Here I am.A My first day without any access to any games or any ability to access them.
In + - 8 years, I have spent so many hours daily on mostly MMO's.A Today, I'm typing from a family members laptop.A I will be staying with them for awhile.
I have a lot of time to reflect on what I've been missing and what I want to do in the future - for my career, social life, fun time, etc.
The one thing that scares me the most, I think, is that I'm not really sure what I am going to do to replace this time I've spent gaming.
To me, the world seems boring and somewhat just not as fun as the fantasy world in online gaming.A It's tough to think that life could bore me for now on, and that I might never find something as passionate I am about as gaming has always been my #1 passion.A But I also know if I continue on down the "gaming path", that I'll likely continue wasting valuable time, continue ignoring life's responsibilities and activities, and make things much worse then they already are.A I can't be a casual gamer.A That's just not an option.
On my first day, I'm basically trying to figure out ways to spend my time (besides reading and writing posts here).A It's probably going to be awhile before I can even drive again ( see http://www.olganonboard.org/index.php?topic=6060.0 for further details).A Maybe even longer before I can find the job I want.A Luckily, I'm blessed with a very loving and caring family to help me out along the way.A I'm very thankful for this, because I know not everyone has the same.
Also, I've decided to keep a daily journal of what my days consist of and a "to do" list, which states the obvious.
And I do plan to stop by here and post my progress in brief details.
Good for you! Every day is day 1 on this path. Please keep us apprised on your progress. :|
Leveling in Real Life
Congratulations on your first day "without any access to any games or any ability to access them". A I hope that you use this as a starting point to stop playing if you have not already done so. A As for not being sure of what to do with your time, there are many excellent suggestions in the long thread at http://www.olganonboard.org/index.php?topic=3899.0. A Also, as for your concern "that I might never find something as passionate I am about as gaming has always been my #1 passion", keep in mind that from my own limited personal experience and from what I have read in other threads, you will find that your interest and passion in various real life (RL) activities will in general increase the longer that you stay away from video games. Good luck on each day of your progress, and I look forward to reading about it on this site.
- John O.
[em]Carpe Diem![/em] (Seize the Day!)
Congratulations on taking the first step into the rest of your life! The best advice I can think to give you right now is "don't give up". All of us have made a mistake in our recovery, be it with a relapse, or a bad choice... there are many pitfalls on the road that you've decided to take, so be kind to yourself! Also, please consider coming to some of our online meetings. There's a schedule in the Meeting Forums, we meet on Sunday, on Tuesday (twice), on Wednesday and on Friday. I've also been considering starting up a meeting on a Saturday or Sunday which would be at a time that's friendly to non-US residents as far as the time goes. If none of the current meeting times work, let a meeting leader know, they may be willing to work something out with you for a special time or some one-on-one work. Your support system will be your lifeline on this path to recovery - you are not alone!
[color=purple]<3 Jessica
WOOSH![/color]
Hi cf, When I first started down the path of recovery I would often think, "What if for the rest of my life I could never (insert addiction of choice)....." That always just scared and depressed me. That was where one-day-at-a-time really meant a lot to me. I would often say to myself, "Ok, I'm not going to....for now or for today and we'll just see...don't know about tomorrow." I was surprised, actually, at how many times that worked.
Being bored and at loose ends and mildly depressed are all symptoms of detox and recovery. You (probably) won't find something else to be passionate about right off the bat. First, you have to recover, physically and mentally and spiritually, from the gaming obsession. Give yourself time and feel your feelings. These are necessary parts of coming down off the gaming high. In time, I promise you, you will find oodles of things in real life that you enjoy and are interested in and maybe even are passionate about! Real life is so much better, in so many ways, than gaming. I know that it will be very tempting, as the days go by, to want to return to gaming to recapture those exciting feelings. But now you know, gaming is toxic for you. It may not feel like it now, but you've been giving gaming a whole lot more (your emotions, your adrenaline, your energy and time) than it's giving you. That's a bad bargain for you, I'd say! Take care and keep coming back........... Jane in CT
Thanks for the encouraging and helpful posts everyone. Yesterday, I had my sister drop me off at Barnes and Nobles for an hour.A I needed a book badly. I couldn't help but stroll over to the fantasy fiction section and start to remember why I loved this genre so much. I had several choices to choose from.A The Wheel of Time series, Terry Goodkind's books, and the Dragonlance series.A Being a huge fan of the DL Chronicles, I decided to pick up the first book of the Legends series and get to work :) Unlike gaming, I can be strapped in a fantasy world while reading and put the book down at any time.A I just need to be careful that it's not all I do with my time during the day.A I mean, book reading could become an addiction in itself, no?A Maybe with less harmful side effects?
If you are like me it can be an addiction, but it is far harmless, because every book has a last page. And I find them more rewarding then a MMO, because there is actually a meaningful story behindA ;D And it will keep your mind of the games! I can just referr to my experience in which I read all 7 books of Harry Potter in about 2 weeks... And I had read LOTR again before that. But having been a bookworm all my life (except during my addiction) it is quite normal for me to formally eat the book as a hole. P.S. Try out the Dark tower series of Stephen King - that books blew me away (true S.K. fan anyway)
BoB
Don't fool yourself with the 'What if' phrase!
Yep I heard about the Dark Tower series too. I also saw that Stephen King put a new book out called "The Duma Key" which is also supposed to be really good.
Don't know about that one.. But he wrote many good books, if you like the horror genre :D. Actually Insomnia is a great book - and the insomnia the protagonists suffers from even has a purpose - unlike mine ::)
BoB
Don't fool yourself with the 'What if' phrase!