My story

[Juha]

Hey everyone,

My name is Juha. I'm a 24-year-old guy and I have been addicted to gaming for more than 10 years already. My gaming started on PS1 with some 2000's games, can’t remember which, but that's not relevant. 

Past:

When I got my first computer it barely ran any other games but runescape. At that point already it was such a grind something like 8 hours / day gaming, but the real game changer was when my brother moved to other country and I got my hands on his gaming PC. At the same time, I was so excited to finally have gaming PC, but I also felt so empty since my brother wasn't anywhere close, so I got deeper on gaming to avoid going through the feelings and loneliness. 

Present:

I have been diagnosed with deep depression and I see therapist twice a week. We have discussed all this stuff there. We even have tried to make some plans for controlling how much time I spend each day on computer, but I don’t have the self-discipline or control over that, it's more like when I sit at the computer, I'll be there +8h and then maybe eat something and go back or watch some Netflix. Almost all the time I spend, I spend watching some sort of screen. This year only my average gaming each day is more than 10h+, mostly WoW but CSGo time to time when my friends ask me to play with them

Gaming to me is an escape method which I have used for ages, it's helping me to forget my social anxiety and everything really. It feels like when I press my computer’s start button, it's also a start button to another side of me which in this situation is my addiction, from that point for the next hours it's controlling everything and trying to hold on it all the possible ways.

Alt + F4 (Quit gaming):

2014 I have already tried once to stop gaming, I sent a letter to Blizzard EU HQ where I gave them permissions to delete my whole Battle.net account. I also deleted every single game from my PC, it took a few months until I reinstalled most of them.

That attempt was a consequence due to one of my online friend sent me link Cam's TEDx Talk  

Last time I started gaming again just because I didn't know anything about what to do  when I'm not gaming but it's great to see what and how much Cam has done past few years to help us out on this.

Maybe I forgot some stuff but anyway here we go.

[Cam Adair]

Welcome Juha! 

[Tom2]

Gaming to me is an escape method which I have used for ages, it's helping me to forget my social anxiety and everything really

I have the same thought... Welcome to the forum

[Juha]

@Cam Adair @Tom2 Thanks both of you!

I'm going to take my first step today which we planned with my therapist, will plug off my computer and bring the wire to basement. Trying to keep it there Thursday and Friday and see what feelings / cravings it will bring to my mind and how I can manage that situation.

I'm thinking to delete all of my games aswell but at the moment that just feels insurmountable task. How I can manage with that feeling? Thinking that scares the shit out of me.

 

[Tom2]

Good to hear that you are making the first step

 

I'm not playing video games for 5 days now,(I know.... it's been only five days............ just want to share my opinion...) and I think the most important and effective way to forget video games is finding some other activities that can make you busy.

3 Types of Activities You Need to Replace Gaming

Actually, it's not my original idea...

If you fail to find one soon, the deep... dark shadow of the wires and computer will smear into your brain... 

 

In my horrible case(...), college subjects are making me busy and crazy(+mad, gloomy, etc).

I'm not telling you to study something.(It sucks... you know  I believe there are a lot of other good activities in this world)

I am not even a good student. I didn't go to school for 2 weeks in this semester. I know that I won't get good grades. I just do it because I decided not to escape. My goal in this spring is just finishing the line with whatever I have. (And after that, I want to get higher grades in the next semesters) I have nothing to lose and I know that I'm getting better in this process.

How to Overcome Escapism

YOU DON'T HAVE TO BE PERFECT

These are the videos that made me set up my mind.

 

 

 

 

Try to find something that can conquer your brain.

I think it is ok if you're not good at it (as I suck at studying)

Consider a lot of options(except learning engineering............... just kidding) , try anything that interests you.

 

Hope you feel better tomorrow, cheers 

Edited April 26, 2017 by Tom2
fixed link