MuMuMelon

In my experience with nicotine and video game addiction, withdrawal symptoms last between one and two months. For me, the first three weeks were the worst. I was in the same situation as you. Irritability, depression, tired all the time. I think the trick is (at least for the first month or so) is to go extremely easy on yourself. Accept that you are going to feel these emotions and physical symptoms. Do whatever you want to do (obviously within reason) during this time that isn't playing video games. If you want to sleep then sleep. If you're feeling angry let it out. (Just don't take it out on other people). If you're sad be sad. Just don't beat yourself up about how you are feeling. Acknowledge that these are indeed withdrawal symptoms and will pass with time. Take on new hobbies. If you can't think of anything you REALLY want to do just try anything. Just do something, anything to keep your mind occupied and alert. If there is something you've always wanted to try/learn now is the time. When you don't have the mental energy to do that, do something else. Just don't play video games. Your mind will play all sorts of tricks on you to get you back into the dopamine cycle. If you give yourself enough time I believe you will find that new activities and ways of thinking will take over and you'll find your brain trying less and less to get you back to playing video games. This is indeed the way. Keep it up. Stay focused and allow yourself time to change. It will come and you will be so much better for it.

Day 104 Whoah! It's been a while since my last post. Work and goals and early bedtimes have been keeping me from journaling. I will do my best to write something every day from now on, even it's just a paragraph or two. The last week has been sort of a blur. It usually goes like this (or some variation of). Go to work. Come home. Do Yoga. Practice Wim-Hof breathwork. Listen to an audio book (or finish watching The Good Place - as I did earlier in the week - great show!). By about this point I am very tired and end up going to bed. The most recent audio book I finished was very interesting to me. It was called The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruis. It provides a very empowering way of going about your life. I highly recommend it as I found it's teaching could easily be applied to video game addiction. I have found that my meditation, Yoga and breathing exercises are becoming easier and I feel I'm benefitting more from them every time I do them. I now find myself excited to do these practices. I nearly always wake up naturally, an hour or two before my alarm goes off to meditate. I think my mind acknowledges that it is benefitting me greatly. The same goes for the yoga and breathwork. I find I get excited about doing them now and I'm happy during the practice. I still catch myself dreaming about playing video games or wanting to play video games or talking about wanting to play video games. The dreams are becoming less potent but they are still pretty regular. Interestingly I don't find myself dreaming about smoking anymore. I find I am more at peace throughout my days. That's not to say that I haven't had my bad days but I recognize that my bad days are much less frequent, as are my bad moods. As always, I am very grateful to Cam for creating this space. My mind has become so much clearer and my habits so much more productive since I quit playing video games. I know I have so much more room to grow and I'm looking forward to what comes next. I don't see the future with anxiety or dread these days. I miss my gaming friends, that's a fact. However, the truth is, we didn't really communicate outside of playing games anyway. I hope that we'll get to spend time IRL down the road, but if not I can accept that. I hope everybody here is doing well, keeping safe and continuing on their journey to rid themselves of video game addiction with confidence and pride. All the best.

It's tough when your friends don't understand your situation. However, if they can't be bothered to help you when you need help it might be time to put those friendships on hold for a while. I'm not saying you need to cut them out of your life or anything but just a pause. It's hard for people who aren't addicted (or don't consider themselves addicted) to video games to understand how somebody could become addicted. My brother still has trouble wrapping his head around it. Just yesterday I was at his place and he thought it would be a good idea to show me videos for the new Star Wars game. A game he absolutely knows that I wanted to play. If you really want to quit you'll have to accept that there will be a transitional period. Some friendships that you've made may be centered around gaming and those friendships will likely be tested the most. This isn't easy but it's doable. Just accept that there will be some changes in your life but these changes will be for the better. They might not feel like it immediately but down the road it will. You got this! Focus and accept. Make the plan and stick to it.

Day 97 Nice relaxing day today. Got up and made some breakfast. Then I sat around and started Season 4 of The Good Place. Really enjoying that show. After that I ordered some Thai food and enjoyed that before heading out for a walk. The weather was kind of crumby but I brought an umbrella so it was all good. Just relaxed, took my time and listened to relaxing music as I walked. When I got back in I wrote out my plans for the week. After that I watched a few more episodes of The Good Place. Then I did some Wim-Hof breathing and now I'm about to get ready for bed. Since I've gone back to work I haven't been the best of sticking to my plans. This week I intend to stick to my schedule. The three big things this week are finishing The Secret Nature of Plants, catching on the Indigenous Canada class that I started at the beginning of September and working out the last details of my board game. It's funny the last day or two I've had a lot of video game dreams. The one I had last night bothered me a bit. In the dream I realized that I had played a bunch of video games but I was so nonchalant about it that I didn't care when I realized it. I was just like no big deal, I can play video games now. Then I woke up. Man, just when I think I've got this under control I'm reminded that it'll low key always be there. That dream reminded me to always be vigilant. Have a good night all. Stay strong and game free!

Day 96 Went to Hamilton today to help my brother move a freezer from my Dad's place into his place. Bit of an ordeal but nothing we couldn't handle. Had to remove the door of the freezer to get it into my brothers basement but other then that it wasn't a big deal. After that I sat down with my Dad and he taught me to play Cribbage. Fun game. I mean I've just barely learned the basics but I can see why it's still so popular to this day. Then we sat down and had a delicious meal. My brothers and his wife April made an amazing meal of a smoked beef roast, and barbequed potatoes, butternut squash and asparagus. I'm not much of a roast person but I have to say trying it smoked was really good. After I got back to Toronto from Hamilton I picked up Adrienne and we ran out and picked up a cast iron table base that somebody was giving away. Pretty sweet. Looking forward to making a nice tabletop for it down the road. In a few minutes I'm going to bottle my first batch of Kombucha! This is my second attempt at making my own (the first one didn't turn out). I completed the first fermentation period of the tea. Now it's time to bottle that batch and perform a second, shorter fermentation period. Looking forward to trying it. After that I am going to crash. All this driving and moving and eating has made me plenty tired. Night all.

I'm not going to pretend that I'm an expert at time management but just keep trying. The only thing I can suggest is to keep trying. Accept that you might go back to your own ways but constantly try to improve. Be aware when you are slipping and try to catch yourself before you do. If you do slip don't beat yourself up but be kind to yourself. Allow yourself the opportunity to try again and work towards a longer period of time where you are in control of your time. Eventually, if you stick with it, you will most certainly improve. Unfortunately, in the case of video games, they are designed to make you lose track of time. If you really want to improve your time management you need to quit playing vids first.

Really great that you are here. I found reading your story very relatable. Also, you really made me want to check out Sword Art Online. I had no idea what it was about. To be fair I haven't watched anime in a very long time but this one sounds interesting. These next few weeks might be stressful but if you stick with it you'll come to have a lot more clarity in your life. Just take the first few weeks very easy. Don't pressure yourself to do anything in particular. Some days you might just want to sleep. So sleep. Other days you might be bored out of your mind. In those situations I suggest finding something, anything remotely interesting to you and just do it. Take a class, read a book, get some exercise, whatever. Keep your mind occupied. Take it easy and good luck!

Day 94 I've been tired when I get home from work as this is my first week back in a while. As a result I have missed a few days of posting. Still on the quit train. Still doing my daily meditation. Just about finished the 2nd version of Taking Shapes (the board game I've been working on). To be honest version 2 hasn't required too much work. I had already done some playtesting and tweaking in the past so I was nearly finished already. Still, version 2 took a little brainpower but it's nearly complete. I'll post some photos soon @royal panda. Once this final version is complete, I'm going to write up an instruction manual and then put the files up on the Gamecrafter. For now that's about all I can do. Making board games isn't cheap and I definitely cannot afford to have anything mass produced. For now, I would be happy if I could sell a few copies and bring some smiles to peoples faces. Also, once this game is done I can get to work on making some more. Down the road though I would love to get more copies out into the world. I really hope everybody is doing well and keeping their chins up during this most bizarre year. All the best. Stay off the vids!

I highly recommend trying it out. If you find the time I know there are some Wim Hof youtube videos that guide you through. Also, you can check out the Wim Hom app. The guided breathwork section is free at the moment.

Thanks @Phoenixking, that's really nice to hear.

Day 91 I was back at work today and that felt pretty good. Wasn't too crazy of a day so it was a nice way to ease back in. Before I went to work I did about an hour of meditation. After work I joined in on a breathwork class and it was really great. I'm starting to feel results from all this stuff. I can definitely breath deeper and with more strength. These classes are really important to me. An a heavy ex smoker I really think these classes are boosting my lungs and my confidence. However....I did eat a bunch of ice cream and had a coke earlier. Not very proud of that. Getting my eating habits under control might be harder then quitting video games. I signed up for some Yoga classes starting in mid October though so that should help motivate me to eat healthier and lose some weight. Still pretty stoked that I've dropped playing vids, quit smoking and nearly completely stopped smoking weed. Honestly, I know I need to work on how I eat but I'm still super proud of these other accomplishments. It's been a big year for me. (I'm patting myself on the back while I type this.) Next step physical fitness. Take care all.

Day 90! I'm very happy to say that tonight marks the end of Day 90. I can't say for certain, but I believe this is the longest I have gone without playing video games in at least 20 years. This addiction has eaten up so much of time, but no more! Thanks to this website and to all the fine folks here that have chimed in and provided support. This is a wonderful site and I hope that it can help so many more people to rid themselves of this pointless time sink of an addiction. Funnily enough, I had a dream last night about being at some bar where they had a Galaga arcade cabinet. For a while I was pretty excited about getting the chance to play it. However, just when I was about to put a quarter into the cabinet I remembered that I had quit. Even in my dream I recognized that and walked away. That's new for me. Before, when I attempted to quit smoking in the past, I would have dreams about smoking and then wake up regretting it. It always felt good to realize that it was just a dream but it feels better to have turned down playing a game in my dream instead of letting myself just go for it. I really feel like I have been making progress. Not just with quitting video games but with life. Quitting the video games has forced to look at my life and start to make changes for the better. Before, I was just coasting along. These days I think about what I'm doing a lot more. I still don't know precisely what I want to do but I'm making strides towards a better understanding. I know that I value my time so much more. Even the days that I'm feeling bad. I would rather feel bad then just give myself over to video games and pot. I guess having a clear head has it's ups and downs but that's okay. It may have taken me a long time to get here but I'm glad I arrived. I might be 44 but I still have time to learn, grow and experience life with so much more clarity then I have in over 20 years. The video games no longer own me. Because of this site I have started to learn new hobbies and I have started to have a much better understanding of myself. This isn't the nicest thing to say but it's true....this pandemic has been very good for me. I know that for a lot of people this has been a very stressful time. I get that. I was fortunate though, that it gave me the time to recognize my problems and to deal with them. I don't think I would have come to these conclusions if I didn't have all this time to think. Interestingly, my 90th day comes just before my first real day back at work. I didn't finish the book I've been reading yet, but I will have it finished by the end of this week. I may have been biting off more then I could chew with one book a week. I'll aim for one book every two weeks. That would still be a huge amount of books for me. Here's to quitting! I hope that everybody here makes the choice to free themselves from this addiction. You are all worth so much more then video games can provide!

Thanks for passing that along. I guess as we clear away the cobwebs we can start to see a little more clearly. I've kind of known that I've had issues with food for a good long while, but it's only been the last year or two that I have really wanted to sort it out. That was helpful. Thanks.

Great to hear! You can absolutely succeed in this! You're already two weeks in. Just keep pushing through and you'll find things get easier as you move forward. All the best. You don't need luck but I'm sending you some anyway!

Day 87 I did not eat well today. So much junk food. Productive day visiting my Dad and brother but man I feel like crap right now. I struggle with food a lot. I know that I want to be fit and flexible but then I eat a bunch of junk and feel bad about myself. I guess I have to admit that I've always low key had an addiction to junk food. Guess that's next on the list. Time to sort out my eating habits once and for all. Well, I mean, I already got three addictions under control...guess it's time to sort out how I eat. Tomorrow I'm off to work for the first day in quite a while. Unfortunately that means getting covid tested (swab up the nose) first thing in the morning. I'll be glad to get back to work but I could do without that. Hope everybody has a great night.

Keep trying. Make it harder to access video games during these next 90 days. Realize that you are not giving up something that you don't already want to give up. You've tried five times already! Clearly you want this. Tell everybody you know (especially your gamer friends) that you are quitting. Prepare yourself for a time of severe boredom and maybe even depression. The first few weeks are the hardest and your brain will do it's best to get you gaming again. Ignore your brain. FUCK YOUR BRAIN! It does not have your best interest at heart while the addiction is front and center. Do whatever you want (obviously within reason) during this time. Anything that isn't video games is good. Don't try to have everything figured out or expect to feel like your over gaming immediately. This process takes time. Give yourself the freedom to be bored, antsy, whatever you are feeling. Force new hobbies into your brain. Try things just for the sake of trying them, even if you really don't want to. Give your brain new stimulus. Give it anything (again, within reason) that isn't video games. Sell your video games. Give them away. Have a friend hold onto them for you. Whatever. Just get them out of your place and out of your face. Relapsing is harder when you don't have access to the addiction. Obviously that's a little more challenging with a PC. Still, delete your gaming accounts. Uninstall your games. You owe yourself this. I wish you all the best in succeeding on this. I absolutely know that you are capable of doing this even if it doesn't feel that way right now. Push through. Fight. You can do this!

Day 86 Day 90 is quickly approaching and I couldn't be happier. I'm proud of myself. I'm planning on taking a nice drive and eating at a nice restaurant on the day. Today was productive I'm happy to report. Got up early (ish) and did some meditation. Then I made some oatmeal (almond butter and raspberry with a touch of maple syrup) for breakfast before heading out on a walk. Nearly finished up my Minfulness Udemy Class (Section 2) while I walked. Picked up some lightbulbs for the bathroom on my way home and replaced them when I got in. After that I made some dinner. Tuna steaks, rice and some lightly fried peppers. Delicious! Then I went out to pick up a couple of board games from a local seller. Two games I've been looking to try for a while (although I likely won't get to try them anytime soon due to this pandemic situation), Claustraphobia and Dead of Winter. Hopefully I'll get to play them before the end of next year. When I got back from doing that I did some Yoga, some breathwork and some stretching to finish up. Now I'm in bed and reading. I planned to do some more work on my game today but I just didn't leave myself enough time. I really want to keep up with this reading challenge. That being said, I'm off to read some more and then to bed. Night gang!

Hey thanks @royal panda! I will show you some pics of the prototype when the game is done for sure! Also, so far so good with a book a week. I'm starting off by finishing The Secret World of Plants. I calculated how many pages I need to read each day to finish and I find that very helpful. Thanks for the inspiration!

Day 85 Did some thrift shopping in the morning with Adrienne. Found some more books to add to our library. Got home and then went out for lunch at Dairy Queen (not the healthiest choice I know) and then went for a hike. Listened to a video on self actualization while I hiked around. Very interesting stuff. When I got home I had a smoothie and then sat down to meditate for an hour. After that I did some work on a board game that I've been meaning to finish making. Nearly there! Read some more of The Secret Life of Plants. I'm planning on finishing it this week. I'd like to start a schedule of reading a book per week. It's a tall order for me but I know I can do it. I want to try it for one year and see how I feel. I'm just going to read. Even if I'm not enjoying the book i intend to finish it. After that I played a new board game with Adrienne called Century. Pretty great little game that was easy to learn, moved along at a nice pace and had beautiful components. Now I am going to bed. Night all. Keep it up.

Day 84 I was away at a friends cottage over the weekend and helped him to board up the windows and pull in his dock for the coming winter. The weather was beautiful but a bit cold. Overall, I had a great time getting out into nature and visiting my friend. It also felt good to get some physical labor in as well. Today was a pretty busy day. My wife and I went to a float spa at 9:30 in the morning. This was a new experience for us and I found it very peaceful. As the experience was so foreign I had a lot of trouble truly relaxing into the experience. So, while I enjoyed it I had difficulty letting go. I think I need to do it a few more times before I can really get into it. After that we went to a nice restaurant not far from the float spa. As it turns out they had a good amount of gluten free options that my wife could enjoy. It's always nice when she doesn't have to compromise when we go out to eat. From there we went to Value Village and did some thrift shopping. She grabbed a bunch of mason jars and I found a few books. All in all some good purchases. When we got home I went for a good long walk. I listened to a Udemy class while I walked. I'm really enjoying listening to lectures and audio books these days. I find it very educational and I can do it while I do something else. I may not be getting as much out of listening as I likely would by reading a book but, if I'm being honest, I just don't read that much (or that fast for that matter). I'm willing to miss a little for that convenience. When I got back I did a breath work class on MeetUp. Todays session was really great. I really felt like I was going deeper into the exercise then I have yet. I recently caught my old gaming friends discussing the new PS5 on Discord. I realized that I don't really care anymore. I'm loving the peace that not gaming has brought to my life. I'm grateful to all the time I now have since I put video games behind me. I feel more and more that I am finally free of this addiction. I intend to be vigilant but I do feel confident that I'm past my gaming days. I really feel like I have so much more to do now that I've stopped. I'm learning more, trying new things and just appreciating life more. Sure, there are still times when I get bored but that can happen to anybody, not just gaming addicts. I do my best to work through the boredom instead of just sitting in that bored state. I think I'm going to do some reading before I head off to bed. I just picked up some reading glasses and I find reading is much easier for me now. Now sure why I put off getting a pair for so long. Hope all you quitters are sticking to it! Keep it up. You deserve the freedom!

Day 78 Spent the day driving my wife around to London, Ontario and the surrounding area to pick up fabric for her business. While she was shopping for fabric I decided to go to a local vintage/thrift shop. Normally when I've been there I would fixate on any vintage video game stuff I could get my eyes on. This time I just acknowledged that there were stalls full of video game stuff but just walked on by. That was a nice feeling. It was a good day of driving in the country and mainly relaxing. I find that I don't get stressed out when I drive these days. I do my best to stay calm and let traffic flow as it wants to. I used to get mad behind the wheel a lot. I just don't have time for that anymore. What's the point in being angry all the time. We got back about an hour ago and I had a bath and am about to go to bed. Tomorrow I'm thinking of heading out to Niagara Falls to go for a day hike and try to get in touch with nature. Take care all.

I need to start a dream journal myself. Now that I'm actually remembering my dreams I think it's a good time to start writing them down. You have encouraged me to give this a solid try. Thanks.

What an amazing dream! Your subconscious gave you exactly what you needed. That's wild. And it was so powerful that the emotions and senses attached to the dream carried over into your daily life. I'm sure that was a scary dream but what a gift! Thanks for sharing and good luck with all the creative endeavors!

Day 77, Hey @AbjurationWizard, thanks for checking in. Yeah, my back is still a little sore but no more sharp pains or anything. Looking at things now I'm pretty sure I injured my diaphragm, not my back. I'm not a doctor but I'm pretty sure I was overdoing it on all the Wim-Hof breathing exercises. I did some light research online and found other people in the same situation with the same symptoms. I don't think my 20 years smoking helped the situation. I've been taking it easy. Won't be back at work until the 28th so I should be ship shape by then I hope. I just wanted to say that I hope all of you are finding the quit to be easier. It's definitely weird to not be gaming anymore. I'd been doing it for so long I didn't really know what else to do with myself. These days I'm just glad to be free. Still not exactly sure what I want to do but that's okay. I have the freedom to make new choices and that feels really good. I wish that for all of you. The last two days I've been meditating and just thinking a lot. I'm focusing more on being grateful for what I have and accepting of what I don't. All the very best to this motley crew of quitters! You deserve all the happiness and freedom you desire!

Day 75 Another day of taking it easy. My chest and back are still sore but I'm capable of doing stuff with out having sharp pains in my back now. Went for a hike in the afternoon, did some grocery shopping and ran some errands with my wife. By the time we got back it was after 6. Did a little more meditation after that. Other then that not much else going on today. I'm really looking forward to fully recovering from this injury so I can get back to doing Yoga. Also, this pain has been a bit of a distraction. I need to start planning out my days and following through. I'm feeling good about quitting gaming but I still don't feel like my life has changed much. I mean, I know it has, I think I just need to make bigger strides and achieve bigger accomplishments in order to feel like I'm moving forward. I'll just have to wrap my head around this over the next couple of days. Later quitters. Night.