Hello!

[Natasha]

My name is Natasha and to be honest I can't remember a a time when I wasn't playing a lot of videogames. Well, that's not true. I think I started when I was 5 years old. I'm 26 now. I cringe when I think of all that wasted time. 

I didn't get into a really problematic situation with games until I was 16 years old. My parents were going through a divorce and I was dealing with a recent breakup with the guy I had just given my virginity to. I met my now husband on World of Warcraft. We've been together for nearly 11 years now. Something we both struggle with is video game addiction. 

When we weren't playing world of Warcraft, we were playing literally every other MMORPG you can think of to take it's place. We always went back. Until warlords at least, for me, and pandaria for him. We played 100% through bc and halfway through wrath before we started playing 6 months on and 6 months off. When we didn't feel like MMOs we played things like Diablo 2 or Skyrim, Diablo 3, hearthstone...etc. we played cellphone app games, nintendo 64, ds, and PlayStation 2.

Gradually, over the course of 2 years we've played games less and less. Games interfered with our work, marriage, and time with our children. 

We've adapted minimalism and veganism into our lives and its helped us to cut back on games and television. I'm now at the point where I've been PC, and all gaming systems free for 2 months. Cellphone game free for a week. Its hard. I've developed compulsive behaviors. I clean a lot more now. And I color a lot too. But I feel such huge amounts of anxiety about not gaming. I got rid of internet and only use the data on my phone. I haven't used my computers in 2 months, and all I can think about is playing the sims, diablo 2, stronghold, or any game that doesn't use internet. I'm a stay at home mom so it'd be so easy to get hooked again. 

I want to be intentional about how I live my life. I want to be able to focus on now and be able to live in the moment without games or electronics. I want to prioritize my time on my children, husband, and on relationships with friends and family. But because everyone around me is addicted to games and electronic devices, it's hard to find support. So, now I am trying to find support here. I'm hoping to find friends who are going through the same thing so I can support others while dealing with this rollercoaster myself. 

[Hitaru]

Welcome and congrats for those 2 months! 

[Natasha]

Thank you, Hitaru. :)

[Cam Adair]

Welcome! You will find a lot of support here. Any questions just let us know. :)

[Bugg]

Welcome Natasha, I can relate to so much of what you have said, especially having been in a relationship where we both had the same video game addiction issues. My partner has had to go away for a while and so our relatoinship has taken a sort of hiatus, but I know I am going to have to address those issues if and when we reunite. By then I will have hopefully overcome my problems once and for all, but if he still games, I don’t know what that will mean for our future. I also started gaming when I was young, about 6 years old for me, and I’ve only started to recognise the problem now that I am 27. My gaming problems became at their worst when I was around 19 years old and I got into a pretty difficult relatoinship - thankfully I have moved on from that time in my life, but games have remained a crutch during the tough times. I’m also vegan and I’ve been gradually living a more minimalist life. I think being able to finally sell my PS4, games, my Tv and my dvd’s has helped me a lot on that journey.

Good luck on your own journey, I know you will find plenty of support and encouragement from the awesome group of people on this forum :)