Pochatok

I recommend just imagining yourself play, and while doing that trying to track your emotions and thoughts. For me, thinking of playing anything online gives me the same kind of excitement I get when playing videogames, which in turn gets me thinking of video games. Yesterday, I played Terraria with my partner, and even though that caused a lot of gaming "triggers" for me, I was able to resist the urges after we stopped playing and simply turned my PC off. If you think that playing the RPG with friends is more or less safe, I still recommend you have a set of actions/reminders to do in case you get strong urges to game after you are done w/ the RPG. For me it was turning the PC off and proceeding to watch a TV show for 15-ish minutes instead. Cheers!

Second the detox. With every day passing I feel less and less excited about games, my mindset is changing by leaps and bounds. At this point, I know that if I decide to play a game again I can moderate easily, but at the same time I no longer see a reason to play: there are so many more meaningful things to do. Good luck on your journey, don't stop until you hit 90 days!

Hey @royal panda, how has is been going so far?

Haha this question has been wondering around in my head for awhile now, given how much I post here. I don't think it's the forum I'm addicted to, but the people and their stories. But then, can you really can that an addiction, if what it is is simply social interaction? I try to limit myself to 2-3 posts in morning and the evening, and then just don't visit the website at other times. Yes, turning notification emails off helps a lot too!

Woahhh, congrats on making so much progress so quickly! It took me a few weeks after quitting to start making serious improvements academically and personally. Congrats on the competition win, what was the subject? Hehe yay on chess, amazing game!

Hey, I think that's pretty cool! Be sure to take care of yourself though: living in the moment too much made me start to disregard my future, which is partly what re-triggered my gaming addiction a couple years ago. Just discovered your journal, and I think it's super awesome that you've gone so far on GQ but continue to post journal entries. vErY iNspiRinG 🙂 I love chess as well heh

DAY 14 Woke up, spend the first 3 hours of my awakenings pretty well. Now I feel a bit unsure of what to do, which is why I am journaling. Can't compose for some reason, but I guess I should just give myself a break. There are so many other things to do anyways... Showerthought: Isn't it weird how the direction in which our mouth opens isn't aligned with the teeth? Like, if you smile wide, the corners of your smile will be looking into the void- cuz the teeth goes in a circular curve, while the smile is a flat-ish line. Good things from yesterday: Composing felt great Finishing my art felt great Watching the Boys Driving was nice although a bit stressful Playing Terraria with my GF was fun(I know i know, but this was honestly a good way to spend time together. I think that games as a way to connect with friends I already have(not the same as make friends via gaming) is okay) Goals for today: If something isn't going well, give yourself a break. Go do something else 🙂 Certain activities need to be done at certain times. Get things done on time! Love and take care of family Continue to exercise, and find some cool calisthenics moves to progress towards! Fooken posture mate! Have a good Thursday everyone, we're almost @TheWeekend!

Day 13 Woke up somewhat meh, I think my dreams were really weird(although cool), and I slept in for too long, which my mom pointed out(grrr). Then I walked my baby sibling and one of the dogs for ~1.5 hours. Felt a bit boring, but I also like being outside. Then I wasted some time on social media, and now am here. Almost noon @where I live Good things of yesterday: Talking to my partner, I love her : > Sharing my art on Instagram The breakthrough I had in music composition! Exercising AHHH I forgot to send picture to grannies NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO gotta do it todayy Goals for today: Take my time to come up with a to-do list, and stay on top of it! There is more to do than I like to think- I am still a busy person Take care of my loved ones Keep up that posture jeeeez Keep learning, don't just "do" things Have a good Wednesday everyone, I hope your day goes well! Cheers, Po

@Tabula rasaThank you so much for your comment, it means a lot to have someone share their perspective on my journal entries. I think my urge to install a game is still strong, especially right now, in the morning, but so far I've been able to not give into that. Thinking about not the fun part of playing the game, but the sad realization of how much time I wasted is what helps me the most. @championeal yes, charcoal is amazing for shading. I honestly just don't like the way it feels, but drawing with charcoal is fun! Somewhat true 🙂 From September to mid-November, I only drew for 30 minutes a day, but every day. I would focus on learning something specific every week, like anatomy or landscapes. That consistency, even though small in quantity, helped me improve greatly. I think that if you are passionate about art and can dedicate just 15-30 minutes per day, DO IT! That consistency will lead to you slowly improving until doing art becomes fun and rewarding enough that you want/can dedicate more time to it. Haha I'm actually the opposite: I loved doing presentations, being "on stage"(as a child I did not get much social attention from parents/peers), but hated working in groups, hanging out with a lot of people- it felt chaotic to me. I'm much more comfortable with both now, but like you, I still prefer one over the other- I love learning things by myself, on my own. Oh and what I meant in the first place was my tendency to learn things in my own manner- instead of following directions exactly, I'd put my own twist on them, every time. Very annoying tendency tbh. Cheers everyone, thank you so much for your replies! This forum has become such a big part of my life just overnight simply because the people here are so caring and supportive 🧡

Second the daily journal, thanks for starting it already! It is not super helpful on its own, but it is the seed from which a lot of much more beneficial things will grow from. Keep it up! I recommend to watch and read more about why one should quit gaming. There is plenty of books, videos, and articles that will help you understand why you play games and why/how you should quit them. Watching one video of @James Goodper day over the last week has helped me a great deal. About poor grades: I do not know how strong the relationship with you and your gf is, but I recommend telling. Acknowledging your failures is the first step towards overcoming them. In my case, revealing my weaknesses to my gf had two profound effects: 1. My commitment towards changing and improving increased by a lot. By acknowledging it to her I kind of vowed myself to get better, and began to treat my issues more seriously rather than brushing them off. 2. Our relationship improved sooo much, as she began helping me change/improve, and also opened up about her own issues. We started committing stronger to the relationship and caring more about each other. I recommend you think about talking to your gf on your own, because every relationship is unique. But, I don't think you will be "going nowhere" if you tell her. By being vulnerable like that you show that you trust and value her, and that you want to improve. Hey @BooksandTrees, @TheNewMe2.0, would you have anything to say here? Thank you! Cheers, Po

Haha, totally the same case! My GF actually encouraged me to keep gaming for awhile until I explained what "addiction" really means in my case. @MoonlightI recommend very much that you start a daily journal on here. It is a good way to self-reflect, to develop a continuous habit, and to keep everyone else in this community updated on how you are doing. Seeing more of who you are and what you do would help others give you more specific, personal, and valuable advice. I believe that most of the people you talked to disagree not only because they don't see the benefits, but also because they don't see the harm. A lot of people don't see gaming as "addictive" or harmful, similarly to how mental illnesses were not treated seriously just a couple centuries ago. But, gaming is harmful, and quitting it will not only improve your own life, but the life of people around you, as all the time you spend playing now will be spent doing something goooood. Hope to hear more from you soon, Po

Oh yes, those are the best kind of hugs ever 🙂 so glad you had the courage to ask! Love how much you describe your feelings, your writing has a very nice flow to it! On the topic of coldturkey vs. moderating it down: ColdTurkey will only work if you have enough activities planned out to keep you occupied. If without gaming your day is suddenly completely empty, it will be very, very difficult. I began with moderation, slowly replacing gaming with new hobbies and activities, until I had my day so filled with things-to-do that I could go ColdTurkey. What I do: Sit down for 10-30minutes in front of my planner/journal, and try to think of as many things I need/want to do as possible(reading, exercise, learn something, talk to someone, clean up, etc.). This may sound like something not very helpful/important, but when I have most of my day mapped-out, it is so much easier to stay away from games. Also, I recommend you checkout @James Good's Youtube channel, he has some super helpful stuff. No matter what you choose to do to help yourself quit gaming, the first few days, or maybe even weeks will be very difficult; it might even seem like you aren't making any progress. Don't give up, failure is the first step towards success! Cheers, Po

What did you paint @Alejandro? Do you use acrylics..? Hehe I paint to so I am very curious : >

So much me too... I think that it is easy to convince yourself that you can moderate when you can't. The people who can actually moderate gaming rarely get to the point where they need to join GQ heh. I am just too convinced at this point that the idea of "I used to be addicted but now I can moderate" is a convenient truth to get myself back into gaming. Maybe once I am clean for many years, and my brain has rewired itself enough to not view gaming as an addiction, I will be able to moderate... Agree, I also try to get GQ stuff done early in the morning 😄

Put that into the suggestions forum, maybe the devs could help you get more attention to that forum! I'm so happy you figured that out! I was on a similar route, doing 10+ hours/week of exercises I didn't enjoy. Took me awhile to discover what I actually enjoy, but it feels so much better, right? I also prefer calisthenics heh. Jeez, reading the last few entries of your journal literally melted my heart, especially this part. I'm so glad you are able to do better socially, I also had a very similar issue- I could never say "no" when people would ask me for help, even if that causes other people to abuse me. I think learning to self-respect not only is good for your, but helps others be more kind and less selfish. Thank you so much for your thoughtful journal entries, they honestly make my day! Cheers, Po

I think that moderation works somewhat well for me: I never play more than 1.5 hours per day, but also have trouble playing less than that. As soon as a game becomes exciting, I lose track of time until I hit that 1.5 hour mark, which is still too much gaming per day for me. Currently, I am able to moderate myself, but not enough. Just quitting altogether seems easier tbh. Thank you for sharing your opinion on this 🙂

Day 12! Yesterday went well, I am continuing to read a lot of stuff about all the bad things going in the porn industry, and that is helping me watch less and less. Have been watching some of @James Good's videos to help me stay away from gaming as well 🙂 Showerthought: I have a habit of "doing my own thing". Sometimes it helps me be more original and innovative, but most of the time it slows down my learning speed. Gotta tune that habit down. Things that brought me joy yesterday: Reading Drawing Cats and Siblings Practicing Trombone Talking to my partner Calling my grandmother Goals for today: Learn properly, but stay passionate and original. Don't isolate socially Stay away from urges, they don't do me any good. take care of my physical health do things when they are supposed to be done Have a good Tuesday y'all awesome people!

I do digital for more serious projects, and ink+pencil, sometimes markers for sketching. I use Procreate and Krita. Do you do art?

Good luck with optimizing your sleep schedule, and thank you for sharing what causes it. Hope that you will be able to resolve the issues out eventually. 🧡

Woah, congrats on our progress with running! Also, I love your descriptive writing style, it's very original 🙂 About exercise: In order to make it a stronger, life-long habit, I recommend asking yourself how fun and rewarding the activities you currently do for your physical health are. For me, I kept losing my will to exercise because the exercises I did were rather tiring and not very fun for me, although very rewarding in terms of muscle gains. Changing my routine to less extreme but more fun exercises has helped me maintain my shape but also enjoy what I am doing and exercise every-every day. Cheers!

If I counted right, today is Entry #11 of my journal. Doesn't mean anything, but I want to keep track of it heh. Woke up today feeling rather well. Did some stretches, read for 20 minutes, walked the dogs, browsed reddit and then made some nice art. I LOVE ART! I really hope I will be able to get to the professional, industry-standard level by the time I wear my university graduation gown. Random thought: How come I never yawn when playing trombone? What exactly prevents me yawning at certain moments? What brought me joy yesterday: Some video games(not gonna do that again though, I don't think I can moderate myself) Drawing Making multitracks on Ableton Reading Family Goals for today: Do everything at the right time Make the lives of people I love better, show them I love them 🙂 Keep my posture 👌 Continue to develop the things I am passionate about, even if it is difficult at times. I will succeed through continuous, metacognitive, hard work. Have a good Monday everyone!

Congrats on a full week, woahhh 😆

Woah, glad you've been doing so well lately! I think energy levels is a difficult concept- hard to understand what regulates them, and how to be in control of that regulation in a healthy way, without coffee and RedBull. I recommend you take a look at Alexander Technique, as that helped me a ton with energy levels. On the topic of porn: yes, it is a struggle. Without strong social ties to someone romantically, there are less reasons to quit it. I feel like if, ONLY because of COVID, you don't feel like creating a relationship, quitting porn completely is very difficult. I do recommend trying to both sticking to a very small variety of porn so that you don't develop tolerance, and trying to reduce the amount you watch with BlockerX on your phone and ColdTurkey on your PC. While they do not get rid of porn completely, they do reduce how much you watch on average. Also, you tried going to yourbrainonporn? Cheers!

Ohhh so true!! For the first two weeks, I felt more tired than usual, probably cuz (the thought of) playing games was what gave me a lot of excitement/mental energy throughout the day. But after 3 or so weeks, I began waking up feeling rather happy, and began feeling much more excitement for "boring" activities- like reading and being on this forum. Give yourself ~21 days to adjust: that's how long it takes to built a new habit or get rid of an old one. Your brain will learn to get excitement and energy from other activities, just give it time! Have to agree here too, that's how I feel about reading 22/7. I struggle to read for more than an hour or two per day if it is books that I like rather than school-assigned reading. What helps me enjoy books is thinking/journaling afterwards on how reading improves my life and makes me happier. Most of the stuff I read hits both areas, and when it doesn't, journaling/thinking about it helps me find a book that does. Cheers!

Good luck, glad you're doing so well overall! What are the things that prevent you from going to bed earlier currently?