chiliflavor

Yes, I'm new here, around 1 week old. Haha. I sometimes find myself reading erotic manga before! HAHA!

Remaining Days: 88 days (May 14, 2020 - Thursday) Today's Mood VS. Video Game Craving: 5 - 2 Quick Fact About Me: I'm a rock star by heart. I learned to play the guitar and drums when I was 12. Concentrating on drums, me and my friends joined different battle of the bands in high school—somehow serious but mostly for fun. 😂 My influence in music came from (in chronological order) the slow rock / heavy metal bands of 80's and 90's, radio-favorite-love-songs, alternative & grunge rock, some local artists, a little bit of 70's, New acoustic music, reggae, then finally jazz. I stopped playing when I was in college since I was "busy." Now, I've just started to reconnect with my drum set to learn how to record. How Do I Feel & What Did I Do Today?: GOD DAMN IT. I accidentally hit the mouse button 5 and the web page went backward. My entry wasn't fully auto-saved starting from the next line. Jeez I have to re-type it quickly. I feel great today. I think it's good to set goals for the next day because it actually help me get out of bed and start my day right away. However, I kind of miss gaming early in the morning, as soon as I wake up, and late in the afternoon while having coffee. I earned $1.16 from day trading today. Well, as traders say it, "You can't be broke by taking profits." 😅 Tomorrow's quite challenging, I'll be looking for stocks that might gap up on Monday—taking into consideration that the quarantine rules will be modified starting next week. My sister and cousin-in-law arrived again today to continue their baking session. Later in the after noon, our youngest brother also came and also baked. Then, our parents came to have dinner with us. It was a nice evening; dinner was delicious! Also, my nephew arrived late in the afternoon. We had a Math tutorial session. We'll be meeting after 2 days then I'm gonna give him a "mock" exam. Let's see if he learned at least something. I think gaming is really good (after you've done everything you need to do) if and only if you can control it. Daily Quest Checker: ✔️ Workout, took a shower and cooked breakfast in the morning—things I never do if I was playing games 🤣 ❌ I can't fix/clean the PC's files while my surroundings are not yet clean. I started to renovate the arrangement of things in the office but I won't be finishing it tonight since it would mean I have to stay up late. ✔️ Mini-library arranged according to how often I use the books. ✔️ I've decided not to sell my books. Maybe someday I'll need those, especially now that I'm tutoring Mathematics. Quests For Tomorrow: I'll continue renovating the office tomorrow after trading then clean the PC in the afternoon. This task couldn't extend another day. This was already long overdue. After cleaning the PC, I have to make a priority list about what needs to be developed/changed ASAP in our business. Need to readjust sleeping time since I can't make it to 12:00 AM; instead of 12:00 AM, I'll make it 1:00 AM (max) since I'm okay with 5 to 6 hours of sleep. However, 6 hrs is preferable. When Curiosity Strikes / How can I be better tomorrow?: How do you start a review center? Most of the time, I tend to adjust my own rules about time to compromise my inability to meet deadline. It's just that, there's no "real" pressure at all. How can I put pressure on my daily tasks? ---------------------------------- Til tomorrow, Chiliflavor

Seems like a nice day! 😁👍 What do the numbers in the habit tracker good and bad mean? My apologies, I'm new here. 😅

What's up @Kim! Glad you finished the 90-day detox—I'm on Day 3. lmao! I agree with @giblets, quitting games is just the beginning. Think of it like WoW. Being able to complete 90-day detox is just, we can say, a trial account. Now you have to purchase the game and start leveling to 120. Equivalently, that "leveling" is actually the time to slowly work towards your goal/s. Who knows what you'll be doing after you reach 120, i.e., after reaching your goals. 😂 Good luck Sir Kim!

Remaining Days: 89 days (May 13, 2020 - Wednesday) Today's Mood VS. Video Game Craving: 4 - 2 Quick Fact About Me: I was lucky (probably) to have a girlfriend for almost 2 years (and counting lmao). She was my high school classmate and we reconnected via Facebook after 7 yrs since we graduated high school. She's gonna be on her 5th year of being a law student. She has work in the day and classes at night (even under quarantine). She played a big part in my quitting decision. She always tell me, whenever she notices that I play too much, that I'm just wasting my time on games instead of doing something relevant in my life. I know she's trying real hard to understand this gaming addiction I'm going through—and I am thankful everyday for that. How Do I Feel & What Did I Do Today?: I feel motivated today. Knowing that I have quests to do for this day made me get out of bed. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to complete my tasks. I feel that I'm easily distracted—can't focus at all. Not like when I'm playing, I use 99% of my mind to keep my focus while 1% for environmental awareness. I need to learn how to focus—like how do I play—in my real life tasks. It's almost been a month since I've dedicated my morning time (9:30 AM - 11:30 AM) to stock trading. Today, I've lost $16 in day trading. Well, that's trader's life. I'll try again tomorrow. I had an e-consultation via video call. The doctor was great. Luckily my tonsils are okay, it's acid reflux from too much coffee and too much spicy food. I guess my code name chiliflavor is really saying goodbye. 😅 Drinking tea should also be refrained because it's acidic too. Dairy products should be in moderation. Jeez I just have to drink water then. I might shift to fruit juices... 😓 My sister and cousin-in-law came today to make banana bread and cream cheese cake. That's where my afternoon was spent—by talking and observing how they bake. I'd say this event is a good thing today because I got an idea how to bake. After they went home, before dinner time, I have started to clean the office for my daily task.Then, cooked some dinner, wasn't able to workout, and typed some contract requested by my girlfriend. She was so tired so even if I really don't like office work like that, I don't have a choice because I want to help her even as little as typing, especially during this lock down where we aren't able to see each other. Yes, I have weakness went it comes to girls. HAHA. 😂 Finally, I'm sitting here writing and since I can't drink coffee nor tea in this late hour, a warm milk was made. Daily Quest Checker: ✔️ Cleaned the office; wasn't able to renovate it, I guess I need a weekend for that. It feels fresh here anyway to accompany this detoxification challenge. I really need to maintain the cleanliness. When I play games—yes, I play here in the office—this house is a disaster. 😅 ❌ Wasn't able to fix my computer files because I watched my cousin-in-law and sister baked as well as I cleaned and arranged my Math books; I'm thinking whether should I sell those or maybe I should just donate it to my school's library after the quarantine. I don't feel like pursuing MS Mathematics anymore—as of this moment. ❌ It's 12:30 AM here; hence, I failed to sleep properly. I didn't expect that the request of my girlfriend to type a contract will consume an hour. I'll try again tomorrow. Quests For Tomorrow: Workout in the morning as soon as I wake up. I should take a bath before trading stocks. I should sleep now then. I should clean the PC after lunch I should finish arranging my mini library because the Math books are piling up. I think I'll keep it because nobody buys math book, to be honest. Finally, I'll make an account as a 2nd hand seller. I'll still try to post the books online and let's see if someone wants to buy used math books. And also, for all the things that I need to dispose, I'll try to sell it. I need to make a temporary source of income since our business (venue rental for events) can't operate during and after lock down. When Curiosity Strikes: None for today. ---------------------------------- Til tomorrow, Chiliflavor

Thanks! I'll check out blender.. Although I really suck at art haha! Once my mother told me, "Love is made in heaven, you'll get it when you're ready." 😂

Nice! I did the same too so I can keep track and prioritize what should I do instead of gaming. Good luck Sir @PianoLearner! Glad you had a nice day 9! 😎

You can do it, Sir @BooksandTrees! Like they say, "Sometimes the smartest thing to do is to do nothing." 😂 That gastly is sick!! 😎 What software do you use for making animations? Damn, I just craved to play pokemon right now. That nostalgia feels!

Remaining Days: 90 days (May 12, 2020 - Tuesday) Today's Mood VS. Video Game Craving: 3 - 3 Quick Fact About Me: In 2015, I graduate with a bachelor's degree in Mathematics. Since then, 90% of my awake time, I had been playing video games. Let's leave the 10% to no internet service, family dinners, watching anime/series/movies, dating, hanging out with friends and all other activities not related to gaming. 😂 How Do I Feel & What Did I Do Today?: I feel neutral since I have experienced quitting video games before. The difference is that before, I know I would play again after 2-3 days, while this time, I'm never gonna play again. Maybe this idea will sink in sooner than I think. Even though I feel neutral, I already miss playing games. I'll surely play on these times of the day: while having my coffee in the morning, before or after eating lunch, and after eating dinner. I woke up late, around 8:00 AM because I stayed up til 3:30 AM last night to sum up everything I need for today's 1st day of quitting. 8:00 AM is late now for me—before it was my sleeping time—since I've been practicing to trade stocks and I should have read news or updates, about what stock might move a lot this day, before the market opens at 9:30 AM. I was so sleepy to trade, I slept from 10:30 AM to 1:30 PM. I didn't have coffee because I'm refraining from consuming sugary food/drink since my throat is kind of swollen. I actually booked an e-consultation with the sister of my sister's ex-co-worker. But I had to drink coffee in the afternoon because I can't deal with withdrawal from nicotine, gaming and caffeine all at once. 🤦‍♂️ Speaking of, my younger sister went here to work because the internet here is faster than the one they have on my parent's house. She likes to work here, on our family business office, because she has the tendency to just sleep if she works at her room. Meanwhile, my nephew also came at 4:00 PM. I am tutoring him Mathematics, for around 1 hour every other day, during this quarantine. He's like 1 year behind his Mathematics lesson. Jeez, I just taught him how to play Dota 2—I didn't know I was going to quit. 😂 Then we went home to have dinner with my parents and our youngest sibling. I've also mentioned to my siblings that I've quit gaming and shared to them my introduction post. I'm really happy that they were very supportive. I told my sister the good things I've done when I quit gaming before and she said "You're right, gaming is bad for you. It's good you have stopped." 😂 I went back to our business' office because this is where I sleep. Technically, I'm the caretaker of our business. 😁 I worked out, take a nice warm shower, prepared a tea and sat here to write my 1st entry. Daily Quest Checker: ✔️ Created a template for my journal That's all... I dedicated this day to just start writing and think about what should I do, now that I won't be playing games. Quests For Tomorrow: Fix the office so that I would have a fresh environment/ambience in line with my fresh start in life Fix my computer files, that is, to organize files so that my desktop won't look like a garbage can Resume sleeping properly, that is, go to bed before 12:00 AM then wake up around 6:00 - 7:00 AM When Curiosity Strikes: Have you ever thought of streaming? I mean, it looks fun and lucky to get paid by playing; but, isn't it tiring or not even very enjoyable at all since it feels like a requirement rather than a leisure? I don't know, maybe it's different when you're just playing for your followers—not because you really want to play. I have no idea about this at all. ---------------------------------- Respectfully yours, Chiliflavor

Good day! My name is Chiliflavor and you can read my story here. 😄 Thanks for all contributors of the template guides available on the pinned post! From those templates, I've designed my template to be like this for the next (hopefully) 90 days of detoxification since I think this suits my day-to-day life. I'll treat this journal as my therapist and will try my very best to update this daily. I hope that by reflecting through each of my day, I'd see the big difference of the benefits gained from playing compared to not playing at all. 😅 ---------------------------------- Remaining Days: ## Days (Month, Date, Year - Day) Number of days remaining in detoxification Quick Fact About Me: To share something about myself so that future readers would have an idea who am I, how and why did I end up being a video game addict, & what made me quit playing video games Feels Today: This section is to explain my yesterday's lessons, today's thoughts, and tomorrow's resolution. Daily Quest: This section enumerates my tasks for the day, the tasks that I did that day, and my tasks for tomorrow. As much as possible, I should try to make it realistic. Quest Log: This section checks if I've done my planned tasks for the day or I did some tasks in the Incomplete Quest section Incomplete Quest: If I wasn't able to complete a task for the day, it'll be put in the Unfinished Quest. More unfinished quests = more pressure. 😅 Trait/Habit to Fix: This serves as a section to list the traits/habits that I want to get rid of—minimize at least, and what are the consequences of having it. Picture Picture: This section is for sharing any picture that is related to the day's entry—or not related at all. 🤣 When Curiosity Strikes / How Can I Be Better?: When Curiosity Strikes is for some random fact like why do ants don't have lungs, or tips like what characteristics of men do women mostly look for—maybe I should just browse Quora, or how to make home made pizza, etc. That is, random thoughts. 😂 For How Can I Be Better?, this is where I should put ideas, realizations and methods about how to improve my day-to-day living. It can also be a reminder on what should I keep doing. ---------------------------------- Respectfully yours, Chiliflavor PS. Over time, I may change this template depending on what I think would be helpful or insightful. This journal thing is really interesting, I don't know why! 😂 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ TEMPLATE LOGS: [May 28, 2020] : *Added Weekly Quest section [June 8, 2020] : *Removed Weekly Quest Section [June 8, 2020] : *Removed Quests For Tomorrow section (replaced by Daily Quest) [June 8, 2020] : *Added Daily Quest [June 8, 2020] : * Replaced Daily Quest Checker by Previous Day Quest Checker [June 8, 2020] : *Added Incomplete Quest section [June 11, 2020] : *Removed How Do I Feel & What Did I Do Today?: [June 11, 2020] : *Added Morning Feels [June 13, 2020] : *Removed Today's Mood (1 sad - 5 happy) VS. Video Game Craving (1 no craving - 5 extreme craving): section [June 26, 2020] : *Change Morning Feels to Feels Today [June 26, 2020] : *Changed Previous Day Quest Checker to Quest Log [June 30, 2020] : *Added Picture Picture [July 26, 2020] : * Added Trait/Habit to Fix

Hey @Erik2.0! I agree! I'm new here and I like the community's ambience (It's a total opposite of "some game's toxic community" haha!). It's nice and inspiring to see fellow ex-gamers to share their hardships in life and at the same time to help others. 👌 My mother once told me that "Love is made in heaven, you'll get it when you're ready." 😁 Good luck on your journey! 😄

Hey @Ikar! Thanks for the inspiration! You're journal is very interesting! I just read the first few days and planning to read the next ones little by little so that I can catch up. 😁 I'm also learning to trade! Likewise, it's because of the quarantine that gave me time to really focus on the movement of the market. Good luck on our trading career! 🤑 But most importantly, congrats on the 1 yr+ of no games! 😄 👌

Wow! Congrats! No games for 90 days omg! Enjoy your cup of tea! How does it feel to not play games that long? Jeez I'm so curious... I have 89 days left... Reading your journal and seeing your progress since day 1 is very inspiring! For the business proposal part: "Remember, customer is always right. Tell them what they want to hear and you'll have no problem." 🤣 For language: I might do the same too! Thanks for the idea! How fluent are you now in speaking Japanese language? It's really amazing to imagine watching Naruto without reading subtitles. Maybe I'll try Spanish! Congrats again!

Welcome @LostSoul! WoW, I'm exactly on that scenario! Haha. I miss playing old games but when I play it, I feel lonely because—like what you said—I know I have to put so much time on it in order to enjoy it the same way again. But as other returning players have said, maybe it's just the nostalgic feeling that tells us to play the game all over again. In movies, I usually fall asleep too (when watching in netflix) especially if it's not exciting/interesting at all. I rarely finish a TV series as well, I easily get bored; usually first 2-3 episodes only then move on to the next series haha! It's really awesome that you are drawing and writing at the same time! Maybe that's why you don't finish movies at all, because you can write your own! 👌 Good luck! Hoping to read one of your stories someday. 😄

Welcome to the forum @ArcaneCoder! You can do it! How about as a back-end developer, what are your thoughts about it? 😁

Thanks for the tip! 😁 Yes, I've done that but I never took the written goals seriously. I should rewrite it (because other goals are irrelevant now) and shall memorize it by heart. Haha! See you around too! 🙂

Thanks! Welcome to you as well! 😁 You're right, I should start unlocking RL achievements. Wishing the same to you too!

Thanks! Welcome too! 😁 I was considering seeing a therapist too. I haven't really researched about it nor what kind of therapist I should see. Maybe I'll try it if the 90-day detox didn't work. 🙂

Glad that you noticed the replacement of the habit!

Holy sh*t man you're almost there!!! Thank you for this inspiring journey! 👌

Today, I've decided—for the nth time—to quit my "gaming career" for good (chance to succeed < 100%). 🙂 My name is "Chiliflavor" and I have been playing video games for 20 years. The first 15 years were all about the evolution of my addiction while the last 5 years were the peak time of my gaming career and the time that I knew I have a gaming disorder. When I speak of "gaming career," it doesn't mean that I'm an e-sports hardcore competitor. To be honest, I'm just an average gamer—plays a lot but still sucks from time to time, who played considerably few games. I am very picky when it comes to what I play because I want to be my best at it. I know, there are lots of stuff going on in the world today—the spread of covid-19, jobless days, argument with girlfriend/wife, your fridge is almost empty, or your in the process of healing from a hurtful event/happening, etc. Hence, I want to thank you for sparing some time to view my story. 😂 ----------- Unfortunately, this gaming career must come to an end, especially, when it becomes a distraction instead of using it just to "kill time." 😔 For almost a year now, I've been gaming on and off—"on" if everything in my life is great while "off" when I'm down or feel stuck in my own web. In other words, I usually quit when I feel like gaming is just a waste of time because there are so many things that I need to do, that were delayed since I played too much. Then, back to gaming again after I have done my tasks and everything seems great which eventually will give me too much confidence to the point that I could tell to myself that "Why not play again? I can do all of these things while I'm playing." Next thing I know is that I'm back to square one—my dilemma, whether should I quit or not. This cyclic habit of quitting-relapsing continuously tortured my mind—in a sense that I'm taking away what I really loved to do—for a year which led me to experience hard times like: deciding whether to uninstall/re-install my games; weighing the pros and cons which actually just lead to anxiety doubt my capabilities/goals since I can't focus because I think of gaming too much (when can I play, what should I play, what strategy should I use, how can I improve, what other games can I play, etc.) made me depressed; there was a time in my life that I played only World of Warcraft (and other games to fill-in WoW's maintenance or tired of WoW) for 2 STRAIGHT years—literally wake up, coffee & play, eat lunch, play, coffee & play, eat dinner, coffee & play, sleep (x2 years repeat) consumed a lot of my time instead of learning any skill trying so hard to play casually which just stresses me more because we all know that it will never work for an addict had an extreme problem in my sleeping pattern. I'm usually asleep when there's a sun while I'm very active at night because this is the time I like to play games the most since there's "no distraction" at all. I was actually terminated from my first job because I was always late or absent, not because I don't want to go to work nor I was under performing, but because I wasn't able to wake up or don't have the energy to go to work since I stayed all night playing lying sometimes; in a sense that I tell someone, if they asked, that I am working hard—yes, for me, grinding gear and gold is considered working hard and most especially, lose the connection I once had with the real world; I was once a socially active guy, but because of unconsciously being addicted to video games, I thought it's just, "Well, this is me. I'm gonna embrace my inner geek." It isn't, it's the addiction talking. Telling myself that I feel happy alone but in reality, I just wanted to play games. one day I woke up and BOOM! After a year-long-procrastinating-research about video game addiction supported by the result of GameQuitters quick addiction test—scoring 9 out of 9, I've finally accepted that I'm a video game addict and I've been in-denial ever since. ----------- Actually, I've started a blog way back August 2019. Since then, I only had 3 articles. I've been interested in writing but that blog was only an additional feature of our business website. I was thinking of publishing my story there but I'm afraid my audience would never relate to my problem—an idea of my state is highly possible but an understanding of my situation, probably never. Non-gamer people, relatives or friends, or even girlfriend/wife would never fully understand what's it's like to be a video game addict. And so, I decided to take the second step (first step, I believe, was to acknowledge the addiction) of quitting, that is, to make an account here, introduce myself, then tomorrow I'll be doing my day 1 in the journal section. I think writing a journal here would be more significant than writing on my personal blog. More importantly, hopefully, my story would inspire—in the future—a fellow addict to finally take the step of quitting. 😁 I was inspired by the journal section of this forum—to finally try quitting for good, because I saw the stories of all fellow ex-gamers who were/are done/almost done with their 90-day detox. Congrats for the achievement unlocked! 😍 I did not mention how and why have I started playing. Well, it doesn't matter as of this moment. I know somewhere in my daily journal, I'd share what made me an addict or even who am I—no one cares, I know.🤣 ----------- I'm so glad Sir Cam created this community, where here, we become brave to face the ugly and embarrassing truth, that we need help to defeat this bonus level boss of life—gaming addiction. Hoping to gain experience and gear upgrades in this bonus level. I'd do it the way how I play games; Even if it's only a 0.01% chance to succeed, I'd still fight til the last second. ----------- PS. I really like the auto-save feature as well as the emoticons. I accidentally closed the browser twice and that feature saved me! 😄 PPS. I'm also 22 days smoke-free as well after 10 years of smoking. Might as well make the most out of this quarantine. Withdrawal from nicotine is still happening, now I will add withdrawal from games. Good luck to me. 😵 I never thought that gaming is harder to stop than smoking until now. 🤣 PPPS. I should have bought Respawn when I had a chance. This lock down literally made me broke. I'm very lucky because my parent's house is just two streets away—free food buffs, I guess.❤️ PPPPS. I played 1 last game of DotA 2 then uninstalled all of my games in the PC and phone (good thing I won the match lmao) before I post this. 😎 PPPPPS. This feeling is so bad, that is, to quit and give up the most precious thing in my entire life—gaming. I'm not yet 100% ready but I have to be. 🤦‍♂️

Good day, Jose! First, congrats on the rank 1 legend! Secondly, I think it's time to disenchant all of your cards to be sure there's no going back. 😂 I'm gonna disenchant my golden deck too since uninstalling the game doesn't work for me. I'm curious, what was your wife's response? Hoping you feel better til the end of your detox. 😄

Welcome to the forum, @Strykyr22! I think we are very lucky to have such a wonderful partner who tries to really understand what we are going through. This is exactly my problem as well. I settled being my "average self" just for the sake of completing my tasks in order for me to have more time playing. I can't even concentrate on my goals—not like when I was in college, because all I could think about is gaming. I'm glad you have been brave enough to start the 90-day detox. I'd be doing the same today after I finished my "game quitting plan." Hope you feel better as you go through the end of the detox. Good luck! Cheers!