Hey, my name is John. I'm a gaming addict. I'm from Canada, Ontario, my background is Vietnamese, and i'm 23. I started playing games at about age 7 or so. They were cheap single player games which my mom bought me at zellers, which is not named Target. I wasn't addicted to video games until i think in grade 8, age 13. I played runescape and would spent my whole weekends on it, and had no idea video game addiction even existed. When i reached highschool i would play countlessly and thought to myself that i was so werid to spend all this time on video games and nobody else in the entire school was like me, that only younger kids play games.
I'm going to try and keep this short and simple; over the years I realized I had an addiction. I've joined olganon to understand why and how I can regain control of my life.
I know I am powerless to stop gaming when I had to stop playing a video game to study for school, but instead opted to play more and study less. This is the biggest real world problem that my lack of control has cause me. I'm 23 and my highest education is my highschool dilpoma. Right now I'm going to college for computer programming and concern would be I won't graduate, I've already failed one course out of five. I enjoy programming a lot but when it comes to video games I just give in to the temptation.
I'm unmanageable in my time spent on video games. Honestly I would spent hours neglecting over chores or activities that I need to get done; studying, cleaning my room, working out, and even missing meals.
I play about 12-18 hours a day on games when I have no obligations such as classes. I used to work at a resturant but I quit for school because i thought it was stressful to both. I now know the truth is that I wanted to play games and relax more rather than facing the real world. The video games I play now are Smite, league, or Counter-strike, however only smite and league are way more addictive for me.
I know I have an addiction which I must overcome to regain control of my life. I don't fully understand why I'm addicted, but I have some ideas. My family and some friends know I'm addicted to video games, however I never admited it. I personally know I have an addicted but I think its so embrassing saying you have a video game addiction. My perspective of addiction may be distorted because I think it's less embrassing to say you're an acholic than a gaming addict. My perception is that people would think "Well can't you just stop playing? Only teenagers and kids play video games, you're an adult". Additionally I know that gaming for me must end permantly. There is no way to game casually anymore; that for me is gone. The only hard part is to actually agree to never game again, but I agree. If I don't I will lose out on my education, time, and my future career.
Wow this is actually a lot more than I thought I would write. I read a post above me and the op said he would go for 24-hours without gaming and later build towards tougher goals. So Im going to do the same. Starting now, 24 hours, at December 22, 2014, 3:47 a.m I will not play any games for 24 hrs. Thanks if you read through all this, and any reply would be appericiated. Take care.
Admitting your addiction is a HUGE step forward. Congratulations on taking your first and very important step!
One day game free at a time is a way to go. Please keep coming back and sharing with us. You can do this with the help of recovering gamers here. You can attend the meetings as well if you like.
All the best.
—
"The brightest future will always be based on a forgotten past. You can't go on well in life until you let go of your past failures and heartaches." "The first step toward change is acceptance." "Once you accept yourself, you open the door to change. That's all you have to do." "Change is not something you do, it's something you allow."- Will Garcia
Welcome to the fellowship of recovering gaming addicts. Lots of us feel that trying to think about never playing games again is too hard for us. But you have the right idea--just one day at a time. When I first stopped gaming over two years ago, I would say to myself each day, "I won't play before the (evening) meeting, and I'll go to the meeting." And that's what I did--I went to the meeting almost every day. I still go to a meeting about 4-5 times a week. And I call other recovering addicts and they call me. That's how I've built a new life, one day at a time, one step at a time.
So don't worry, it can be done. I hope you can make it to a meeting--there are a lot of options now (back when I started there was only one meeting). Check it out:
http://olganon.org/?q=node/46551
Hopefully, I'll see you at one soon.
—
I am a recovering computer game and gambling addict. My recovery birthday: On May 6, 2012 I quit games and began working a program of recovery through OLGA No computer games or slot games for me since December 12, 2012. No solitaire games with real cards since June 2013.
Hi, my name (username) is MOVING ON and I am addicted to virtual reality scriptless social chat platform games, primarily Second Life. I have posted elsewhere, but I wanted to start the steps, so here I am. I admit I have been powerless over my use of these games for years. In my darkest times, I would stay awake until 7am and sleep until the evening as I was unemployed. I very rarely did the household chores (my incredible husband did) and I neglected my body in the process. I lost my livelihood to gaming, and now I want it back. I accept that when it comes to gaming on Second Life I cannot have just a little bit. I have to have a lot. I know and accept now that my life is completely unmanageable the way it is. I am wasting away. My gaming habits have made my life toxic.
I stopped playing Second Life and other virtual worlds on 6th January 2015, and have deleted all possible traces of what was left from my gaming days - accounts, viewers, snapshots, creations stored on my computer... the lot. It's gone. Now to make something of my life!
hey guys im slick and i am addicted to LOL and pretty much wasted about 3-4 years on that game trying to climb the ladder. I have been gaming to the point where it disrupted my college studies and ended up failing twice which the "insanity is doing the same thing" quote kinda hits home. During that time though I have developed this anxiety problem and gaming has basically been my escape from dealing with that and other important issues in my life, for example college. When i start gaming I can stop worrying about my real life issues and just need to worry about how hard I need to carry my noob team out of elo hell. I just thought that I will just "put my life on hold/pause" for the time being and when I notice, its like 8-10 hours gone by. Recently I have been realizing that thats not how any of this works and I REALLY need to quit gaming since i am completely powerless of its effects. I CAN NOT manage my time with it and often times i will catch myself even hating the game cuz of stressing over my elo and still playing through that for some reason. I have heard that the AA program is highly effective and OLGA im guessing is based off of the same system so I am really looking forward to turning my life around through this.
hey guys im slick and i am addicted to LOL and pretty much wasted about 3-4 years on that game trying to climb the ladder. I have been gaming to the point where it disrupted my college studies and ended up failing twice which the "insanity is doing the same thing" quote kinda hits home. During that time though I have developed this anxiety problem and gaming has basically been my escape from dealing with that and other important issues in my life, for example college. When i start gaming I can stop worrying about my real life issues and just need to worry about how hard I need to carry my noob team out of elo hell. I just thought that I will just "put my life on hold/pause" for the time being and when I notice, its like 8-10 hours gone by. Recently I have been realizing that thats not how any of this works and I REALLY need to quit gaming since i am completely powerless of its effects. I CAN NOT manage my time with it and often times i will catch myself even hating the game cuz of stressing over my elo and still playing through that for some reason. I have heard that the AA program is highly effective and OLGA im guessing is based off of the same system so I am really looking forward to turning my life around through this.
Yes, the experience of our fellowship is that the principles and approaches of AA work equally well for treating gaming addiction. Those of us who have seriously worked a program of recovery have stayed off games for many months, some for years, and made improvements in all areas of our lives. The best way to learn about our experience, principles and approaches is to attend meetings. http://olganon.org/?q=node/46551
At meetings, you can ask questions, get to know other people, make connections, find understanding and acceptance, learn how to navigate the very difficult first weeks off games, learn how to adopt a new game-free lifestyle longterm, hear many stories sharing experience, strength and help, and find support from sponsors and recovery buddies.
slickrick wrote:
i am completely powerless of its effects. I CAN NOT manage my time with it and often times i will catch myself even hating the game cuz of stressing over my elo and still playing through that for some reason.
That's me. Powerless over my gaming compulsion, unmanageable, stressing out, hating the game and myself for playing it, and yet still playing it. Today, I'm over two years off games and loving life. Recovery is possible. I hope you can gift yourself with the support available at meetings.
—
What you feed grows, and what you starve withers away.
Yes, the experience of our fellowship is that the principles and approaches of AA work equally well for treating gaming addiction. Those of us who have seriously worked a program of recovery have stayed off games for many months, some for years, and made improvements in all areas of our lives. The best way to learn about our experience, principles and approaches is to attend meetings. http://olganon.org/?q=node/46551
At meetings, you can ask questions, get to know other people, make connections, find understanding and acceptance, learn how to navigate the very difficult first weeks off games, learn how to adopt a new game-free lifestyle longterm, hear many stories sharing experience, strength and help, and find support from sponsors and recovery buddies.
slickrick wrote:
i am completely powerless of its effects. I CAN NOT manage my time with it and often times i will catch myself even hating the game cuz of stressing over my elo and still playing through that for some reason.
That's me. Powerless over my gaming compulsion, unmanageable, stressing out, hating the game and myself for playing it, and yet still playing it. Today, I'm over two years off games and loving life. Recovery is possible. I hope you can gift yourself with the support available at meetings.
—
What you feed grows, and what you starve withers away.
Hey, my name is John. I'm a gaming addict. I'm from Canada, Ontario, my background is Vietnamese, and i'm 23. I started playing games at about age 7 or so. They were cheap single player games which my mom bought me at zellers, which is not named Target. I wasn't addicted to video games until i think in grade 8, age 13. I played runescape and would spent my whole weekends on it, and had no idea video game addiction even existed. When i reached highschool i would play countlessly and thought to myself that i was so werid to spend all this time on video games and nobody else in the entire school was like me, that only younger kids play games.
I'm going to try and keep this short and simple; over the years I realized I had an addiction. I've joined olganon to understand why and how I can regain control of my life.
I know I am powerless to stop gaming when I had to stop playing a video game to study for school, but instead opted to play more and study less. This is the biggest real world problem that my lack of control has cause me. I'm 23 and my highest education is my highschool dilpoma. Right now I'm going to college for computer programming and concern would be I won't graduate, I've already failed one course out of five. I enjoy programming a lot but when it comes to video games I just give in to the temptation.
I'm unmanageable in my time spent on video games. Honestly I would spent hours neglecting over chores or activities that I need to get done; studying, cleaning my room, working out, and even missing meals.
I play about 12-18 hours a day on games when I have no obligations such as classes. I used to work at a resturant but I quit for school because i thought it was stressful to both. I now know the truth is that I wanted to play games and relax more rather than facing the real world. The video games I play now are Smite, league, or Counter-strike, however only smite and league are way more addictive for me.
I know I have an addiction which I must overcome to regain control of my life. I don't fully understand why I'm addicted, but I have some ideas. My family and some friends know I'm addicted to video games, however I never admited it. I personally know I have an addicted but I think its so embrassing saying you have a video game addiction. My perspective of addiction may be distorted because I think it's less embrassing to say you're an acholic than a gaming addict. My perception is that people would think "Well can't you just stop playing? Only teenagers and kids play video games, you're an adult". Additionally I know that gaming for me must end permantly. There is no way to game casually anymore; that for me is gone. The only hard part is to actually agree to never game again, but I agree. If I don't I will lose out on my education, time, and my future career.
Wow this is actually a lot more than I thought I would write. I read a post above me and the op said he would go for 24-hours without gaming and later build towards tougher goals. So Im going to do the same. Starting now, 24 hours, at December 22, 2014, 3:47 a.m I will not play any games for 24 hrs. Thanks if you read through all this, and any reply would be appericiated. Take care.
Hi razorboy1,
Admitting your addiction is a HUGE step forward. Congratulations on taking your first and very important step!
One day game free at a time is a way to go. Please keep coming back and sharing with us. You can do this with the help of recovering gamers here. You can attend the meetings as well if you like.
All the best.
"The brightest future will always be based on a forgotten past. You can't go on well in life until you let go of your past failures and heartaches." "The first step toward change is acceptance." "Once you accept yourself, you open the door to change. That's all you have to do." "Change is not something you do, it's something you allow."- Will Garcia
razorboy,
Welcome to the fellowship of recovering gaming addicts. Lots of us feel that trying to think about never playing games again is too hard for us. But you have the right idea--just one day at a time. When I first stopped gaming over two years ago, I would say to myself each day, "I won't play before the (evening) meeting, and I'll go to the meeting." And that's what I did--I went to the meeting almost every day. I still go to a meeting about 4-5 times a week. And I call other recovering addicts and they call me. That's how I've built a new life, one day at a time, one step at a time.
So don't worry, it can be done. I hope you can make it to a meeting--there are a lot of options now (back when I started there was only one meeting). Check it out:
http://olganon.org/?q=node/46551
Hopefully, I'll see you at one soon.
I am a recovering computer game and gambling addict. My recovery birthday: On May 6, 2012 I quit games and began working a program of recovery through OLGA No computer games or slot games for me since December 12, 2012. No solitaire games with real cards since June 2013.
Hi, my name (username) is MOVING ON and I am addicted to virtual reality scriptless social chat platform games, primarily Second Life. I have posted elsewhere, but I wanted to start the steps, so here I am. I admit I have been powerless over my use of these games for years. In my darkest times, I would stay awake until 7am and sleep until the evening as I was unemployed. I very rarely did the household chores (my incredible husband did) and I neglected my body in the process. I lost my livelihood to gaming, and now I want it back. I accept that when it comes to gaming on Second Life I cannot have just a little bit. I have to have a lot. I know and accept now that my life is completely unmanageable the way it is. I am wasting away. My gaming habits have made my life toxic.
I stopped playing Second Life and other virtual worlds on 6th January 2015, and have deleted all possible traces of what was left from my gaming days - accounts, viewers, snapshots, creations stored on my computer... the lot. It's gone. Now to make something of my life!
hey guys im slick and i am addicted to LOL and pretty much wasted about 3-4 years on that game trying to climb the ladder. I have been gaming to the point where it disrupted my college studies and ended up failing twice which the "insanity is doing the same thing" quote kinda hits home. During that time though I have developed this anxiety problem and gaming has basically been my escape from dealing with that and other important issues in my life, for example college. When i start gaming I can stop worrying about my real life issues and just need to worry about how hard I need to carry my noob team out of elo hell. I just thought that I will just "put my life on hold/pause" for the time being and when I notice, its like 8-10 hours gone by. Recently I have been realizing that thats not how any of this works and I REALLY need to quit gaming since i am completely powerless of its effects. I CAN NOT manage my time with it and often times i will catch myself even hating the game cuz of stressing over my elo and still playing through that for some reason. I have heard that the AA program is highly effective and OLGA im guessing is based off of the same system so I am really looking forward to turning my life around through this.
hey guys im slick and i am addicted to LOL and pretty much wasted about 3-4 years on that game trying to climb the ladder. I have been gaming to the point where it disrupted my college studies and ended up failing twice which the "insanity is doing the same thing" quote kinda hits home. During that time though I have developed this anxiety problem and gaming has basically been my escape from dealing with that and other important issues in my life, for example college. When i start gaming I can stop worrying about my real life issues and just need to worry about how hard I need to carry my noob team out of elo hell. I just thought that I will just "put my life on hold/pause" for the time being and when I notice, its like 8-10 hours gone by. Recently I have been realizing that thats not how any of this works and I REALLY need to quit gaming since i am completely powerless of its effects. I CAN NOT manage my time with it and often times i will catch myself even hating the game cuz of stressing over my elo and still playing through that for some reason. I have heard that the AA program is highly effective and OLGA im guessing is based off of the same system so I am really looking forward to turning my life around through this.
Welcome Rick! Glad you're speaking up.
Yes, the experience of our fellowship is that the principles and approaches of AA work equally well for treating gaming addiction. Those of us who have seriously worked a program of recovery have stayed off games for many months, some for years, and made improvements in all areas of our lives. The best way to learn about our experience, principles and approaches is to attend meetings. http://olganon.org/?q=node/46551
At meetings, you can ask questions, get to know other people, make connections, find understanding and acceptance, learn how to navigate the very difficult first weeks off games, learn how to adopt a new game-free lifestyle longterm, hear many stories sharing experience, strength and help, and find support from sponsors and recovery buddies.
That's me. Powerless over my gaming compulsion, unmanageable, stressing out, hating the game and myself for playing it, and yet still playing it. Today, I'm over two years off games and loving life. Recovery is possible. I hope you can gift yourself with the support available at meetings.
What you feed grows, and what you starve withers away.
Welcome Rick! Glad you're speaking up.
Yes, the experience of our fellowship is that the principles and approaches of AA work equally well for treating gaming addiction. Those of us who have seriously worked a program of recovery have stayed off games for many months, some for years, and made improvements in all areas of our lives. The best way to learn about our experience, principles and approaches is to attend meetings. http://olganon.org/?q=node/46551
At meetings, you can ask questions, get to know other people, make connections, find understanding and acceptance, learn how to navigate the very difficult first weeks off games, learn how to adopt a new game-free lifestyle longterm, hear many stories sharing experience, strength and help, and find support from sponsors and recovery buddies.
That's me. Powerless over my gaming compulsion, unmanageable, stressing out, hating the game and myself for playing it, and yet still playing it. Today, I'm over two years off games and loving life. Recovery is possible. I hope you can gift yourself with the support available at meetings.
What you feed grows, and what you starve withers away.