MuMuMelon

Well here I am again with my tail between my legs. Two days ago I quit gaming after falling back in the deep end. I let my loneliness convince me that gaming with my online friends would be a good idea. Basically, I went hardcore for about a month and a half. I mean 8 - 12 hours a day. Right back to where I was when I quit originally. Ironically, while I decided to game again to socialize with friends I found myself mostly gaming alone. I'm not ashamed of myself this time. I recognize how being so isolated made falling back into gaming so easy. Also, the only person around to keep me accountable is me. I'm not going to be so easy on myself this time. It's so obvious how gaming holds me back. Just two days into quitting and I've been so much more productive. Consider me back. This is day 2 of no gaming.

Day 4 (Sunday) Went to visit my Dad. We went for a hike with a friend of his. It was nice relaxing hike and the weather was sunny and cool. After that I went to my brothers place to change my car tires for winter. After I finished with the tires I chatted with my brother and his wife for a couple of hours. The weather turned crappy as I headed home. It got wet and cold. I spent the rest of the evening watching the Cowboy Bebop series on Netflix before crashing. Day 5 (Today) Watched a few Udemy class videos, did some yoga and meditated in the morning. Had a simple breakfast of muesli and tea. Rolled my winter tires into the basement of my building to put them in my storage space. Organized my car after that. Later, some repair guys came by to finish fixing the radiator. Not sure how good a job they did though. I've had the thermostat cranked all the way up and I haven't felt anything out of the radiator. Fortunately my unit is still pretty warm at the moment. Just finished an hour of a zoom breathwork class. Probably going to do some reading and watch a movie before I head to bed. Have a great night everybody!

Day 3 I have the day free today so I started off with an hour of yoga, an hour of meditation and 30 minutes of breathwork. After that I had a quick shower and now I'm having a protein smoothie while I type this up. Not feeling the shame that I was experiencing over the last few months so that's a good thing. Certainly pointing me in the right direction. Last week, I would have started my day off with xbox. Glad to be back on a healthy schedule.

Day 2 Bored but didn't play any video games. Plumber came over to look at the baseboard heater in my apartment. He's coming back on Monday with the part to fix it. Nice to know I'll have heat when things get cold. Organized my bookshelf, meditated, and that's about it. I really didn't get up to much of anything today.

Thanks! I never thought that I'd start gaming again. It really felt like I was done with it for good. It was bizarre how easily I convinced myself to pick up the consoles. Such a ridiculous waste of time and money. I feel better already honestly. It just didn't feel right when I was playing. Like I was playing for the sake of playing. Most of the time the games weren't even interesting to me anymore. I don't know. The excitement just wasn't there. Still, for the last few months I was compelled to play them at any moment I had some free time. Very glad this site exists.

It has been quite a while since I've last visited this site. Things have not gone well the last four months. My wife and I split up about four months ago. I moved out on my own not long after. It only took about a week before I became extremely bored and looked to video games to fill that void. At first I bought a Switch but I felt so guilty about it that I returned it the next day. I felt pretty confident in myself in that moment. However, two weeks later I went out and purchased one again. Not long after I bought a new Xbox as well. I didn't have a lot of time to play them as I was working a ton. I could at least hide my shame from myself because I was too busy to deal with it. However, as soon as I had some free time I was right back to gaming all day long and frankly, I wasn't even enjoying it that much. I packed up the consoles yesterday, deleted all my games and am back to no gaming. I'm not very proud of myself at the moment. I went for so long without playing that I was sure I was free of it, but as soon as I became sad, bored and alone I cracked. I guess the good news is that I wasn't really enjoying the experience like I used to. Something about it has changed. I don't feel the need or connection the same way as I used to. Thank god for that! Well, I'm back to day 1. I'll be around. Take care all.

Thanks for posting this. Really needed to hear that right now.

Hey @Roan, glad you found your way here. I can tell you it's a lot easier to get a game plan together when you aren't focused on playing video games. It sounds like you your girl means a lot to you. Don't let you addiction to video games compromise your relationship with the woman you love. Take it from somebody who lost his first true love to video games. That is a regret that will be with me for life. Not trying to scare you or anything. Just don't want you to make the same mistake I did. May the path ahead be clear for you. Mike

3000 - 4000 hours is more than a third of the year! I'm just going to go ahead and say, yeah, you might want to consider quitting. I can tell you from experience that you will regret the time that you spend playing video games. It is time you will not get back. I'm not trying to push you into anything but just imagine a future where you continually do that for 5, 10, 15 years. In three years alone you have given one year of your life to video games. Just consider what you might get back if you did quit. All the best. Mike

Thanks @Martinof, that helped. I'll figure out something fun my brother and I can do over Skype or something. I look forward to being able to spend some time with him IRL when this lockdown is done.

Hello all! It's been a minute since I've been on. Most days I just don't feel like I have much to add to the conversation. Today I have something to say though. My brother and I live about an hour apart. He knows my situation as I have explained it to him in detail. Recently though he tried to convince me to get some online board games that we could play together online. I'm a little ashamed to say that I had to seriously think about it before I ended up saying no. Part of me really wants to play games with my bro again but I just can't. It took me a day or two of pondering whether I'd be capable of playing video games even in this capacity. In the end I realized that it would just be the doorway to playing video games once again. I miss hanging with my brother is that capacity but I just can't anymore. I'm not willing to throw away all this progress just to get hooked again by some online board games. I learned that I still have a serious weakness to video games. Yes, I decided to pass on playing but it took me two days to finalize that decision. Part of me was seriously considering it. It certainly doesn't help that I can't really visit anybody while in lockdown. Still, I'm staying strong. Hope everybody is staying strong with me.

All the best @FenderUser, you can do this. Just remember why you are here and I know you can make this work!

Hi Terry, glad to hear you are quitting gaming. The best advice I can give you over the next few weeks is to just let yourself feel however you are feeling. If you are bored be bored. If you want to sleep let yourself sleep. If you are sad be sad. Your brain is going to be all over the place for the first few weeks and sometimes a lot of the time you might feel bored, tired, etc. I quit smoking in the past and I noticed that the withdrawal symptoms to quitting video games were not all that different. For the first 3 weeks or so I say do whatever you want (within reason). Anything to keep yourself occupied and not playing video games is fine. Realize that these symptoms will fade eventually. Think of some new hobbies you might want to get into. Perhaps it's guitar? I wish you all the best! Mike

All the best Alex!

Thanks @BooksandTrees, I really needed to hear that. I very much appreciate your thoughtful response. I feel as though I've been going fairly easy on myself these last six months. I have started new hobbies that I truly enjoy and intend to continue. It's just that the last few weeks I've really been feeling out of sorts. I don't miss video games. I guess I miss how they made me feel. I'll just keep doing positive things in my life and trust that things will work out in the end. Thanks again for reaching out, Mike

Day 188 Haven't had too much to say lately. I've had a couple of days off to relax. I've been suffering from a bout of self doubt these past two weeks or so. I really don't know what to do with myself or what direction to head in. I'm nearly 45 and I barely have any direction in my life. I feel like I'm just at the very beginning of changing my life around and working towards my true goals but I'm still not exactly sure of what my goals are. I feel like I'm on the cusp of realizing what I want out of life. It's bee a bit of a struggle since I quit playing video games. On the one hand I'm so glad to rid of the addiction but in a lot of ways my life was so much simpler then. I never allowed myself time to think about my happiness or what I wanted out of life. I just buried my head in the pixels and never bothered to acknowledge reality. Not there is just so much reality. Again, I'm not complaining. This has just been a whole new world for me. Anyway, I'm very happy to be video game free in 2021. It's a nice way to start the year. Hope everybody here stays strong, keeps quit and has a wonderful beginning to 2021.

Hey Martin, Happy to see you found your way here. I totally felt you when you mentioned struggling to delete your games. The money factor was a big one for me. I spend thousands on games. When I quit I parted with over roughly $5000 in games and consoles. That was tough. Looking back now though? Totally worth it. All the best!

Day 168 Hard to believe it's been five and a half months since I stopped playing video games. In a way gaming seems like a distant memory, but I realize it really hasn't been that long. I played video games when I was a kid. I played video games as a teenager. I played video games for my entire adult life. Compared to that, five months is very short. Still, I feel very accomplished having finally put that addiction aside. I really don't have all that much to say. I work full time, often 6 days a week. My usual daily routine is... get up and meditate for an hour, go to work for 8 - 12 hours and then come home. Do some Yoga. Either an hour long routine or a 20 minute session (on recovery days.) Do some Wim Hof breathwork or alternate style of breathwork. Watch a little TV (Mandalorian is amazing!) Often by 10:30 I'm falling asleep. I usually go for a hike on my free days. Every once in a while I play a board game with Adrienne (or a solitaire game is she's not available). I haven't had a ton of time to complete the board game but that will come soon. I'm going to have a couple of weeks off before I go back to work next year so that'll give me some time. Sometimes I really don't feel like I do much at all. Like all I do is exercise and meditate and not much else. Then I remember that it's 2020 and I remind myself to be happy with where I'm at. I hope everybody is doing good during these topsy-turvy times. All the best!

Really happy to hear you're pushing through and seeing the benefits of a life without video games.

Hey @Phoenixking, I was finding taking cold showers to be just brutal at first. I learned that's there is an easier way then to just jump in to a cold shower. Start with your usual warm shower and then gradually start to make it colder. All the while take long slow deep breaths. Keep doing that until you get the water as cold as it can get. Once the water is at it's coldest try to stay in for a set amount of time. I started off with 15 seconds. Every week I've been adding an additional 15 seconds. When you do the showers that way you don't shock your body with the icy cold water. Hope that helps.

Day 142 Pretty tired at the moment. Just wanted to take a few minutes to share some good news. I was in a bit of a bad place mentally for the last decade or so. I was neglecting life and just gaming my time away. While I was ignoring my life I ended up ignoring some friendships as well. Including a childhood friend. Somehow, over the years I had completely neglected him. I thought I had pretty much neglected things into ruin. However, a couple of days ago I wished him a happy birthday on Facebook and as a result he reached out and contacted me. We talked tonight and caught up. It was really great to talk to him. He invited us up for a visit when covid restrictions lessen. (whenever that is). It was a really nice feeling to talk to him again. Have a great night everybody!

Hello @Amphibian220. I do not experience compulsive thinking after working on a board game. If anything I'm not nearly as mentally invested as I'd like to be. I generally don't feel compulsive about playing or creating board games. I've been procrastinating on finishing my first game. It's nearly 100% done but I keep pushing aside the last few steps. When I was deep into the creation phase I did end up thinking about it often but I was happy to do so. The thoughts were usually different ideas and changes that could be made. I never felt that the thoughts were obtrusive. When the creation phase was at an acceptable spot I just moved on. My big problem is continuing to think the idea through to the end.

Day 141 Another solid day. Meditation in the morning followed by a cold shower (2 minutes of icy cold). Headed off to work. Today that involved me driving around the city, and helping out with moving furniture. Oh, the film business is truly glamorous. Finished around five and then headed home. Did a short yoga session followed by a Wim Hof breathwork session. After that I played a board game (Century - Golem Edition) with my wife. That was fun. We haven't played a board game in a while. I like board games. I get the fun of playing a game but I feel no real attachment to the games or a desire to play them again right away. Not much else to say today. Later all!

Hey @Moonlight, since you just started quitting I can only say that your anxiousness is fairly natural. You will likely find that you feel like that for a while. It's makes sense as you are giving up something that has been with you for a very long time. Obviously, you don't view video games as beneficial to you anymore or you wouldn't be here. The best advice I can give you is to go easy on yourself. Allow yourself to feel however you are going to feel over the next month or two and just try to be okay with it. Do whatever you want or don't do anything at all. Whatever you feel or don't feel like doing, do that. I know that wasn't super helpful but the beginning stages of quitting can be a tough time. Also, when it comes to friends not getting it, I can totally relate. I'm sure most of us here can. Some people just don't get addicted to video games. Some people aren't aware that they are. Whatever the case may be, you'll just have to accept that people might not get it. Understand that you are in the right place to be understood in this particular subject. All the best!

Day 140 Good day today. Did an hour of meditation in the morning followed by a 2 minute cold shower. (I've been working my way up from 15 seconds - trying to build up my tolerance so that in the future I can try doing an ice bath). Headed to work and listened to some audio files from actualized.org. Leo, the guy who runs the site, has some very insightful and useful information. It's been good to listen to while I drive. Makes the commute go by very quickly. Work went needlessly late today and as a result I missed my meetup breathwork session. It's too bad as the host is very good and does a great job of keeping us focused. Instead, I did four rounds of Wim Hof breathwork and an hour of Yoga. My yoga sessions are getting more intense now and I've noticed that postures and positions that gave me trouble before are getting easier and much smoother. There's a lot of chatter online and through my friends about the PS5. Sure sounds like a cool machine but boy am I glad I'm not buying one. I might still be at a loss for what I want to do with my life but I know I'm working towards something. I wouldn't be able to say that if I was still playing video games. My mental state is much better then when I was gaming. I'm more confident and just more aware of what's going on around me. Here's to quitting! Wishing everybody here all the willpower they need to quit and stay quit!