Hello everyone. My name is Vincent.

I am here because gaming has had too much of a negative effect on my studies (and my life in general) for far too long. Now that I started my master thesis the fear of gaming affecting my success has finally given me the motivation to quit, and I haven't played any video games for almost 2 months. I have tried to quit a few times before and went through the same cycle of uninstalling and reinstalling games every time. But this time I have gone a step further by deleting my League of Legends account. The interesting thing is that I haven't really enjoyed playing games for quite some time, I just think that playing will make me happy but when I do, I always end up disappointed. In fact I feel that way about almost any activity that I think has no deeper purpose, I will think that indulging in it will give me joy, but similarly I am often wrong. And even if I do enjoy it, the feeling is temporary and will go away as soon as I am done doing whatever I was doing, leaving me with nothing but the feeling that I have wasted my time.

Since quitting I have started to work out more regularly (2 to 3 times a week) and I have already read several self-improvement books this year. The only time I am ever tempted to go back to gaming is when one of my best friends asks me if I will play again and I can't get myself to say "No", because since I quit, he and I do not have much left in common, so I always say "Maybe". I guess at some point I will have to tell him that I don't want to play anymore.

Hey Vincent! Welcome to the forums, awesome to have you join us. Looks like you've been taking a lot of positive steps. Keep going.

Welcome Vincent! I hope you find the forum helpful. Poke around and read other peoples stories in the journal section may give some insight. Maybe there is something else in common you have with this friend that you could do instead. When I quit I lost most of my friends. The ones that I stated friends with didn't understand what I was going through but chose to respect my decision. It may be beneficial to explain to your friend why you struggle with gaming and that it doesn't reflect on them or there experience with gaming. Unfortunately in life sometimes growing requires leaving people behind. The good new is you can always grow new relationships. Hope you figure it out man.