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NEW VIDEO: I Quit MMOs and THIS Happened

Tired all the time, starting the 90 day detox


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Hello my name is Zach and I've been addicted to video games since 2005. I'm now 23 and have been trying to quit video games for the past couple years.

I've always been very tired sleeping for 15 hours per day and the only thing that ever seemed to cure this was playing runescape. Ever since I met my girlfriend now fiance I've found it easy to quit runescape as I'm always spending time with her. We started dating in Sept 2016 so I've done pretty good not playing runescape.

However I feel like playing video games at all takes away from my quality of life. I find that most things are very boring and I don't have motivation to do anything. This is probably like the 90 day detox video said my brain wants to play video games and it effected my reward system. 

The games I've not really wanted to play but just end up playing when I'm bored is pokemon go (this got me addicted to video games again, yes it help me meet my fiance and the game is quite social but I want to quit), angry birds, and a few other titles I find myself deleting and re downloading again.

I've since downloaded applock to lock the appstore. I was at first tempted to buy a cheap blackberry phone so I could still text but I use an amazing app called headspace to meditate which I'm on day 21 which I'm very happy of.

I felt I needed to come here at this very instance because I looked into a how to build an android app course and the first project is you build a simple card game. This was the first urge I got to play a video card game (not sure why I didn't get an urge to play actual cards) so I quickly put my laptop aside for 2 minutes then came here.

I have quit video games for short amounts of times many times. The biggest time was I did quit for around 90 days when I failed 1 course in college due to not studying for the final test and playing runescape because it was double xp. This felt amazing because I eventually got bored of being inside and went outside on walks and took pictures.

So anyways here I am on day 1 of my journey. My biggest problem is being tired and bored all the time. But hopefully without the option to game this will cure itself, maybe not though because having the option to game I still chose to lay in bed all day sleeping mind you not just twiddling my thumbs. I do need to eat better but I'm not eating horribly either. I just wish I had something to do that was as fun as playing runescape. 

Sometimes I get this thought in my head that if I played runescape it would keep me awake but then I know it wouldn't because I'd let my self down by a massive amount if I allowed myself to play that game again well after a year. It doesn't help that I've been getting dreams about playing runescape recently. I think these dreams message are to try and find something that is equally or greater fun than runescape.

You know it may not be perfect but for the time being I think just watching tv is the best replacement for gaming. I need a low energy hobby. The thing that I still need to find however is an instant reward system. Like gaming you got experience points and leveled up. I don't know how to find this in real life. The closest thing I can find is coding. HTML is fun but I'm more interested in a scripting language to make a program of sorts. I like to see the project grow bigger but then I want something to constantly do with that app which loops back to gaming like rolling dice or attacking a monster. If there was just a way to constantly use an app I create that's not gaming that'd be a huge breakthrough.

Nice to be here time to write a journal.

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  • 3 months later...

TLDR at bottom.

I just started my detox again after relapsing after 45 days then relapsing a few more times. After re-reading this I could see the gaming fog kick in towards the end. Life will get better, things will become more fun.

The reason I relapsed the first time was I got obsessed with working on my website and my fiance felt like I wasn't there. This was cured by me sitting in the corner so she didn't see me so she didn't feel ignored. Yet I still went back to gaming even though the problem was solved.

The reason I went back to gamign the 2nd 3rd and 4th time by even sticking with gaming for over 1 month was because I wasn't fully prepared. I've since watched the 90 day detox video again, 7 things to first expect when quiting, why you should quit gaming and going to watch a few more before bed.

The best advice I was ever given when I failed 1 course in college was to remove the option to game. So I decided to order the blackberry phone, texting capability with wifi and app support (non google play) I know the google play is addable on it through crack berry but at least that's another step and either way Pokemon Go is not supported, neither is Greasy Money, nor angry birds evolutions and even if clash of clans is supported, it's not like I could play on a 3" touch screen lol. So I think I'm set with this phone.

The phone arrives around 4/20 and I'll be listing my 3ds on ebay soon as well as selling my smart phone after I receive my blackberry and will look into selling my tablet as well cause thats a huge Clash of Clans trigger. Excuses I make to keep my tablet for ebooks are just my gaming addiction tricking me. I have to look at my reality, I've been buying physical books because I actually found I like them better than ebooks.

Someday dream of having a maybe 1-2 books shelves. 25% books for reference 25% books for re-readability and 50% for new books that I have to read then when I do read them if they don't fit into the previous 2 categories I sell or donate them.

I've since been enrolled in a youth job program in my city, acceptance wont know until monday but for some od reason I dont get accepted it just means im not ready and my worker will work on personal skills before then get accepted later. However she believes I'm ready...will know monday. It's 3 week paid training (get to work on budgetting too YAY!) I know a lot about basic budgetting but dont do it so this will put me back on track, and some other whmis and safety stuff. Then after that it's a placement where I chose trades as my focus but I was open to suggestions.

My previous job was a millwright which I went to school for (went back for 1 semester to finish failed class) still one of my greatest achievements ever in my 23 years on this earth. I got fired for many reasons, gaming was one of the big ones. From the employers view they may have fired me from trying to find a girl friend there (was hitting up 4 women at different times not doing my work just talking) but the real reason was gaming because I didn't have a good work/personal life balance where I could have met a woman from actually going outside...luckly I'm spiritually married now.

 

God I can write a lot...anyways that's one of the things I want to work on is doing TLDR. I do feel I need to write all this to flush my ideas and stress out but I like leaving TLDR for people including me who sometimes dont have the time or energy to reas through paragraphs. My long typing is more for me than you but aha if this helps you then awesome.

Sorry I'm all over the place, it's late and I have adhd, working on it :).

 

TLDR: selling everything that allows me to game, preparing myself better this time so I don't relapse by watching stop gaming videos/coming here for urges. Have some great books on success in my reading line up, just finishing the one thing, have the power of habit, and some other great books too I cant remember the names of. My one thing is meditating so I plan to do that everyday and have been for every day but one of the past 14 days. Going to find a buddy on reddit to quit gaming, try new hobbies & meditate every day.

 

Peace!

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Welcome back! Well done with the new plan on how to stick to not game!

Do you use some specific guidelines/apps/group sessions for the meditation, if I may ask? I have thought of it too but can't find my way with it... I tried the app Headspace but that thing wasn't made for me.

Cheers!

-Jani

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