Day 8 since I have played any games, but today I am feeling very weak. I have no illusions that I would just play 1 game. I want to spend the whole rest of today playing games. I want to shove anyone who tries to bother me during those games away as hard as I can. I'm not sure what I'm going to do. I've been feeling this way all day, have resisted so far, but I think I may succumb soon. Ideas for ways to keep myself on the straight and narrow?
Hey Bex! :) Well... all I can say is well done for having resisted until now! Do you think you can get out or at least away from the computer? Maybe do something that will absorb you for a little so that your head can kind of reset?
I do that when I really want to play and just let the thought pass in my head from one side to the other! :D Come to the chat!!
Been game clean since the 21st of February 2014. Getting there day by day!
Today is where we all begin, the rest is still unwritten!
I don't want to have spent hours on a stupid game on my last day of life!
Private Message me, I'm eager to hear your story!!! :D
I can't have a meeting today. But Bex, you and Francesco can meet in the chat room and discuss this. We need contact with other recovering gamers. It works, it really does.
The withdrawal symptoms can be brutal in the first weeks but fade over time. If you can make it through to the end of the day without starting that first game, that puts you one day closer to the end of the withdrawal. If you game, that puts you back at square zero.
I'm not sure what will help you, but there are many different things that work for different people. Blowing off steam with a walk outside or a run or a workout, or tackling some project to focus on for a while, calling friends or someone in OLGA, talking to someone understanding, praying, going out to a movie, sitting in on an AA or NA meeting and listening, attending online meetings... these all can be helpful.
I don't see it as walking the straight & narrow. I see it as doing anything and everything I can to not give in to the obsessive urge to return to my poison. One day at a time, one hour at a time, getting past the withdrawal pain and urges and crazy thinking that all want to drive me back to it. My #1 priority is to not game. As I manage to not start that first game between now and the end of the day, I have a shot at overcoming this thing and living a good life. Starting that first game would be launching myself headlong back into the insane self-destructive downward spiral.
Don't give up. I made it through and hardly suffer any urges to game these days. You can too. You're worth it.
What you feed grows, and what you starve withers away.
Hi Bex, You can do it!! It's been 5 months for me today, and the urge fades. It truly does, you have to let it fade though, and it can be very hard at first. Very hard. What worked for me was going outside when the addiction started talking to me...and it is the addiction talking. Rain, snow, falling leaves, dark of night I went outside and stood under a tree in my yard for 5, 10, 15 minutes breathing in fresh air and listening to the sounds of real life..cars passing, birds singing, my neighbors laughing with their children, my own dog barking at an owl....it grounded me. Maybe it can work for you too.
I don't know if you are a recovering video or online gamer, or both, but if you can, maybe limit your time online if that's where the temptation lies, or take your system to a thrift shop, or give it away, so it's not there in front of you, if that's where the addiction is.
I hope I help in some way, you're not alone. Keep at it, you can do it!!!
Played two years at an MMO, started as an hour here, or there, ended with me being there 10 hours a day. Became overly involved in a "game-relationship" that started carrying over into my RL and caused many, MANY, problems. Also stopped contact with "game-friends" because of their own game-addictions. Game-free since Sept. 2013.
Starting to feel much better and the withdrawal symptoms are lessening. I have limited myself to two days online a week, for only two hours, until I'm six months into my recovery. Then a third day. Thank you for this site.:)