mholz02

Day 3 is going to be one of the hardest days... I used to play Overwatch, a Blizzard game like WoW, religiously... and a new character was just announced. I unsubscribed to all of the gaming YT channels I was subbed to, but somehow this announcement slipped through into my recommended feed. I've resisted learning anything about this new character, but I am so very much tempted to watch the videos and learn what kind of character it is just so I know. Still, I know how cause and effect works: first I'll watch one video and I'll be tempted to watch another. Then, after a short series of events, I'll be back to playing Overwatch ten hours a day all summer. I'm staying strong and avoiding YouTube altogether for now, but I know that I'll somehow be informed when the character becomes playable on Xbox and then... relapse. I followed Respawn and made lists of things I could do other than game but, right now, I don't want to do anything else. Every other activity seems dull and tiring just as they did when I played video games, of course it's only been a few days so I didn't expect to be instantly cured of it. I'm just gonna throw myself into writing my novel and hope things go okay today. AAAAND I just started playing a browser game without realizing it... HOW?!?! Should I count that as a relapse or an accident, or both??

Day #2 Today was an easy technical first day. Got up at noon and had to go to work in a few hours, so I watched a movie on Netflix, then I worked the rest of the day away, no strong desire to game whatsoever. If every day goes well like this, maybe 90 days won't be so bad... tomorrow is my first day off of work since quitting though, so we'll see. Day #1 I guess it's technically day 0, as it's actually 2 am... oh well. Going through the Respawn eBook, everything has been easy so far except for the Agenda chapter of it. I'm still a teen, and in high school, with a job that's extremely unpredictable. It's summer, so I'll have 4 - 6 days a week, random days. Then during the school year I'll have school 5 days a week mostly, but not always. Plus, family obligations and chores (also not scheduled but random), so on and so forth. I don't know how to make an agenda when I literally have no clue what my obligations will be a week from now. But, I'm committed to quitting, so either I'll wing it or figure out another way to plan stuff out. We'll see. Of course the page after I write this, dude puts in "what if my work schedule is constantly changing?" section the next page.

Hello GameQuitters Forum! I'm just a teen at this point, not even out of high school yet, but the hold that gaming has on me psychologically is undeniably destructive. I play them alone for the most part, mostly online competitive games that I play solo. Most of them leave me feeling angry and less satisfied than they did before I played them... so I've decided to quit. I'm acquainted with many people in my grade and in others but I would hardly consider any of them "friends," and not a single one of them could be called my "best friend." Now that summer is here, I find myself feeling worse than I do during the school year. I should be excited that summer is here and that I have no homework (other than reading for an advanced English class), but I've dreaded every day that I spend alone without anybody really to talk to. I'm an aspiring fiction author, but the act of writing can't bring me the same pleasure and sense of completion that games do. Because of that, I can honestly say that I've done over 1000 times more gaming in the last year than writing... My physical, mental, and social health have never been great, so I can't say that they've "taken a downturn" from how they were before--I've been gaming since I was able to hold a Gameboy--and I'm genetically predisposed to serious anxiety issues and depression as well. Gaming just multiplies those, so I feel like crap about 90% of the time. I'm hoping that by quitting video games that I'll be able to continue with my writing passion, maybe make it a career sooner rather than later, build more confidence and true friendships... and maybe feel competent enough to date someone soon? Thank you for reading my rant. Matthias