Jason70

Sounds like things have been going well for you! I wish you luck on your thesis! Best Jason

I'm glad you have grown closer to your mom. Since our phone call today I have hope our relationship will be repaired. Soul was a great movie, I recommend it.

Day 20 No games. However, today wasn't productive. I was able to call my mom though. I originally was afraid she wasn't going to pick up, as when she left us (me, my brothers and my dad) the last thing she told me was a comparison between my brothers and I of how they could easily game in moderation, and that I was nothing. During our conversation though, I mentioned how I was 20 days free of gaming so far and how much I have already learned about life, and what I want to pursue. She told me that she is proud of my decision and that she still did love me even though we were distant. It was nice to hear, especially after the beginning of our talk where she was yelling at me on why I was calling her. Lol. We are still far from re-strengthening our relationship but I have hope. Yeah today consisted of nothing, but in one of the videos I watched it showed me something. It was something I already should have known but I am glad I learned it. It was a Pentatonix video showcasing that when they toured (this was back in 2015), they used any fair amount of time they had in between shows to work on a new album. During the clip it showed one of the members, falling asleep while arranging. This made me realize that, it doesn't matter if you're tired, if you have something you want or need to get done, you should spend time getting that done. While of course when you're done trying to get as much sleep as you can. So I think I need to start setting deadlines for myself on things I want to do, and a punishment if I don't get it done on time. I don't believe I should harshly punish myself as that might cause me to be hard on myself, but some consequence, so like no sugar. No more excuses Jason, you have to work to get things. Let's hope tomorrow is a better day Best Jason

Hey @TwiddlyWurt I wish you luck on your journey to live a life without games! Relating to what Amphibian asked, figuring out and writing down what goals you have and what hobbies you want to pursue, will help the want to watch gaming videos. A good place to start if you're struggling on finding hobbies is the 60+ Hobby Ideas pdf right here on Game Quitters. Another good resource is the Wikipedia list of hobbies: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_hobbies I would love to hear if you found anything you're interested in. Best Jason

Sorry to hear that you've been so busy, to the point where you miss some sleep. Hopefully you'll be able to relax soon. I'm glad though that you have found joy in rock climbing! Best Jason

I struggle with this too. I think it's gotten harder to enjoy school with this whole virtual learning, covid19 thing. That's why I find the pomodoro technique so powerful. I work on a bit, like 15 minutes and then i take a 10 minute break, either reading, going for a walk, journaling or just sitting in silence. For me it helps me keep the fact "hey i have this assignment due" in my head, helping me avoid procrastination. This technique is different for everyone though, but i hope it makes online school less of a drag for you. Good luck on overcoming those urges. Best Jason

@TheNewMe2.0That line is interesting, makes me think! Speaking of family, i am going to call my mother tomorrow to try and have a closer relationship with her since with games we fell apart. Day 19 No games. Today I was able to meet with my uncle to celebrate his birthday, he was happy I went even with covid. We had lunch together and had some cake. This took up most of my day, which means I was unable to get some hobbies done. However, i was able to exercise. After I got home I watched the movie Soul, and I cried. If you haven't seen it yet, I won't spoil the plot for you, but it's an amazing and thought provoking movie that inspired me to start appreciating life more. Tomorrow's a new day, let's make it count! Best Jason

Yessss, show them that their words or actions don't mean shit to you. I said this before but one reason people hate is out of jealousy. Which in my opinion, makes it the more satisfying to have them see you with all your goals accomplished, while they talked all this crap. I know it's a bit rude, just my thoughts :). The point I am trying to make is, no one's words define who you are, show them all that you CAN. Wish you luck on your goals Best Jason

That's good that your parents are coming up for your birthday. That will be nice to see them again. Especially, during a time where we have to be away from others as much as possible. The disconnection can weigh on you. So I am glad you are seeing people and that you will see family again!

I am glad you have been doing well! Keep up the progress! Best Jason

Sorry about the relapse again, but i like to think that you never truly fail unless you give up. Even if we don't reach our goal, as long as we don't give up, we don't fail, we just learn how to get even closer to what we dream. I hope prioritizing works well for you, making to do lists (which are similar) personally help me a lot. Best Jason

Yeah, games don't allow us to be present in the moment. The reality, in my opinion is that every second of every day, something is happening, and every second you waste it by gaming you've missed your opportunity. I wish you luck on overcoming porn. Never had issues with it myself, so i can't give you advice, but i hope it goes well. Just take it a day at a time. Also congratulations on becoming a member of the student government and i hope you get the internship, and scholarship! Sorry about your phone. Best Jason

@hemonkeyThanks for the advice! Yeah i have been doing to do lists and those seem to help. I will try putting them in order of the most importance Day 18 Today was a great day. While I didn't get everything done off my to do list, I woke up early and sent off a project to a professor, then I attended virtual classes and worked on some homework. Later I went on a walk and I meditated! I had a bit of stress over a test i think i failed. I studied for it but some of the stuff the professor didn't give any resources for learning it or went over it. However, i reminded myself it's one quiz and it will only lower my grade a bit (i have a 92 in that class anyway). Anyways the negatives of today didn't outweigh the positives. one good thing I noticed is I am becoming more sociable with my family. So that's great. Honestly at this point i am rambling so I will head to bed. Hope you have a good day Best Jason

Day 17 No games, didn't think of them at all! Making progress! Today I realized that my choices can either hinder or boost my energy levels, so since today was youtube mostly, the aftermath was low energy and a headache. Not making much progress, but I will take it one day at a time! Slowly but surely. Best Jason

Happy birthday! I hope today was filled with joy for you! Best Jason

I love this. Honestly I asked myself those questions too. I asked myself based around what career I wanted to go into. Right now I am majoring in English in college but I was like, is this really what I want to do? I think that during life, we will ask ourselves those questions a lot. We will change along this journey and we will keep asking those questions, however during those moments we need to stick with what we know we love (not games). I agree with you on being sober, cause life is much better and you will be more well prepared to handle issues/problems life throws at you when you are, you will also be able to enjoy every second more. Which is why in my opinion detoxing is important, because those distractions that you mentioned (youtube, instagram, video games, discord) make us average, but we can be greater than average. I am glad your mind is more clear, that will help you in persevering the hard times. Best Jason

I am sorry today didn't go as planned but I am glad you brainstormed some things that might prevent useless surfing. I have used the pomodoro technique too and its super useful! But yeah like you said our breaks should be productive breaks, surfing as a break will most likely just keep us distracted. Usually my breaks are 10 -15 minutes, i hope you are able to find a time that works for you! Best Jason

Day 16 No games, no phone. However, today was again more work, but instead of feeling depressed while doing it I felt great, and eager to learn! I guess that means my new set up works well! To help me get out of bed in the morning I am going to implement the 5 second rule. Just count up to 5 and once I get to 5 i get out of bed. I used this during my first detox and it helped tremendously. I went outside and worked out today, and it was nice! Also I got a lot of college work done today so it was a plus! Hoping for a good day tomorrow Best Jason

watching gaming videos after you quit gaming could easily lead you to relapsing. So I'd highly recommend that you avoid gaming content as well during your detox. Something that might help you is by writing down what non-gaming activities you want to pursue. Some examples are learning a new language, exercising, photography anything that doesn't involve games and feels like your achieving things would be a good hobby. Something else I'd recommend is if you can, try and get out of the house, even if you need to take precautions. I wish you luck on this journey and remember take it one day at a time. It will get hard but if you take it slow and remember why you came here, it'll help a lot. Best Jason

I am glad posting here is increasing your self - perseverance, I have noticed for myself, journaling here really helps. Helps control my thoughts and helps me stay accountable, glad you feel this way too! How did the training go? I'm not one who is into boxing myself but it sounds cool! I think martial arts/boxing is a good way to meet new people (despite virtually now) and a good way to be active! Personally, I want to try Kung Fu myself. Hopefully you find it fun! Best Jason

Congratulations on being 122 weeks game free! I am glad you had a good weekend with your girlfriend and I am glad it cheered you up. I find this pandemic life is all closing in on us, what I think will be important to remember is to celebrate the small things in life. I'm sure you've heard this a lot during the pandemic but it's just crazy to see how many things we took for granted once we open up on what we're grateful for. Hang in there. I hope you do well on your exam! Best Jason

Day 15 (Day 0 of phone detox) Relapsed to my phone. Overall it was a bad day today. However, I am making changes. My mood was awful today because my mindset was, "I have no motivation, why do things." What I realized later though was that part of my little motivation was because I was spending a lot of time in my room! My room was even my virtual school setting. This is unhealthy, one because I would spend a lot of time in my room anyways because of gaming, two it cuts of from social connection, and three, with all these screens your mental health is just overall worse in your room. So today I made a change of moving my virtual college setting to my living room. I put a lava lamp there, as those are calming, I have a snow globe, also calming and I have a big window in front of me, so I can always look outside. Plus, this will actually force me to get out of bed in the morning! Although i relapsed to my phone, I realized things. Mental health has just been down completely this year. I saw a study done where they reported a lot of people who live in the U.S. are more depressed than they ever been. I realized that phones and social media add to that. In today's world there is just so much negativity, and a lot of that stems from media, and phone usage. For me personally, when i was on my phone today, I lost a lot of energy, I am now tired, upset and cranky. This also showed me phones give a lot of the same symptoms you get from games. With knowing this I am going to fully commit to my 65 day phone detox. Also went outside for like 5 seconds today and that felt way better than using my phone. I already felt more present. I will also not use youtube, as mentioned before with social media, which I also relapsed to today. Finally, I will not write down so many things on my to-do list as not finishing it, makes me upset and a lot of times I don't finish it. I will just simply write down the hobbies I want to do before/after school. I believe these changes will make me happier, more focused, and more present than i was before! I hope you have a good day! Best Jason P.N. I didn't relapse to games though 😄

Day 14 (Day 11 of phone detox) Didn't play or even think of games. However, in the first half of the day I was a bit upset because I didn't know what I wanted to do in my life. To solve this though I looked up a simple list of things I wanted to achieve. I think this was a problem in my first 13 days of my detox. Some of these goals include, getting a pet, learning Chinese, learning to play the guitar, reading and kung fu. Looking forward to them. The only reason I turned on my phone today was to submit an assignment, so I don't really count it as relapsing. Still getting to bed later, I think I need to set a time when I go to bed and a set time when I wake up. Of course I don't have to wake up as soon as my alarm goes off but shortly around then. Sleeping is important, and I have read that if we don't get enough sleep some very deadly diseases can occur (I heard some form of cancer could happen, and I do not want that)! Still didn't drink enough water. While all these things happened, I have to realize that nothing happens if I don't do them. So I am ready to start making conscious decisions. @Realworlderthanks for the advice, my perfectionism still lurks, I guess, but hey its getting better! I think for tomorrow I am just going to write down the important things, like hobbies because the basic stuff like (brushing teeth, making bed) are usually a breeze for me! Best Jason

Day 13 (Day 10 of phone detox) Today was an accomplishment in terms of college work but terrible in terms of other things. The only thing I had time for besides work was working out. I am disappointed in myself, even though I finished a book, (called Dear America, it's really interesting it's a memoir on the life of being an undocumented immigrant in the United States and what you have to do in order to not be deported), and cooked my lunch. Just I wanted to get so many more things done today. Ah, just shows I need to start waking up earlier, and be more efficient when it comes to my breaks. In terms of internet, I scrolled through twitter and instagram a bit, but not the whole day which was a big improvement. I wanted to listen to music so bad, but I didn't I survived, and I didn't have urges for youtube either. Tomorrow I will wake up when my alarm actually goes off, the good thing is that its raining more and sun's coming up earlier which means my favorite season is around the corner. I mean each season has it's beauties, but something about spring. The warm air, the grass, the hiking trails, rain, animals, everything just, I'm excited. And the sun coming up earlier means that i might be able to wake up earlier. As we know the sun is a natural waking up machine. Nutrition went well today, I had a bowl of cereal for breakfast and then an egg with cheese on an english muffin for lunch. I didn't make myself dinner because I ate lunch late. But that's okay I guess. I failed to drink 2 bottles of water. I need to be more accountable of myself for this. Anyway, despite today being meh, I am grateful for; pens, pencils, markers, books, scissors, eggs, God, journaling, family and gluesticks. Hope you all have a good rest of your day Best Jason

Haters generally hate because of a feeling of insecurity. However, their words don't matter, they don't matter. Love what you did there by showing yourself. Your message about cowardice is a good message for life. Who gives a shit?! Why be afraid?! It's your life, not theirs! Glad this weekend was good, and the week. Also yes, get out of your comfort zone, its a destroyer for aspirations and trying new things. Best Jason