Gaming Addiction

Yeah I had severe gaming addiction, I dropped out of school, lost all my friends, lost everything. Would get like 4 hours sleep a night just so I could game more, forget to eat because I'd rather game, just lock myself in my room all day every day.

The way I overcame it? Well, back then was when I was playing WoW. I simply got the best of everything in the game, there was nothing left to do. I'd just sit around in town all day bored, till eventually I got bored of the game, realised how much I fucked up my life and had a mental breakdown. Took me a long time, but I've got most of what I had back before. My friendships aren't as strong, I don't have a best friend etc, but I do have friends I occasionally meet up with to have some drinks and have a laugh, took me ages to catch up with my grades but now I'm doing pretty well and predicted A's on my exams etc.

The only way you'll stop gaming addiction is if you really WANT to stop it, back when I played I never wanted to stop, which is why I didn't no matter what happened. I do still game now, but I have it under control. What I tend to do, is avoid MMO's and games with achievements in, the reason is, is that gaming addiction can stem from peoples lack of accomplishment in the real world, so by gaming and receiving achievements and being noticed by people, they receive the gratification that they cant in the real world. I noticed this was my case when I started getting attention for once in my life, and MMO's had no appeal to me anymore. Now, I usually just play RTS games, or rather, games that only last like (usually) 15-30 mins. While there is a high-skill bracket, it's not as addictive because the game does essentially end, whereas the games I was hooked to didn't, so I felt like I had to keep going or I'd lose my place.

Gaming addiction is pretty hard to overcome, I can definitely verify that. Good luck getting over it, you're welcome to PM me if you want to talk to me about it, want more suggestions etc.

All the best.

 

A list of games I've been addicted to:

-Minecraft
-Terraria
-Crysis
-DC Universe
-Firefall
-Maplestory (I was SO obsessed with that one)

The thing that sucks most about being absolutely addicted to a game is how boring everything else seems when you're not playing it, and only time can heal that.

 

Just so we're clear, something is usually classified as "addiction" if it's getting to a point where it's taking over/interfering with your daily life. If you think you actually have legitimate addiction, you should probably seek more professional help for it. In terms of exams though, I get what you mean about wanting to cut down on gaming even more (since studying becomes that much more important). So as a gamer who is also in the middle of exams, here's my ideas:

1) If you're a computer gamer, try and go places to study without your computer. Print off practice assignments/notes you need then go camp out in a library or something for a few hours.

2) For console gaming, get out of the house/wherever your consoles are. Leave your handheld games at home. Basically, just go somewhere you can study WITHOUT equipping yourself with the tools to game. I find once it's "out of sight" it's "out of mind".

3) Reward yourself. Studying for large periods of time without breaks isn't good for your health anyways, and it'll be easier to go without playing games if you get a little taste of it every few hours. I tend to take breaks to eat a meal/snack and run a short dungeon or something. Instances/dungeons or games with relatively set time limits (ex. PvP games) are good because you can tell yourself "I'll stop after this dungeon/round is over", rather than other grinding/leveling type of games where it's easy to say "oh, I'll just kill one more mob..."

3b) If you can find a different way to reward yourself, do that instead. Watch a TV show, hang out with friends for a bit, go for a walk, etc.

4) This one works for me, personally. I'm a computer gamer mostly, so if I need to study with my computer, I try and go into a common room of my house or to the library. If I'm somewhere public, I find that I'm more self-conscious of playing games when I know (and other people know) that I should be studying. Basically worrying about doing what's socially appropriate.

 

I was addicted to MMORPGs for many years.

It all began when I asked for EverQuest for my 11th birthday. We had just one family computer and someone would have to pry me off to use it. I probably spent 4-8 hours a day playing some game between age 11 and 18.

Ultimately I just lost interesting in playing games.

It makes me sad actually that I don't find any joy in video games when I used to love them so much.

 

I would say that I was addicted go Guild Wars: Factions for the longest time. The amount of time and effort it took to be part of a successful guild/alliance was incredible. I would spend hours every day just doing alliance battles to earn faction for the alliance to help make sure we wouldnt lose our standing (a member would donate around 1500 faction a day where an alliance battle would give you around 300 for a victory and the battle itself lasted between 45 minutes to an hour). At one point I was part of the #1 Luxon alliance in the entire game and we worked like non-stop to keep that title.

Not to mention the amount of actual politics that went into Guilds and alliance-making was unbelievable. All the powerful guilds knew each other and decisions had to be made to reflect past events (i.e. the leader of that guild slighted us before, so we won't let him join the alliance or guild A said they would join if we got rid of guild B, so we're going to do it because they have more faction). Just the amount of political moves was ridiculous for a game (but I loved every second of it). The guild I was a part of (when we were in the #1 Luxon alliance) was destroyed because the alliance leader and my guild leader were fighting. The alliance leader didnt want to lose our faction, so what he did was have one of his friends join the guild (unknown to us), then he climbed up the ladder to the rank of officer and one time when our leader was going out of town, he convinced him to make him leader until he got back and once he became leader he kicked out the original leader and anyone that was loyal to him (which included myself lol).

There were also group missions that took like 4 hours to complete (Urgoz). You would have one chance to complete the mission and if you group died you would have to start all over no matter what point you were at before. I would stay awake all night for two attempts at the mission only to pass out in my room and then wake up later to try again.

Eventually I realized that I needed to make a conscious choice about whether I was going to spend my time on that game or focusing on getting my school work done. Once my own guild collapsed (which is a different story on its own) I decided that instead of going through all the work of starting or finding a new one, I would just stop playing. It was difficult, but it was for the better. Like others have mentioned, I would recommend rewarding yourself by playing at special times but then not playing at all if you haven't completed the stuff you need to in real life.

 

I think video games can be quiet like alcohol or doing drugs, in the way they make you able to escape reality completely, and just waste the long hours that you would otherwise maybe feel miserable with your thoughts.

I failed a whole year in university while playing WoW, and had friends who told me you're using that stuff to run away from your life. I still do but right now its Dota 2.

The best advice is shift alt delete whatever game that is, and try to study with others or out side the reach of the computer, or cut off the internet subscription.

Discipline is much easier when you don't have the option to be tempted to start with lol. :/. Also one the hardest steps is usually just initiating the activity you need to do, once you do initiate, it's I think easy to stay engaged.

Good luck.

 

I would have to say I was addicted to video games at one point. I didn't work, go to school...I barely slept. It caused a lot of problems in my relationship even though my mate is an avid gamer.

Get away from your games as much as you can when you're studying. Study at the library or at a coffee shop. Get in a study group where others will keep you in check. If you're studying with other people, you're less likely to be glued to a game.

For me, I really just don't have as much interest in games as I used to. I still play, but I can go days without playing now and it doesn't bother me.

 

My gaming causes a huge problem with my sleeping and studying pattern. I have purposely called out from work just because a few buds and I were on multiplayer for a match of Dark Souls or TF2.... I am online at odd hours of the morning because I'm usually on Steam or am currently checking things online while playing something on PS3.

I've learned to kinda cool it, and I've been investing my time in better hobbies such as going to the library and studying. It's helped me clear my mind though I'll daydream thinking about the mission I have to complete in Assassin's Creed or Bioshock while trying to focus on my maths homework.

I agree with Budder and say to at least reward yourself after studying and play a match or a level or two. I also feel the same about gaming in public; it makes me feel awkward as well. I don't want people watching me play Skyrim in the library when I'm obviously a student who needs to be studying.

 

well now I'm restricted to three hours everyday on the weekend because of my past addiction

 

RuneScape 5-6 hours on school days and 12-15 hours on weekends. That was my entire high school. I just grew out of it (fortunately just before college), so I don't know how to help you here.

 

Lol, same here. I still play unfortunately.

 

RuneScape is a drug. Almost everyone I know/knew played like that, it was normal.

 

Oh yes, I was really addicted to games for a long time.
Mostly Runescape (yes, it IS a drug! I'm tellin' ya!), which started in 6th class of elementary school till 2nd of high school. I was REALLY addicted. Usually I would play as long as possible. In weekends from 8 to 10 (in the evening) and on schooldays from 2 (in the midday) till I had to go to sleep. I even forgot to eat, etc.
Eventually the leveling took so much time that I couldn't keep it up with school anymore, and it was getting boring because all my friends were quitting, after which I rather soon also quit.
I played some more games, like Maplestory (that one was pretty bad too), WoW (I got bored within 3 months of constant leveling after my best ingame friend had to quit of his parents), Minecraft, and some 'smaller' ones. I today still game, but a lot less, and hardly ever MMO's (they're SO addictive, they should be on the list of harddrugs, lol)
But yeah, RS really dominated my life as a pre high school/high school kid. I used to dream about it, make comics about it, write about it (I wrote a story of my RS character being 'zapped' into the game and not getting out. Which, frankly, was my biggest dream at the time (sad, isn't it? :/)), my 'art name' or whatever you call it, is still derived from my character's name.

On the other hand am I quite a bad internet addict now, I waste away almost all of my time on the internet, just googling random shit or spamming forums, Facebook, DA, Youtube, and then go 'round every site again to check if I haven't missed anything. Always I say "within a few mins I'll quit. ONE more message, ONE more article, ONE more video, ONE more site..." You know the drill...