Trying this out, hope it helps!

[Dreamer]

I’m a 47 mother of one. It’s only in the past year that I’ve started feeling like I’m using computer and iPhone games to escape. I am a single mother and it was really rough during the pandemic, working full time from home, while taking care of a toddler full time. He didn’t understand why I was there but couldn’t play with him much for 8-10 hours each day. Even though my college major was literally Developemental Psychology and I know a lot about how to handle children a behavior, I was maxed out and overwhelmed. He started having behavioral problems which then took even more mental energy to try and work on. So long story short, I actually did really good holding it together through those two years and was very proud of how I handled it all. Then when the pandemic finally stopped feeling like a ‘threat’, school started, and I finally snapped out of that ‘crisis’ mode is been in for two years….I kinda fell apart. Over a year’s time, my house fell into neglect, my yard fell into neglect, etc. I mean I got the basics covered, no child neglect, but not doing so good emotionally and very behind on cleaning, maintaining, organizing, etc. And now I’ve started spending way too much time escaping my reality by playing computer and iPhone games. It’s become all I really ‘want’ to do. I’ve faced depression a few times before and it’s not really that. Just want to escape to something (computer games) that doesn’t require a lot of thought but still makes me feel accomplished when I win it. I guess a lot easier and quicker than ‘winning’ at life, lol! So that’s what led me here. I hope This will help me to recenter my life and get back to a happy and complete-feeling home life. 

[seekndestroy]

Welcome Dreamer! I am also a mother of two. And I am exhausted. I am 51 years old. My oldest son is 20 and has moving to his own and my youngest is 17 years. My youngest is so happy now for me and my oldest Cheers to me. It is sad how much time I have spend on this game and games friend that cares about nothing than the game. But life is short and I wants to be there in it. I also escape, and I think we got that common with all players. And sometimes we need to escape. It just that this games is very addicted thing we escape to. It's like heroin or something lol. It's terrible . Because the game company does things to the game to keep us there because the only thing they want is our money. Good you found us here! I found this place this week. I ended to play this Monday. 

[Dreamer]

Yep, that’s what’s driving me to want to make a change…for my son 💜 I’m glad your kids are encouraging you, and what a great example you are setting for them about prioritizing what really matters and how to handle problems that seem overwhelming. Today, instead of escaping to a game, I went for a bike ride with my son and had a really good afternoon, so a good start I think. Won’t be easy though, I’ve gotten habituated to turning to my phone or computer all the time. Hard to break a habit, especially one that rewards your brain.