Mark

Day 9; I've had a much more productive day after a somewhat lazy few days. Taking my injury into account, I can't be too harsh on myself for that, but I certainly could have accomplished more during my downtime. Something I already knew before coming into this, but how one begins their morning is critical in setting the pattern for the rest of the day. In my case, if I get too comfortable in my computer chair during breakfast time, then it takes a lot more effort to get my day back on track. I was intrigued by a dream I had the other night in which I was playing an retro-style football game (not even a real one at that), but because I only played the game for a couple of minutes, it technically didn't count as a relapse and my current detox record remained intact. My mind subconsciously making excuses perhaps? Thanks for the good wishes @Cam Adair! I'm very much on the mend, albeit slowly (I wasn't sure how to add your quote into my post while editing, any ideas?)

Just to add onto what @Suritus and @Primmulla have already said, I think it's all about the balance between productive activities and relaxing/recuperating activities, and the vast majority of us on here sign up to this site because we can't get the balance right, particularly where gaming is concerned. It's great that you've already identified computer coding, maths exercises and English essays as important priorities that you need to start working on in order to improve, just try to make sure any schedule you create for this is a manageable one. Give yourself some time in the day to chill out, be it through reading or exercising, whatever appeals to you.

Hey Alex! Like @Ironfly said, recognising that your relationship with gaming was having such a negative impact on your life is a big step to take. Good luck on your goal for the week.

Day 6; Yesterday I sprained my ankle while playing football so I've been forced to rest for all of today, and will likely be doing the same tomorrow. It's been a bit of a strange week to be honest, so I haven't tackled my internet procrastinating as I would have liked. Not gaming hasn't been an issue whatsoever, but that's to be expected having taken numerous short breaks over the past couple of years. I don't think I will be in a position to evaluate my thoughts towards gaming until further down the line.

It's good that you've got something like that to focus on and put some of your spare time into. I'm a big football fan myself (our version not the American one ) and I try to play somewhat regularly. It takes longer to recover as you get older though so I can't play too often unfortunately!

Day 2 & 3; Just a quick update today. Tuesday played out very similar to the previous day, so I don't feel like there is anything worth bringing up. Wednesday started out great in that I ran a few errands before going to the gym, unfortunately I got home to find out the extent of the damage done to my car while parked overnight, something which has now happened twice in the space of a few weeks, and nobody has come forward to admit responsibility in either case. My mind has been too preoccupied to think about gaming and procrastinating, but not in a good way One plus I will give myself credit for is that I spent a good hour on Tuesday packaging up some of my old games and consoles ready for shipping. I've even decided to sell on some of my newer games.

I should have guessed by your username that you were a tennis fan! How often do you play?

I go into schools to teach different sports to children. Reading it back, describing my job as being physically demanding was probably a bit over the top! It does require me to be physically and mentally engaged from start to finish though. It's good to see you've already started on the popcorn, and have the glasses at the ready as well. I'm currently working on making the first ever 3D journal! (Maybe... ) Day 1; You know when you wake up with that feeling in the back of your nose and throat that you're probably coming down with something? I woke up with that which was annoying. I was also unable to walk the dog as she currently has a problem with her eye, and taking her out in the current weather would do it more harm than good. Those frustrations aside, I did my best to create some positives by posting on here for the first time, and I put together a plan for my afternoon session at work. Despite not being at my best, I was able to do a yoga session before clocking off for the night. I did linger on the internet a little unfortunately, it's amazing how your body can switch onto autopilot and you find yourself on a website without really being aware of how you got there. At least I've recognisied this behaviour, if nothing else.

Hey, good luck to you too! It's interesting that you were able to reduce the amount of time you spent gaming as well, how did that come about? Did you become more aware of the amount of time you were putting into games and how it was affecting you personally? Or did gaming simply lose some of its appeal? I found it to be a combination of the two. Like me, I'm guessing that you found browsing the internet to be an easy way to fill some of the free time that had suddenly become available to you. Right now, I actually feel this will be the harder habit of the two to overcome. Who knows though, that may change as time goes on Thanks Cam! I think it's important for me to state that I have tried gaming in moderation in the past, but that was at a time when I wanted to play multiplayer games. Now that my interest in playing online has waned, and I'm committed to no longer playing those types of games, I will be coming at it from a different angle than before. You're right though, although I'm in the belief that I can control my gaming habits when playing single-player games, I need to find out how much actual control I have, and how much has simply been an illusion. Taking a break is the only way to do that.

My introduction... Gaming goals; 90-Day Detox completed from 8th February 2016 to 7th May 2016. Not played online since 8th January 2016. No multiplayer games.No PC games.No mobile/browser games.Internet goals; No internet before completion of morning routine.No internet after 9pm.Limit browsing sessions to 1 hour by use of an alarm.Fitness goals; Workout at gym/play football 2-3 times per week.Practice Yoga 3-5 times per week.Computer Skills goal; Complete HTML & CSS courses on Codecademy.Reading goal; 15 minutes reading per day.Sleeping goal; 8 hours sleep per night. Responses/suggestions/questions to anything I say are very much welcome. Ta for now!

Hey there! I’m Mark, I’m 28 years-old and am from the lovely, albeit wet and windy UK. Not long ago I came across Cam’s YouTube channel, and more recently started perusing these forums. I have come to a decision to quit gaming, kind of… I’ll try to explain A little bit of back story. I have been playing games for as long as I can remember, but as a child, like everything else it was never more than a hobby to me. Problems relating to gaming started to arise during High School. Being pretty good at most sports meant that I was never really a target for bullying, but life changed so suddenly, as it does for everyone at that time, and personally I found it hard to adjust. Things came to a head when at 14 I was diagnosed with IBD, a medical condition which has the potential be a very debilitating. To keep a long story short, it had a detrimental effect on both my physical and mental wellbeing. Fast forward to today, and I am fortunate to have been in remission for a number of years, and while my life might not be in the place where I aspire it to be, I am very, very, very grateful for a lot of things and am proud of what I have accomplished in that time, and of the person that I am. I have no doubt that my obsession with gaming coincided with the negative changes in my life. Over time, gaming became part of the routine. With the odd exception (Left 4 Dead and Team Fortress being two games that spring to mind, although I haven’t played either in over two and four years respectively). I have never really been someone that plays games all day, every day, but I have come to accept that far too much of my time has been wasted playing video games and procrastinating on the internet, the latter of which has arguably become the bigger problem of the two, and are the reasons for me being here. In answer to the statement I made at the beginning, one reason for not wanting to quit cold turkey is that my gaming habits have changed over the past couple of years, and as I’ve become more aware of what my addiction triggers are, my approach to gaming has changed as a result, and I have gradually played less and less. Another reason is that I do like a couple of hours in my day to relax and switch off, be that though gaming, watching a film/TV series or whatever. This is also important to me taking into account how fatigue relating to my condition, can affect my day-to-day life. I want to stress to people that I’m not using that as an excuse. If I could hit the gym every day, I genuinely would, but the fact of the matter is that despite being in remission, I have many a good day, but I have bad ones as well, and listening to my body is vital in my situation, otherwise it can be a case of taking one step forward, two steps back. Going forward, my aim is to play in moderation (argh, not that word!), but I mean strict moderation, something akin to the number of hours Richard Kuo stated he currently plays in Cam’s recent video, and the only games I will play are single-player oriented games that are rich in story and atmosphere. Anything else is no longer worth my time as far as I’m concerned. With that being said, I do feel it is important for me to take an extended break from gaming altogether. Despite my average gaming time per week being considerably small when compared to some, I’ve never gone a number of months without gaming, so the 90-day detox is something that I’m seriously considering, and after that period, I can make a decision on how best to move forward. Be it to game in the way I outlined above, or not at all. I’m very much open to either. The first steps… While I find single-player games to be a lot more manageable, multiplayer games have long been a crux of mine, more so playing with random people rather than friends. Cam’s video relating to a false sense of accomplishment hit the nail on the head for me. Games like Team Fortress 2 and Left 4 Dead as mentioned above, among others, provided me with me a temporary escape, social interaction, constant measurable growth, challenge, they ticked all the boxes. I have moved further and further away from multiplayer gaming over time, and despite returning to Call of Duty with the release of Black Ops 3 last November, I realised straight away that some of the bad habits were returning, so a week later I sold the game on. No more multiplayer games for me. PC gaming is a no-no. I intend to use the computer for working, coding, editing etc. Not to game on. I have uninstalled my Steam account and deleted all the games from my profile. While this doesn’t get rid of them for good (unfortunately), it gives me the sense of wiping the slate clean so to speak. I’m also in the process of selling some of my games and consoles, both old and new. Again, not a crucial step, but it helps me mentally to move forward. No mobile or browser-based games, even though I don’t actually show any signs of addiction with these particular types of games, and I haven’t played any for as long as I can remember, I might as well add it to the list! My obsession over console achievements/trophies has lessened over time, but they have continued to be a thorn in my side. Trophy notifications have been turned off and I will no longer keep track of them through the console or on the internet if/when I do return to play single-player games. Reduce the amount of time I spend browsing the internet, and to make sure that when I am on the internet that I’m using it for a purpose and not just to procrastinate. Improving myself… I’m still working out the kinks on this one. As mentioned previously, I like some time in the day to switch off, but admittedly I need to find alternate ways to do that. Reading is definitely something I need to do more of. Getting back into coding and editing could be a way to replace some of the time spent mindlessly browsing the internet. Improving my overall fitness is a long-term goal of mine. One step already taken in the regard is the restarting of my yoga regime which I need to keep up for the sake of my creaky knees! A strict gym schedule isn’t feasible as I’ve already outlined, but I can certainly improve my consistency as to when I do go. Whatever goals I decide to aim for, I want to keep it manageable, that doesn’t mean that I believe people shouldn’t reach for the stars, but I have the mind-set that you should learn to walk before you run. Something I’ve been working more and more on in the past few months is to live in the moment, and not to constantly look to the past or what may come in the future. It helps me to appreciate the smaller things in life which I think is important. That’s it for now, if you’ve got this far then congratulations and I wish you all the best!