Help! Addicted to video games :(

[Eudaimonia]

So i've been addicted to video games since I was like 8...i've been playing them far too much but now I recently graduated college and after a major depressive episode have been home doing nothing but playing. I've even stopped meditating for the most part. I don't know what to do because I love playing....but not this much.

Meh sorry for rant, I'd rather be addicted to smoking though honestly...

[Arcturus]

well maybe don't give it up then but find other hobbies as well., so you have less time for it. do you hike? samba lessons, learn the guitar, maybe you're doing other stuff already. don't let addiction stop you finding your interests. unless this is some kind of clinical addiction which is another story.

[Animus27]

Try setting a time limit when you play. Sure, you might be antsy, and think "a little longer won't hurt" but by doing so, you'll slowly wean yourself off overplaying. Finding something else you like to do in the meantime is always a good thing too. Just like with smoking or any other habitual behavior, you have to replace one with another.

[desert rat]

You could do other stuff . When I was 8 a computer filled a whole floor of a building . I was in my mid 30s when I got a 386 . The game I liked was Duke Nukem , I did not get addicted tho.

[Eudaimonia]

I just grew up with them, all my happy memories involve them sadly or not lol. I play competitively too so it makes it a LOT worse...there's like a community with it, hard to change vibrations.

[Arcturus]

toy story racer on the ps1, best game ever made.

[Terracotta]

The video games, at least, keep your lungs intact. Video game addiction has been gaining some recognition, so I think there are actual support groups out there now.

I remembered stumbling on this a few years ago and liking it because it was a very honest portrait by the gaming community itself on gaming addiction and the underlying problems, with a talk from the writer who struggled with it himself in part 2.

"When people talk about game addiction they always ask why games are addictive, rather than what void they fill. Right there is where the conversation goes wrong. [...] I guess that's the heart of the issue: games aren't addictive, but they offer us something that is."

Part 1:
http://www.penny-arcade.com/patv/episode/game-addiction-pt.1
Part 2:
http://www.penny-arcade.com/patv/episode/game-addiction-pt.2

[A human Being]

Vow to forego playing for a day (or even just a few hours, if the prospect of a whole day is too daunting), and then, when the urge to play inevitably arises, don't act on the urge and instead focus on what it feels like - what sensations are running through your body? Don't judge them as good or bad, just acknowledge them.

[Eudaimonist]

Great username! I use the word "eudaimonia" as my well-wishing signoff in my posts. It means something like Spock's "live long and prosper".

So i've been addicted to video games since I was like 8...i've been playing them far too much but now I recently graduated college and after a major depressive episode have been home doing nothing but playing. I've even stopped meditating for the most part. I don't know what to do because I love playing....but not this much.

I don't think that you should beat yourself up about playing your video games. They are not really your problem. They are a pleasure-patch for deeper issues.

The problem is that you've lost enthusiasm for other values. If you aren't meditating, it's not because you are "addicted" to video games, but because you've lost enthusiasm for meditation. Your depression may have (temporarily) killed that enthusiasm.

What I recommend doing is some soul-searching and discovering those values that can make you want to get out of bed in the morning, and stoke a desire for achieving those values. It's easy to lose sight of such things. Discover what is truly important to you, and try to "get sight" of why it is important and exciting and the sort of thing you wish to spend your life doing. It's okay if video games are in the list.

For instance, why do you wish to meditate? What do you hope to get out of that? Why spend some of your life meditating? Why is that prospect exciting and desirable?


eudaimonia,

Mark

[MadamStar]

I have come to realize that my own want to play video games stemmed from the feeling of not being in control. When you play video games, it us much like an escape from reality, and we feel in control because each button produces an outcome on the screen. That's why when Mario falls down in a hole because the button pressed does not register, I would get frustrated almost to the point of violence. **I know I used to at least as a kid

But I think maybe the escapism should take place within one's own mind in order to discover what it is that makes them feel they are no longer in control. :)

[Thunder Bow]

Therapy will help. The game playing is associated with depression. Your brain is adapted to depression and video games. You are seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.