Hey, so I don't know where to even start.
I'm a 20-year-old male and I've been gaming since childhood. I started at around 7-8 years old. Now, after so many years of playing, I don't feel any purpose in it.
Once the PC is off, the achievements are gone too. Once the electricity is gone, the servers are down as well. Reading a book is much less rewarding than gaming, but it gives you a real skill: better communication with others and more words in your head to use.
Going to the gym is just better for your body. The progress might be slow, but it's not going nowhere.
I get it all. I've been off cannabis for 832 days. I was a heavy addict for about 5 years. Pornography: 494 days. Social media: 1-2 months (Instagram, Facebook and others). I use YouTube to learn, not to doomscroll, which is also hard to resist.
The thing is, it all started when I was a teenager. I moved to a different city and used my mom's old laptop, which barely pushed any frames, to play GTA: SA. I wasted around 3 years on that game. Just recently, the server where I played was shut down forever. Lmao, just like that, 3 years of progress gone. After that I got into Apex Legends. It's a high dopamine rush at such a young age, and it's terrible what it can do.
While I was enjoying Apex, I became more tense in real life and skipped chores just to play some more. My cannabis addiction got in the way and made me very depressed. I started watching pornography, which destroyed my brain and my understanding of who I am and who I need to become to dominate a female.
The gaming never ended. I quit cannabis when I went to rehab after I got busted with a lot of weight on me. Nicotine was next. Alcohol wasn't my thing anyway. Porn is just so evil, the same as social media. As time passed, I noticed that I don't gain anything positive from playing video games. Hours poured into a screen, and not even a single bit of progress felt in real life.
Did I feel relaxed after playing video games? Hell no. Your brain is in such a high-stress state that you don't even feel it, and you call that relaxation. Lmao 😭 Gaming is built on casino methods to keep you buying something. I didn't, just because I didn't have the money for it.
Maybe that's not so bad after all, but I want to change. I sold my gaming gear about 5 months ago. Before that, I had a gaming laptop for 1 month, a PlayStation 5 for about 3-4 months, and a gaming PC bought on loan, which I had for 6 months and sold to cover my debt. I thought I was done with gaming, but moments later I got a Steam Deck. It didn't last either. I got an Xbox about 1 month after not playing, and got rid of that too. Then I bought a PS5 and sold that as well.
I burned so much time, so much money and so much valuable energy that I have in my 20s. Now I haven't purchased anything, but I keep coming back to mobile games, which I also deleted. I kept only Chess and Duolingo. Meanwhile, I keep annoying my girlfriend with thoughts like "Should I purchase a gaming rig again?" I start to plan it, budget it out and pick the parts, then I see the price and it makes me sick. €2,500 for an entertainment machine, €700 for a monitor, €200 for a mouse and keyboard, and so on. This tech will be worth nothing in 10 years.
It's a never-ending cycle. We live in such a highly stimulated, dopamine-driven world, where it seems normal to have a supercomputer in your pocket. You walk, you scroll, and it's normal.
Now that I've grown up a little, I'm without gaming most of the time. I started learning to drive a car, fixed my teeth, and want to start going to a Muay Thai gym. I've been reaching for real-life things instead of fake ones.
This last month was extremely hard to resist video games because I had an injury at work. I have 2 weeks left of paid sick days at home. I work with pastry: I make puff pastry, bread, cakes and so on. I like it, to be honest. It keeps my brain and body busy. While I work, I don't give a shit about gaming. Even after I come home from work, all I want is to eat, shower, spend some quality time with my girlfriend and go to sleep.
My question is: How do you overcome the want and need for gaming? Is there anyone who had similar experience who i can talk to?
Thanks in advance.
By
Atgimes ·