Dpesuti

Day 8: It’s 11AM, This morning was great, spent about an hour watching bob ross on YouTube and right now I’m on my way into town. No cravings yet. Finally got some good brushes, paper, and acrylic paints. Still need to finish the paint by numbers kits have, and I have a reward waiting for when I do. No urges today so far.

Day 7: spent the day picking up the house and I’m out in town right now. I posted a thread in the ask the community section regarding an issue that I had today with my mom. I got in the pool for about 2.5 hours because I wanted to play games and I was upset at her. I’m finding swimming to be a good way to escape from stress. I was still upset when I got out, but I didn’t have any more cravings. That’s why I went out, I just didn’t want to speak to her at all, and still don’t. I hope Dad is home when I get back. Painted this evening for a few hours, which helped me feel better.

Thanks @ceponatia, Yeah, I really can’t talk about that time much because my parents have changed so much for the better and I don’t want to dishonor them by ruining their rep. All I can talk about is what relates to my gaming addiction. They didn’t know I was addicted to games and they treated me like a rebel, which made me need games even more, so they are partially at fault for what I’m going through now. yeah, the sushi place we went to has an all-you-can-eat special for $19. It’s better when you go there in big groups so you can try all of the flavors.

how do you get someone who has never been addicted to anything to feel how you feel? My mother has no idea how I feel. When I tell her that I’m having emotional turmoil because I’m suffering from withdrawal, she assumes that I’m confusing it with depression and I should just get exercise or get medication, and that’s been her broken record advice for all of my life. She and dad couldn’t tell that I was addicted when I was a kid, so they would punish me constantly for what they thought was rebelliousness, which made me need games even more. She needs to know that not everything can be solved with exercise or a pill. Granted, I could use some exercise, but that’s not the source of my suffering, and neither is a lack of depression medication. I matched all 9 of the signs for gaming addiction, so this is what I should be focusing on. My Dad has gone through substance addictions, so he more- or-less understands how I feel. I haven’t talked to him about it yet though. Have any of you gone through similar situations?

Honestly, I’ve played both online and offline games, and I got hooked on all of them. Even games like Factorio, surviving mars, My Colony, Oxygen not included, and subnautica were hard for me to put down. Being able to build something that you finally managed to scrounge enough resources for is where all the dopamine comes from in those games. Plus, it doesn’t help that I have an obsession with organizing things, so I get another big rush from seeing that things are neatly placed and work in synch.

Thanks @amchow, that’s a relief, I love music, and the world would be dull without it. I’m trying to do acrylic painting with those “paint by numbers” Kits for my hobby, and sometimes I tend to lose track of time doing it. But I guess maybe it’s because I’ve never learned to manage my time when doing the things that I enjoy. I’ve been addicted to games since childhood. i can see how social media can be addicting, I’ll make sure to watch how much time I spend on those, thanks.

Hello everyone. I listen to high-energy electronic music(artists like au5) when I drive, and it helps. I also listen to chill electronic music (artists like c418) when I want to concentrate on something important. Overall, I could sit for hours and listen to either if I wanted, and I sometimes lose track of time while listening to them as well. I don’t think I’m addicted to music though since I can control when I listen. Could music have an impact on gaming addiction? Could it prolong the time needed to recover since music also triggers a dopamine release? If there are other habits or addictions that could make it harder to quit games, what are they? I‘m guessing it depends on how much dopamine is released from each habit, but I don’t know.

Today is day 6 of 90 for me. I learned about respawn last Friday and I just purchased it yesterday, but I haven’t played games since friday. I’ll do a journal for days 1-5 in this post. Day 1: I live with my parents and they don’t allow me to play video games, but I have a smartphone, so it’s easy to just download a game and play it without anyone knowing. I had already quit games for a time, so today I started to get emotional, not only for games but also because I couldn’t spend time with my friends because of The pandemic, and this lead me to want to play a game. so I downloaded the game, played for about an hour, and then deleted it, thus destroying all of my progress In it. It was then that I started to realize why I played video games, it was to avoid stress and negative feelings. I had never realized that before. I knew that games helped me recover after a stressful day, but I had never thought that I was escaping my feelings. So I went to google and researched how to stop avoiding those things and I hit a breakthrough. From my research, I learned to let my emotions come and go instead of just avoiding them. This not only stopped my desire to play games in that instant, but also made me more aware of my emotions and I became more capable of expressing them in the last five days. However, I needed more information, so I dug further, and typed “I play games to escape my feelings,” and found an article made by a member of this community. This breakthrough was exponentially larger than the first, for obvious reasons. However, I didn’t purchase respawn until yesterday, June 28. Day 2: I joined my congregation meeting on Zoom, and part of what we discussed was how to be grateful for the things that God gave us, such as the earth, our brain, and the Bible, which was very encouraging. after the meeting, I got in my parents pool. Swimming is one of my favorite exercising methods, and I’m often the last one out of the pool. I could spend hours swimming. My parents were craving for sushi, so I took them to a sushi restaurant they’ve never been to and they loved it. My friends a I used to come here occasionally. Then I took them to an ice cream place they had never been to, which they also liked. Before we went home, we stopped at a hobby lobby and I picked up a “paint by numbers” set. As soon as I got home, I spent until 1 AM painting and then went to bed. Day 3: I had no desire to play games today. we watched a video from jw.org. The video is part of a series of videos that are taking the place of our regional conventions that we normally have each year because of the pandemic That took half of the day. Then I helped dad with the yard and he grilled some pork chops for dinner, which were delicious. Day 4 was ok. I went into town to get away from home. No matter where I live, I hate where I live and I have to go out to feel better, and games help me escape my negative feelings while I’m at home. I feel like the reason why I hate home is because of some traumatic experiences that I had during my childhood over the course of ten years. My family moved twice over those ten years, so my mind attached that trauma to wherever I live, but my parents house, where I live now, is especially drenched in these memories. Going out to town made me feel better, and I came back in the afternoon and painted. Not much happened. However, in the evening I started to have cravings, even after painting. I think I was just bored then, since it didn’t come with any negative emotions. Day 5 was pretty much the same, I went out and got caught in a storm as I was picking up pizza for dinner. Even when I got home I ended up having to wait 30 minutes at the end of our driveway for the storm to pass before I could open our metal gate, which is connected to miles of metal fencing wire. As for day 6, I’ve been sitting here all morning in the game quitters forum so far. I’ve been working on my windows 10 certification, and my plan is the work on that this afternoon. Right now I have no cravings. .

Thanks gargamel, I’ll start right away on my daily journal. And thanks for the headsup, I want to quit games for good, so I don’t care how many times I’m tempted over the years.

Hello Game Quitters, My name is Dustyn. I’m almost 30 years old, single, and I Live in Richmond VA, USA. I have high functioning autism and a rare disorder called panhypopituitarism. Because of my autism, I have an obsession with organizing things. This can range from which box to put an object in to what playlist to put a song in; while the other disorder causes me to have to take medicine every day to function and survive. I believe that my obsession with organization makes my personality an addictive personality. I am also one of Jehovah’s witnesses, a worldwide organization of over 6 million people, in over 200 lands, united under the goal of sharing life-changing information from the Bible with as many people as possible. So you can imagine how much turmoil I’ve had with games, not just on a mental and emotional level, but also on an ethical and spiritual level. I can’t serve “Jehovah”(God’s own personal name) to my fullest unless I quit games. I started having signs of gaming addiction as far back as when I was 15, but then again I always had trouble controlling myself as far back as 6 years old while playing the N64. Nevertheless, my parents obviously never knew that games could be an addiction, so they would punish me constantly for not being able to control it. They just though I was being a rebel. when I went to college at age 21, it was hard to stop gaming because my roommates were playing them, and I was unable to focus on anything. I was good at Ace-ing the tests, but the homework always was a problem. Even after college, I had problems, and it got so bad that I took an ax to my laptop and split it into about a couple thousand pieces. I thought I’d be done with games, but no, games are one thing you can’t run from, since they are available on every device. when I moved out at age 23, I made a new life for myself in Richmond, but I was still gaming. However, I was able to control it because I found going out with friends to be more satisfying. I found that having a good social-life and spiritual mindset helped me keep games more-or-less in check, but there were still things that I couldn’t control, like getting 8 hours of sleep. The addiction was still there, dormant, lying in wait for me to slip up. One of my friends helped me to quit games for a month, and I got a taste of the life I could’ve had, but I didn’t realize that 90 days of detox are needed to quit, so I relapsed gradually. This time though, things would get much worse. I started to become more distanced from my friends, and I lost my spiritual mindset, and this allowed gaming to creep in. they were much harder to control, and I often had mental battles that lasted for hours and left me exhausted, depressed, and defeated, and this made me want games even more, and numbed my feelings down to the point that I started to question whether I even had emotions toward others. When I played games, I cared for no one, when I did do other things, they weren’t enjoyable, and I isolated myself. I tried many times to quit games and fought hard and long, but I was only relying on myself, and I needed help to fight the addiction. Many times I got to the point where I wanted to die. I felt like nothing more could be done. Eventually my parents intervened. They’ve been trying to help me quit games, but they were just trying to help me get back on my feet, since my work closed down and I had to come home. they didnt allow me to play games though, which is a plus. But still, part of me fealt like they won’t be able to help. one day I went out to town and I started to feel miserable because I couldn’t get with my friends due to the pandemic and that made me want to play a game. Somehow that opened my eyes to my main reason for gaming, it was to escape stress and negative feelings, and that was how I found Game Quitters. Finding out why I played games was enlightening, but seeing Cam’s presentations regarding gaming addiction was exponentially more enlightening. so here I am now, at 3Am in the morning, looking through respawn. It’s already been 5 days since I’ve played, so I have a head start, but I still have a long way to go. When I look back, I wonder how I could’ve known any different than I did and whether I could’ve joined y’all earlier, but I guess I’ll never know that. All I can do is act on what I know now. Apologies for the short novel of the drama that is my life, and I look forward to embarking on this journey with y’all for the next 90 days and beyond.