Addiction Dominating Free Time

[Jack_Clark]

I have an issue in my life where I will tend to spend time playing video games rather than working on personal development, this is creating a feedback loop where It is hard to find help because i'm not putting the time in to fix the issue, this is very frustrating and I find myself scalding myself in an effort to limit this behaviour but all it does is make me feel bad about it. Does anyone have any advice? Thanks

[heisenburger]

Yes! 

You can use the Sedona method on addictions. For me how it would work is it ask, "could I let go of wanting to be controlled by this addictions?" Than I'd realise yes, that I'm in control of whether or not I play the video games, and only about 1 in 5 times after releasing I'd still play the games, and when I did I wouldn't feel guilty about it.

 

 

 

[Jack_Clark]

@heisenburger Thank you this seems like an interesting technique and I will try to implement it in my life.

[Just Do Nothing]

When I was a young teenager I use to be hooked on playing games. One day I made the realization that all time I was spending making my character better could be spent making my life better instead. 

I've hardly played any games since. 

[Alicja_]

@Just Do Nothing Same here. I think the breakthrough happened when one day playing a monk in D&D I just thought of how well my character was developed throughout months of polishing it.  I enjoyed the process fo improving him a loot. 

And then I had this realization "Wait a minute, what the fuck am I doing getting lost in a pixel world, doing kung fu via a pixel monk in the world where other team players tell me to look up at the fictional starred sky to admire the view of it". 

@Jack_Clark I understand that games give you a lotta excitement. But what they also give you is the illusionary protection from the  very real reality. Perhaps (or not, I don't know you), you find life uncomfortable and unexciting enough to get lost in them. They are fascinating and give you relatively easy rewards. But think of how you feel when you finish a game.. Do you feel fulfilled? Because what I started feeling at some point was deep hollowness and deppresing passiveness.  I looked at my monk who could do awesome martial arts, some sexy ninja moves, and thought to myself "Do you wanna spend majority of your time improving some virtual non-existing hero made of pixels or would you rather become a hero, get your shit together and take the responsibility for your life now." 

Think of who you wanna be in your life. What you wanna accomplish. Create a purpose. This will give you strong motivation to stop playing so much. And then get your shit together and accomplish anything in the real world. Collect experience points, reach higher levels of consciousness and rejoice.