Hello! My name is Christian and I am a junior in highschool. For the past couple years, I began realizing that video games have given me no sense of accomplishment, and quitting this addiction has been an on/off journey for me. Only last night I was hit hard about my addiction. At 3:00 AM, after a CSGO competitive loss while playing with my friend, I became salty, and blatantly stated to my friend that gaming is a waste of time and both of us should probably be doing something like reading. Given my friend's limited knowledge of psychology, as well as his life history of gaming, he instantly argued back, claiming he valued the form of "entertainment" that gaming gave him. As stated previously, this was at 3:00 AM, so both of us were tired and angry after the loss. I soon realized this, and decided to stop arguing and eventually ended the call. Immediately after, I thought to myself that I needed to end this addiction ASAP, so I looked up how to quit video games, and found this site, and I sure am glad I did. I personally want myself to end this addiction that has prevailed my whole life, and if possible, hopefully help my friend. As bad as it sounds, I am willing to cut my relationship with my friend if he cannot see the same vision as me despite my advise. He has been a close friend my entire high school career, but I feel like I owe myself more than more hours of useless gaming that has no benefits in my adult life. My gaming career spans all the way back to when I was 8 years old and playing Runescape during it's prime. Since then, I find myself using any free time to play video games, instead of reading the book that has been less than 5 feet away from me at all times in my bedroom. I know inside that I want to read the book, but all my brain wants is the satisfaction of gaming. I want to stop this addiction once and for all, so I've come to these forums to get advice on which direction I should start going in order to change my life. I'm happy to hear any advice you guys can offer, and am willing to put posted advice into effect. Finally, I'd like to thank Cam and the forum posters for helping people like myself grow out of this worldwide addiction to begin moving towards a better life.