It's been 24 hours since I played a video game and I feel fine.
So insead I surfed the internet all day, which is as addictive as playing games. I have work to do (on the computer) that I'm avoiding and don't know how to remedy this. Advice?
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Sammie
I'm also struggling with this past 3 days - have to finish a paper (which was due 2 hours ago, at the most I should send it in the next hour) and I just keep doing other stuff on the computer.
How about - for the next 45 minutes, we turn off all the other sites and just sit with the 'work' stuff and then check back in? :p
I have a hard time with this myself, nor have I yet found a good way to handle it. I do know that things go better if I'm away from my usual gaming places, but if you figure out a good way to handle things, please let me know. Right now, I'm still going to keep taking it easy...the fact that I feel fine doesn't necessarily mean that I actually am fine, and I'm early enough in recovery right now that I don't want to push it and wind up pushing myself back into a relapse instead.
I do know that the things I have a hard time focusing on are also things that bring up underlying issues that I used to game to hide from. Even if nothing else, this has been a way for me to be reminded about something that I had once forgotten about that is a character defect of mine that will need addressed someday...
When you're going through hell...keep going. --Winston Churchill There is no pit so deep that God is not deeper still --Corrie ten Boom
This has been a recurring problem for me as well. There's no quick fix, so far as I know. The best tools for dealing with it for me have been from Leo Babauta's Focus. It's a great book. http://focusmanifesto.com/
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Jeff (JMonkey)
First left my game July 27, 2011. Relapsed in July 2013. Committed myself once again to being game-free on August 2, 2013
Some days I consider throwing my computer out and tossing my iphone. Oi. It's a continual challenge for me, too.
Acceptance. When I am disturbed, it is because a person, place, thing, or situation is unacceptable to me. I find no serenity until I accept my life as being exactly the way it is meant to be. Nothing happens in God’s world by mistake. Acknowledge the problem, but live the solution!
I do this too. Things that help:
1) Don't beat myself up. My addiction set up some bad habits and it will take time to form new ones. Easy does it, one day at a time, progress not perfection.
2) Don't believe it when my head says, "You're wasting all this time doing XYZ, might as well be gaming!!" That's the addiction sucking me back in. The truth is that I'm freeing my brain of the repetitive grind of gaming, and XYZ is okay for a while as long as it is not gaming related and is not addictive itself. Many of us have this thought about spending too much time on this website. Spending a few hours a day reading and posting on OLGA is not the same as spending 5 or 10 or 15 hours a day gaming. We need to catch the lies the addiction tries to tell us.
3) Set up accountability. For example, I set goals and deadlines for myself and tell them to my boss, to make sure I am focused on work. I work where other people can see my computer monitor.
4) Break the pattern. Maybe that means taking a break to go for a walk or call someone. Maybe it means working somewhere there is no internet access. (Even though I work on a computer, I can usually accomplish a lot without internet access.)
5) Write a list of the first few steps of whatever I need to do and I force myself to begin the first one. Taking the very first step is usually what is hardest for me. Once I begin, I usually find it easy to keep going, especially if it is clear in my mind what the next few steps are.
Hope that helps.
What you feed grows, and what you starve withers away.
What I use- Google Chrome Apps. One of my favorites: StayFocused
Check it out it really helps me https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/stayfocusd/laankejkbhbdhmipfmgcngdelahlfoji?utm_source=chrome-ntp-icon
Great advice vman gamer! i downloaded the app myself. lol.
Hi sammie,
I found that in my case, I play videogames when my brain is understimulated and very bored. It's been a challenge doing anything during these 2 weeks because I'm in withdrawl (havent gamed in 17 days).
So, I try to stimulate my brain. In these ways:
1) Music: Pretty much a must, in my situation. I listen to a lot of weird jazz with a lot of changes. Seems to keep my brain pretty happy.
2) I'm writing several books that I've put off for 10 years.
3) Homework: I'm taking 3 college classes (College Alegebra, American Govt, Computer essentials), and while they aren't too tough, they seem to keep my brain stimulated.
4) Come to this site a lot.
I don't know what works for other people, but listening to music while writing or reading has done wonders for me, and for me, it is productive and I'm not gaming.
I have to admit that I really wanted to play Minecraft while listening to music just now, but I convinced myself to go write instead. ^_^