Hi my name is Marios and i am a new member.I admit my addiction to world of warcraft.I hardly try to stop playing it but i can't, one day i succeed not to play but the other i miss the game and my friends in the game and i feel a need to log-in.Most of my friends also play and they push me to start playing again.I am really trying to stop it because i understand i lose my life for nothing.What do you suggest me doing?Thanks very much for the help and sorry for my terrible english i am from Greece.
Marios, welcome to OLGA. Your English is quite good as I did not have any trouble reading what you wrote. Admitting your addiction is a very important first step. As for what to do next, you will have to find what works best for you. This site offers a variety of tools to choose from such as weekly on-line meetings (a schedule is in the Shout box on the right side of the Home page), a 12-steps program adopted from the very successful AA (Alcoholics Anonymous) program, reading/writing posts in the various forums, etc. I suggest that you initially look around and familiarize yourself with what this site has to offer. Then either now or sometime very soon, quit playing again. Afterwards, use this site's features and tools to help during your recovery phase. Good luck with overcoming your addiction. Also, please keep in touch with us every once in a while, even if it is just to let us know that you are doing fine as we like to hear that occasionally as well.
- John O.
[em]Carpe Diem![/em] (Seize the Day!)
I will try not to play today but the big problem is that my best friend plays wow too and he has helped me very much in the game(he is 70 lvl with epic gear)and he want me to play with him for company.I think that he will not talk to me again if i quit playing.
Welcome! Like you, I worried that my friends would "disown" me if I stopped playing with them. Then I realized that if all they wanted out of my friendship was a character in a video game ~ they were better off without me!! The first few days are the most challenging, as you feel like you're almost giving up a part of yourself. But I do promise you that it gets easier. I am so glad you've found our site ~ please stick around for awhile. Love, Solei
-6 Years Free of Online Gaming-
I didn't post for 10 days because i was palying again and 3 days i didn't go to school because of playing.I will try to stop again but i think i can't.My best friend play wow and i am afraid to tell him that i am quitting.I write these and cry :'( the problem is that i don't have a lot friends no more than 3-4 and this is one of my best.I don't know what to do.I will really try to quit but my brother also plays and he always tells me come to boost me (help him) and its very difficult.Tommorow in school i will tell my friend that i stop.Another reason i think that our friendship will end is because we only talk about wow.
Mario, let me give you some words of encouragement here. I am surrounded by people at work who play video games - a lot of WoW fans, a few on other MMORPGs, and a few playing real-time strat games like Astro Empires. Additionally, one of my best friends in the world is the co-guild leader of the guild I recently left (we met in game way back in 2005, and he's been one of my closest friends ever since. To give frame of reference, we live in different states, so it's not like this is someone I see every day physically.) I was upfront and honest with everyone - those in my guild, my gaming friends here in the office, and my best friend. Not one person has given me grief over my decision. I still talk to my best friend every day, even if all it is is a quick 'It's Monday!' email. He tries to keep the game out of our conversations, and recently, he actually said he thinks we've become *better* friends by focusing attention on real life matters when we talk rather than the game. He doesn't pressure me to come back, although he's said he's missed having me there to rein some of the rabblerousers in. But, he understands why I'm not there, and accepts me as I am. My coworkers still treat me with respect (although I do have days where I ask myself "What exactly do I have in common here?" Loneliness is still something I struggle with.) They'll let the conversation move toward gaming when I'm there, but they're respectful when I say, "Hey, this conversation's making me uncomfortable." The bottom line here is...your real friends stay, even after the game is gone. RL can be scary, but trust me, you don't walk the path alone!
When I was playing WOW, I was the guild banker and anyone knowing what that is like, it was a full time job ontop of a full time job. The friends I made were more interested in what I could produce or lend or give away. At times, when the reserves topped thousands of gold, the membership was always taking and giving little in return. When the leader left the group for an elite BC crowd, the replacement mismanaged the bank, often causing arguments between him and I about pettiness. I was so fed up with artificial friendships, take attitudes, and selfishness, I held a raffle within the guild and gave away the entire bank account and then quit WOW. Haven't played since. No interest in putting up with it.
Real friends are forever, even the ones that uve never seen.. Ive been in touch with a great guy from england and i even call with him every day to talk about other things than gaming.. Hes an ex-addict aswell but hes still in allot of trouble. i know if i ever saw him irl i would feel the same as i feel for my good friends in my own country. Though u shudnt worry about people that drop u cause u chose for life! Their not worth the trouble how hard it might be.. Just let em go if they want to! Real friends are like diamonds ;) their forever and beautiful! Niek Jonker
-- Gamers Anonymous Nederland (Holland) Founder of the fellowship together with support of the Wild Horses Clinic in Amsterdam. "Uve got to hit the bottom to start climbing" "As i walk trough the valley of shadow and death, im not scared. Since im the meanest ***** in the whole valley!"
Haven't played WOW since just before WoTHLK was released, even as a dedicated TRS forum member and KoR guild member. My wife and kids were grateful that I surfaced from that world, as it robbed me of time I should have been spending with my family.
That is fantastic news, confused!!! Keep up the good work.
The question is....will you be able/courageous/adult enough to sacrifice that which merely pleases you...for that which will truly fulfill you? That is the question of personal growth.
~~~Dem518
~~~wow-free since 8/22/09
my wow "friends" were the hardest for me to leave. i had no other real life friends. i pushed them away. then when i quit wow and really saw they were not friends afterall. they wanted me back to help level them with the xpan and told me i "owed" them. they tried to manipulate me with guilt and shame to meet their own needs. FInally i realized this isnt friendship. and most importantly i discovered I deserve a lot better from a friend. when that happened the first real life friends i found were here in olga. then slowly new ones came in to my real life as well, i picked who i would be a friend to. someone who treated me as i felt i deserved and would treat them. kindness, support, empathy, honesty, laughter and just someone to sit with and not say word to. u deserve true friends. do these people do deserve your friendship? please continue to let us know how you are doing. you are not alone here. :grouphug: Dawn
Take the first step in faith. You donaEU(tm)t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Laughter gives us distance. It allows us to step back from an event, deal with it and then move on.
~Bob Newhart
The minute you alter your perception of yourself and your future, both you and your future begin to change. ~Marilee Zdenek
Congratulations on being WoW free. I would like to start my reply by commenting on the friend part if I may. All addictions main object is to isolate you from all other things and persons, so you are alone with your disease. This is a long procedure but I promise you, this illness, has more patience then all of the people combined on this forum. If you are free of this game, for 100 years, it will still be outside knocking on your door when you get "down" or feel alittle depressed, thats why it is essential that you learn as much about yourself, how to step back when impulses come and learn to think before you act. When you do things, learn to think objective and think thru what you did, how you did it, could you have done it better, how should you have done it instead of how you did it, theres alot of examples. I am only giving you some idea of what works for me. I believe that most ppl with addiction problems have a problem that relates to their childhood, at one point you and I got abandoned. THis is something I need to address and sort out with help of a terapeut in my case and also thru going to meetings in a fellowship called GA. I understand that some ppl can understand what they did were wrong and thru that stop by themselfs and Im very happy for them. This however is not the case for me. To be successful, I need to control my impulses, I need to learn how to stop and think, talk to others about my problems instead of bottling them up, ask for help when I need it instead of trying to succeed in everything myself, go to meetings, talk to ppl about my everyday problems or what is bothering me and my mind, be honest, and I mean 100% honest, when I have a problem face it head on no matter how sad I may feel about it, when I think of playing WoW, I beat that thought and as the days pass, its easier and easier. There is alot of things I do in my recovery, but I think you get the picture. The major issue I believe is, in therapy and recovery programs, ppl think about the "drug" too much instead of looking at the similarities. example, an alcoholic cant use booze, a sex addict cant have sex with strangers, a shopoholic cant go on a shopping spree, drug addict cant use drugs or most medications etc. STOP THAT, we all have the same problem, but we use different "drugs", the problem is still the same, we cant control our own needs and in most cases, we try to hide from real life and whatever causes our mind to be occupied as much as possible so I dont have a chance to think about my real life problems, will fill that gap in my life. I would like to add that I am no therapeut and what I write is my own thoughts, it is under no circumstance anything a professional thought, I am simply a regular person with my own thoughts. Thank you for listening and I hope this may apply to someone and maybe, even help ... Best of fortune to all and I wish you all the best. until next time, take care ... one day at the time
If I belive in you and you belive in me, wouldnt that be the greatest religion...