Nate: New here + my story

[nate L]

Hi Everyone, 

 

 

Its awesome to find this great community where there is support for addiction for video games! I believe that video game addiction is a much bigger problem then people think, and that there are many more gamers out there who need help breaking their addiction, but can't find the support. I think we need more of these communities and services to help video game addicts as this is a growing problem that is only going to get worse in the future. 

 

 

 

My name is Nate and I am currently 15 years old. From a young age I have been addicted to video games, starting at about 8 years old. I got addicted to free online games and played them as much as I could.  This problem got worse as I explored other kinds of games, especially mobile games. I am super addicted to Clash of clans and Clash Royale, and I played these games uncontrollably, whenever I am not doing anything else. I eventually started to play league of legends. This was one of the worst times of my addiction because I found myself glued to the computer screen every night, and my parents got really frustrated that I was beginning to neglect other things, such as doing chores around the house. After a few months of LoL, I uninstalled the game because I didn't want the addiction to get worse. But as I played more and more mobile games instead, my circle of friends diminished and I found myself growing apart from all my friends and family, and to this day I still struggle with my social skills. I find that this is the biggest reason why I believe I am addicted to games: because of my weakness to create and keep a group of friends. 

 

 

 

I find that I go through cycles of myself being happy and functional, when I am playing large amounts of video games. However, every few weeks or so when circumstances disallow me to play video games, my mood drops drastically, I become depressed, and am unable to concentrate on anything (such as schoolwork), and unable to sleep. I believe that these are withdraw sessions because they happen whenever I am away from my games. This is also why I believe I am addicted. I think that I need to stop these phases of mood swings and depression, and I find that if I don't quit I think this problem will become much worse and I will be unhappy in my adult years. 

 

I play water polo, play the piano (yes, I'm asian, trying to finish my RCM Level 10 right now), as well as volunteer coach water polo. I also enjoy  I really enjoy doing these activities but whenever I don't play video games, I lose interest in these activities and just about everything else. Somehow, I manage to keep an A average in school (i'm especially good at math), and my goal for this school year is to create a bunch of friendships as well as strengthen old ones, because I lack a truly supportive group of friends that really care for me and enjoy having me around. 

 

I am still in the process of deciding on whether I should quit for good for the rest of my life, i've uninstalled and reinstalled clash of clans on my phone a million times by now, but I think I should quit because I can see gaming having a negative impact on my future. I hope to find support in this journey in recovering from this addiction, in this struggle to create new friendships and experiences and hopefully carving out a successful path for myself in the  future. I look forward to working will all of you in the Game Quitters community and thanks to Cam Adair for founding  this unique place for all of us to enjoy. 

 

I apologize for the length of this email, but I wanted to show you my story and my current state right now. Cam, I'd love to keep in touch with you through this or email, to help me through my recovery and hopefully a new life. 

 

Nate 

[WorkInProgress]

Welcome to the forums. It was a great decision to search help. Especially if you feel like games are damaging your real life.

For me personally it was really helpful to make it through the 90 day detox and write a journal here in the forums. My original Detox journal is somewhere back on the later pages but feel free to check it out (it isn't a nice read though: A lot of rambling in bad English ;)). But putting my experience at the detox down in this forum and getting feedback from the community was really helpful. It also keeps you on track because you can see your progress and are held accountable.

So my advice is do the 90 detox and keep a journal. Read some of the other stories to. There is a lot to learn from the experiences of our other game quitters.

If you'll need anything just ask in a new topic or in your journal. Glad you are here. We got your back.

[Cam Adair]

Welcome Nate! Always glad to see more fellow Canadians joining us here. You're on the right track and you'll find a lot of support available here.