Ethan

Day 9: finally setup some headphones and banged around on a piano today, wow I'm so much worse then I was even just two years ago. For the next ~4 days I'm helping our local church run livestream services for easter stuff, so that's cool.

Oi I can feel ya there, I'd stay up til 2 to 3 am every night playing it on my phone lol. Best of luck dude.

Day8: oops these last two days have been very busy and productive, so I'm happy 'bout that. I'm planning a workout for the extended future, how to get back into music (I dropped it in favor of video games 5 years ago), and yeah.

Day 6: nothing of note today, but I feel obligated to post something. Watched some war (World War One era) movies. Really makes you think just how stupid some of our modern struggles are.

Imo, as long as you aren't either A. Using friends as an excuse to game. B. Obsessing about those games to beat/help friends with these games. It should be fine. Also of course if it leads you to download personal games, it's a no-go. I'm personally detoxing completely from games as a whole for now, but I could see a future me where I'd allow myself to be pulled in to these "party games" without addiction.

I've dreamed I'm characters in a game before, or even that I'm touring the universes in games, but never actually dreamed that I was literally playing the games, right down to how I arranged skill bars and chatted and stuff. It felt visceral and real until I woke up. Day 5: Was really ornery today. Got a lot of household chores and cleaning done. Kinda just feel like shit though. I'm telling myself that things will feel better soon but I haven't convinced myself either. This experience makes me really miss my ex though, we could talk about anything. That was one of the things that led me to gaming away my university semesters, oh well.

Howdy Tess! Welcome to the community. I'd recommend making a journal post if you are so inclined in this sections of the forums. Being aware of your progress and having a trackable record of your days while quitting games (regardless if you are doing a full 90 day detox or something else) can help significantly with whatever you are struggling with. This mindset is already so much better then many others addled with Gaming Addiction. Go get em!

Day 4: So bored. Still exhausted. Very irritable today. I need hobbies. The biggest pull on me has been the urge to rejoin old communities. Haven't gone through. Also dreaming about gaming is rather surreal.

Day 3: Just felt bored today, first day I haven't been at work. Cleared out my reddit. Started writing down campaign notes for DnD. Thought about getting into copywriting. Also felt really out of breath all day. Couldn't exercise or anything due to it, which sucks. I'm taking a close look at new hobbies and activities. Edit: end of day, I run around my yard with my dog and am so out of shape gotta fix that

Despite Day 3 technically not being over, I still wanna post--first responding to above posts. First, thanks for the concern all. I love how active and helpful this community is and I also love how honest everyone is. It's sad for me to say, but I can only think of one or two people who I haven't either shunted out of my life due to my reliance on games, or were friends just through games. Still, I'm already looking at places to find new friends. This is one of my commitments. However, I'm making a caveat as far as researching personality science, and compling Tabletop resources go. Obviously if these things take the same attention as games do, I'll cut them but I doubt that will be the case (personality science because it's mostly centered around others, and dnd because you really have to culminate your work with others in meetspace.). Wiping my Chrome profile just let me notice how often I went for internet surfing (though in particular game forums and discord). I wish I could--I use my phone and home computer for work, and the way the business I work for operates makes it very hard to differentiate between work and relaxation. All too often I'd (for example) set some VPN servers updating, and "while waiting" would rationale with myself that I could just check a hearthstone site real quick before losing 3 hours on reddit or whatever. I do need to get better at this--I've got ADD symptoms that make it very hard to not fidget or multitask. Ok, Day 2: I was out at work all day today. I kept keeping myself from browsing the web, though it was less frequent then yesterday. I also couldn't keep myself from pacing. If I wasn't actively working or talking, I'd pace around til I made myself sick. Other than that, it was a good day.

I've always had a knack for making friends quickly--even while at the University I failed out of, I made many different friend groups with ease (and frankly, games were a way to hide from these people after "disappointing" them). But the area that I live, there just isn't a whole lot of people around--certainly not a lot of young adults near my age group (that quasi group between teen and adult, 18-25?), and those that I knew either game compulsively like I used to, or have moved on past me into university/marriage/whatever else. What do you all suggest for finding people in a community that just doesn't *have* a lot of people? I've considered posting fliers around town but I'm not necessarily the best at coordinating groups.

I don't really get addicted to single player--don't get me wrong, they still trigger that "dopamine hit"--but multiplayer suddenly brings in community, competition, etc. One of my worst addictive times was when I was competiting in regionals for Super Smash Bros. It was all-consuming.

Yes! Nothing builds community faster than Tabletop! I'd recommend checking out DnD 5e (much simpler then old DnD) or Savage Worlds.

Yup. I hate to be "that guy" but you are going to have to analyze those friendships. For me I don't think I have a single friendship I can salvage now that I'm quitting games. I'm willing to let that go because of how destructive games have been for me. You may be able to keep some friends--and I hope you can! But being honest with yourself is key here--why are you quitting games? An addendum here: analyze why you're friends with these people. Do you have a real bond with these people? Or have you been using them to fuel your addictions (and frankly, have they been using you to fuel their addictions?)

Among Us is just like playing mafia together--it's only really fun with other friends. Trust me! I tried to play with random people but it's boring and frustrating. In my opinion, it's a fine party game, just in lieu of games like Monopoly or UNO. This party game is just facilitated by use of computer/phone. Of course, if you feel the temptation/addiction, please cut it cold turkey! For safeties' sake I'm cutting it as well as youtube and gaming related websites. It's more of a person-by-person thing I suppose.