Video game addiction.

[Rhymester]

I've been playing video games all day everyday. Anyone else cannot break the cycle?

 

[Mxverick]

You need to find something that is distracting you from games, and as interesting.

I sudjest: going to the gym / start doing some sports (I sudjest box / kick-box) / going for a run everyday / start reading books

If you manage to make it effective and occupy all the time of the day, you will see immediate results on your mind, body and self-image

If you need more sudjestion Dm me.

 

[_Alfarooq_]

I've been playing video games all day everyday. Anyone else cannot break the cycle?

I'm not sure if your happy with the addiction, or unhappy with it, so I am going to respond to both cases.

If you are happy with it, then I would say it is a good distraction from all the problems and suffering in your life, maybe to kill time before it's finally time to CTB.

If you would like to get rid of it, maybe follow @Mxverick advice? Find another fun activity, I personally would go plane spotting.

You need to find something that is distracting you from games, and as interesting.

I sudjest: going to the gym / start doing some sports (I sudjest box / kick-box) / going for a run everyday / start reading books

If you manage to make it effective and occupy all the time of the day, you will see immediate results on your mind, body and self-image

If you need more sudjestion Dm me.

And What's with the wrong spelling? It's "suggest" not sudjest! I would understand if the wrong spelling had less characters, so maybe I would say you wanted to type faster but its the same! So what's even the point?

 

[Mxverick]

I'm not sure if your happy with the addiction, or unhappy with it, so I am going to respond to both cases.

If you are happy with it, then I would say it is a good distraction from all the problems and suffering in your life, maybe to kill time before it's finally time to CTB.

If you would like to get rid of it, maybe follow @Mxverick advice? Find another fun activity, I personally would go plane spotting.


And What's with the wrong spelling? It's "suggest" not sudjest! I would understand if the wrong spelling had less characters, so maybe I would say you wanted to type faster but its the same! So what's even the point?

I am not a native english speaker, so my english isn't impeccable, I wish I speak perfect english, but I still do my best with it and try to improve it everyday.

Thank you for pointing out my grammatical error.

 

[carac]

Ask yourself these questions

What do you get out of playing video games continually? What is it doing for you?

What is missing in your life or needs working on?

How can you rectify this in a healthy way?

 

[theslasher]

I've been playing video games all day everyday. Anyone else cannot break the cycle?

I feel like I'm in the same cycle, I definitely can break it though. I always do it by putting my console in the closet which makes it less convenient to get it out and play. Then eventually I sell the console. Unfortunately after several months / years of not playing any video games I eventually buy whatever console is out and the addiction begins again. I need to start putting more time into what's most important, because whenever I play games for a few hours, I look back at that time and just imagine my life rotting away. I don't really have many cool memories from playing video games, even if you play a game for hours, most matches are pretty similar, nothing noteworthy in the big picture. If you want your life to be more noteworthy, your actions have to be noteworthy as well.
I advise you to create that barrier from playing on your console by unplugging it, and putting it away (maybe in your closet like I did). Then eventually you can sell it (although if you're a PC gamer then ignore those steps and just delete all your games). Then, just do more noteworthy things, things that are worth remembering, things that you don't normally do. For me, I like to go exploring abandoned places, climbing water towers, odd stuff like that. I also love building things out of wood bc it gets me into the flow state, and the flow state is so peaceful. Those are just a few examples, I also agree with @Mxverick bc those were some great suggestions as well. I'm not acting like I'm perfect, I struggle with this too, so ig maybe this is some advice for myself as well. Anyways, screw video games we've gotta take back control of our lives instead of letting the games control us.

 

[Rhymester]

You need to find something that is distracting you from games, and as interesting.

I sudjest: going to the gym / start doing some sports (I sudjest box / kick-box) / going for a run everyday / start reading books

If you manage to make it effective and occupy all the time of the day, you will see immediate results on your mind, body and self-image

If you need more sudjestion Dm me.

I do read books, however, I find that they just make me depressed. I tend to read philosophy and poetry books. They all have the same effect on me, unfortunately. I even bought a comedy book yet it didn't manage to sustain my interest for a long time. When it comes to exercise, I'm healthy and all, just I'm a bit of a germophobe and so much sweating just makes me uncomfortable although I do like playing sports such as badminton. The thing is that all of those things just don't sustain my interest for long enough, except for playing video games.

I'm not sure if your happy with the addiction, or unhappy with it, so I am going to respond to both cases.

If you are happy with it, then I would say it is a good distraction from all the problems and suffering in your life, maybe to kill time before it's finally time to CTB.

If you would like to get rid of it, maybe follow @Mxverick advice? Find another fun activity, I personally would go plane spotting.


And What's with the wrong spelling? It's "suggest" not sudjest! I would understand if the wrong spelling had less characters, so maybe I would say you wanted to type faster but its the same! So what's even the point?

Honestly, I am happy for the fact that it brings me so much enjoyment unlike other things in my life, but at the same time I am constantly aware of how much time it takes. Playing video games just takes so much time away from other things. Other things just feel like a chore to me and once I do them I just want to play video games again. And yes, they just distract me from everything else bad in my life.

Ask yourself these questions

What do you get out of playing video games continually? What is it doing for you?

What is missing in your life or needs working on?

How can you rectify this in a healthy way?

Well, out of video games, I get a sense of distraction from everything else in my life. Video games are not doing much for me in terms of greater things. The thing missing in my life is just motivation at this point. I don't know where to get it from. I know I could do other things instead but when I do other tasks I'm just gloomy on a daily basis and it irritates other people I live with and see.

I feel like I'm in the same cycle, I definitely can break it though. I always do it by putting my console in the closet which makes it less convenient to get it out and play. Then eventually I sell the console. Unfortunately after several months / years of not playing any video games I eventually buy whatever console is out and the addiction begins again. I need to start putting more time into what's most important, because whenever I play games for a few hours, I look back at that time and just imagine my life rotting away. I don't really have many cool memories from playing video games, even if you play a game for hours, most matches are pretty similar, nothing noteworthy in the big picture. If you want your life to be more noteworthy, your actions have to be noteworthy as well.
I advise you to create that barrier from playing on your console by unplugging it, and putting it away (maybe in your closet like I did). Then eventually you can sell it (although if you're a PC gamer then ignore those steps and just delete all your games). Then, just do more noteworthy things, things that are worth remembering, things that you don't normally do. For me, I like to go exploring abandoned places, climbing water towers, odd stuff like that. I also love building things out of wood bc it gets me into the flow state, and the flow state is so peaceful. Those are just a few examples, I also agree with @Mxverick bc those were some great suggestions as well. I'm not acting like I'm perfect, I struggle with this too, so ig maybe this is some advice for myself as well. Anyways, screw video games we've gotta take back control of our lives instead of letting the games control us.

Yeah, I remember when I left my consoles unplugged and it made such a difference. Exploring abandoned places has always interested me, however, I just don't think there is much of those in my area. I would also just need some friends to go, like going alone would just be depressing for me. Recently I have fallen out with college friends and other friends and it just really bugs me down. I'd love to actually have a decent friend group. The one I was in was just hella toxic and fake. And yeah, I don't have much cool memories when it comes to playing video games constantly.

 

[NumbItAll]

I used to play video games all day every day in my teens and early 20s, until I became completely burned out and didn't enjoy them anymore. But I didn't exactly replace them with anything amazing -- I still just sit around doing basically nothing most of the time. So I think in a lot of cases video game addiction is more of a symptom than the source problem. If there was anything interesting or rewarding to do then video games would not be as appealing.

 

[carac]

Well, out of video games, I get a sense of distraction from everything else in my life. Video games are not doing much for me in terms of greater things. The thing missing in my life is just motivation at this point. I don't know where to get it from. I know I could do other things instead but when I do other tasks I'm just gloomy on a daily basis and it irritates other people I live with and see.

This is a pretty normal and healthy answer really. You could try to explore further what it is distracting you from. I have a similar problem, I used to and still do spend a ton of time on video games. I have a lot social anxiety I use video games because I feel safer with them than going outside and feeling self conscious all the time. I can't really make it go away I just have to work at it and it's really hard and up and down. I also don't have much meaning in my life which is a big problem and I don't really know how to solve this. I will still play video games but try balance it out with doing other things. I think just understanding the reasonings behind your behaviour can help a great deal and you seem to be part way there.

 

[theslasher]

Yeah, I remember when I left my consoles unplugged and it made such a difference. Exploring abandoned places has always interested me, however, I just don't think there is much of those in my area. I would also just need some friends to go, like going alone would just be depressing for me. Recently I have fallen out with college friends and other friends and it just really bugs me down. I'd love to actually have a decent friend group. The one I was in was just hella toxic and fake. And yeah, I don't have much cool memories when it comes to playing video games constantly.

Nice man. Yeah I'm in the same boat as you, I used to do that stuff with old college friends, but going alone to places like that would freak me out. My friend group was mostly pretty toxic, basically everyone I've met is toxic as hell. But even if we did get along, everyone either transferred or dropped out like me bc our college was trash anyways (way overpriced, brown water coming out the sinks, nothing to do in that town, etc). Anyways, there's still plenty of other hobbies that don't require other people that are a lot of fun. Anything that gets you into the flow state really, like I said the flow state is peaceful. Try to find something that gets you into that state that you can replace with your video game addiction.

I used to play video games all day every day in my teens and early 20s, until I became completely burned out and didn't enjoy them anymore. But I didn't exactly replace them with anything amazing -- I still just sit around doing basically nothing most of the time. So I think in a lot of cases video game addiction is more of a symptom than the source problem. If there was anything interesting or rewarding to do then video games would not be as appealing.

Maybe you are right in a way that it's a symptom, but I'd argue it's also a problem. The more you play video games, the less time you put into discovering activities that you'd truly enjoy. And that results in you believing there is nothing out there that is fun in comparison, so you end up playing even more video games. It's all a loop.

 

[Red Moon]

I have this problem too.

 

[theslasher]

This guy, Hamza, has helped me a lot. This is a short video.


Here's a longer video that shows the neuroscience behind video games. It compares it to dopamine levels you get when taking drugs vs when you play video games and puts into perspective how bad it is. Also it shows small steps you can take to overcome the addiction.