Hey everybody.
So it's been probably two months now since I've tried to stop playing, and I've gone 13 days in a row succesfully without playing a single game. This really feels amazing, and I feel the pull of the addiction far less than I did before.
It's definitely important to stay vigilant, however. Today, whilst removing my brothers games from their computer, I happened upon a couple of game ISOs that I had left on their hard drive (we are using OpenDNS to block incoming connections so there is no way to download them at the moment without a LOT of work).
Before I realized what I was doing, I had copied the ISOs onto the flash drive I was running the system cleaners from.
Fortunately, I realized what I was doing and I removed them from the flash drive, deleting them permanently.
This led me to start to think about the ways I was still 'plugged in' to the addiction. I still browse some sites re. games, and I still read forums, etc. Maybe this is a way to tell my brain that 'it's okay, I'll start playing again someday?'
So now, not only will I count how many days it has been since I stopped playing, I will also count how many days it is since I stopped looking at sites and information about games.
Thank you all for your support.
Asura_Redux
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Hi Asura and welcome to Olga. Congratulations on quitting gaming and for 13 days of living a game-free life. I can certainly relate to what you said about remaining "plugged in" to the addiction by looking at game sites. I was doing that as well for months after I quit gaming as if I were looking for a new game to play...."when I could game again someday?".....very definately "addict" thinking.
Olga is a great community to help us stay away from that gaming life and I hope you'll keep on posting, reading posts and, if you can, attend a meeting once in awhile. It all helps. Best of luck to you!
Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending. ~Maria Robinson
Congrats on 13 days Asura!!!
I have checked out some game-related sites as well, and I think that is exactly what I was telling my brain too.... *embarrassed*
Making an effort to be clean from those sites too and counting the days is a great idea :)
"A man who fears suffering is already suffering from what he fears." ~Michel de Montaigne
Some things I have done: spent 30 days with no internet action except for work, OLGA and email. And tried not to check email obsessively and contstantly.
Another exercise I tried: A technology-free day. Went about 12 hours without phone, TV, computer, music. Just me. A couple of books. The garden. The kitchen. It was shocking to me how difficult it was to do and how different I felt. I'm not sure if I can do it regularly, but I sure need to.
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.