Jason70

As the others said in this, YouTube is a huge time-waster and can become an addiction itself. I'm pretty sure anything online that's there for "entertainment" (YouTube, Social Media, PornHub) can become an addiction. I'd say in order to help you stop, get out of the house more. Of course with covid this can be difficult but it can be just as simple as taking a walk around your neighborhood (take precautions if you need to). At the beginning of my detox I noticed the more I stayed in my room or my house, the more I tended to lean towards binging YouTube. So finding a hobby and going outside is helpful. I'd also definitely would say it's you trying to cope now that you don't have games. As we gamed, our mind was getting these short bursts of high dopamine, it stimulated our brain. Those sites like YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, stimulate as well, without games we have an urge for something to consume, hence why so many people when they quit just go to YouTube. So, as I said before try to find hobbies - preferably safely outdoors that you can do. You can either use the hobbies list on Wikipedia, or use the one here available on Game Quitters. Best Jason

Glad today went well! Keep up the good work, I wish you the best on your detox! Best Jason

Sounds like a train-wreck of a company/job. I am glad you were able to leave and that your new job is already getting you hours! I wish you luck with it! Best Jason

Hey glad today went great! Also like you said, people are completely different when they change. For me, I have been talking more with my family and appreciating the smaller things more! Also based off your entry today, its crazy how much we can get done in 24 hours! We just have to put it to good use. I am glad you haven't been feeling suicidal in a bit, that's great to hear! Good luck, as you said, never give up! Quitting is the sign of ultimate failure. Best Jason

Hey @The Chosen One I wish you luck on achieving your goals and living a game free life! I am also working on not using my phone or watching any youtube (unless required for my college classes some days). I am also working on eating healthier (so far I haven't had meat in 11 days!) Let me know if you have any questions on eating healthy or phone related things. And maybe for youtube, we could support each other/hold each other accountable? Anyways I wish you the best, sounds like things are going great so far! Jason

Sorry you had a headache this morning, I am glad it's gone away. I am glad the nap helped with it. For your stress, it's a normal thing we all face. What's helped me is instead of thinking "oh my god i have all this stuff I have to do, how am i going to finish it all?" I like to break my work done into smaller chunks. So this morning, I was stressed because I have two projects tomorrow that have to be turned in, but once I broke things down like "ok I will format how the poster will look, then I'll take a 5 minute break, and then I will return with writing what I want to say on draft paper." it got a lot easier. Also yes, you will sometimes have days where your family might find you intolerable. The important thing is to remember the good moments of the day, and lay the not so good ones to rest. These are good goals, I wish you luck on them! Best Jason

@notKosmic Thank you. I am glad my stories are helping! Day 12 (Day 9 of phone detox) Today I didn't play games or use my phone or watch gaming content. However, I did watch a lot of youtube. Still struggling with that mindset, but it will come to me eventually. To help me with it, I have decided against watching anymore youtube (unless required for college work) and listening to anymore music. While music wasn't bad a few months ago, its bad now. It really is destroying my productivity, and although I may love and be obsessed with some artists right now, I find it will be better and more fulfilling to me to work towards meeting them then just sit back, listen to their music and pretend to meet them. So yeah, those hopefully will help. For podcasts, which I have been intrigued by I am just going to use apple podcasts on my mac laptop, while doing other things. So bye bye spotify. One more thing here. In the latter half of the day I realized something about motivation. So far, I have just been watching motivational videos to help spark some. While those can help, the motivation is short - term, the REAL motivation you must get within yourself, that's long-term. I must want what I aspire to do, I must be hungry. So, since I want to travel, be an author, and overall just be a good role model for people, I need to start work now and keep it going. So for writing, I am going to start reading A LOT more. So conclusion for the day, the second half was much better than the first because of realizations. Tonight I am going to start writing to-do lists again and not worry about whether I finished my sleeping dream or not because those are not real, and they trick me into continuing them because of the serotonin they give me! Time to start waking up early again! I am going to work my ass off now to finish some college projects. Hope you all have a good rest of your day Best Jason

Day 11 (Day 8 of phone detox) No games, no phone, making progress. Best Jason P.S. Journals will become longer and will reply to journals tomorrow. Just been super tired. Sleep hasn't been bad, just exhausted from work.

Day 10 (Day 7 of phone detox) No games, no phone, no game related content. Still fighting to move with that "work hard/first, play later" mentality, but I will get there, I will get there. Excuses don't get you anywhere Best Jason

Day 9 (Day 6 of Phone detox) Not writing a schedule surprisingly worked well! Although today was a bit boring as it was just me working on college work, but it was better than games! I woke up a bit late today so maybe thats why I got finished with work late. More reasons to keep working on my sleep schedule! I have also decided on a "work hard/first, play later" mentality. I am tired of procrastinating. Procrastination wont get anything done so its time to stop expecting it will. Time to stop the excuses! Hope you all had a good day Best Jason P.S. will write journals earlier so I can respond to journals.

Day 8 (Day 5 of Phone detox) Today was very similar to yesterday unfortunately so I wont talk much but I will remind myself here, that I can and I will do this! I will start giving my life 300%, it just takes time. Sure watching youtube all day seems 'fun' but it doesnt benefit us! It's time I start following through. I have been writing lists, but I want to see what its like when I dont write a to do list. I know it could cause me to not do anything but let's see. Best Jason

Day 7 (Day 4 of Phone detox) Well, today wasn't the day I hoped for. My classes today were cut short due to snow near the campus and at my home so I didn't have to log on to my afternoon classes. Instead of continuing with my schedule though, I spent the rest of the day on youtube (on computer), listening to music (on computer), and napping. By my computer I mean my mac laptop, ( not my gaming computer which I vowed to not use during this detox). Usually I associate work and productivity with my laptop but it turns out it can be as just a big of a distraction. Despite this, I forgive myself for today, it was my first day of at least trying to give my life 300% and it backfired, this is expected. And it's like Michael Jordan said "I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. Twenty-six times I’ve been trusted to take the game-winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed" You will fail over and over again before you get it, but that's what made the greats so great because in the face of failure they didn't give up, and thats what I hope to do. On a more positive note however, I did exercise, start my laundry, woke up at 5, and finished a puzzle and I reached one week of no games or game content! I hope this number keeps increasing! One thing though is I keep having dreams about games, not me playing but just events i made up about the games that dont actually happen in the game. But dreams are normal in the beginning. Here is hope for a better day 8!

YAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYY!!!!! CONGRATULATIONS ON 90 DAYS!!! 🎉🎉🎉 Like you said, after 90 days, that is now the time to consider how can I go further since I have completed the detox? I think those rest of year goals are reasonable and achievable! I wish you the best! I am so happy for you! I hope life continues to bless you, and you keep up the hard work! Best + Congratulations Jason

I procrastinate sometimes too! It's a lot of fun! In reality though, to try and get to my work when I realize I am procrastinating I try to remind myself that I can have more time for me; like my hobbies, exploring the world, if I just get this work done. The 'boring' work can be done earlier and I won't have to worry about it if I get it done now. This doesnt always work but it helps! I hope you are able to get a real good nights sleep after all that work! Best Jason

Hey, I feel the exact same way as you do towards the gaming industry. While playing games, no matter how long, you lose something, you lose your positivity, you lose memory, sleep, decrease in health and even worse, you lose money, you could lose your relationships, your friends, parents, house, and the list goes on. You gain nothing by playing games. All playing games does is give the creators money and gives you nothing. Hell they don't even give a shit about you if your life gets worse enough to where your losing the things close to you. The worst part is they can do all this by just sitting on their asses. All they care about is money, money money money. They care about themselves, selfish pricks. The gaming industry is just filled with assholes and traps. Again you gain nothing from it. Now with that rant over, I am glad you are taking the first step to escape gaming, and take your life back! I wish you luck. With what you said about wanting more stuff getting done, you should start with writing down the goals you had when you were gaming (non gaming goals) and then find the hobbies that will help you towards those goals and dreams. It really helps a lot. Remember, if you get down i want you not to worry, you have this whole community to help and support you through this journey! Good luck! Jason

Hey Octsober, I felt this a few days ago. For me it was because I felt like I wasn't living my life to the fullest, and now I am on a journey to try to do that. Something I realized with it though is that some days we will just feel dissatisfied with our work for the day. I think it's a normal thing, or we will just feel empty like you said. I'm not entirely sure what the emptiness would be in your case, it could be dissatisfaction or a hidden feeling of loneliness or whatever. It could be anything. My best guess is that it's something with games. Not necessarily urges but even though you feel better finishing books than games in this moment, you just might feel like you're missing another activity you could be doing besides games, like something is calling you to a specific activity but you don't know what that is. I face this feeling a lot and then feel empty because of it, but again it could be anything. I wish you luck on figuring out what's causing the emptiness! P.S. Nice on finishing 14 books and joining a writing class! Sounds like fun! Best Jason

Congratulations on the one week without games! Thats a great accomplishment, it's a good thing to see that number go up! I am glad that you are starting to work on your goals, that's great progress. I agree though that boredom, can be well - boring, and frustrating. Something I realized though during my first detox is that while we were gaming, we were just playing and we were consistently having fun, so we weren't well handled to deal with boredom. Cause if we were bored, what would we do? Game some more or hop on a stream. Without games and all this time, we are going to see boredom more frequently. What has helped me was acknowledging I'm bored and writing down my thoughts, then I would look at my list of hobbies I want to do and I just pick one of them. Of course with urges this would be much harder, but with whatever hobbies you have picked I would just pick one and then go do it, so that way, you acknowledged you were bored and did something about it. You could also fall back on a puzzle for this. Another alternative option is to just sit with the boredom and think, however this option might lead you to games so it's not the best, just bringing it up as some people do this! I wish you luck on overcoming boredom and your urges Best Jason

Day 6 (Day 3 of phone detox) Today I spent a lot of time watching useless content on youtube. Not on my phone but on my computer. None of it was games though. Despite this I still got a lot done. I drove to pick up my pre-ordered take out, I exercised twice and I actually drank water, I also got more college work done. Played no games and didnt go on my phone. Phone urges are decreasing. Decided I want to have a morning routine. So waking up, showering making my bed, teeth brushing that stuff, like look presentable, but then my morning routine would be God, and gratefulness and exercise, then my day. I also decided on some new hobbies. These include stopmotion and language learning and yoga and meditation. I will obviously add these one at a time. and I watched Cam's video saying I shouldn't just add hobbies for filling time, I should have a goal with them. With stop motion my goal is to tell an over-arching story in chapters, like a book but through film, and I would want this to send a positive message I need to think of the idea first. Foreign language learning is an obvious. Learn a language so I can go to the country and learn more about the culture and communicate with locals easier. Yoga and meditation is to destress myself from the day and connect with myself and be present because throughout the day I can get pretty stressed. Decided today I need to stop giving my life 50% I need to give it 200- no 300%, so that's what I will start doing. I will start replying to journals again tomorrow, I am just writing this before bed, and i want to sleep (tired again) so sorry lol Best Jason

Day 5 (Day 2 of phone detox) Day 5 went like a dream. Didn't play any games at all, didn't even think about it. For my phone was a dream too, I had a few urges here and there but they weren't as bad. The reason I didn't have any issues today is because I decided to just go and camp for the entire day. I had fun. Only downside was it was really cold, and now I am really tired after but it was fun. With this and while praying to God, I think I found what makes me feel like I am living my life to the fullest and that's just being in nature. So I'll start doing this more instead of wasting the morning away in bed. Anyway, I am really tired so I wont respond to any journals tonight. But have a good night everyone! Best Jason

Not a question, or about games, but I just want to say how grateful and thankful I am that this community is here. A couple months ago before my first detox I would've said "thank you" to my discord friends, but in reality, this community is so much better. Everyone here wants you to succeed, everyone is so friendly, no one judges for opinions. And I'm so happy that I've decided to quit games because I never would've met this accepting and friendly community. On discord you would've been judged over your opinions and slandered for looking or being some way, here hate is non - existent (at least not between the members of this community). Reason I am saying this is I feel everyone's story has gotten me more and more inspired and made me realize that I'm not fighting this by myself, I have a whole group of supporters fighting with me. So thank you all for the support, and sharing your stories and for being you! I know together we can achieve a the life we want without games and inspire many other struggling gamers! Jason 💙

I am sorry that you relapsed, that's never fun. Hopefully this new plan works out for you. I just want to say though, that as much as it sucks that you relapsed especially after a streak of 105 days. I want you to think of how much you accomplished, you were able to reach 15 days over the intended goal, you got a job and all the other things you accomplished during your detox (haven't read it yet, will do that though lol). I feel doing this will help make things easier and will hopefully switch your mind off games during this new detox. overall try your best to focus on the positives every day. Good luck Best Jason

I have acne too. The only thing I have learned for my skin (oily skin) is to wash it with a wash cloth every day and night, this supposedly opens the pores and helps idk. What I also have is this acne wipe called noxzema, idk what it does but I have used it and it's super helpful. Also another thing I get are acne scars from picking at them and a simple neosporin helps with that. These were just things I use for my personal skin, idk what your skin type is like but you should look for similar products for yours, and look for other products that can help. And remember, i know it sucks but stay calm, I know you will get through this! Best Jason

Yes! 🙌 It's like they say, just try something, even if you are bad at it! We all aren't good at something the first time we try it, but we'll feel better knowing that we've done it than if we don't do it at all. When we don't do something we lose many opportunities for meeting new people, and experiences! This is the same as you work, at least you know you did it and tried your best than just pushing it aside! I hope you're able to better your sleep schedule, I am working on this too! Best Jason

Hey Sam As someone who still is in college (I am a Junior!) Some of your insights are inspiring for me. Some takeaways I had while watching your day 1 video are: Your thoughts on the "man [child] cave" term, made me think differently about it Disney + and Marvel, surprised me but i understand now your intentions, we have a whole life of things we need to do in such a short amount of time, why would we waste precious seconds we can't get back watching something silly like made - up superheroes fighting? or Princesses falling in love? We should limit consumption as much as possible and for you personally: Your goals on why youre giving up games and marijuana and overall you seem like a nice, cool person I wish you the best on the detox, I personally won't follow your youtube daily journal, because again the consumption but if you post here I will read it! Good luck Best Jason

I am glad those urges are decreasing, those are steps in the right direction! I know you realized you achieved little but like you said about potential, it doesn't subtract from who you are as a person. It's just an idea. So on some days, doing little is okay, something to remember is that we can't get everything done off our to do list every single day, that'd just make us exhausted all the time, so it's good to have those chill, little-accomplished days. Also instead of thinking them as "I didn't achieve anything today" I like thinking of them as, this day will help me regain energy for tomorrow. So then the next day we can be productive. I know reddit and discord aren't really good hobbies for these kind of days, so I recommend, once again your "WHY" Why did you stop playing games? It wasn't to just hang out on discord, it was to live your life. I wish you the best in overcoming this hump! P.S. also that video seems like a cool idea, even if it is cringeworthy. Best Jason