Replacing gaming with worse! OVEREATING, IMAGINING, WANDERING. My three steps to overcome it.

[NewComer]

Hi, this my personal experience of my struggling with cravings and overcoming it. (as a male)

I quit video games and then I was drawn to other bad behaviors like overeating, wandering about, and imagining or watching video's on youtube. It's kinda retrogressing and I went from a bad state into another state.

Sometimes your mind craves for games, movies or something to stop the boredom, you might just wander in the house struggling with your cravings or killing time. You might be want to play all day and at the same move forward at the same time. One leg goes for games, etc and the other goes for doing what you want to achieve in life,like sports, dating, etc.

Youtube can be very helpful and handy at times if you use it correctly for example you can learn about self defense, but if you just watch a video about somebody getting pranked, you're wasting your time.

Overeating could be a reaction to many things, like stress and tension of life, work, exams, and it could also be a reaction to not receiving what your mind desires, games,etc.

I always told myself that I had to move forward and do what I really wanted and deep in my mind I knew it wasn't gaming. I set goals and tried to quit but it was a failure everytime because I still had second thoughts about gaming, that was the problem, I didn't let the past go. I had these problems, I overate because of the lack of gaming, watched videos on youtube, and wandered about for hours, days and maybe even months. Then I came to this conclusion after wandering in this forum for a while, a three-step self-guide to move forward : 

First, I had to let go of my past, even if I had a second thought about games I might have been tempted and relapsed.

Second, when I completely let go of the games, movies and past, that was the right time to set my goal, make a list of what to do, put it somewhere noticeable and set reminders to do my best to attain what I sought, which was sports and study but before that, I had to be prepared.

Third, I had 90 days to prepare myself for study and sports, so I did some exercises to make my mind ready to study (I didn't expect to study 7 hours a day from the beginning ), read a few books about studying and how mind works, etc . I was playing sports for about five years (like two/three times a week) so I was ready to train a bit harder in that case.

After that I was all set. 

Thanks cam and others here, I learned a lot and inspired by just reading about stories and topics. Cam's movies/guides really helped.

Edited March 19, 2017 by NewComer
I touched the enter key mistakenly.

[NewComer]

Please move this topic to another subforum like Mani Room, I wanted to post it there but I mistakenly posted it in dating, and touched enter key before I complete.

 

[AcupunctureFTW]

Great!

[ha535065]

Thank you for posting this! I worried about this as well! I find myself eating, engaging in mindless watching videos online, or trying to find activites to reduce boredum! I need to set realistic goals. 

 

One question, any tips on how to study for long duration of time? I want to study for 7 hours too, but find my mind wandering and getting bored! What exercises did you do? 

[KDY]

Cam has a useful video called "Stop consuming content".
I fall into this trap too -- binge-watching old TV series or crappy science fiction movies on line.  At least Cam's video made me aware of how I was substituting mindlessly staring at videos for mindlessly playing solitaire.

 

[Daniel]

Very interesting post, I can relate to what you are saying. It's like jumping from bad habit to bad habit. But it seem to me more like jumping from hyperstimulating activity to another.

[BigPete247]

When i was 19, i was a serious stress eater, never exercised, never even tried to do something proactive, the only thing i had to look forward to was gaming and whatever my dad cooked. I had friends that i would hangout with after school but with my dad being an army veteran, he apartment hops a lot so i never got to see them again, now 24 he lives with me and my grandmother in her house since his second house foreclosed 2 years ago.

It honestly wasn't until my 2nd year in college that i figured out that i had to lose weight. Being over 192 lbs in college wasn't great for my well-being and made me feel like one of those old people you see at retirement homes without the balding hair. Still gaming, i started doing something proactive and signed up for a gym and hit the weights and treadmill hard, sacrificing some of my game playing time. starting a diet, now i weigh almost 180 lbs feeling confident.

So, its ok, its all about how you take care of yourself, everybody who posted above may have similar advice, good luck NewComer.