Jump to content

NEW VIDEO: The EASIEST Way to Stop Gaming

Silverlining

Members
  • Posts

    179
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Everything posted by Silverlining

  1. Day 43: 12/2/2018 Sunday Actually my husband and I have been binge watching movies recently. 4 movies for the past week. 8 hrs. That's a lot. Although I'm not super worried about it. I doubt if I can get "addicted" to movies. I mean, it actually takes some effort to finish watching a movie and then discuss about it. Especially for movies like Momento with somewhat complicated structures. And there aren't so many classic movies for us to watch anyway. Also I had wanted to watch these movies together with my husband for a really long time. It seemed that I was never able to find the time because I was busy playing games. And it was difficult for me to sit still for 2 hours back then. ===== Here are a few lines from my rolling 7-day activity chart. I did rolling 7-day to smooth out weekends. The Thanksgiving holiday really had a negative impact on me. (And on other people, too. I see a few game quitters here because of binge gaming during Thanksgiving). I'm glad that study time is not really affected that much. Exercise time decreased partly because I changed running to HIIT. ===== I have realized that my sense of time has completely changed since I got sober. Back in my days with game addiction, when I got off work and had a whole evening, I always felt like I had infinite amount of time. So I would put off things, thinking that I would have time to work on them later. On the other hand, when I had a big project, I would get the feeling that I could never do it, probably learned helplessness due to constant procrastination. And now, I know exactly how many productive hours I have every day. So I can't afford to procrastinate any more. On the other hand, when I have a big project or a bigger dream, I feel confident that if I have a plan to work on it consistently, I can make it happen. ===== Most importantly, I have finally realized what this forum is really about. It's not just writing down these journal entries to motivate myself. What helps me most is reading the journals by other people and trying my best to give advice and supports or simply to express understandings to my fellow game quitters. We are social animals after all. The feelings that "I belong to this community" and "people here understand me", and "I can actually help someone" are very rewarding and I really appreciate it.
  2. You passed the 90 days, it's still something! Giving yourself a little credit doesn't hurt. And you deserved some reward but subconsciously you probably thought of playing games as a reward. Why not think of this as an experiment? After the 90-day detox you tested if you had become a different person who could play moderately. Turned out you were not. That's OK. Life is not about keeping a perfect record. Trial and error is a good way to learn, as long as you can learn from this experience. For AA I think they have a saying that "once an alcoholic, always an alcoholic" -- I'm not sure though, learned this from TV shows. But that's probably true with game addicts too. Tbh I am thinking about going back to games a little bit after 90 days. Not sure if it's a dangerous thing to do, but I want to know if I can play a little bit without disrupting my lifestyle and then stop playing at my will. Stay resilient! And good luck!
  3. ? I guess when we were gaming, we sometimes became part of the priority for our gaming friends, for the fact that we were gaming with them, not for who we were. It would seem that we were really close with those friends, but that was not pure friendship. It's rare but game friends can become real life friends. I have two. We happen to have a lot in common in real life. Oh and we all quit gaming now.
  4. Day 40: I received grades for my project above. To my surprise, it got 15/15 from all 5 peer graders. Tbh I teared up a little reading their heartwarming comments. Effort being recognized feels so great.
  5. That is actually also a technique that I learned recently from Learning How to Learn. According to Prof. Barbara Oakley, writing down a task list for the next day before going to sleep allows your subconscious to figure out how to accomplish the tasks while you are asleep. Also the writing down part is important: it frees up your precious working memory.
  6. Welcome back. Keep in mind that you are not alone. ?
  7. Congrats on finishing 90 days! And good luck with the next 90 days!
  8. Day 32 - 36 It's been a long holiday! I stopped keeping my journal... even the private one. Spent a lot of time socializing with friends for the past few days. Went to a party on Thursday. Hosted a party on Friday. Had a friend staying over. Saw movies. My daily routines were messed up. Didn't exercise enough either. In general it was all very festive. Although I did miss all the study time and I managed to finish the optional final project for Learning How to Learn between parties and dinners. I was kind of rushing it and not quite satisfied with it though. Learning How to Learn Final Project.pdf
  9. Day 29 - 31 We spent sometime with friends on Sunday. Had a big dinner. Played board games. Meeting them again tmr for Thanksgiving. ? Saw Fantastic Beasts 2 yesterday. My hubby is not a HP fan (saw a few movies, never read a book) so he got super confused, lol. Today I completed the first course on Coursera ever since I quit gaming. I got 100%, mainly because the quizzes were easy to build students' confidence. I did take them seriously though ? There is still an optional final project, which I plan to work on this weekend. The course is "Learning How to Learn". It's been super helpful to me. I'll post my final project here if possible ? And I saw the grades of the 3 courses that I took a few years ago. I can't believe how irresponsible I was back then. The course which I got 70%, is for a programming language that I have been using about 10% of time at work. I guess back then I just didn't care enough to work hard on those assignments and quizzes -- they did not give me the same level of "satisfaction" as what games could give me at that time. Not even close.
  10. You are right. After all these years of gaming, there are only a couple of my game friends who stay friends with me in real life ?
  11. Hey, everyone here has wasted time on games. We could all have done better without game addiction. And it's OK to worry. People get worried all the time. It's how you handle these feelings that matters. By the way, making a decision to quit gaming permanently could help you to regain the strength to face the problems in real life. That's my personal opinion (although I think many people here would agree with me) and it's probably not easy at the beginning. But according to my personal experience, when I stayed AFK for a few days, I would spend more time on gaming once I returned. When I tried to play moderately, I would end up worse than ever because games were always there like a sanctuary for me when I had problems in real life that I didn't want to deal with. And people always have problems in real life to deal with -- that's the definition of real life ? When there is no place to run, people can do amazing things.
  12. Hey! You have been gone for a while. How is it going with your detox?
  13. Day #28: My 4-week summary: Weekly objectives: Went to the gym every day: ✔️ Even on Thursday, when I had a headache. Optimized some processes at work: ✔️ Spent the extra time at work to study on the industry: ❌ I read about stay-at-home mom and pregnancy instead. I'm a little stressed about these plans in my near future. Nothing I can't handle though. I have definitely become stronger for the past few weeks ? Did more HIIT: ✔️ 3 out of 7 days. Improved my learning skills with the techniques learned from Learning How to Learn: ✔️ but not enough. I used deliberate practice and tried to avoid some illusions of competence, but not other skills.
  14. The wildfires in CA are horrible. I think it's dangerous to be outside?
  15. Thank you! This forum is magical! I have changed so much. And I have also witnessed the changes of my fellow game quitters (including you). Keep it up!
  16. ?I have come up with a solution. Next time I'll just tell them I have changed my old computer to a Mac.
  17. I have also started using an app to keep track of my fitness stats, including calories in food. It's like a game to me, but way better. ?
  18. Day #24-26 Feeling great! So an old-time gaming friend contacted me on day #24. She invited me back to the game for an annual event at the end of Dec. I said yes. Apparently I'm not good at saying no. I don't even want to play that game any more. But she was full of enthusiasm and I just couldn't turn her down, because I didn't want to hurt her feelings. Also, I never told my gaming friends that I quit gaming. I don't know why but I just couldn't. I said that I would be busy and needed to be AFK for a while. It took me a whole day to gather the courage to tell her that I would not go back to the game for the event. Still not telling her the full story. But at least I said no. ?
  19. Did you read Cam's 60+ new hobby ideas? Maybe it could be useful for you. And it's probably also a good idea to make some new friends ? People make new friends through sports all the time.
  20. Welcome! Apparently you already feel the effect of dopamine on your daily life, even if you may or may not know about it. Gaming tricks your brain into releasing dopamine, which drives you into more gaming, thinking that you would feel "rewarded" afterwards. But the real rewards come from real life, like the examples that you listed: good grades, fulfilling jobs with high salaries, health, etc.. You made a smart decision to join this forum.? Good luck!
  21. Day #23: 11/12/2018 Monday Exercise: 30 min Online course: 50 min Learning together: 25 min Reading: 30 min I guess there is no longer need to post my statistics every day. I'll update whenever I have something to say.?
  22. Welcome! You are doing great! Keep up with the good work!
  23. Day #22: I am writing my diary/daily summary in the morning for the day before from time to time, mainly because turning off my PC is no longer the last thing I do before going to bed. Now that I'm on my 4th week, I want more challenges. I did HIIT instead of cardio yesterday, which is a start. I also expect to improve my learning skills, with the knowledge I learned from Learning How to Learn, which, again, I strongly recommend. And I want to be more efficient at work by optimizing some processes. Nobody at work really cares about this -- one reason why I don't like my job. No reward for efficiency. But I think I will benefit from this. I can use the extra time to study more on the industry. The idea is, by spending the same amount time on things that I normally do, I want to do better. Study for exam: 50 min Exercise: 40 min Online course: 75 min Learning together: 50 min Piano: 30 min
×
×
  • Create New...