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Hi all, Today is the day, after 20+ yrs of gaming most days for 6/8+ hours, that I call time on it. There are many emotions going through me right now. But the strongest one by far, is relief. Relief that this potentially huge step has finally been taken and I can start to recover. I have lost so much to video games as I know everyone here has. I've missed out on relationships with friends and relations, I feel like I've wasted my 20s and I have nothing to show for any of it. Nothing positive anyway. The turning point was finishing a game earlier this year, RDR2, and for all the emotion, money and time I had given to it - in the end I felt nothing. It was at this moment I realized I had a problem. I'm just tired of feeling like this, looking for the next 'fix'/distraction, the mood swings, the constant feeling of self-loathing and disappointment, knowing that I was trying so hard to get away from anything real or based in real life. This has been such a dark cloud hanging over me for so long, as I'm sure it has been for us all, but I know I will come through the other side. And so will you too. Take care all

Hi fellow game quitters, After playing a large part of my childhood, I then quit video games in high school and throughout university cause I had some hard work ahead of me and some clear goals I wanted to achieve. But after I graduated and started my own businesses, I started playing, as a reward for making it this far and achieving my goals. But the more I played, the more I wanted to play, and the more I got better, the more time I would spend online learning tips and tricks and watching guides. All my free time (and sometimes even my work time when there was not much happening) , was engulfed by video games. The addict in me came back to the surface. I started playing less and less, and generally keeping track of how much I played (using the Habits app). 30 days ago I went cold turkey and I'm much better because of it. I just realised that games are made to keep me hooked in and I love playing them. So I'm just off gaming completely for at least 90 days and beyond. (I'm starting a new job next week so wish me luck) Has anyone here got addicted again even after long periods of staying off games?

...And hopefully the start of a more happier life. My name is Jens, i'm 20 years old, from The Netherlands and addicted to videogames (very surprising, i know ?). I haven't really thought about how I wanted to write my experience on this addiction, my problems and my life in general but i'm just going to start typing and i'll see where this thing goes. I just want to get it out here because I never spoke to anyone about it really. At this point in life I feel like i'm a complete loser. School is a disaster, I haven't finished any exams or made any progress since I started (roughly 4 years ago). I have no friends anymore, never had a relationship, no hobby's.. just no occupation besides games. I feel and look like shit and i'm a dissapointment to my parents, who always loved me and supported me all these years, financially and emotionally in the hope i'll figure myself out and find something I enjoy to pursue in to a career in the future. But no, I just don't. I've tried to quit these last few years, or atleast to better myself but I just keep coming back out of boredom, frustration or just giving up and i'm done with it. I hate it, everything about this life, i hate looking in the mirror or to see myself on photos or put myself in social situations because i hate who I have become.. this sad, lonely and pathetic person that has no qualities, ambition or or does anything interesting in life. I did enjoy games a long time ago when I was a kid, some where magical, challenging or just alot of fun. Those feelings, that nostalgia... it's like some high you try to pursue in the hope that you feel what you once felt playing games so many years ago. But that feeling is gone. Everytime i start up a game now and play there is this uncomfortable feeling, like a sign that your doing something wrong, and you know that feeling is you realising that youre wasting your time and you could be doing something productive but ofcourse you ignore it and keep playing.. and playing.. untill the day comes to and end and you did nothing productive and you feel like shit. Rinse and repeat. I know alot if people here ofcourse have problems regarding gaming and relationships and their mental and physical well being and I know i'm not in the worst situation. Im young, still have a life ahead of me and alot of opportunities. It's mainly the reason im quitting videogames, I don't want to feel like a loser in life anymore, I don't want to feel like im wasting my time anymore. I am going to sell my consoles, my PC, my monitor and my games, everything. So if I even have a strong craving there is no easy opportunity to just start up my ps4 or my PC again and relapse. Thanks for everyone reading this post ? This is day 1. I'll give an update in about a few weeks or after 1 month. For everyone struggling with this addiction aswell, good luck! I wish you the best.

Hey all, I am Third Degree, and I am going to start updating a journal here to help in my path to stay away from video games. This isn't my first attempt at staying away from gaming. I've made a couple month long absences but always come back. Recently, since graduating college, I've been playing a lot of video games when not in work, resulting in frustration from my partner in not prioritizing her and the cleanliness of our apartment over video games. My video game life goes back to when I was five years old, and playing video games has been an avenue of rage, escape, competitive outlet, social experience, and meter of personal improvement for me ever since. It's always been something that I can easily pay attention to and spend hours doing. 18 hour binges over weeks has not been out of the question for me, so in my worst throws of binges, I become a zombie. The most frustrating part of my experience with video games is my inability to fully understand what video games mean to me, like broadly understanding both the positives and negatives of my life surrounding them. I try and understand this better to replicate the things I love about video games in things that I can moderate better. Currently, I'm very tempted to continue watching twitch streams of people playing the games I like while I stay away from playing them, but I know that won't help me at all. Today, my first day without video games this current streak, I watched the anime Attack On Titan and have started reading a sci-fi Hugo-award winning book called Hyperion. I also cleaned the kitchen and have spent a lot of time with my pets. So, it has been a decent first day. I want to explore physical hobbies, like boxing and weight lifting. I used to weight lift regularly but have been away from it for a very long time lol. Anyways, that's my first day update. Will check in soon and hopefully start making some friends!

My son is 12. He has been playing Rust. He plays an hour and ten minutes twice a day every other day. He used to play other games but has become fixated on this game lately. I am gradually reducing his time. I realized after research this game has a toxic online community. It's been hard living in a hot place this summer no money to spend on doing things. Last night my son became very agitated when I would need to speak with him while playing the game. He has become disrespectful to me and doesn't want to do anything anymore except games. If I call him on the disrespect he gets more upset. He tells me to stop or it will make it worse (the volume. ) Someone in the home was not feeli G well and he was being loud in game (excitement.) I had him get off the game. He wanted to go back to it an hour later. I said no. I let him know what I found out about Rust and that I think it is unhealthy. I told him I don't want him playing it anymore. He asked me afterward if he could keep PubG and Unturned. I don't know how to proceed. I definitely want Rust gone. I don't want to crush it for him since he has friends from school that he plays with. I am going to tell him not to make any friends he doesn't already know. If any of them are behaving in a negative way, I don't want him playing with them. Here's my question. How do you transition off of specific games the child already has wants to play now instead of Rust? (Pubg Unturned Apex Legends) without taking everything he likes away or disturbing the entire household with an outburst? I feel these games are bad news. He likes creative survival etc. Any ideas help greatly appreciated. I think it has become a social feel good outlet and escape. Sincere thanks all

Hey guys I am 29 years old. My story begins a bit different to most, possibly not all I feel but ends up in disappointment, anger, and sadness as I assume most addictions do. I have been playing on and off for most of my life, I started playing hardcore when I moved to London 7 years ago. I was popular when I was in school and up until 7 years ago I fell hardcore into an addiction I did not know even existed, I tried justifying it every which way. I would smoke Marijuana all day every day, I lost my friends, I have been through countless jobs until about a month ago, I decided to turn my life around. I quit smoking cigarettes, I quit Marijuana, I started writing in a journal, I started meditating and... Today I start Cam's Respawn course to quit gaming for good. I feel like I have made a tonne of progress over this last month except for one area, my social side and I guess that is one of the reasons I am on the forum. Anyways, I have read a few intros' from a couple of ex gamers and I can appreciate the hardship some of you must have gone through, and I just want to say keep going, keep pushing. I have been lucky in regards to the support I have had from one very special person in my life... My Mother. Thanks, mom Buuuut... I would be doing a great disservice if I didn't mention Anthony Robbins. Read his books, or listen to them on Audible. My favorite is 'Awaken the Giant within'! I will keep you all updated and I hope to see some of you about. devunderdog

Hi everyone, I'm new here! I'm a 22 years old guy from Hungary, and I've had enough. Enough of wasting ALL my time on gaming that doesn't benefit me neither short or long term (I know that gaming DOES have some benefits regarding brain activity, but I'm way past that). I've had enough of distancing myself from my family, my girlfriend, my cat (!) and my real life friends in favor of gaming all day and all night. I've had enough of not being up to par in my university studies, and I've sure as hell had enough of raging because of some stupid game. I basically gamed through my entire life, I remember having played Medal of Honor Underground back when I still went to kindergarten... jeez. I played all kinds of single player games and I loved those the most that had great storytelling. I also played Team Fortress 2 and CSGO competitively, always trying to be better, and wasting all my time in the process. I basically became one with my gaming avatar. (And I was still average at multiplayer games). Weirdly, the game I loved most, ever, was Undertale. I had so many latent ambitions and goals and dreams, but they were always suppressed by the urge to play some more. I neglected everything around me and felt shameful about it, even hated myself about it. Even hated the world about it, because it seemed so unfair. That some people achieve so much while I struggle to even stop playing for a day... Even worse, I love everything about video games, it sometimes is one of the greatest art form in my mind. Basically all the internet content I consume is about gaming or creating games. Still, it is time to change, and I will try to do a 180° and put my life in the right direction. If you managed to read through this, maybe leave a comment or something, and have a nice day! And if you haven't read this, have a nice day anyway. Or night.

Day 1 (of tens or possibly hundreds of attempted Day 1's) and accompanying post-gym word vomit I've got "STOP BEING A FUCK" scrawled on my arms in vivid, having woken up at 8pm in the evening after another extended cycle of 16 hour binges with 8 hour interludes for sleep and eating. For the amount of times I've been back to Day 1 I might as well get those words tattooed on to save money on stationary. Though Day 1 is familiar territory, this is the first time I've tried the forum. I find reading other people's stories encouraging, no matter the differences in their circumstances or stage of self-improvement, and intend to engage with other people and be on here regularly. I've already got a written daily affirmations journal (which has a few cobwebs on it), but I'll also be implementing the GQ's program and am open to suggestions from repeat Day 1 offenders as to any helpful bits and pieces which they found success with. As is the case with any writing, the hardest part to this is starting. A similarity between this and the actual self-improvement I'm wanting to achieve, is that it's easiest to pack it in on the first sentence of the journal, or first hour of not gaming. Fortunately I'm not graded on this, so it will (at least in its early stages, which I'm hoping will be followed by later stages) likely resemble a word vomit of thoughts. Even if it's only me angrily bashing the keyboard and smearing asdfghjkl across the post, the key is that I hit the "submit topic" button once a day, and if I don't, that I forgive myself for failing. I have no idea whether this will become a tidy affirmations journal or a daily rant, but I do know I need to keep doing it. In the game of habit correction every little bit counts. This perfectionism is something I've struggled with historically as I imagine many other repeat visitors to Day 1 do - the all in mentality of having completely followed the program, or conversely throwing it in the bin as soon as I sleep in for an extra hour and reverting to . To borrow from Game of Thrones, I want need to break this behavioral wheel of initial success, slight and then total failure, and then waiting until the self-hatred and general unpleasantness of living the 16 hour binge life builds to the point warranting change. My thought process at this stage is usually the same, as it is now: I am in a place of considerable unpleasantness, what options do I have to change this Option A: commit Sudoku. Permanent but extreme solution. I'm also not allowed to do this, as my parents and I have agreed that I must talk with them first if I'm to consider this option. (Dead serious, we actually had this conversation.) If I'm not going to off myself, I might as well make some improvements From here it's been the usual routine of clean room, wake up earlier, gym and yoga until some hitch hits and the gaming and accompanying lifestyle bleed in little by little until I'm back to square one. I've been back to Day 1 more times than I could count in the last 6 months since finding the program, and it's been at least 5 years since I realized something needed to change. Same train departing the same station, but the difference between this and the first time I realized something needed changing is the knowledge of the various times I've tried with varying results to make such changes. The other difference is my signing on to the forum, which I'm hoping will keep the feeling of momentum going in making such changes and arresting the bad habits before they hit critical mass and the familiar trudge back to Day 1 mentality is needed. To try avert the pitfalls of the aforementioned perfectionism I'd been using a car analogy, "if the tyre is popped, you change the tyre, rather than throwing out the whole car." I think this applies on a daily basis, but in the big picture doesn't work to the organic long term nature of gaming and what I and many other people are trying to achieve on here. Gaming and the accompanying negative behaviors I'm trying to rid myself of are better described as a cancer (an unfortunate internet/gaming cliche I know). I might improve my sleep cycle, morning routine, exercise habits and a wealth of other things, but there was always be some part of my brain attempting to engineer the regrowth of old less desirable behaviors. You can't just cut out the behavior once and expect it to be permanently fixed. I need to accept this and keep checking in and cutting them out when those behaviors do reappear. Conversely, no matter how many times they do resurface it is essential that I work to cut them out as soon as possible. Little by little they all have some cost which everyone here is all too familiar with. The longer left in the higher this cost becomes. I've talked with Cam. I've read the all the GQ materials and various blog posts. I know this can work and I've seen other people's stories where it has. I also know I could find myself back here again. The important thing this time around is building on all the other times rather than walking right back down the all to familiar cycle I've run through far too often. It is my hope that through documenting this and also interacting with people's stories I'll go one or a hundred steps farther than what I have before. lessgo boiz Quick about me: 23, Uni Student, Hobbies incl: Guitar, DJing, Yoga, Daily Gym (need to do cardio though). Looking for (amongst other things): Experiential advice, book or material recommendations (will be downloading the 3 books fawn_xoxo recommended on another post), a general sense of purpose nb: list not exclusive. Goals for right now Decent nights sleep (it's 5am now so as decent as possible), no screen in bed, set alarm and wake up by 2pm (v ambitious). Goals for tomorrow Clean room, remake longer term goals and short term habits to achieve, post again, gym, don't game.

I would first like to say I am happy if any Gamequitter member decides to share, or take & use the information here! For your reference to help along the way here is .. A welcoming statement In preparation for a 90 day detox and beyond .. First move the consoles & games out of sight so it stays out of mind .. This includes uninstalling them from the computer & devices! .. Once it is done you can move on from there & a lot easier I might add. Getting rid of the games for good enabled me to finish the detox strong, consider that. After that you need to teach yourself how else to spend that free time! Make sure you are eating healthy, getting daily exercise, & proper sleep .. NUTRITION - big minefield of controversy I personally am behind a plant-based diet .. This upcoming documentary backed by Producers Arnold Schwarzenegger & Jackie Chan .. Check it out ✌️ I won't respond in forum to this topic but you are welcome to message me .. Find some hobbies to replace the time gained ..https://gamequitters.com/hobby-tool/ Start some kind of journal with pen & paper, online here, or both! .. https://forum.gamequitters.com/index.php?/topic/3160-guidelines-templates https://forum.gamequitters.com/index.php?/forum/11-daily-journals/ Do consider checking out the Respawn program offered here as well .. For what little cost think about that return on investment! .. Cross-examine other areas in your life you find consuming your time .. Excessive consumption is what leads to the time crippling addictions .. Replace such excessive consumerism by using your free time to create. Our one life, the time that we have is meant for so much more than feeding addictions .. You might not identify as an addict and that is fine .. If you are here for any reason to quit video games that is still a benefit to you❗ Thank you for signing up and joining our united cause to make the most of our time -- Give this your best and I am sure you will do well Welcome to the forums!! Neil, Ex-Gamer Addict, Gamequitters Member Direct Message Me, Discord Support Chat Article: How To Quit Playing Video Games Article: Four Reasons We Played Video Games Article: Alternative Activities By Game Genre Article: Why You Should Detox Find a Video Game Addiction Therapist Download A Gamequitters Podcast Read A Gamequitters Blog ?