jailbreaker.

Plan's working out fine, so far. Haven't binge-played since I started cutting down game time to two hours. Going to sleep before midnight now, too. That's helping. Not sleeping in until 1 in the afternoon anymore lmao. Just got back from my friends' place. Played Black Ops III zombies with them for like thirty minutes; had a great time! I let them know that I'll be quitting gaming in about two weeks for my mental health. They were super cool about it; very understanding. Nice to have friends who accept me for who I am. I'm gonna try a gratefulness journal, even though it feels corny and cringey to me. I've gotten too focused on my future plans, and I gotta appreciate what I've got right now. Not gonna let these beautiful sunny days pass me by. Definitely grateful for the weather today. Lovely breeze. Grateful for my Spotify account, where I can listen to any music I want to instantly. Beautiful! Love that my family is supporting me in my endeavors to get back to life, even after all the shit I've put them through. Love my friends! So great to spend time with them every now and then. Grateful that I can borrow my mom's car and visit my friends relatively easily. Grateful I've got enough food, and a roof over my head. Access to clean water. My phone, the Internet, this forum and the community. Everything, really. Life is improving now that I've cut down on game time.

Hey Terry, I've dealt with my fair share of paranoid hallucinations and delusions, as well as catatonic states, and I know it's not fun. At one point in college, I was living with 7 other people in the same apartment, which was a huge change for me. They were all my friends, and I'd known most of them for at least a year, but I had a hard time with paranoia anyway, because that's just how my brain does things apparently. I thought that they were saying bad things about me behind my back, but just loud enough to hear through the walls. It felt like the whole world was out to get me, like my friends were enemies and they secretly hated me. It took me a while, but eventually I asked if they've got a minute to talk, and opened up to them about what I was going through. All the voices I was hearing, trying a new medication, that sort of thing. They helped me through it. One of my friends even called an Uber to get me to the hospital late at night. Although I'm taking a break from college now, we still keep in touch and hang out sometimes. It was hard to shake those beliefs that they were out to get me, or that I was always bothering them, but once I reminded myself that they're my friends and we've got each other's backs, the rest just flowed naturally. So, maybe try calling up your friends and having a conversation about what you're going through! I'm sure they'd be happy to be there for you. If they're not, then definitely try going back to those AA meetings. Sounds like you had a lot of fun at those! Aside from talking with my friends about my problems, music always helped me get through the tough times. Guitar especially. I'm with Laney on this one: try makin' some freestylin' tunes! You got this!

Tried to go 2 days without video games. Felt fine the first day. Played guitar, journaled in my notes, and read a book. But on the second day, I felt physical aches, almost like longing to play videogames. Ended up playing on the third day, once I decided that I'd finish the story in Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes, but only after... 1) I'd devised a plan on how to do that most efficiently, 2) What hobbies I'd do in the meantime, and 3) What I'd do with my Switch after I finish the game. This will be my last videogame. For the first one: I'm about 19 hours into the game, and it's about 45 hours for one playthrough. So, if I play two hours a day, it'll be about 13 days before I finish the story. I know I can just watch a playthrough of the story on YouTube or something, but I'd rather go all out on my last game than stop halfway through. I'm going to limit my play time to two hours a day, only after I eat dinner (still a lot, but a vast improvement from before) until I finish. After that, I'll delete my save data for all of my games and archive them for one of my friends to redownload and play without having to pay for them (more on that later). In the meantime, when I'm not playing videogames, I'm going to practice guitar, journal, read books, play DnD with friends, and go on walks, among other things. Very much going to appreciate and savor these last few days before I have to get a job and work on getting back to school. Feeling so blessed that my family has housed and fed me for free for so many months since I did my medical withdrawal from college. Going to try to limit my overall screentime, not just videogames. I don't use social media anymore (been off of it for a while), so I don't have to deal with that, thankfully. Mainly going to use my phone for talking to friends and family, looking up stuff, my tuner app, Duolingo, and getting in touch with the community here on Game Quitters. Side note 1: Do y'all think DnD counts as a video game? I do it online with my friends, but it's almost all just theater of the mind anyway. Side note 2: I know Duolingo is sort of like a videogame, but it's the best free resource I have right now for learning Spanish. I'll replace it with Olly Richards's StoryLearning once I've got a job and can pay for it. Then, eventually, I'll go back to college and take a Spanish class there when it fits into my schedule. Back to the main plan! For what to do with my Switch afterward: As I said earlier, I'm gonna delete all of my save data and archive every digital game on it. After that, I'm gonna clean it and then hide it away in a sealed box for 90 days, so that I'll just forget about it and not feel tempted to redownload those games. During that time, I'll find a job and get working so that I'll have something to do and some money in the bank. I'll also work on figuring out how to get back to college, at least part-time. After I hit 90 days, when my cravings are definitely gone, I'm gonna try to sell the Switch to one of my friends for cheap. I'll be leaving my profile and the restore data for the digital games on there for them to redownload so they don't have to pay for the games. Gonna change my account password to whatever they want it to be so they'll remember it. (I trust that my friends wouldn't buy new games using my account. They'll be getting a hell of a deal, so they better not lmao) And they can just edit the profile to make it their own if they want. Once my Switch is gone, I'll have already been starting to rebuild my life. Seems like a pretty solid plan, no?

Hi Laney, I totally feel that loss of faith in myself. At one point I thought I didn't have any future at all. I was gonna move out of state and work a minimum-wage job for the rest of my life if I had to, I thought. I was just feeling numb inside. But we can both do better than that! We can kick the addiction, one day at a time! You got this, Laney, I believe in you!

Hey everyone! I'm jailbreaker. 20 years young and ready to take back control over my life. I struggle with mental illness, which is inherited from my family, but definitely worsened because of a gaming addiction. I've had one since middle school. In an effort to try to improve my mental health, I've taken a medical withdrawal from college, hospitalized myself, taken medication, and gone to therapy. Unfortunately, none of it has helped to alleviate my symptoms long-term. I've ruled out every other possibility; gaming is at the root of ALL of my issues. Interacting with people, helping people, building strong bonds and lasting relationships, reforming society: that's what I've always wanted to do, but I've never had the time or energy to do it in real life until now, because I had always spent it all in a virtual world. Long term, I've lost my way in life because of all that time I spent giving in to a dream world's temptation. Like @Jackery did, I felt empty and lonely in the real world, even after having "fun" playing videogames for hours on end. But now I'm ready to break out of that brain jail that's kept me confined for so long. No more numb days, where I act like a jerk to the world and ignore my responsibilities. Time to overcome this addiction and live out my dreams in reality!

Yes, Jackery! I feel this so deeply. We're resetting the game, ready to level up our real lives. We are breaking free from that mind-prison, together!