Hello community, myself Krishna. Here is my story.

[Krish]

Pc and mobile gaming has been a escape mechanism for me. Playing games mess with the brain chemicals. Living alone, I couldn't stop playing when I played, yet had no withdrawal or anxiety when taken away{unlike substance addiction}. The best thing is I feel good and productive when I don't play. But it had been way too difficult to consistently avoid games. By God's grace my laptop's graphic card failed and I didn't get a new one. It helped a lot but did not stop me from occasionally playing low end and old games. Some low end games do not even require installation, just download a small file-click and play. Though I played occasionally now, yet it was a escape for me, and still is. 

After laptop's graphic card failed, a  new menace of mobile gaming started. And it was more severe. I just couldn't stop playing. On worst days played 12-15 hours and averaging around 7 hours daily. I wasted so much money on those in-game purchases. I tried quitting games but I realized I needed help, couldn't do it alone. Ultimately found a accountability partner to lock my smartphone, it stops me from installing games. With my phone locked and no graphics card my game time is vastly reduced. So right now I am at a very good place. 

The issue I am facing are -Firstly, all hell breaks loose when occasionally I ask for the full access to my phone to make some necessary changes. Its not as bad as it was because  I pick myself up within a day or two and give back access to my accountability partner. But I am still not confident to have a phone without a accountability partner. Secondly, I am not able to completely cut out wasting time on those low end pc games which I mentioned. Thirdly, the scariest of all is I have to get 3 new personal devices for work purpose- a new desktop pc, a new laptop and a new tablet. 

I joined this forum to connect and interact with people who were or are in similar situation me, where games have/had made their life difficult. And find tools and methods to stop playing games. I can pass on computer's admin rights to someone so I can't install games on pc. But then again there are browser games and games which don't even require installation. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

[WilderDaze]

This reminds me of when I tried to quit porn. My primary device for watching porn was my desktop PC, and I thought I would get rid of the behaviour more easily just by excluding that particular device. But of course I found other ways of watching porn, like on my phone for instance. So I set up a lot of blockers on my phone and thought that would do the trick... but then I found out you could find porn on Instagram, and I was back at it again. When I finally got some control over that I also discovered you could use private tabs on any device to override certain safety measures, and for some crazy reason this made it feel more OK to watch porn again. I searched for some plug-in to remove private surf all-together and that's where I'm at currently.

As with any addiction we have to go to the root causes that makes us want a coping mechanism in the first place. Because that's what is usually is at the end of the day - a comfort blanket that we use to us deal with the hardships of reality. Lots of modern therapy focus on cognitive factors in the present but neglect past traumas as a means to deal with the underlying stress that's causing the behaviour. It's like doing a gastric bypass on an obese person and then think that it will be enough to keep them fit in the future. But many of these people end up becoming obese again because they never treated the root causes of their problams, which are psycological rather than physical.

So right now you have to be honest with yourself and really put yourself under the looking glass. Addiction cannot be beaten with willpower, it rather comes from true transformation of the mind and the realization that games offer nothing of value. When you reach such a state there is no real struggle anymore, because it becomes your natural way of life. It's hard to explain, but the human mind really has an incredible ability to reshape itself if we give it enough time to do so. Initially I would just recommend you to try and sit with your emotions and your urges and try to be comfortable with the lack of a release. The brain has a way of balancing things out when it's cut from its usual dopamine sources and the baseline will eventually reset itself. Slowly you will start to feel more motivated in your daily tasks and even find joy in smaller things you took for granted before. Just give it time, brace yourself and stay focused - I know you can do it!