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NEW VIDEO: The EASIEST Way to Stop Gaming

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Hello everyone,

My name is Joseph. Given my decision to register an account and post, I have decided to quit gaming for good. I hope that by participating in this community and with enough determination and focus that I will be able to stop. Prior to this moment, I’ve already attempted many times to try to quit video games, with each successive one failing (the longest I’ve probably gone was about a month).

I was hooked on video games for about as long as I can remember as a kid. Even in kindergarten I would recall spending lots of hours in front of the computer rather than playing outside with others like how others would normally grow up, although I think this might be more of a common thing nowadays. I probably used it as a way to escape from a lot of the familial problems, the bullying and other issues I had as a kid growing up. To this day I still use it as a way to ‘self-medicate’ a lot of the anxieties and fears I currently have about living and taking control of my life, which I emphasize because it clearly doesn’t work and it only seems to delay and worsen my issues even further.

Currently my addiction isn’t as bad as it used to be, since many of these attempts have occurred within the past few years and I’ve been able to take breaks in between. My life overall has slightly improved over those few years as I’ve gone from being a college dropout to back to being a college student again (and my marks so far are pretty average, but could be better).

However, whenever I end up relapsing I return to some of the usual habits of gaming for hours and hours without much of a break in between. I think the reasons for such relapses are the fact that I haven’t replaced these hours with other meaningful activities. Much of the time I’ve spent playing games for example ends up being spent on surfing the Internet on time wasting things, for example. This is alongside the fact that I feel that gaming is my escape from reality for the reasons I’ve mentioned above.

Anyways, to keep the rest of this short and brief; I’m only doing this because I find that now that I am a college student again (and want to be in college) and that I still have a few years left that I need to make the best of in regards to my experience. I definitely have many goals I want to accomplish over this journey, which I don’t want to elaborate further without turning this post into more of the essay that it already is, but hopefully it will all work out in the end.

 

Edited by RControl
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Hey Joseph! Awesome to have you join us here and you are definitely in the right place. You will find a very encouraging and supportive community here, and if you read the journals of others you will find many who have been successful! Do you have any ideas on new activities you can replace gaming with? That's certainly the best place to start. We can brainstorm if you don't.

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Hey Joseph! Awesome to have you join us here and you are definitely in the right place. You will find a very encouraging and supportive community here, and if you read the journals of others you will find many who have been successful! Do you have any ideas on new activities you can replace gaming with? That's certainly the best place to start. We can brainstorm if you don't.

I have a few activities in mind, some smaller activities to begin with include learning how to cook, doing some more reading, learning meditation and experimenting with exercising and fitness (the latter I've already begun doing the past few days). I say smaller because I have other larger goals I want to accomplish in mind, but I find these goals very daunting - it's part of the reason why I retreated to video games in the first place. I might elaborate further when I start a journal entry.

Summer school (which for me began recently) also preoccupies a bit of my time away from the computer as well and gets me out of the house, so that will help me quite a bit.

Edited by RControl
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Oh very cool! @kortheo started learning how to cook after he quit gaming too. I think the 4 Hour Chef by Tim Ferriss is a good book to read that can help. When it comes to goals being daunting, bringing them into smaller milestones is the right way to go. A book that many in this community are big fans of is The Slight Edge by Jeff Olson. Consider reading it too :D

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Hey Joseph or @RControl! I feel like I should say something regarding meditation (or prayer if you are religious). I'll just give the non-religious advice unless you want the religious/spiritual too (just tell me if you want it).

There are two usual focuses of the meditation that I do (3 if you count the whole God and Jesus thing): nothing (or as close to nothing as possible) or some personal dilemma with options/ issue with choices. Focusing on nothing can be very difficult sometimes because it can be very boring to be still (especially for someone with ADHD like me) and that can be a trigger for video games. Nevertheless, what I do is I acknowledge what I hear and see and release the thoughts from my mind. For example, I might see a squirrel, and then my mind will say "ok, there's a squirrel!"  and then I release that thought from my mind. Then I move on until I see a tree or hear the air conditioner or hear Michael Myers breathing right behind me and do the same thing: notice, acknowledge, release. Usually I only do this as preparation for the second focus of meditation I do.

If I want to focus on a question or dilemma that's been bothering me (from small questions like "what homework assignment should I start on first?" or "what should I eat for lunch" to major questions like "should I date Katie?" or "should Katie and I use protection?" or "What should Katie and I name our kids?" or even deep questions like "Why does evil happen in the world?" ), then I will often either have a discussion or a debate with myself trying to think about the issue from multiple perspectives (almost like pros and cons). I did this a lot after doing high school debate and having to argue against my initial opinion often times would change the way I thought when I realized my old way of thinking was wrong or illogical. I usually find a lot of insight focusing on questions I have :)

Last thing, I saw you also were interested in exercising! Why not combine meditation and exercise in the form of yoga or martial arts? I hope this helps at least a little and good luck man!

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To @jesusboy77: The first part of that reminds me a lot of what this guy is saying in this video (when your thoughts come and go like waves at its peaks and troughs):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPlG_w40qOE

Anyways, I will be sure to look further into that as well as the other suggestions. Some of the exercises I've been doing do involve some yoga (like the wide squat pose, for instance). Martial arts is interesting, but learning that will be quite a big undertaking when there's other things I want to do as well.

I've seen your introductory post here, and I too wish you good luck in your endeavors. :)

Edited by RControl
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Hello Joseph!

You're doing a great start to abstain from games for a while.

However if you want to stay away from mindless Internet browsing, you should try a LeechBlock add-on.

It can help A LOT in time management during Internet usage (you probably need Internet for college activities, right? :) )

Greetings, Mad Pharmacist

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