Been here for years... just found out the source of my addiction

[karabas]

Ok so I've been on these forums on and off since 2018. They've helped me a lot to deal with my gaming addiction. It's not gone, but I manage it a lot better and my relapses are shorter and less damaging. Longest streak off of games has been 14 months! (edit: checked my journal on here and it was actually 18 months!)

I don't think I'm the typical GQ gamer. I don't do online games at ALL, my jam is single player stuff - grand strategy, city building, that kinda thing. I don't have gamer friends, I've never been part of a guild/clan/whatever. So your mileage may vary.

But a few weeks ago, I was diagnosed with ADHD (combined presentation) at 35 years of age.

And damn, it explains so much.

ADHD comes with low dopamine, so dopamine-boosting behaviors (games, shows... drugs) are particularly addictive for us. In fact, people with ADHD are far more likely to get addicted to substances... and my guess would be it's the same for gaming, too.

I haven't really seen this side of mental health discussed on these forums much (although to be fair, I've been away from this community for a while now, so maybe things have changed). For a long time, I wondered why I was so easily addicted to this stuff when those around me found it no problem to stay away from games if they needed to.

Well, now I know.

Posting this so that others may benefit from it. Check yourself for ADHD symptoms. You don't have to be physically hyper to have it.

Once you understand how your brain works, you can then actually work with it to improve. There are a bunch of things out there for ADHD that can make a huge difference. Not just meds, but those too.

Hope this helps some people out.

Edited April 2 by karabas

[Ikar]

Thanks for bringing it up. Myself, I don't have ADHD, but I do have several autistic traits.