I was felt left behind

[Alec]

Since I was young I’ve been gaming now I’m 21 and I want to quit but it’s hard because it’s who I am. I’ve been in 4 different school and always games were the things that allowed me to not feel alone, in fact when I transferred to my 4th school I was alone for a month until I found the courage to talk to somebody about games and by chance they also liked to play video games, I’m other words I found two of my best friends thanks to league of legends. After high school I moved to a different country and now they are in college so we only talk while we play. It’s hard to move to a different country and feel the only way to keep our friendship alive is to game. I want to quit because it isn’t fun anymore and we are barely talk to each other at this point. It sound bad but I gotta move forward the same way they are doing. At this point I only game to not be left behind, it’s hard starting fresh new in a different country without any friends is tough.

[wheatbiscuit]

Hey Alec, welcome! 

Growing up knowing gaming intimately definitely made quitting hard here. I had planned to give up my favourite game by my 21st birthday too, but ended up relying on them for a while or two longer. Cam (GameQuitter in chief) has plenty of videos on YouTube about knowing when and how to give up gaming. There is also a package available to buy with interviews and a guidebook for motivation and thinking/reflective exercises. 

Gaming in order to not feel left behind or maybe to keep up socially I think works because doing so sharing a familiar virtual world makes that safer and easier. These forums and the videos from GameQuitters should be of help to you to support the choice of taking an extended break. If you use the Discord application, there's a link to GQ's channel at the top of the webpage; you could talk about other interests of yours like many others are doing there and here in the meantime!

~ Matt

Edited August 20, 2023 by wheatbiscuit

[WishINever]

Do you have anything in common with these friends besides gaming? Do you feel like they would truly have your back and you theirs in a bad situation? Sometimes you have to accept letting go of people. When life gets bad, you'll know who your true friends are and who turns tail. This also applies to friends who no longer get anything out of you. You make better friendships when you are involved in meaningful activities - they will have values like yours and they won't just be friendships of convenience. I no longer talk to most of the friends of convenience from my past. We went to the same school. We worked the same job. We drank at the same bar... or whatever - but beyond that there was little we had in common and in the end most of them proved to be toxic people.