MuMuMelon

I had gaming related dreams pretty often in the first couple of months. Still do every once in a while but not nearly as often now.

For myself, I could see no other way then to quit completely. I have an addictive personality. I used to smoke but I quit that too. For me it's all or nothing. I know that if I started smoking again I would be right back to a pack a day. I'm pretty sure that if I started gaming again it wouldn't be any different. Maybe you can game in moderation. Maybe not. You know yourself better than anybody else. Have you gamed in moderation before? It sounds like you have your life in order but you are here and you have regrets about not accomplishing things you wish you had. Do you think allowing yourself to continue playing video games will get you closer to or further from those desires? I really hope that you can game in moderation and work towards accomplishing those goals. Just be honest with yourself along the way. Perhaps make a schedule where you learn piano and write. When you get through those things during the week then make time for video games. Hope this helps!

Thanks @Mohammad, that's good advice. Visualizing myself as a healthy old man is pretty great motivation. I'm going to start a food diary today also.

Day 133 Lately I've been thinking a lot about relationships. Mainly, that I don't have many close contact to anybody but my immediate family and a friend or two. I've been very aware of the time I lost while i was gaming. Most of the time I feel great but today I'm feeling a little doubtful. I'll get over it. I know that I have made progress in my life since I quit gaming. It's just that sometimes I feel like I've wasted too much time to truly accomplish anything with my life. Again, I know that's not true but it's hard not to have these thoughts from time to time. I'm also having trouble sticking to healthy eating. I do well, eat healthy for a few days, feel great and then eat like garbage the following day. Feels like I make no headway. I guess I'm just surprised how hard it it to really dedicate yourself to healthy eating habits. I'll get there eventually. Hope everybody here feels commitment and enthusiasm for quitting. Night

Day 130 Worked a short day today and was home by 3. Ordered a veggie curry and fried rice from a nearby Chinese food restaurant and then went for a hike. Jived to a musician that I was just recently introduced to called Aurora. She is fantastic. Really made me realize that I'd been living under a rock for such a long period of time. This is the type of band that I would have gone crazy over in my past but I was too busy laser focused on video games to notice. Anyway, I've heard her now and she is wonderful. Highly recommend you check her out if you haven't already. When I got home I did an hour of Yoga. Now I'm just about to do a session of Wim Hof breathing and then likely watch the Mandalorian. I did very well with my eating today. No meat and mostly no junk food. Just a Halloween sized bag of Ketchup chips. Damn them and they're deliciousness. Have an awesome Friday night everybody! Stay off the pixels!

Congrats on quitting! It seems like for a lot of people this pandemic has led to some very positive life choices. I wish you all the best. This. I can totally relate to this. I missed out on so many fun life opportunities to play video games. Take care and happy quitting!

Day 128 Worked a shorter day today. That gave me the time to head out for a decently long (2 hour) hike. While out walking I did a repeat listen of of a Udemy class on mindfulness and dealing with painful situations. After that I had a light dinner of curried chickpeas and rice. Very tasty. After dinner I went to my weekly yoga class and had a nice session. I felt like some of the movements were coming a little easier today. We focused on our lower backs. When it was over I felt very relaxed and my spine was very loose. Feeling pretty good about Yoga. When I got home I did four repetitions of Wim Hof style breathwork. It was a decent session but restless legs kicked in pretty fierce so I found it hard to let go. Now I'm typing this. I'm very tired but I don't have to be up crazy early tomorrow so I can sleep in a little bit. I mostly ate well today but I did have some pastries in the morning. I shouldn't have. Gotta work on my willpower. Anyway, have a great night everybody!

Just popped in to say thanks to @Commissar! I really appreciate the positive comments. I was reading your last post and this part really struck a cord with me... "Games weren’t the problem, not exactly, but they blinded you to what the problems were, and to the room you had to grow." Every passing day that realization comes to me more and more. Quitting gaming opened my eyes to all the things I've been neglecting in my life and made me painfully aware of what I was missing. I wish you all the best in quitting!

Day 127 Feel like I'm hitting a turning point in my life. I want to change how I eat so that I can be the best version of myself. I want to further commit myself to learning Yoga, meditation techniques, self actualization practice, and breathwork. I want to learn these things for myself and perhaps, down the road, to help other people. Up until yesterday I have had extremely unhealthy eating habits. I intend to work towards eating a fully vegan diet. I feel like there are going to be some major changes in my life. Quitting video games was just the beginning. Quitting video games blew open the doors on what is possible in my life. I have never been this excited to simply just exist in a very long time. I'm looking forward to what's next and doing my best to appreciate what I have right now. Hope all you quitters are doing good!

Day 121 Work went long today. Barely had enough time to get home and eat quick meal before I had to rush out again to make my Yoga class at 8. Got home, had a bath, chatted with Adrienne for a bit. Now I'm off to bed. No thoughts about wanting to play games these last couple of weeks. No dreams about playing either. Want to say more but I'm very tired. Night everybody.

Day 120 4 months! I'm tired from a long day at work but I'm still happy to hit this milestone. I didn't get up to too much today besides work. I meditated in the morning but that's really about it. I have Yoga class tomorrow night so that should be fun. I am once again concerned that I'm not keeping to a schedule or sticking to plans. I have yet to finish my board game (which is so close), and I'm still behind on finishing the last book I started. I realize that I'm back to work but I really don't like the idea of working and doing nothing when I get home. I want to push myself a little harder to accomplish some goals I've been thinking of for years. It's time to make a schedule and stick to it. Have a wonderful week all!

Day 118 Almost at the four month mark. Pretty happy about that. Haven't had any video dreams in a while or cravings for that matter. I'm sure they'll pop up every now and then but I'm ready for them now. Had a positive day of doing stuff around the apartment and getting some Yoga, meditation and a decent hike in as well. Wasted a little time watching some Netflix - finally checked out the first episode of Full Metal Alchemist. Not bad. I'm not a huge anime fan by any stretch but I wanted to see what all the fuss was about and I have to say it starts off pretty good. Corona seems to be having a strong 2nd wave in Toronto these days. Not super happy about that. Still, I need to go to work. So, I guess I'll just have to be careful and deal with it. I hope everybody is keeping safe and doing well. I hope everyone's desire to continue cutting out the video games is strong! Night all.

Day 117 Man I'm doing a bad job at being consistent with this journal. Today was a super fun day of taking the car to shop, spending a bunch of time waiting around and finding out that I might have to spend a bunch more money in repairs. Ugh. I love having a car but I could really do without having to maintain it. The rest of the week was find but busy. Mainly just worked, relaxed when I got home and headed to bed early most nights. Last night I had a few drinks of Saki with Adrienne and just hung out for a bit. I'm going to go for a hike dinner and then do some Wim Hof breathing and some Yoga afterwards. After that who knows? Might do some reading. Might play a board game. Might drink some more Saki and play a board game. Might watch a movie. The sky is the limit. Probably head to bed relatively early though as I'm already feeling a bit tired from the day. Hope you're all having a fun weekend. Keep up with the not playing video games!

Day 113 Feeling tired today. I worked hard while I was at work but it was a short day. Ran some errands with Adrienne when I got in. Attempted to do some breathwork but my restless leg kicked in and really took my mind out of the experience. Haven't been feeling the most motivated after work these days. Tomorrow I have my first IRL yoga class though so I'm excited about that. I think I'm going to really like it. Not much else to say today. Going to bed. Night.

Right on @dirac! Glad to hear your sticking to your quit. Good luck and keep it up!

Yo @royal panda, there are a million things you can do. Read a book, write something, go for a walk, do some exercise, call somebody you haven't talked to in a while. Do something, anything. Accept that you are going to have urges to play games for a good long while. There is no specific thing you can do to avoid these urges. Likely, the harder you try to ignore them the stronger those urges will become. Just do whatever you want to do except for playing video games/watching video game related stuff. Literally anything. That's a lot of options. Far too many options to make excuses that there is nothing to do or nothing you can think of. I get it. You want to play games for some comfort. Just remember why you are here. You're here to quit. Just push through for the 90 days. That might seem like a long time but is it really, in the grand scheme of things? Pick up a new hobby. Anything! Even if you're not sure you have an actual interest in it (of course choosing something you are interested in would be better), just start doing something. Don't put pressure on yourself to do anything but quit. Whatever hobby/ies you pick don't pressure yourself to like them or even love doing them. Just do them. Keep your mind occupied. Don't give up. You can do this. Focus.

Thanks for sharing your letter. I think that's a great place to start. It also shows that you have a good understanding of why you want to quit. Sounds like you have done much harder things in life then quitting video games. Welcome and congrats on finding your way here. You got this!

Day 111 Yesterday I went out in the afternoon for a socially distanced guided breathwork session. It was awesome! So hard to describe if you haven't experienced breathwork before but I had an amazing time. There were moments where I completely lost track of myself. Just gone. I didn't even realize I was so out of my head until I came back. Then I was like, oh....where was I? At one point the instructor said that "We are both the thought and the one experiencing the thought". My mind more or less melted trying to wrap my head around that idea and I seemed to go even deeper into the meditation. By the time it was over I had forgotten where my physical body was. Like, in my mind I knew what it was like to have a body but when I reached up to take off my sleep mask I found that I couldn't remember where in space my head was. After I stood up I felt like I was extremely light. It took an hour or two before I felt fully in my body again. Just a wild, unique experience. Today I am just chilling and spending the day with my wife. We just got back from running some errands and we are just about to go out again to do some more. After that I might play a board game or watch some Netflix. I've been meaning to try out a board game that I Kickstarted a while ago but I haven't had the time to get into. Also, I have an audio book to finish to continue listening to.

Day 109 Thanks @Mohammad, I appreciate the positivity! As for you, I see you've been struggling lately but you can do this. I'm glad you decided to delete your account. Make as many obstacles as you need to quit. I know you can do this. Just keep trying until it sticks. Physically draining day at work today. I'm tired but the good kind of tired. I know I will sleep soundly tonight. Which is good as I'm heading out of town for a breathwork session. Really looking forward to that. Haven't made much headway on getting my board game completed but I should have some time this weekend to really put some effort in on that. My goals this weekend. 1. Finish the audio book I started this week 2. Type up first draft of instruction manual for board game 3. meditate and do yoga every day 4. go for a walk every day Have a good night everybody. I'm off to bed.

Day 108 Not much to write. Tired today after working most of the day out in the rain. Hung out with a friend I haven't seen in a few weeks and chatted for a bit. Made me really think about putting money away to buy a house. First time in my life that I'm actually excited about saving up for a home. This time next year I should be able to get something. Time to start saving the monies. Going to be a thrifty year. Night all.....

Hey Luis! Welcome and good luck. Sounds like you already have a strong incentive to quit playing games but all the best anyway! I appreciate your positivity!

Day 106 Long day at work. Managed to get an hour of meditation in before I left. After work I did 20 minutes of Yoga, a session of Wim-Hof breathwork and then listened to the first few chapters of an audio book. I was thinking about playing a board game but I'm just too tired. Maybe I'll go over the instructions to one before I head to bed? I'm going to pass off the selling of my other consoles to my wife. She just needs me to make a list of all the games and whatnot and she'll put them up online. I would do it but I'm just too tired during the week and I would really like them gone. Ordered a new Wim-Hof book off of Amazon today. Looking forward to reading that when it shows up. Have a nice night everybody.

Day 105 Yesterday I finally got rid of my PS4. I had been using it as a Netflix machine for the last while but my brother wanted it (he's much more responsible when it comes to gaming) so I gave it to him. Not gonna lie. That definitely stung a little bit removing that from my life, but I'm glad it's gone. Now I just have to put my Wii U and PS3 collections up for sale and get them out of my life for good. I'll use some of the money from the sale to get myself something nice. Not sure what yet but I'll think of something. Have a good week everybody!

Welcome to the forums and good luck on your quit!

Hey @Tabula rasa, I just wanted to say hi and wish you all the best. This may seem like a monumental task at the moment but I know that you can accomplish this. I wish you strength and peace of mind as you continue at this journey to quit playing video games.