Quitting games hopefully forever

[TrevorA]

 Hey everyone, 

Im on here because im looking for support with quitting video games for good. I would normally say im looking to reduce the amount of video games to a normal amount but given that my unhappiness with myself and my life drove me to cheat online and pursue video games to an unhealthy degree; im looking to leave games forever. 

 

I hope this will be a safe place to be during the transition. I'm very scared.

[Zeno]

Welcome! I would say this is a forum is about as good and as safe as the Internet can be, for people seeking either to get away from games altogether or to find some better balance with them. You'll get lots of good advice, some interesting insights, and a group of people cheering you on.

I would encourage you to go ahead and start a journal, start writing out the day-by-day experience of the change you're working to make. You can learn a lot about yourself by doing that, and it gives others on the forum a chance to help you.

One question off the top, because it's something I've thought about since I emerged from the distraction-fog nearly two months ago: What is it that frightens you about a life without games? If you can figure that out, and figure out how to face that fear and move past it, you'll already be a long way toward where you want to be going.

[TrevorA]

Im scared of losing my coping mechanism. My life is so far out of control that i cannot manage to even get it a little under control. Today is day one of no games and im beyond miserable. My mood is affecting others including my little one. 

[Rama K]

Hey! I joined yesterday and today is also day one of no games for me. 

It's rough, I mean it is really really hard. But what is the alternative? I attended my first ever cgaa (computer gaming addicts anonymous) meeting today online. It was terrifying and my heart was racing during the whole meeting. But I really felt proud of myself, during the meeting but afterwards it was so liberating. Liberating, not in a way that I'm free from my addiction, but as in I'm not alone and to witness that living life without gaming is actually possible. You can check out the website here https://www.cgaa.info/ and browse arround a little, also check the online meeting section for the scheduled meetings. They have meetings everyday.

Best of luck to both of us on this new journey! I wish you all the best.

[Zeno]

16 hours ago, TrevorA said:

Im scared of losing my coping mechanism. My life is so far out of control that i cannot manage to even get it a little under control. Today is day one of no games and im beyond miserable. My mood is affecting others including my little one. 

I get that. For a while I thought games were my way of coping with what seemed an impossible situation in my home life. At some point, I realized that they were my way of not coping with it. Gaming was simple escapism, but what I was escaping from was my responsibility for my own life and, to too much of an extent, from my responsibility to my children. They're all right now - young adults both of them - and I have a solid relationship with each of them, but I didn't help them nearly as much as I should have in dealing with the situation we were all in.

In other words, the only way to really cope with things is to face them directly and do something about them, not to run away into distraction. It does take courage, but that's sort of what adulthood - and parenthood especially - requires.

Don't let your experience on day one shake you too much. It's the initial shock of loss. It does get easier. Your brain will recover from being hyped up on distraction all the time.

What sort of gaming were you doing, and what hardware did it require? Removing that hardware, locking it away or - better - selling it off, may be a necessary early step, just to put the whole thing out of reach. If that won't work, finding other ways to block access to games and other distractions - social media can keep the buzz going, and can keep drawing you back toward games - can help a lot.

Edited May 30, 2021 by Zeno