On Oct 23 I deleted all of my games, and locked away my disks so that I could not reload them.
Yesterday, however, I was afraid this would not be enough, because ... on the weekend, a friend who didn't know I was quitting gaming mentioned (casually) a new cool game he had found. On the way home I stopped at my local video store to see if they had a copy. Luckily it's a small store and didn't have much stock.
I was saved, temporarily.
I realized the only way to get a good break from gaming was to remove all access to my computer. Now I have locked it up too, and tossed away all CDs (when I was in another part of town earlier today, so I can't fish them out of the trash). My Internet expired yesterday as well. Very convenient. I can do all essential computing, eg: emails, on my work computer.
Recovery programs generally set "90 days" as a good target for withdrawal and the re-establishment of new, healthy habits. My plan is not to have a computer in my house for three months.
It is difficult to imagine life without gaming, and a computer at home, so I will just have to take this one day at a time, and learn how to reconnect with the real world.
Peace,
Tim
Free from gaming since Oct 24, 2012
Go for it tim!
many members found challenging to even find what to do with all the time they now had on their hands...
It is a very different lifestyle, and not easy to transition to.
good luck, and keep coming back
leveling in steps, serenity, sponcys, sponsors, exercise, and sleep, (sanity has been downsized) sober from all electronic games since 11/19/2010
Congratulations on the first step, Tim!
No one here will pretend to you that the journey's an easy one, but, speaking for myself, it's been absolutely worth it to remove gaming from my life. I'm more attentive, more adventurous, more responsible, and more contemplative when I'm not gaming--in short, I'm a giant step closer to being the man I always wanted to be. Keep it up, and keep coming back.
Taking Steps toward recovery since November 2, 2012. The difficulty of the path makes it worth the walking.
Going into the second week. Still feel a bit strange, lost. Onebenefit to having no access to my computer is that when the desire to game hits, and that internal debate begins ... I want to game, I shouldn't game, I want to game, I shouldn't game ... then I suddenly remember: I can't game. The decision has been taken away from me, at least for now. Sure, at some point in teh future, I will have access to computers and will need to approach them in a responsible way, Right now, however, it is like being in rehab. To be honest, not having a choice allows me to focus my energy on recovering and finding other things to do, and not fighting with myself whether I should or not. Believe I made the right decision.
Free from gaming since Oct 24, 2012
I know you did, Tim, keep up the great work!
Twelve miles into the forest, 12 miles out.
Left my poisonous game July 4, 2012. Left online communities June 4, 2013.
Three weeks without games. It is feeling less and less strange. Saturdays are still the worst, though. I really wonder what I am going to do with all my time. Last week I made a list on Friday (before Saturday morning) of many healthy things I could do the next day. That was very helpful when I woke up, and having plans got me up and out of the house instead of moping around feeling down because there are no games.
What I did not expect were physical side effects - occasional headaches, rapid heartbeat, tense and nervous. I know this will go away.
I still feel a bit lost. After making coffee this morning I realized I was standing in my livingroom staring at the spot where my computer had been. Not sure why. It has been locked up for a week.
Bizarre.
Peace, love and recovery.
Free from gaming since Oct 24, 2012
hugs timc,
I had bad headaches for a while when I quit.
We are habit oriented creatures and when our purpose changes it takes us a lot of time to figure out what we are doing.
leveling in steps, serenity, sponcys, sponsors, exercise, and sleep, (sanity has been downsized) sober from all electronic games since 11/19/2010
Making a Healthy Activities List is a great idea. My sponsor had me do that, most of the time I keep it on my person, and actually that reminds me, I have to add some stuff to it.
Twelve miles into the forest, 12 miles out.
Left my poisonous game July 4, 2012. Left online communities June 4, 2013.
I had all the things you have: headaches, rapid heartbeat, tense and nervous. The headaches, I kid you not, I thought was a brain tumor because it seemed like one side of my head, not overall. It wasn't, just a withdrawal. I was definitely nervous and tense and I couldn't seem to concentrate on anything. I tried to read, but got bored really quickly, so I got a Kindle and downloaded almost all the classical free stuff, and a few of my favorite authors, so that way if I got bored with one, I'd have other books to start. At one time I had 5 books I was reading at one time. The ebook was easier to carry around than 5 heavy books.
I also got out and walked; depending on the weather (ice/snow) you might not get out as much, but walking is great. It got me out of the house and into another environment and that helped me a great deal. Another thing that helped me, was getting out of the house...visitng other areas, anything to get me out of the same environment. That helped a lot!
Later on when I felt better, I started reconnecting with friends I hadn't seen for a long time. These friends were non-gamers (which was good as I didn't want to reconnect with active gamers; lie down with dogs: pick up fleas).
Lately I've been playing the piano and will be taking lessons soon. I truly believe that anything creative will feed us more than most activities. I tend to get bored easily and need something challenging.
Weekends were definitely hard for me in the first 90 days. I would often think on automatic: "ah, the weekend, time for some deep, long, hard gaming", and then I'd remember I'd quit. It helps to plan ahead for some physical activities outside. Being ourside helps you to remember why you quit, it takes up more time in bigger chunks, and after the weekend's over you actually feel *better* than after a week of work. It used to be the other way around, where I used the week to recuperate from hard gaming and sleep deprivation and recreational drug use.
This stage passes. At first the weekend is something to survive without picking up a game, but now I look forward to the weekend, and if I have nothing planned I'll just make up things on the spot, like fly a kite with my daughter, or go trampoline jumping with her, or some other thing you don't get to do on a weekday.
Perhaps a man who is worthy of the name should put aside this question of how long he will live ..., and turn his attention to this instead, to how he can live the best life possible in the time that is granted to him
Marcus Aurelius
TimC. it's wonderful what you are doing. I need to do this too and I don't have the courage yet. I just really think I need to be without a computer for a long time. As well as gaming (MMO's) I also get addicted to just simply being on my computer.. whether it is email, facebook, Youtube etc. It drives me crazy!! There are times, as I log out of facebook, that I really feel like I hate it. And then I log back on again the next day only to waste another couple of hours. So then I log into WoW to get out of my facebooking only then to spend a few more hours of gameplay. So I feel like I am losing my mind. I am sick of looking at this screen. I just spent the last half hour thinking about restarting my wow account. I was fantasizing about buying a high end kick ass computer and downloading any mmo I want. I am obsessed! So, I have only been a week clean of gaming, but I want to be on the road to recovery. We can do this!
Four weeks now without gaming.
Because of a family situation, I've had to temporarily hook up my computer and Internet so I can Skype at odd international hours. Luckily I have had no desire to load up a game, and my discs are all gone, so I'd have to buy new ones. A couple more days I will be through this and all will be locked up again. I am still relearning how to live and even the Internet is too much of a distraction.
I have been getting flashbacks, visual reminders of the game, like character faces, voices, maps, music loops. I know this is my brain trying to get that adrenaline surge it is used to. Well, it is not going to get it from gaiming again, and I know this will pass.
Free from gaming since Oct 24, 2012
I am proud of you TimC.
The holidays are not easy. I don't know where you live, but taking a walk outside might help clear your mind when you are obsessing over games.
Happy thanksgiving!
Perhaps a man who is worthy of the name should put aside this question of how long he will live ..., and turn his attention to this instead, to how he can live the best life possible in the time that is granted to him
Marcus Aurelius
I had (and sometimes have) flashbacks. Very annoying, but all I can say about me is that I spent 8 solid years gaming, with most of my time sitting in front of a computer playing my game (WOW) and I'm sure it is so imprinted on my brain that it will take some time for the brain to rewire itself.
I remember I couldn't watch any movie with computer generated scenes, because every movie reminded me of my game. Which broke my heart, because those are my favorite movies.
At least now it's not happening as often. I've been working on my real life program, which includes learning the piano, so that my thoughts are directed to other things.
I also was stop one week ago by gaming SWTOR. But sometimes I still think on Poesje my Sith Sorcerer character in what I was very good in and it`s also is difficult to imagine life without gaming because I get bored quickly cause my ADHD. The gaming was to break the boredom. But I didn`t realize I was SWTOR addicted. I have almost lose my husband and all my friends in the real life. But I don`t come from the thoughts off from Poesje and my guild Deadly Empire and am emotionally. In my game time I never bored but now I`m bored very much especially weekends and every evening. What must I do so I do not constantly thinking about Poe?
Come to the nightly chat meetings! I'm not sure what your time zone is, but it might be a good place to hear others talk about their recoveries; some have quit gaming already, some are getting ready to quit, some have quit gaming for a long time.
Hope to see you there!
What Patria said. Come to chat meetings, read posts, comment on posts, start a recovery blog. Make Olganon your new guild, recovery your new game. Go outside, exercise, sleep. Hang out with family, friends in real life. Live.
Good luck !
Perhaps a man who is worthy of the name should put aside this question of how long he will live ..., and turn his attention to this instead, to how he can live the best life possible in the time that is granted to him
Marcus Aurelius
What my peoblem also is. I can`t log in in the chat room. I have try log in few times but always indicate it as error.
My timezone is from Europe. I kive in Holland you know. My question to you. Have you also a teamspeak or vent here?
We have Skype.
See http://www.olganon.org/?q=node/35052
Cool. Add me on kazumi_red_sea@hotmail.com. That`s my e-mail address on hotmail, msn and skype.
Please personal message Tommi, he can give you instructions on how to connect to the meeting. I say this because Tommi is waiting for interested people to contact him before he starts the meeting. Up to now there hasn't been much interest.
There is one on Saturday, too. Tommi's is Wednesday.
Ok. Thank you.
You have to have Flash to run the chatroom software. Could this be the trouble?
I am a recovering computer game and gambling addict. My recovery birthday: On May 6, 2012 I quit games and began working a program of recovery through OLGA No computer games or slot games for me since December 12, 2012. No solitaire games with real cards since June 2013.