Zenrenn

Hey all, I've tried quitting before and posted here, it worked for about 8 months until we started quarantining in 2020. Now I'm on the verge of losing my family to gaming. I started college a year ago while working full time and with a, currently, 18 month old. This semester I overloaded myself with classes and also started Calculus which has been absolutely kicking my ass. As a result, I've sunk quite deep into escapism in games. I've been slacking on my studies, the best I will be able to get in Calculus is a C depending on this last test (straight A's besides this) and I lied to my fiancée about working on homework when instead I was playing games. She caught me doing this yesterday and was almost kicked out of the house. Today, despite this, I went and played games anyway during work. I'm horribly stressed about calculus and recently did not get a promotion at work which should have been pretty guaranteed. My fiancée is very close to kicking me out and all I want to do is just play games more. I'm going to schedule appointments with my therapist again, I'm already taking depression pills which I don't think I need, I just am very stressed about school. All of my friends are gamers and I receive no support from them, nor is most of my immediate family any help because they were part of why I've done this. I just support from others in this extremely low time of mine.

Hi everyone! I quit games back in August of 2019 on my birthday. Had about 8 months of doing pretty decently and played a game or two occasionally but ended up stopping once quarantine hit. It's been about a year and I'm trying to quit again. I have a 10 month old son and I'm trying to keep my relationship with my fiancé intact. I've been gaming since I was 2 or 3, I'm almost 32 now. I've been in therapy and talked to a psychiatrist about depression, sleep apnea, anxiety, and ADHD. I've stopped playing games for about a month now. I'm currently having trouble finding something to sink my teeth into currently, without games I don't have something I can put my focus into right now. I've been working on reading, yoga, weight lifting, and cooking meals. I've also started college back up to become a teacher. Just wanted to say hi again, and to say I am having an awful time trying not to play. I do want to quit, but I need to find something so I won't be miserable.

Thanks a bunch! I'm definitely going to start journaling because this sucks haha.

Hey everyone, I wanted to respond to how things have been going for me. October was a pretty tough month, my girlfriend and I were having a ton of issues and I ended up turning to gaming for comfort. Come to find out she was pregnant so that was what was causing a lot of the issues haha. We've having a boy, which is pretty crazy because I wasn't planning on having kids at all but that's fine! That being said, I've been having a lot of issues staying away from games and regulating my moods. I realized I've basically full tilt gone back to games but I reason to myself that I'm not addicted again, but I am. I've decided to start again today, I did feel a lot better not playing games but I need to keep finding things to keep my time busy. I think I might start doing the daily journal to keep on it.

Really great man! I've had so many problems with sweets and I've been having issues sticking to quitting games as well. It's awesome to see all these journal entries from you. Almost a year! Keep it up!

Hey all, I dropped off the face of the earth since my first post but I have been pretty happy with my results so I wanted to post again. I'm going on 7 weeks no gaming, I still play board games and dungeons and dragons but I don't devote the same time to them like I did video games. I've started a lifting program and have gone to the gym for about 2 and a half weeks straight now, stopped buying vending machine food, and started packing most of my lunches. The result? I feel amazing. My mind is the clearest it's ever been, eating less sugar and not having the insane video game stimulus has really helped me focus and crush my goals. My anxiety and depression are fast diminishing, I feel as though I don't need anti depressants or counseling anymore. Quitting games seems to have started a domino effect of me starting to gain control in my life and I love it. I've always hated communities like this when I used to play games, I would say those people are weak and had no grasp on the real world and can't do the things you need to do but still maintain time to play games. It seemed so fake to me, but quitting games has really helped me achieve more in life and I see now how faulty my mindset was. I had two friends ask me if I was coming back to play the Monster Hunter expansion. I considered it, I love the game and I love playing with my friends and it's been a game I've played for many years. I thought about maybe just playing that one game? Then I started to think about the other games I HAD to play if I'm getting into one. I realized that it's still a very fresh wound I'm trying to close and shouldn't go back soon, if at all. Things are seriously better, my relationship has improved with my girlfriend and I'm slowly losing weight. It's amazing and I hope others achieve the same happiness I feel in being more in control. Thanks for reading.

Hey all, I've been gaming since before I remember and yesterday I hit one week down! I've had a lot of introspection and I definitely feel like I can do so much more with my life, but I realized something last night. When I used to play games I had the feeling of being unproductive at all times. I knew I had things to do but I would never get them done, and even if I was productive I still wouldn't feel great. Last night I realized I don't feel that feeling at all anymore! And that is HUGE. Just thought I'd share, I'm enjoying my journey and have been excited to paint, draw, and do whatever else I want to do for once! Thanks for reading.

Thanks everyone, I really appreciate the replies. Games definitely do drain me and make it hard to stick to healthy hobbies. I'll check out that detox video and I'm excited to talk to a psychologist and psychiatrist. It's exciting to think that I can become pretty adequate with some skill I choose in just 2 years. Makes me feel like I can accomplish quite a bit! Things have been going well, I'm messing around with the thought of some hobbies that I had never dreamed I would have the time for (writing, drawing, programming). I've definitely thought about playing, but luckily my girlfriend has also stopped playing and we've kept ourselves busy with some disc golf these past couple days. Anytime I begin to wind down, my mind wonders to sitting and relaxing with games so the temptation is still strong. However, I know currently that these last couple days my relationship has been much more fun. I seem to be coping by eating more unfortunately but I think that will be sorted out eventually, and it probably won't be as much of a struggle as it was while playing games. Thanks again for the replies, I need to browse the forums a bit and check all these other posts out. It's frustrating at times but I know it's for the best, and I like having this forum available for others who are empathetic.

And now I'm here! Hi guys, I'm Caleb. I've had a very rough time coming to grips with needing to get away from games. My parents didn't pay much attention and didn't help me along much emotionally when I was younger and instead just threw games at me for as long as I've lived because it seemed to keep me happy. Now I'm 30 and just now realizing how bad this has affected me as an adult. I've done things to help but quitting games is most likely one of the best next steps I can take. I have been depressed all my life, dropped out of college three times, left school my senior year because of my gaming addiction (still graduated luckily), am extremely overweight, and I have many problems displaying any type of emotion or feeling to others. All this, combined with possible ADHD (seeing a psychiatrist soon), makes for a pretty unhappy life. I've done things to help with it, I take brazilian jiu-jitsu, I disc golf, and I like to lift weights but I have such a hard time sticking to anything, most likely because gaming pries itself into my thoughts everyday but I'm sure there are some things I could be doing better as well. If you've stuck around this long, thanks for reading, reach out to me I'd really like to hear how everyone else is doing with it and what your results are. I'm super frustrated with everything and I'm feeling the big sad (depression) take over because it's been about 24 hours since quitting and I JUST bought the new Fire Emblem game. Haven't played it more than 2 hours. It sucks and I'd love some backup here. Otherwise.. TL;DR I'm addicted to gaming, I'm working on it. It sucks, tell me if you agree.