Cravings becoming stronger over time, instead of less

[all4game]

I do not believe I am a video game addict, but I have been in the past and certain games are addicting. I searched for how to quit gaming and saw GameQuitters channel and website and watched Cam Adair's videos. I am doing this more for experimentation to see what my life would be like without gaming, so far I have only had 3 cravings and I am 72 days in. After this I plan on reflecting of those days and see what I can change with my relationship to gaming. Cam said that cravings are worst at the beginning, but I am feeling like my cravings have increased (over the past 3 days). Over the past 3 days I have experience a constant crave, almost, I noticed being outside and exercising greatly reduced my cravings to basically none, so I might do that If I want to endure 18 more days.

 

I have done some research and I've basically concluded that gaming is a waste of time if you are not having fun, even then its debatable, since it is an illusion. I was hoping that working on my website and podcast I would become passionate and entertained by it, but I have not. I feel my "higher purpose" is to work on my website and podcast, which might explain why I want to go back to gaming. Another reflection so far is that without games, time seems to slow down, not to a grinding halt, but it is noticeably slower. I noticed that I do not stay up as late or sleep later either, which was never a great problem, but I would much rather go to sleep and wake the same time and get 8-9 hours of sleep instead of 6-7 hours and have various sleeping and awaking times.

 

Another reason is that I have family vacation the day after my 90 days and I do want to go and have plans to but, all I have for gaming is a laptop that can run civ 5 on lowest settings. I am afraid I might go into a binge and do nothing but game all vacation, but I do not believe I will because during family vacation I am usually the person who finds things for the family to do, because I would get bored sitting in the hotel room all day long with nothing but a laptop and smartphone to play games on. The vacation is only 5 days and It's a 7 hour and 30 minute drive there, so I want to game because I enjoy gaming on road trips. I could watch videos on my phone, but the screen is small and the audio is bad, and I can't download the video to my hard drive, which I do for every video. I also like sightseeing, but the roads from Florida to South Carolina are boring unless you are on the coast, in my opinion.

 

Two games also come out, Greedfall and Borderlands 2, Greedfall I do not have much interest in so I can easily wait, but it looks like a good game. Borderlands 2 is something I am certainly interested in, my friends will probably want me to play it, which is why I have set myself as invisible on discord and steam.

 

I have OCD (clinically diagnosed) so I do feel an urge to complete a game, likely because of the urge to complete something and finish what I have started and the sunken cost fallacy has made me game more than I wish. I still think frequently about all the games I'm going to complete when I end the detox. I have done some research on delayed gratification and how successful people delay gratification. I am also using this experiment to build up my discipline, which I can use in others areas in my life and to keep doing the good habits I am doing. I do not indulge outside of gaming basically at all. I have a strict and healthy diet and no alcohol or drugs.

 

I still wonder why 90 days. Is it because it sounds nice and it is 3 (30 day) months and 1/4 a year, I wonder. I have heard this as a magical number for detox from gaming and porn, but why? I haven't found studies to suggestion why, I seems to be a made up number. I would greatly appreciate if someone could link to some info and studies on this.

[seriousjay]

23 hours ago, all4game said:

1) Another reflection so far is that without games, time seems to slow down, not to a grinding halt, but it is noticeably slower. I noticed that I do not stay up as late or sleep later either, which was never a great problem, but I would much rather go to sleep and wake the same time and get 8-9 hours of sleep instead of 6-7 hours and have various sleeping and awaking times.
 

2) I still wonder why 90 days. Is it because it sounds nice and it is 3 (30 day) months and 1/4 a year, I wonder. I have heard this as a magical number for detox from gaming and porn, but why? I haven't found studies to suggestion why, I seems to be a made up number. I would greatly appreciate if someone could link to some info and studies on this.

1) I noticed this too. I think it's because everything is greatly sped up in video games. Days are much shorter, there's none of the boring day-to-day stuff in between exciting events, relationships develop over a matter of hours instead of months or years, etc. The further removed you become from games the less this will impact you. I know I've seen my patience improve substantially.

2) The point of quitting games isn't to quit them, but rather to replace them with habits that lead to a more productive life. If you quit games for 90 days and do nothing to change your day-to-day, odds are you'll just go back to games after 90 days. I can't speak to anything about dopamine receptors or anything like that but the 90 days was never about that, to me.

Also, I think cravings sort of work on a bell curve kind of thing. They'll go down over time but you'll still have those peaks of intense cravings from time to time. For me about 6 or 8 months in I ended up spending a month on Terraria before putting it back down. It does get better over time, I can vouch for that!

[creationlist]

On 8/28/2019 at 10:47 AM, JustTom said:

It's supposed to be enough time for dopamine receptors to reset back to normal functioning, instead of overstimulating on the addiction and understimulating on everything else. But I did just take Cam's words for granted, I'd also like to see an actual study about it. 

Thats interresting. I was also curious where the 90 days came from.

Reading over some papers for drug addiction rehabilitation, 180 days seems to be the average.

They even use dopamine to ease the rehabilitation process and lower the risk for strokes.

This is also interresting to read, https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/320637.php all i found about deficiency is always reversible, since as i understand it dopamine can be produced in to many different parts of your body.

Anyway dopamine must play a big role with computer gaming addiction.

I know where I am without computer games. It is so much easier to find joy in the different things I do.

It's like, I notice that i get tired if I game alot. But that joy in gaming makes it easier to stay awake. Wich makes sense becouse producing dopamine makes me enjoy things. Without gaming however I notice that I have more control over the things I want to enjoy.

It's like regaining the ability to produce dopamine when you want it. Not when you are forced.

Edited September 12, 2019 by creationlist

[TwoSidedLife]

In my experience they usually get stronger before going away to a permanently much lesser craving - but that's from my experience to pot addiction (I smoked it for 3 yrs straight every hour or two). While they're not the same, I consider it comparable. The biggest challenge of it imo is to handle the cravings. It's the same as 'area' as learning how to deal with anger, becoming more patient, calming yourself down ect.

I use to use a 'drug track' kind of book to help me cut-down and quit pot. I'd consider it extremely helpful for gaming to. The point was that whenever you have a craving, you write down the time, the situation happening right now (usually correlates with the craving, but we don't notice eg. home alone) and how you feel (you can crave in any emotional state). If you ended up relapsing, you would write down how many (mins in this case), and how it made you feel. What surprised me the most about it was that i'd smoke whenever I was lonely and it'd just make me feel bored. Eventually quit cold turkey when I found real interest in something - slowly realised that I was bored of myself for not doing anything, that I had relied on ppl to make me happy instead.

My advice for 'dealing with' the thought of having to complete a game is that - The game will always be there. It's easier to imagine 'stopping' gaming, instead of 'quitting' it aswell. One implies that it's forever and that's not a decision you should make from the start.

If you recover from this, there's people who've been able to go back successfully, play reasonably and live their life as intended. It just happens that most ppl choose never to go back. But all in all - happy lives. It's not gaming thats bad, its our RELATIONSHIP to them that is problematic.

Also hope that you don't bring any tech on your holiday. I've been overseas 3 times. 1st time I spent majority of it gaming on a laptop. Next two times were way better since I didn't bring it. Next time I go, I don't want internet access at all - too tempting to download games.

[CornishGameHen]

On ‎9‎/‎14‎/‎2019 at 10:28 AM, TwoSidedLife said:

My advice for 'dealing with' the thought of having to complete a game is that - The game will always be there. It's easier to imagine 'stopping' gaming, instead of 'quitting' it aswell. One implies that it's forever and that's not a decision you should make from the start.

If you recover from this, there's people who've been able to go back successfully, play reasonably and live their life as intended. It just happens that most ppl choose never to go back. But all in all - happy lives. It's not gaming thats bad, its our RELATIONSHIP to them that is problematic.

I appreciate this answer.  I am not sure if I am really addicted to video gaming either.  I'm here to experiment and determine if I get any cravings at all, and what emotional response manifests when I crave games.  What part of gaming do I crave?  And if I cave into the crave, will I lack the control to stop gaming?  I've been a casual/moderate gamer the past couple of years, with some intermission as well wherein I didn't play video games for weeks.  At one time I was addicted, but there was also a family tragedy that I was trying to cope with.