Hey guys!

[games_be_gone]

Mark from Chicago here! This is my first time ever trying to quit video games.

Video games have been a big part of my life, in the sense that I spent a ridiculous amount of time and money on them. Ever since I was around 5-6, I started playing video games. In the past, it wasn't really so much of an issue. I maintained good grades in elementary/middle school, and got into a good highschool.

After that, things began to slip. I did the bare minimum in highschool, while gaming whenever I could. I'm talking about 10+ hour marathons on weekends, and 16 hours/day in the summer. Gaming was a form of escapism for me, and an excuse that prevented me from socializing in my early years. On top of that, I developed low-grade depression (a form of depression spanning a period of several years), and a pot addiction my senior year of high school. I ended up stopping smoking pot completely, and am clean for about a year and a half now.

Freshman year of college was really rough on me. I failed all my classes first semester, and fell into depression again. I ended up being prescribed anti-depressants, and found I felt much better coming in the second semester. My second semester was slightly better, but I again failed one class that I retook this semester.

This semester, things are pretty bad. I went from having a 2.2 to 2.0 cumulative GPA, and failed my academic probation by getting a 1.9 GPA this semester (close to my required semester GPA, but not quite there). I'm up for review to get kicked out of the University - there is a good chance I will be placed on double probation, but no guarantee. I have to wait until the beginning of January to hear back from my advisor/the school board.

I seem to be a bit more fortunate than many in the sense that I have decent social skills, and am in a two-year relationship. I noticed my case is a little bit different than most people's - rather than consistently playing over the past 5 years, I binge for periods of a few months. This binge is generally triggered when I find that I'm too stressed out, and I naturally turn to video games, which numb me out a bit. I go from playing a few hours a day, to not leaving my room or skipping lecture.

As an example, I started off this year doing fairly well. However, when things got a little too stressful, I picked up gaming again as a form of escapism. I played The Witcher 3 for 12 hours a day or so, and began to indulge in other games, such as LoL, SC2, and CS:GO. I withdrew socially, and stopped attending lecture/studying as much as I should have.

I missed important deadlines/assignments, which really screwed up my grades. But none of that seemed to matter when I was playing video games. As finals rolled around, I felt mentally fatigued (no doubt because of the video games and screwed up sleep patterns), and sort of gave up. 

Thanks for reading! I'm on day 2 of the 90 day challenge, and am about to go start a journal.

 

[Cam Adair]

Hey Mark! Welcome to the forum.

Chicago is one of the few remaining U.S. cities I haven't been to yet. I'm hoping to change that this year. 

Using gaming as a way to deal with stress is a common reason many of us play. One video I would encourage you to watch is this one about dealing with stress without using gaming.

Being able to learn how to deal with stress in our life is crucial. Whether we use gaming to escape it or porn or TV or netflix or mindless browsing or sex or drugs or alcohol or work or anything else, stress is going to occur in our life and it's unavoidable. Learning how to deal with it in healthy ways is a game-changer.

[Primmulla]

If you liked playing "The Witcher," maybe you would enjoy reading the book by Sapkowski on which the games are based? I am not sure if all of them are translated into English, but the first two short story collections definitely are. Alternatively, you could learn Polish in order to read Sapkowski in original version Polish is considered one of the most difficult languages (hard to say if it is true since I am a native speaker and it is quite easy to me) and you would need a lot of time to master it, which will undoubtedly take you away from games

[Django]

Hi Mark!

I hope you won't be ejected from your school next year. Is there a way of you coming forward to the school's authorities to ask for lenience and tell them you had to deal with a problem and that it's over and your grades will get better? Maybe you don't have to go into details, or maybe you should if they have counselors etc ... It's a school after all, I'm sure they have a bit of experience with gaming addiction. Not sure how they would help you, but I'd take all the help I can get.

NOW could be a fresh start for you. What steps did you take to remove these games and fight the addiction? There is a list with a lot of hobbies on this site, but one main activity would be to study and get those grades up! It's your future and doing great in school could be a great motivation. Something you will be proud of all your life.