such as a coding project, writing a paper, doing some research etc. But if not, then what I do is I have a to-do list of little things I need to do and during a pomodoro, I just go through that list one by one. This can be something like "send an e-mail to this guy, make an appointment here, look up this or that..."

This is spot on. I find that I can change my state and therefore, personality, by day if I do certain things. Or even in an instant - you can do this by just changing your physiology. How you hold your shoulders, how you keep eye contact, how you walk and stand, all influence your self-esteem and mental state massively. The long-term thing to do is to change the overall mindset so that it's automatic. Just being conscious of it is a big improvement.

Freebies are the best! The momentum can be huge.

Gogo! You're not at square 1, you already know you can do this just as you've done it before!

Oh okay fair enough. In end, you've already completed the gaming detox before. I just read this article: https://betterhumans.coach.me/how-to-stop-binge-watching-from-ruining-your-life-cd0e92f51750 , very powerful especially the ending part.

How about separate counters? Even if you 'relapse' on videos, you should still feel proud of not gaming!

That's right, feel the hate ?

I have to chime in here with my 50 cents: It might be a bit too much to cold-turkey quit everything in 1 day, especially if the determination and motivation is not steel-strong. I would just focus on not playing games at all costs, that's like the most basic thing we absolutely need to get rid of. We have many flaws and need to fix them all, yes, but trying to never watch youtube as well as never game at the same time is like trying to put plasters on your scratches while simultaneously treating a big bleeding open wound. No! Treat the wound first, so that at least you don't bleed out and then treat the stuff that doesn't kill you immediately. So just let youtube/tv shows/whatever be what it is now at least for a few days, let's say a week, until you feel confident you don't have massive gaming cravings, then you can start eliminating the rest too. Just to get over the most difficult few days at the start.

Awesome! He's got this interesting perspective of the current life being horrible suffering and that's why you need to strive for something better even if it's hard. I can connect with that especially when the situation is bad.

Regarding writing scientific papers: "Don't worry, be crappy" - Guy Kawasaki It often feels like you need to do something extraordinary, has to be perfect, has to blow people's minds, but that's not a good approach once you find yourself procrastinating. It's much better to just accept that you are not a flawless genius and just start writing/researching/experimenting the best way you currently can and if it's crappy, so be it, write it down. This way, you start doing SOMETHING and through the process of doing SOMETHING to the best of your abilities, you will not only stop procrastinating but also create something that is much better than you thought it was going to be.

The body can be deceiving though. Feeling sleepy can be induced or interrupted quite easily. Hunger is also not objective sometimes. I can't nap properly even if they paid me a million dollars, but that's just me haha!

Good luck! Keep fighting! The control over our lives is the most important thing there is!

There are tons of things that are massively destructive that people do and still achieve great (financial) success. Drugs, cheating, disrespect for other people, various fears, mental barriers, physical health, mental health, you name it. Happiness has very little to do with money. Now, if your problem is SO bad that you play video games 10 hours per day(like I sometimes used to), you aren't gonna be successful of course, but that's not what successful people do. Elon Musk has played overwatch and some other shooters. But he also puts in 60-80 hours of work each week into his companies and is incredibly intelligent. He can manage to only play games occasionally, we can't. You could argue that Elon is a workaholic, but that's a whole different issue. The difference comes from the way people are raised; from the environment they were in; and from the amount of effort they put into improving themselves. You will notice that most successful people were born either into fairly rich, well-developed families that instilled very strong mentality geared towards career success OR they have a rags-to-riches story. In the former case, the mental concepts necessary to achieve success and avoid shit like games are usually internalized in the kids fairly early. In the latter case, when people are in shitty social and financial situations, they usually give up and stay there, but sometimes they don't give up and the shitty situation gives them an incredible drive to change. If this happens, not only do they have the drive to create a better life that is stronger than anyone else's, but they also have the work ethic and the ability to cope with the struggle that comes from just living in poor conditions. You know the phrase "Good is the greatest enemy of great"? Yeah. People in the middle class that have kind of a cushy life often have all the tools and knowledge to upgrade their life, but struggle to find the motivation to do so because their life is just kinda "okay". They haven't had the taste of the great life so they don't know how much better they could live, but it's also not bad enough to motivate them to make it better. There are many more factors, of course, just kinda rambling and procrastinating from going to bed. Good night!^^