Anyone here dealt with an addiction to gaming?

Anyone here dealt with an addiction to gaming?

Ideally I'd like to only play an hour or two every other night, but once I start playing I'll end up gaming for 8 hours at a time, multiple days in a week, sometimes in a row. I'd say I spend about 40 hours or more a week on the computer in games right now.

I know some people are okay with it, but it's starting to negatively effect my health and my social life. Work for the most part, is unaffected at this point, but I can see where I become distracted while I'm at work, or lacking sleep because of late night sessions.

Anyone else have this problem and solutions?

Should I just go cold turkey? Unplug my computer? Any other hobbies you could recommend that are more productive?

I played 300 hours of rimworld in two consecutive weeks once it came out.

That's not really useful for you but I thought you would like to know you are not alone.

You have to start talking to people. Challenge yourself to engage socially more often every single day. If you need to quit NOW then you should definitely talk to a psychologist but if you have the time just try and speak face to face with as many people as you can. It'll make it harder to play more videogames and you'll realize that there are so many other fun things to do that you don't have as much drive. It is also possible that your videogame addiction is a symptom of depression. it was for me.

what games to play OP?

what games do you play?

I tend to latch on a game that has strong social mechanic. Not MMORPG's but FPS shooters where there's active chats. Overwatch for example is one I will binge on.

I know clearly I'm using this as a replacement for going out there to socialize, but its sooo much more convenient to just be able to sit in a comfortable chair and be able to walk away.

The funny thing is I get a real release sometimes from being able to be upset with people in the games.

I think there's a lot of undealt with frustration and it's easy to unload onto strangers on the internet.

Also, there is the fake sense of accomplisment that games can give you.

I'm aware of these things, but I still can't break apart from it. Which is why I think it's becoming an addiction.

i just try to basically learn as much as possible i guess, once you start lerning about tons of random bullshit youll get motivated by something maybe multiple things, for me thats bushcraft hunting carpentry and general woodworking, metal working and welding, i just got a bass im learning, idk man just try to find something? probably not helpful

Do you think a prescription would help? I'm not a fan of psychologists to be honest. But if I can get something to help me reduce this need then I think it would be worth trying.

And I know this sounds stupid. But are there support groups? It's not drugs or alcohol, but it's reducing the quality of life I'm having and the pattern of not just be able to stop when I start is scary.

i did have the same problem as you though, i was losing sanity, all my friends are in college and I'm waiting to go to trade school for carpentry, but yeah i dont have any social interaction except at work where all the people my age are autistic weebs, but I've found comfort and distraction in finding many hobbies and interests

go outside

i dont really know, i kinda pulled myself out of it i also got a cat which made me feel a lot better since i could at least interact with him

I fixed that problem by getting a job working 40-60 hours a week, going to the gym 4 days a week, and not drinking pop/energy drinks. I'm too tired to stay up to play games, work too much to keep up with games, and i'm in the best shape of my life atm. Am i old arnold? not even close but i'm better than I ever been.

maybe I would try finding a good deal on an instrument that interests you, i havent touched a videogame in a week, all that has been on my mind is the bass i got :P

TRUTH, diet can help you a lot

idk about prescriptions man, my family has used them a lot not me though, and basically I've heard mixed things, but it is mostly for anti depressives, but idk about addictions :/

Drugs and women. If you're decent looking.

but hmm.... i basically just out of nowhere started to listen to a TON of music and outta nowhere the bass caught my attention and that has preoccupied me for a bit now

This is me again, I have the opposite problem of OP. I want to just game but i need to be on like opiates or cocaine to enjoy it. Games just bore me now, especially once you have a friend or lover to be with. When I didnt have any friends i just watched a lot of educational videos/youtube. Maybe try that to start, then go and meet people.

i know its hard to "just stop playing for a while" and "oh, just only play for a hour!" so you really just need to find a hobby or multiple ones i guess, but idk what interests you or how to get you interested in something

If you play Overwatch then you deserve to suffer a life of meaningless loneliness though

Just become a streamer if you are doing that and try to make a living out of it.

Skateboarding is actually really fun. Find some xanax so you're not anxious when you go out and do things youve always wanted to do. Xanax also makes you NOT want to play videogames, but its just a quick fix. The best quick fix tho.

yeah, once you find some other stuff you're interested in you might find it easier to talk to people since you then have something to talk about

(not OP) hmm that does seem like something I could enjoy, thanks man, ill go get one XD

I was lucky enough to find a beautiful girl who buys things for me and plays videogames. If youre attractive you could try that. Trust me though, it'll actually help and you won't want to play games when you're with her.

Habits are hard to break but it takes around 30 days to make or break them. You'll need to get rid of all equipment to play games and then put your hands in a meat grinder. Finally, jump off the tallest building and you'll be cured.

Take a trip for at least 10 days far far away from your computer, go to a beach or a place that has shit to see/do. Don't stay in your hotel room when you're not sleeping. Just the sheer inactivity you have with computers will make you focus on other shit than gaming and when you come back you'll be shit at your games and only play them casually.

the way I've dealt with stuff now that I think of it is I've found music that I can relate to, vibe out to it (the music makes me feel the way I dont wanna feel but the music itself makes it enjoyable) and then its out of my system for a while i guess, and then I kinda have a clearer outlook on things

If you want to stop bad enough, youll just do it. Exercise more, get outside, distract yourself with healthier habits. You cant physically be addicted to gaming, if you truly cant stop playing, youre just weak minded.

For me, I just woke up one day and realized no matter how good I got at the game or how much time and money I invested, it would never correlate into real life success. Now days, I feel shameful about how much time I put into it because I could have been using that time to learn music, better myself at golf, or read and learn new things... instead I spent it killing computerized pixels.

Get your life back user.

Don't do this. Or if you do, make sure you're around crowds of people a lot. You may end up isolating yourself and becoming more depressed.

i think the bottom line is you need to find something else to interest you, because seriously, once you find something other than video games you'll realise just how fucking awesome it is to do stuff lol

yes, just kill yourself

That's part of it. I try to talk to people at work, but half the time they spend their socializing getting drunk and talking about things that generally don't interest me. Or they have families and just don't have time to foster new friendships.

I suppose depression might be a source. Maybe talking to someone might help, but man, I really don't like psychologists or therapists.

Maybe loading my schedule to the point of exhaustion is the answer.

Yeah actually depending on your area you can find group counseling for the stuff and it can do wonders. also i basically walked into a doctors office and they casually gave me prozac but i never used it.

ooh, maybe this will help, i know for me when I wake up in the morning I won't ever get up unless I have something specific I wanna do, maybe just plan something, just a little something, making huge leaps and bounds all at once is impossible and stupid, just plan to do something for half an hour, idk what that might be, read a book of some sort, go for a walk to any place really, go to a dog park or some gay shit, but just try to plan on doing SOMETHING for like half an hour

Depression is your body telling you that youre in the midst of fucking up. You need a change.

Working out seriously solves more mental disorders than you think.

Are you anxious? Burn off energy and work out.
Are you depressed? Get active and work out.
Addicted? Get high naturally and work out.
Low self esteem? Get in shape and fucking work out.

It just opens doors for you in the future.

Yeah, i have logged over 480 played days in world of Warcraft, the bulk of that is in vanilla and BC, but i continued through wrath and quit during the ICC campaign

I got back on for a couple weeks in cata and for a few months in mist

It killed me, at the same time as killing my grades, but now I'm off for good

Its good when the game you play gets progressively worse over the course of time

But now i can't get addicted to anything and I've tried

I've tried getting addicted to tobacco and alcohol but neither stuck, even had a go at opioids, but i couldn't even finish the bottle before not caring about it

I still yearn for wow but i know i can never go back

>ive tried getting addicted to tobacco and alcohol

>even opiods

Please dont tell me youre this retarded...

Psychologists can't write prescriptions, they are quacks. What you need is a PSYCHIATRIST, those are the actual doctors

You have the desire to quit and are aware there's a problem which is the first step in solving it. Your next step is having the will power and courage to change. You know what you need to do, so do it. Join a gym, go for walks, read, learn kung fu, do the things you've always wanted but have been putting off.

No, i am that retarded. I get depressed and think it will help me get off of thinking about my depression if i had a hobby that took as much of my time and interest as wow used to.

It's a proven fact that people will preferentially choose pain and things negative for themselves over boredom, and wow is the only thing I've ever done that has made me not bored.

omg i love iggy azalea.

I had more than a year in-game time on WoW. Would wake up, work, come home and play 'til I fell asleep. Game was getting boring so I quit cold turkey.

Also, had the same problem with the terrible game they packaged as Destiny. Same thing, years later (obviously). Got bored again and noticed that digital "trophies"/"achievements" will never mean shit. Started going to the gym and havent looked back...


Although, i have started to play Rainbow6 Siege. I limit myself to X amount of time per week

See
I know those feels

Have you ever found anything that has filled your life as much as wow used to?


Ever since wow I've begun collecting hobbies, because after the first couple weeks when the hobby is fresh in your mind and you are learning everything you can about it, it gets boring and i need to find something else, often i end up abandoning the hobby entirely and end up with a new shelf of shit.

I just picked up wood turning and already have a barely used lathe after i successfully made a very nice goblet.

Come on man, you and I both know thats a lousy excuse. Breaking habits is hard and takes sometimes years of dedication. I was an alcoholic all thru college and gamed hardcored instead of studying... I pretty much failed out because of it.

I know I have an addictive personality and it sounds like you do too. If you can come to terms with that and apply that energy towards something beneficial, that is when your life will take a turn for the better. If fitness isnt your thing, try music, or maybe try the arts. Regardless, find a new hobby that will help you grow. It only takes a coyple weeks of doing something before it becomes ingrained in your lifestyle.

See
I've gone through two dozen hobbies in the last year alone, from getting my pilot's licence to learning the mandolin, as soon as i get to the point i know all the major intricacies of it, i don't give a fuck about it anymore.

I get into something, give it all my attention for weeks to months, pouring all of my expendable income into it, and then one day i get bored

It's awful

yeah... thats what I do which makes me worried about my future since Im going into carpentry, once i figure it out will I grow bored? fuuuuuuuuuck im just gonna keep my fingers crossed :(

I went into engineering

I got bored about 6 months into my first job, and it's been torture since

And the worst part is I'm working on brand new different projects nearly monthly, but a few days into each project I know every intricate detail greater than i know my own dick, then i slowly die inside the rest of the project

You'll grow out of it

Not trying to be harsh here, but aren't there different fields you can switch to? Or is it too much time to re-educate.

Also, what about law school? Patent attorneys make a killing.

I am very addicted to gaming.
I get drunk and cannot help but play second life.
Why?
Because all those other games of arbitrary achievements to make up for not accomplishing anything in real life.
So it's boring.
But SL.
Man on SL I get to do shit like interrupt a couple having sex and just join in.

Gaming addiction doesn't exist. Grow the fuck up and just turn it off.

i used to play WoW for days straight in my teen years... friends would come to my parents and set up in this one room, it got so hot with 4 or 5 computers running for hours in this little room and we would just play for the whole weekend. it was a lot of fun at the time but i hate looking back on it because it really was pathetic

You should try league of legends

I'm a mechanical engineer. I would need to go back to school to get a degree in another to be considered a different type of engineer, so that would be a very expensive hobby

I have thought about going into law though

Just looked it up, 160,000. is average. As a partner in a patent firm you'd break 400,000.

That's the average. Holy fuck.

I dealt with an addiction to gaming when games were still fun but then I got over it after a few more boring as hell Zelda games came out.

Yeah, that's not really why i would go for it though

fuck you CIA, I know what this is

I wouldn't say I had a full blown addiction, but I definitely played a lot more than I should have. I uninstalled my more frustrating games and started learning the guitar. I've only been doing it for a week or two and so far it's far more satisfying than playing vidya.

just quit cold turkey and find some hobby to replace it, OP. you don't have to blow money on a hobby, either: it can be reading, exercising, or just going outside and taking a walk. you might be grumpy for a bit, but eventually the video games will fall out of your routine and you'll forget all about them.

i know because this happens to me too, chronically. i'm currently in a slump after going about a year with hardly any video games. i've become "addicted" somewhat to Overwatch, playing when i should be doing other things like focusing on my studies.

my "addiction" comes and goes; i was fine between 2010 and 2012 with no video games, then picked them up again when i got a girlfriend in 2013, dropped them around our breakup in 2016, and picked them up again after i got another girlfriend in 2017. it's a weird cycle.

Same here. Trying to figure out what the pattern is to break it. I know seasonal depression is part of it. Which is why I'm open to medication.