How Do I Quit Gaming?

in #gaming7 years ago

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Many people experience the same kind of thing when they start a family: they now have so many things demanding their attention and time, from significant others to children to jobs and house maintainence, that gaming simply drops out of their lives.

If you would like to get gaming out of your life, you are going to have to replace it with something, is what I'm saying. Remove your idle time. Force yourself (or get your family to force you) into a strict sleep schedule that rules out late night gaming. Commit yourself ahead of time to different responsibilities and entertainments. You might even need to start by OVER-committing yourself, then scaling back. Aim for an unsustainable amount of work, exercise, and alternate entertainment, then whittle yourself back down into a healthy long-term rhythm. Hopefully, by the time you've settled into a comfortable groove once more, you'll have shaken yourself out of your old habits.

Remember, although gaming itself isn't exactly 'addictive' in the way drugs are, it is possible to have such a hard time controlling your own gaming habits (due to depression, using gaming as a method of self-medication for other problems, etc) that you are essentially at the mercy of your habits. If you have even the slightest idea that your gaming problem could be connected to something like depression, anxiety, or another similar medical issue, you should definitely seek professional help about it. In those cases, you'll need a more holistic approach that helps you tackle the habit along with its underlying causes. You won't be very successful just bludgeoning yourself with more responsibilities and commitments if the real problem is anxiety or depression.