Building a better tommorow

[pagepuga]

Hello everyone,

I'm Tomas from Lithuania. Self-employed, working at home husband. But there is a problem, I can't help myself to stop playing video games. There is no such thing as: "Well, I'll just play for 1-2 hours" Every time this happens, I end up just going on a gaming spree for hours or even days. I become hard to talk with, I don't eat well, I don't do my job. I'm looking to change my behavior once and for all.

I've actually had some success during this summer and haven't played for ~100 days by doing a proposition bet with my friend who is also a gamer. But after the summer ended, everything collapsed. I just went out to basically play League of Legends for a week without any serious breaks. Gaming like this serves no purpose in life, it drains my mental and physical energy, there are times where I'm not even having fun playing, but I'm "forced" to finish the whole match.

I want a fresh start and I hope that I can share my journey with you guys.

My goals:

Long term:

1. Quit video games for good!

2. Start regularly exercising.

3. Finish my board game.

 

Short term:

1. Don't play any video games for 30 days. (1/30 complete)

2. Exercise at least 2 times a week.

 

Also, not all video games are bad. I have some great examples of games which involve something else without a mouse, keyboard or a joystick: "Rocksmith" and "Just Dance". These two games are great learning/exercising tools which I will be using during my free time to relax.

That would be it for now.

[WorkInProgress]

Welcome to the forums. Congratulations on realising the problem and searching support. To post here regularly (even if it is just 1 or 2 sentences) is one of the best things you can do to get over games. DO you have an idea why you started gaming again after this 100 days? Realising the reason could be the key to permanent success.

 

I came always back to gaming because I needed to distract myself from pressure and challenges in my life..I did stay at home during my studies while my former gf and recent wife was out working. But i played LoL all day most of the time,n lied about it and felt like shit afterwards. Imho there is no gaming in moderation with LoL. Especially the ranking system is just too addicting. Giving away my LoL account 2years ago was the most important step to quit gaming for good. It hurt and felt like loosing a lot but without this action I would never quit gaming nor found this community. It took me another year to quit gaming completely, mostly because I never looked for support in this.  Now my relationship with my wife is better then ever and I feel able to be a father (now that I can take control over my life). I also found a passion and feel a purpose which I missed basically my whole life. I can just say that it's worth it even if it will be hard at some times.If you are able to do so, delete your your LoL account or give it away, if you are not think hard about it after your 30 days. If you have any questions or need some starting points just ask here. We are happy to help.

[Reno F]

Welcome, pagepuga!

Nice to see you're taking action! I'll be following!

[Cam Adair]

Hi Tomas! Welcome and good job starting your journal. I know this will be beneficial for you.

[pagepuga]

Thanks for responses guys!

Today was a good day, had a my haircut done, watched a movie, played some guitar. So I guess 2/30 is complete. In regards to my relapse, I think I watched too much videos on youtube/twitch and got hyped to go back and recreate those moments, also our bet was over which eased it a little bit too. Anyway, haven't watched a single video containing video game footage today, except for some chess blitz

[WorkInProgress]

Yeah gaming content can be a big Trigger. Do you ahve any goals besides exercising ? Do you have a plan regarding your exercise?

[Remigjus]

 WELCOME ABROAD!

[Cam Adair]

Definitely be careful with watching videos. Those lead to gaming.