James Good

Definitely a tough thing to deal with. The main thing I'd do is make sure games are as hard to reach as possible. You can't play games if you've got nothing to play, right? Some of my go to activities if I'm really sick are: reading coding drawing watching Netflix A lot of the time, though, when I feel just a little bit off I'll use it as an excuse to not do anything. If you've got no chest problems you can usually work out. If you've got a cold you can still get out the house and go for a walk. It's easy to justify not doing anything when you get ill, but in reality your body is much stronger than you realise, so at some point you're just going to have to put up with it and go on with your life. In terms of feeling depressed, that's a different matter. But the best thing to do is work on getting habits and systems in place so that you still take care of the important stuff even when you don't want to.

I'm not too active on the forums anymore, but I still look forward to seeing how you're getting on. I'm in the same boat - it's all or nothing in terms of gaming. I must have detoxed/relapsed 5-10 times before I eventually got over it completely. I'm not sure the journey is ever over! Wishing you all the best man, and I hope you find your new life in Copenhagen. It's an incredible city, and I'm excited to see where you end up in a few years. We're rooting for you.

Hey, thanks for checking out the podcasts! Means a lot 😄 We're also releasing more gaming-focused episodes on anchor.fm/gaming-the-system if you run out of things to watch!

You got me 🤣 I didn't realise its been 2 months since my last post, though. That's crazy! I'm currently in the middle of travelling to Thailand so I'll write an update post when I get there! 😄

Nostalgia is one hell of a drug. Congrats on taking some big steps, it's a long journey but it's one of the best things you can do. Best of luck!

Welcome to the forum! I was a speedrunner last year, and it didn't take long for Twitch to take over my life and cause me to go to bed at around 5 am every day (gotta catch those USA viewers haha). I was the #1 speedrunner in the world for my game, and eventually, it was too much. It really can be addictive, especially when you hit that new PB! You're definitely making the right decision, and I'm looking forward to seeing how your journey progresses in the future with your journal (which you should 100% do, it's life-changing!) All the best.

No time to write a post tonight, will get back to it tomorrow morning and reply to you all then! Peace.

Day 9 - 19th June # of days free from: Gaming - 11 Reddit - 11 Twitch - 6 What filled me with enthusiasm today? There was a big meeting in parliament today with executives from EA and EPIC Games. It was a fantastic talk and I managed to watch most of it, but that isn't why I'm enthusiastic about it. The reason why it filled me with enthusiasm is that it reaffirms that there are big shifts happening throughout the world in terms of video game addiction. It's finally being accepted, and the gaming companies are losing the fight, as seen in the meeting. There's a good summary here: Parliamentary Committee Meeting It helps me realise that there's a ton of opportunity for me to do more work with Cam and Game Quitters, and solidify myself in this role that helps thousands of people over the world every month. I'm looking forward to what's in store for the future! What drained me of energy today? Honestly, it's hard for me to pick anything. I wasn't particularly drained at any point. If I had to pick one thing then I'll probably go with my recurring answer - my parents. Man I can't wait until I'm in Thailand. Except to hear me saying that a lot more before I head out in August 🤣 What did I learn about myself today? I learnt that I really can't get less than 6 hours of sleep. I love to think that I could hustle all day and sleep 4 and a half hours and continue, but I really can't. Although, I haven't tried to get 4.5-6 hours sleep + an afternoon nap for an extended period of time. But at that point, I don't know if I'm really saving time. The only benefit I can see with that schedule, is the fact that I'm usually quite unproductive and lethargic in the afternoon. My ideal routine would be working in the morning, lunch, workout, food, nap, work etc. So maybe there's something there in the future, I'll have to test it sometime!

I may have "liked" your post but I'm really just trying to send some love your way. God damn, man, life is really testing you these past couple of weeks. If you make it through this you can make it through anything. We're always here for you buddy. R.I.P Tiger.

Day 8 - 18th June # of days free from: Gaming - 10 Reddit - 10 Twitch - 5 What filled me with enthusiasm today? I realised that I could actually obtain my scuba license and do all of the necessary courses to become an underwater photographer really easily while travelling around Asia. Much nicer than doing it in a pool in the UK! What drained me of energy today? My diet, and my inability to stop watching YouTube videos. I appear to be "addicted" to food videos. Bon Apetit, Sorted, Best Ever Food Review Show, you name it. Should be a bit different when I move to Thailand, however, slow Internet and constant working will put a stop to YouTube binging (hopefully). What did I learn about myself today? Although I'm hesitant to get started, whenever I sit down and do something creative like play guitar or draw a picture, I get engrossed in this powerful flow state. I could do it for hours, except you know, sleep is necessary. I definitely regret stifling my creative side for most of my life, instead choosing to devote myself to physics instead of music. Sure, learnt a lot doing a physics degree, but I feel like a big chunk of who I really am got taken away. Plenty of time to get it back, though!

Day 7 - 17th June # of days free from: Gaming - 9 Reddit - 9 Twitch - 4 What filled me with enthusiasm today? This one's hard to answer, honestly. I got a decent bit of work done, which was great, but it didn't make me enthusiastic. I think what filled me with the most enthusiasm was looking at a load of bars and restaurants near where I'm going to be living in Thailand. I honestly can't wait until I go, August can't come soon enough. What drained me of energy today? Spending the evening with my parents. My laptop had died and there's no space for me to work in my room because I have so much random stuff everywhere and literally nowhere to put it. So I ended up browsing stuff on my phone and replying to emails while we all watched random TV shows. How depressing. What did I learn about myself today? I already knew this, but it definitely helped solidify it, and that's the fact I can't do any work sitting on my sofa listening to a podcast. I also struggle to get work done at my desk. I need to physically leave my house and go somewhere else to work, or else I just won't grt anything done. Again, this is something that'll be much easier when I'm in Thailand living by myself, and is currently quite difficult in a tiny rural English town.

@JustTom depends what you mean by middle class, got a pretty different definition in Thailand haha! I'm living in a decent studio with weekly cleaning for £200/m, going to eat out every meal of the day for a total of £70/week, then when you throw in phone, travel, massages, gym, coffee etc I'm hoping to spend around £650/€730/$820 a month. One of the things I'm looking forward to the most is food. I also drink coffee and alcohol, although the former more regularly than the latter. I'm definitely not trying to live a budget lifestyle!

Thailand's cheap, beautiful, friendly, the food is great, and there's a huge hub of 'digital nomads' there along with the majority of my friends (the life of an entrepreneur I guess). I think it's super important for young men to be out in the world on their own, I just don't think I was ready for it in the past! 😄 I'm currently spending the majority of my time working with Cam on Game Quitters, and in my free time, I do internet marketing and writing for various people as a freelancer after initially learning to be a front-end web designer. I'm happy with what I'm doing, and it pays the bills, but I'd love to spend more time outdoors doing photography. Another reason why I'm travelling round Asia!

I don't think it ever will, unfortunately. But, at the same time, that's what makes it worth living. There's not much I can really say to you at this moment, breakups really fucking suck and they're never easy regardless of the situation. Hard work, time, and most of all - talking to people. That's all you can do, really. I'm not sure I'm over any of my breakups (must be 5 or 6 at this point), I've just learnt to cope with the pain. I think the reason for that is because I didn't have anyone to talk through the situation with. No one should have to suffer in silence.

Day 6 - 16th June # of days free from: Gaming - 8 Reddit - 8 Twitch - 3 Going to try a different format with my journals from now. Instead of just summarising my day I'm going to be more reflective. I heard a great idea from The Ground Up Show Episode 94 (Matt D'avella's podcast), where the guest says to ask yourself these three questions every single day for 30 days: What filled me with enthusiasm today? What drained me of energy today? What did I learn about myself today? I had a bit of a realisation yesterday that I don't really know where I'm going or what I want. I have an idea of where I want to be in 10 or 20 years, I just don't know if the current path I'm on is conducive to that goal. All I can do is keep doing what I'm doing, to the best of my ability, grow as a person and trust in the process. But I'm hoping answering these three questions every day will help to provide me with some clarity. I'll answer these questions for the first time this evening, as I forgot to write my journal for yesterday (which is what I'm doing now) and I can't really remember much about it today.