I’m not sure if I’m even allowed to post here as a loved one, but I’m pretty sure my significant other, that I’ve chosen to walk away from, has a gaming addiction. Just looking for support and honestly, validation, as I keep trying to convince myself he’s not addicted.
His gaming addiction doesn’t seem to affect his pretty high-up job. I would assume it’s because without a job, he wouldn’t be able to purchase all the games (and accessories) he does. What it does affect is his health.
Like routine, he comes home every day from work, changes clothes, maybe plays with the dogs, and then logs on to play around 6pm (sometimes earlier, depending on when he got home from work) until 11pm/12am (later on the weekends) during the week nights. I think the gaming affects his sleep, so he supplements with adderoll and vyvanse. He’s prescribed this medications but he doesn’t seem to be someone that has ADD. He rarely eats dinner and when he does, it’s either fast food he can access quickly or something like chips and salsa or cereal. He never goes to the gym because that takes away from gaming, but injects himself with testosterone to supplement.
When he’s not playing, he’s very angry, anxious and irritable. Anything I do seems to annoy him. The only time he seems genuinely happy is when he’s playing. We were playing in a softball tournament last weekend and in between games, he was watching videos of people playing.
I left him recently and blocked him on everything I could. I was ready to move on. He told me he would get rid of the video games (although made it a point to tell me he was only doing it to show me he was willing to make the effort, that the video games weren’t the issue). We last 3 days before he flipped out. He came home, ready to fight, yelling at me for whatever, criticizing me for whatever, asking why I didn’t have anything planned for us to do since he couldn’t play and why hadn’t I given up anything i enjoyed doing. It’s like he doesn’t know how to function without playing. Not to mention, if I wasn’t there to take care of all his household responsibilities, his house would be disgusting.
Anyways, I walked away. It’s been 3 days and haven’t heard anything from him (he’s blocked on everything except email). I think he has an addiction but he’s so manipulative that he makes me feel like I’m making it up. Just kind of down on myself.