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NEW VIDEO: The EASIEST Way to Stop Gaming

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Hey guys! I'm Jesusboy77 (I know it's probably not the most common username but I'll explain why I chose it later in this post) and I am anxious, slightly afraid, content, excited, hopeful, relieved, and worried to quit video games! 

Basic background info you should know about me:

I am from Birmingham, AL, am 19 years old, am a rising sophomore in college somewhere in Tennessee, am planning on majoring in Spanish or History, and later going to seminary after college to become a Christian minister or preacher (hence the username) and maybe possibly a schoolteacher sometime as well.

My personality (in regards to my video game addiction):  

I have ADHD and am hyper. Yes I do get distracted easily, but weirdly I can also get occassionally hyper focused on somethings, especially pleasurable things like video games, and ignore everything else that's more important, like eating or people or something called real life. Plus I have an addictive personality, so it's almost like I'm addicted to video games or something crazy like that!  But that's preposterous, I don't have a problem at all! (wink wink)

The serious part of my introduction (I am usually not that serious but I decided to cut the silly rambling out of this post because it's already really long):

I obviously am addicted to video games because I'm posting on this forum.

I played my first video game on the playstation I got in preschool and dropped out of playing soccer in kindergarten, boy scouts sometime in third grade, basketball either 4th or 5th grade, and baseball after fall of 6th grade. Then after 6th grade confirmation I decided church was too boring and that playing video games on Sunday morning would be so much more fun. So after 6th grade all I was really doing for fun was playing video games and I had stopped hanging out with my friends.

I played daily once I got home from school until 1 or 2 or sometime in the morning from 7th to 9th grade because I was a very awkward bullied kid with no real friends except on Playstation Network. And so I quickly became your average shy insecure "shouting and cursing every other sentence" middle school boy who plays way too many video games to try to escape real life.

At the beginning of 9th grade, I went to a new school where I had no friends, a private school so I could be more academically challenged. So I was upgraded to a slightly smarter than average shy insecure... high school boy... to try to escape real life.

As I was starting 9th grade, one of my family members got in a car wreck in August, my grandma passed away in September, and my family had a hard time coping with the loss, and one of my family members started becoming addicted to something that resulted in a few months of having a level five hoarder house, an intervention in April, and a court order for one month of rehab for my family member.

The summer after 9th grade I decided to go on a Christian Youth Retreat even though I knew absolutely no one in the Youth Group. To make a short story long, not only did I end up opening myself up enough that week to dress up like someone from one direction and then get on stage in front of 700 people and lip sync a one direction song with 4 other guys in the youth group, and I felt accepted in the Church for who I was (I know that regretfully doesn't always happen for everyone but this post is about video game addiction not my religious beliefs) and I felt compelled to improve my life. 

So I started to try to stop playing video games but found it to be rather difficult even when wasting so much time playing them was against my beliefs (not the video games themselves, just the addiction and wasting too much time I was doing). And to make a long story short I've had lots of times where I would stop playing for a while and then relapse and make up for lost time without video games. The longest I've gone without video games was for 4 months during the first semester of my freshman year at college. But I really want to make it 4 years without video games like Cam has done! And I'm respawning now :) 

Also I'm really glad to find this forum :) 

One more thing... Now that I am quitting video games I hope to spend more time with my friends and family and doing community service to try to live out my faith and improve my Spanish!  

 

Edited by jesusboy77
I forgot to say what I was going to do now that I'm quitting video games
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Hi Jesusboy77,

Joining the forum is a big step in moving forward. There are times where you will feel cravings but they do pass I assure you. I decided to stop playing games on March 13th 2016, and i'm still going it feels great. You feel so empowered not wasting your life away with digital distractions.

It gets easier with every day that passes, and your will to stay away from them will help you.

You mentioned you are learning Spanish, and I wanted to post this handy website whenever you feel like you're about to relapse, go here instead: https://www.duolingo.com/

It lets you see measure of growth, in a fun way. I find it very helpful in learning dutch.

And of course, all of us here are here to help :)

Welcome aboard!

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Thanks for the suggestion Joba! I'll definitely check out out duolingo sometime! 

That suggestion actually reminded me of a question that I had thought to ask @Cam Adair earlier. Although I'm only in the first chapter of the Respawn guide (and I don't know this is covered in the later chapters), I was wondering if all games, not just video games, could fuel an addiction? I know it seems like a silly question, but after thinking for a while I realized that I am afraid that my brain may have subconsciously learned to associate normal games with video games, as 5 of the 8 reasons I want to quit video games would sometimes also apply to normal games for me (both make me feel like I'm wasting time, both make me irritable when I am done, both can make me lose sleep, both encourage me to procrastinate a lot, and I struggle to limit my time on both). Maybe this is just early anxiety, but I don't wanna let this anxiety build up inside me. What are your thoughts? 

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