Internet and Technology Addicts Anonymous meetings 6x week by phone....

Some gaming addicts find that after they stop gaming, they develop similar responses to other forms of technology. One woman I know says that working with spreadsheets triggers the sort of feelings she had with gaming. A man I know says that any time he uses computers for more than 2 hours straight it tends to trigger the sort of urgency he had when working as a competitive professional gamer.

So I wanted to let everyone here know that there are currently 6 meetings a week of Internet and Technology Addicts Anonymous held over a teleconference line. In the US, the conference line is (605) 472-5322, followed by the access code, 624357 #.  If located outside the US, you can use the FreeConferenceCall.com app or use one of the local call numbers listed on https://internetandtechaa.files.wordpress.com/2018/09/itaa-international-conference-call-numbers.pdf. We frequently add and move meeting times. Right now the meeting times are (in US Eastern Time) Sunday noon, Monday 7 am, Tuesday 6 pm (although there's a motion to move the meeting earlier to a time Europeans can attend), Wednesday night/Thursday early morning 12am midnight, Thursday 8pm, and Saturday noon. We have regular attendees from the United States, Canada, Australia, Singapore, Portugal, Denmark, Venezuela and Germany. There are members from other European countries, but I'm not sure where all everyone is from. 

There is also a WhatsApp discussion group, which for me is triggering because it draws my attention back to my computer or phone. We are working on getting two email lists set up - one just for announcements, and one for discussion, as an alternative to WhatsApp. 

Since I'm not certain if I will be able to log on here frequently and update the meeting listing, please see https://internetaddictsanonymous.org/phone-online-meetings/ for the current meeting schedules. If you know any gaming addicts who have decided to get rid of their smartphones and/or computers in an attempt to get rid of anything they can play games on, they are welcome to attend ITAA meetings. Most of the ITAA phone meetings have at least a few people who have either attended meetings for compulsive gamers or have experienced periods of excessive gaming as part of their internet addiction.

For me, both my internet addiction and compulsive gaming come from a desire to have a predictable world in which there are rules for success and things I can control. At the moment, I don't deal well with situations with uncertain results, where I can do all the right things and not get the results I want. It's been a lot easier for me to get off games (over 5 months now) than to give up compulsive internet use.