sucked into games again... Help!

[Jordan wang]

I used to play a lot of video games such as: League of Legends, Dota 2, Clash of clans.... 

 

Which made my grades really low, and I finally decided to quit. After a year without touching a single game, now I decided to take a year off of school.

 

I don't know exactly how it happened, but I travelled for a while, and when I am waiting for employmentship to support myself travel further, I found a gap in my time where there is little to do, and start playing games again.

Now it's difficult for me to stop, I have to battle with the urge to play games.

Even though I know that playing games is a waste of my time, and it has no use at all.

 

Does anyone have a strategy that can help me quit?

 

jordan wang

[Spiral]

You need to do something else, I still struggle. Maybe a friend you can hang out with or a new positive hobby. Something along these lines.

[RawJudah]

Basically, your willpower is terrible. Try and sort it out before you spend your whole life playing games.

Why not read a book instead? 

Go out in nature?

You really don’t want to waste precious time on video games...

[Shroomdoctor]

What I really think is important don't force it too much or you are going to end up unhappy. get to the point where you don't want to play video games that much anymore. If you do want to play a game do it, but don't do it for 3 hours straight.  Work on your more high conscientiousness activities and grow at a pace that will not leave you frustrated. 

[Leo-Tzu]

As i see you're into mobas . . . Basically your brain gets rewarded if you go from platinum to diamond elo and not for playing the game itself. . . I personally downgraded from MMOs to mobas, from mobas to singleplayer action rpgs (witcher 3, zelda botw) ... From there to nothing. . . 

 

What would i do if i were you:

First sell or gift your online accounts to someone who will change the password later and never take em back

Download from torrent (or buy if you wanna support the developers) some good single player AAA games which you can end in 30-40 hours so you feel satisfaction again playing and not just improving the elo . . . Or better some indies that you finish in 5-10 hours. . . 

After finishing a bunch of them you gonna see that there arent many games worth to play (max 4-5 games per year) so you gonna enjoy your time away from the pc or console more. . . Wish you luck

[ProblemSolving]

I destroyed my xbox and I decided to use an alternative OS on my pc that isnt really compatible with most games. But this is just small steps compared to my attitude that changed. I dont see how gaming really improves my life. Now that I have a job, a vision of improving physically and mentally, the desire to travel the world, connect with people and just go beyond my limits in general. In comparison to all of these things I feel like gaming isnt really worth wasting my time on. But still I respect those who still want to play. I played very much and I know that it can be fun.

[Helios]

I think that you should stop seeing video games as totally a bad thing: they have both positive and negative sides and you need to acknowledge both of them if you want to stop playing. The point would be to stop playing games and do something other that has the positive sides of videogames without the negatives side.

I had your same problem and what I did was to make 2 lists: one where you write why you play games (examples: you like to collaborate with other people online, you like to compete..) and one where you write why you shouldn't play games (examples: you spend too much time playing them, you stop socializing, it brings no value to you).

Then you try to find a hobby that has the things that you like in videogames without the negatives one.

Good luck

[bslpiontds]

I've had struggles quitting LoL too, what i found is that the game itself wasn't really satisfying, it was more the vision of becoming Diamond that was compelling. So a few months ago i became diamond rank and i was like "wow that was it" and most of the urges i had for gaming was gone. Still some of my friends want to play with me, but it does not feel right for me since i have all these things that i know will grow me much more: Meditation, education, diet, reading books etc.
My tip is that while you play your game: try to stay mindful and present. Maybe aware of your body sensations, "awareness alone is curative if you've watched that one of Leo's." What i discovered is that i simply could not continue playing while being present/slightly mindful of the fact that i was wasting my time on a game that i've already spend 1000-2000 of hours playing.
Also the awareness you put in while playing will reveal the unconscious desire to play and keep playing.

Nothing wrong with playing so don't judge yourself, the only fact is that it won't really make you happier/grow you.

Good luck on your journey!

[Sahil Pandit]

@Jordan wang Sounds like you got lulled into it man. 

What can you replace in that time?

Why do you play? You bored?

 

[DustOfEarth]

Hello there,

I'm sorta a newbie here, so take what i say with due care, but is it possible that when you get the urge to play games, you could simply become more aware of that feeling in your body? would the sedona method applied to that feeling help?

again, i'm rather new, so i am just throwing this out there in case it might stick

[Extreme Z7]

You should become more aware of the fact that all hedonistic pleasures are ultimately unsatisfying.

You don't need to stop it. Just be aware of it.