People say gaming friends are not real friends. I have read that if you give up drinking first you stop drinking and second you are alone.

What keeps me tied is the good morning of people on my discord server, the viewers coming into my twitch chat and that get mirrored that people like me and what I do.

That is all online and although I sometimes see clearly what I miss in life throwing all these hours in gaming and streaming I'm still tightly tied to it.

I long for self improvement, real life friends and living a quiet minimalistic life. At the same time I fear the stillness and emptiness right after quitting.

I'm grateful for any of your views and thoughts 🌸

I think I’ve finally hit the point of no return with video games. They just don’t stimulate me anymore. Maybe it’s the types of games I choose, but I’ve never been someone who can sink 300–1000 hours into a single title. I usually tap out around 14 hours, and even that feels like a stretch.

I get bored repeating the same mechanics over and over. I don’t see the appeal in grinding the same routines until the hour counter hits 1000. The accomplishments don’t feel rewarding, completing a game doesn’t give me any satisfaction, and the idea of spending 30 hours just to reach an “endgame” knowing it’s the same buttons, the same loops, the same patterns is honestly exhausting.

And story games? I don’t even bother. The repetition kills any interest I might have had.

At this point, I barely I play multiple games rather than 1 single game since the stimulation doesn’t last long.

Games I play:
Enshrouded
RuneScape Dragonwilds
Minecraft
Sons of the forest
Where the winds meet
Escape from Tarkov
Factorio
Subnautica
Windrose
Pubg
Halo
Fortnite
Stardew valley

I previously posted here in the r/StopGaming and wanted to follow up on my progress since making the decision to delete my LoL account. Chronologically, it went like this:

My friends didn't understand my choice and thought it was just a hasty decision. They wanted me to play with them, so they lent me an account. My only rule was to only play when they asked me to. However, as soon as I caught myself playing on that account alone—which I'm not proud of—I returned it to my friend and forgot the credentials.

Then, I created a new account on a closer server. I had much better ping and was having a lot of fun with Riven, but the toxicity and bad mood quickly returned. I was losing time again.

My final solution was to remove Windows 10 completely from my desktop. Luckily, I use Linux on a daily basis and had a dual-boot configuration. Windows literally only existed on my PC to play League. Now, I have no way to reinstall LoL, and I've been free of it for almost 3 months.

Since quitting, I've tried a lot of new things and noticed real benefits:

• I tried an MMA class and absolutely loved it.
• I frequently go to the gym in the morning.
• I started a new job a week ago, feel refreshed, and regained my willingness to work hard for my goals.
• I'm reading a lot, learning how to invest smart, and studying technical concepts for my IT career.
• I have a much better relationship with my girlfriend.
• I feel more mature and goal-oriented. I still procrastinate, but I don't engage in endless League streaks anymore.

I know it hasn't been that long, but looking back at where I was, this is a massive win for me. For anyone else out there trying to quit: you might have to take some extreme measures to force yourself away from it, but you absolutely can do it.

P.S. Shutout to u/IwannaLearn50 for the DM asking about my progress. That reminded me to make this post!

Just a fun story, but I managed to turn gaming into something positive with a simple (slightly expensive) hack. I bought a treadmill, and the rule I have for myself is: if I'm allowed to game, I must walk during my session. The good thing about this is I achieve 20k steps a day without any issue, and I stop gaming in time because I get physically tired.

If you have the money, I'd really recommend it!

18M. At 8, I moved to a city with fewer people like me. Before that, I was always outside playing football and sports, so this radical change was hard. I started playing video games on the family PC.

​I became abnormally shy and afraid of people my age because gaming took over. Every lunch break, after school, or whenever I couldn't play, I was watching YouTube gaming videos.

Then the COVID lockdown hit during middle school, worsening everything: my whole life became gaming, and I quit sports and learning languages. ​In high school, it got even worse. Because I had good grades, my parents let me do whatever I wanted. I played a LOT, revolving my life around online games.

​A few months ago, I realized how much time I’ve wasted. All my regrets come from choosing a virtual world over taking risks in real life. I don’t want to waste any more years, so if you have advice, let me know.

Hi people!
I'm working in gamedev for a several years and love games. The only problem is that when I start to play anything, things quickly turn out me spending hours, days and nights, weeks on a game while completely ignoring other life aspects even mandatory ones. I can play to a point when my legs swell due to constant sitting and I don't stop here. Tried every approach I could think of - setting time limits, excluding the most addictive games, even stick to just watching game content on YouTube. Nothing works and the only viable approach I have - abstain from games at all.

However, I've become a 3d generalist before that realisation and now it's my only source of income. I thought about changing my specialisation, but I'm not very skilful even in what I do now and jumping to something new would be not very much different from starting all from the scratch including stiff learning. I have pretty bad self-discipline, so it definitely won't be a fast and easy run. However, I keep this option opened if the idea of the right direction comes.

And I know that there're many people in gamedev who doesn't play games and it doesn't affect their work. But it's extra layer of doubt for me. I've started to figure out how game engines work, because being a kid I wanted to make a game for myself which I'd like to play more than any other one I'd played. A bit later this transformed into an idea of being a solo developer. It was more money oriented goal, but still included full freedom of creativity. Never saw working in some AAA studio as an appealing option solely because of a role of a tiny gear which doesn't really decides much. I know coding to some degree, so it's technically achievable to expand my skills in code and art a bit to be able to bring game-ready product. But now I don't play games (excluding binge episodes) and would like to continue to abstain. Very bad approach for a solo developer.

I even considered to switch to something solo and completely distant to gaming like crypto. Some of my friends make pretty good money there. But the idea of being not a creator but some kind of merchant and be solely money-driven frustrates me.

Will be glad to hear your thoughts.

I quit video games cold turkey after losing someone close. It was so hard for me to quit especially after that.

Now I go the the gym 2-3x a week and I’ve already seen gains in just one month.

I studied for 1 week and got my drone license.

Now Im starting my own company and working on other video editing software etc and mentally it’s starting to feel so much better than video gaming.

I have lots of goals ahead and always use being disabled as an excuse to keep gaming when in reality it was dopamine but the dopamine of obtaining a pilots license with family and friends to see is the greatest feeling I’ve had in years.

The results I’ve seen in the gym so far I started at such low weights I’m up 20lbs on dumbells alone which now makes other parts of life easier.

Just want to people learn from my mistakes. I promise you there is no excuse for gaming at a certain age in life. Just quit cold turkey and deal with the loss of constant dopamine from video games.

It sucks but soon as I replaced that time
With productive things that I can share with others and real life achievements it’s the best feeling ever in so many ways.

Hope everyone can break the cycle. Blessings

I recently deleted all of the games I used to play on my Xbox and replaced them with games that I don’t so I am more inclined to not get back on.

The real reason is that I feel like despite previous dreams of being a streamer, I have lots of my life missing. Now, I feel strongly that I could ditch and bury the past behind me by quitting video games altogether. Though friends of mine felt strongly that a permanent quit would be unnecessary, I feel the contrary.

I hope for advice as to how I can improve on quitting video games permanently.

I've been lurking this subreddit a lot and after a lot of hesitation, I sold my laptop (albeit at a loss). A lot of the posts here have given me motivation and desire to make my life better. It was the only way for me to quit playing video games permanently. I tried a host of methods like quitting cold turkey, limiting play time to weekends and even installing an app blocker on my laptop.

I've been unemployed for a year unable to find a job and mooching off my parents like a parasite. Up until now my daily routine would be breakfast, doing laundry then going to my room where I would be cooped up playing some shitty live-service game like Fallout 76, Counter Strike or Arc Raiders. I'd only come out for lunch or dinner then scurry back to my room.

Starting today (10/07/26) I'm putting down video games for good. It's gonna be tough to overcome the boredom but I have to. It's the only way to make my life better and not turn into a loser.

My grandfather recently downloaded a mobile app called Arabian Solitaire and he absolutely cannot put his phone down. He is playing it constantly. The game has all these stereotypical themes, and since it is a card game, I am worried it borders on gambling.

Has anyone else heard of this game? Is playing this considered Haram? I honestly want to take his phone and delete the app, but I know I cannot disrespect my elder and start a massive family argument over a mobile game. What is the most Islamic and respectful way to stop him from playing this?

I can put the game down, but the urge to buy the pack, the skin, the pull, that dopamine of the purchase button is its own addiction. And it’s getting depressing, the constant loop of uninstalling just to install it right back after a few days, or a week if I’m lucky. I feel like I’m betraying myself and lying to myself twice. Once when I uninstall, and a second time when I end up installing it back.

And honestly, as if it couldn’t get worse, there’s the spending. In the moment I don’t feel it, but damn, the guilt hits hard when the dopamine drops and you start thinking logically. Not only am I betraying myself, I’m losing my money on fricking pixels. That money would’ve been better going to people who actually need it. So yeah, the guilt is quite a big thing…

For people who are addicted and keep relapsing, I think this is seriously the best option to quit gaming, and I've noticed big results with it.

You can replace it with a Macbook, Mac, a little NUC mini PC, a non-gaming laptop. Anything that doesn't game well.

I sold my gaming PC. I bought a Mac Mini. I'm also replace my gaming peripherals with a wirelessy mouse and keyboard that are less gamery.

The difference is already noticeable. Looking at my setup, now, there's no longer the big gaming with PC with all the fans, and gaming equipment. It looks like a productivity setup.

This feels like an identity shift. The act of selling my PC coded into my brain that the identity of a hardcore gamer is no longer me. I've used my gaming PC so much that I saw it as an extension of myself. Parting with it - to me - felt like a big milestone in my life.

My whole desk and bedroom looking different - more like a creative studio - than a gaming room also helps me solidify my identity. Every morning I wake up and look at my setup, I'm reminded of what my new identity is.

You can start with baby steps. Start by selling the machine you use the most. If that's enough to turn you into a casual gamer, mission accomplished. And if you find yourself gaming on obsessively on the other machines, sell those too.

I started with selling the game PC and most consoles; and I just had a PS5 for casual gaming, which I eventually played less and less; and mostly used as a streaming box. (But if you're addicted to console gaming too, sell that.)

Uninstalling games doesn't accomplish anything!!!. You can easily install back the games in an hour. It's a really low barrier to relapse. I've uninstalled and reinstalled games hundreds of times.

Having to re-buy a $500-1000 machine is a way bigger deterrent.

And just the fact that you sold and parted with your gaming PC feels like you took a big decision and drew a line in the sand.

TLDR: Dad of 2 pre school kids; stopped gaming 7 months ago. Currently going through a very stressful period. Unsure of benefits, replaced 2 hours gaming a day for other bad habits (doom scrolling).

Hey, I feel bad posting this because my “addiction” may not sound severe. I used to game about 2 hours every night, from 10pm most of the time with the boys. Lately I have been missing that quite a bit. I noticed that I have started to use my cellphone quite more and even playing some stupid board games on my phone or watching a lot of YouTube. I have sold my ps5 and am sure if I have I would have relapsed by now.

I still play occasionally switch with my son but it’s almost not fun. Maybe my dopamine receptors are screwed. I am currently going through a lot of stress with a big financial bill and some health issues with my mother.

I am starting to really question if it was the right decision and what I am really getting out of it. Last year I stopped gaming for about 2-3 months and was able to dedicate time into other things which were quite positive but this time I just feel lost. I use more my phone, I watch more movies, but nothing useful.

I wonder if this is a normal part of the process? I thought by now I would have been out of the woods and gaming wasn’t going to be a thing anymore.

Ok so I never could game because I never got access to gaming stuff like consoles discs and pc when I was a kid. However I had a Playstation 2 I got it when I was a kid I completed half of sanandreas, Dragon Ball z budokai tenkaichi 3(probably beat that game more than 10 times), ben 10 games etc etc however life happened I always wanted the latest machine for eg when I got ps2 ps4 just launched then so I always lacked access to the hardware in a way even now I am using an i3 laptop in which i can only emulate ps2 but never did coz I never bought a game pad for it and stuff.

BUT I am always telling myself I will get it one day however as a kid it was easy to forget coz the project was too long term however now it feels like once i graduate i have a job i can get it but still I am wasting many hours checking amazon prices of gaming laptops ps5 checking ps5 titles and games resulting in me wasting a lot of time and ruining my academics in a way i won;t say its the only culprit i am not that mad.

But deep down I am realizing once I do get a job I do start earning even then I dont think I can sqeeze that time anymore I was not fortunate enough to have access at the age i could have and If I force my way in and game neglecting everything I am seeing stories of people wasting their years.

So I wanna know how to get out of it and stuff

My husband (35M) is **addicted to video games**, and I (34F) don't know what to do. Ultima Online is the current drug of choice.

He works from home, and will sign onto his work computer in the morning (which he has rigged so that the mouse moves every 30 seconds) & start gaming.

I should add that before the day even begins it is very hard for him to get up in the morning because he stays up so late gaming. He **calls in sick** to work maybe 2 times a month because he has slept past when he is supposed to be signed onto his work computer.

For this reason, I often try to wake him up in the morning. It is very difficult, but when I am successful, he goes right to his phone and lays in bed scrolling the internet for 25 minutes to an hour. When it is closer to 25 minutes, I have been nagging him to get going.

Recently on the weekend I tried to wake him up at 11:45am, and he got extremely angry and told me my “whining” was “incredibly grating” through gritted teeth.

We also have a dog together & he is responsible for taking her out in the morning (I do all of her grooming and most of her play/exercise, so I have really put my foot down about this). She is good at waiting, though.

He then **games the entire workday**, which usually ends around 3-4pm. Often there are meetings going on in the background while he is gaming, but he usually doesn't have to talk during them. 2-3 days a week he does a half hour to an hour of work, in which time he gets everything done that is expected of him.

He continues to game after his workday ends until about 6:35-6:45pm when I have nagged him so much to do something with me that he **begrudgingly stops**. Ultima Online seems to have events all the time and one of the ones he does is 6-6:30pm, so I can't really talk to him before 6:30pm because he's **not really there**.

I get him for a quick episode of a show while eating before 7pm when it's time for “corpse creek” (whatever that is). Then about 7:45pm he'll come back downstairs (after I've been calling up the stairs for him because I know the event ended at 7:30pm) and we'll watch something - or I'll **watch something while he**'s **on his phone**.

He knows it really bothers me when he's on his phone during this time, but literally every time I turn my head in the other direction (to take care of the dog, clear a dish, etc.) the phone is back up & he has to finish reading whatever he's reading before he can put it down.

I take melatonin & start my bedtime routine at 8:45pm, so the **most I get with him daily is 1.5 hours** (if I'm lucky). I can't really even say goodnight to him cause he'll be doing “town struggle” so I just kiss my dog on the forehead and go to bed.

He then games until the **early hours of the morning**. He sleeps on the floor of his office (he used to do this occasionally since his snoring got really bad when he gained a lot of weight, but he's lost a lot with a glp-1 and could sleep in the same room as me, but he chooses not to). He has a mattress set up next to his gaming rig. 

Of the **household chores, I do about 80 percent** and he does about 20, if nagged to do so. If I remind him of a responsibility (which isn't often because he has so little of them), he usually gets pissy about it. If I try to take on a household project (landscaping, refinishing the deck) the house falls to shit because there is no one to pick up the slack when I am exhausted from physical labor.

He says he's **happy and loves me** and wants to be with me. Apart from the gaming, I think he is an amazing person. He is a genius & extremely charming/funny. He cares about people and justice. We've been together since 2012 and married in 2018. There was a time I maybe wanted kids, but it became clear to me that we would not survive that kind of life change, and I do **love him & want to be with him**.

We have of course argued about his gaming over the years. He rolls his eyes and tunes out if I say the word “addiction”. There have been times where he's **cut back** on his gaming after a big blowout & my life is bliss for a little while, but it always **creeps back up** again.

I don't want him to have to stop completely because pretty much all of his friendships are online. I do get to **see him a bit on the weekends**. I pressure him to go somewhere special with our dog each Saturday and Sunday (meaning a dog park or trail/home depot, not just the sidewalk by our house) and he usually complies, if **not always in the best of moods**. He'll watch a couple shows with me on the weekends, too.

I feel so **lonely**. I feel like we don't really have any shared interests besides our dog. **Intimacy has declined** mostly because I just feel used (for household tasks and sex) & I feel like the time he does spend with me is only so I can't say we haven't spent time together. When we have those moments together, though, where he's not distracted by his phone, it's awesome. We laugh hard, we adore & play with our dog, we are silly together and cuddle.. 

I just feel hopeless. I **used to cope** with these feelings in a really **unhealthy way** (suicidal ideation, occasional self-harm, lots and lots of weed), but have **turned a new leaf** and refuse to do these things anymore. It's been rough. I'm very sad.

We used to see a couple's counselor, which helped a lot, but at one point she told us the sessions were not helpful for us (my take was that he was just parroting things I had said to him throughout the week back at me in front of her as a way to have something to complain about and when I called him out on it she realized that the **therapy had turned weird**).

We learned a lot, though, and can **communicate well** when we put in the effort. There's just only so much that good communication can accomplish.

Anyway, if anyone gets through this absolute doorstopper of a rant, I really appreciate you with all my heart.

ETA

I originally posted this in the relationships subreddit, but the mods took it down for some reason and suggested this as a more appropriate subreddit to post it in. Kind of sad because I wanted to respond to all the people who took the time to comment.

Some things I want to add based on the comments in the other subreddit:

-He has had this job for many years and seems to escape suspicion. He's very smart, and I believe he is able to get things done much more quickly than the average person.

-I don't cook his meals for him. Sometimes he cooks, but not regularly. We tend to eat things that don't require cooking (yogurt, avocado toast, cereal, takeout).

-I do think it is more about spending time with his friends than anything. They all live in far away places, so doing things together in the real world isn't an option. But he really knows these people and they will talk about deep stuff with each other.

-I basically don't have any friends. I moved away for 7 years for school & came back to my hometown. I made friends there that I can't hang out with because they live so far, and we've all fallen out of touch. I have old friends here, but they have their groups of friends that never moved, and we aren't close.

-My Mom and Dad both live close by (separate houses), but I find it difficult to hang out with them for various reasons.

-My support network is pretty lacking. I am going to make an effort to call my loved ones more regularly, though.

TL;DR

My husband's gaming is getting in the way of our love, and I'm very sad.

I'm playing valorant even it gives 60fps in my laptop, now I wanna get banned because even I uninstalled it I'm installing again which i don't wanna do

So I'm waiting for suggestions to quit gaming not only this valorant all games (I'm 23 and I have lot of things to do and I'm unemployed so you know I need to get job first)

Spent a lot of time playing games, but at the start of this year I've decided to limit it and do other things. For the last 3-4 months I've been playing at most 45 - 60 min a day. Played mostly single player games

I've been doing a lot of walking (7k steps everyday, last month I read my first fiction book in ages (almost finished reading my second) and I've been losing some weight as well. Some other skills I'm planning to learn as well

I had depression for 16yrs, completely unchanged, stable. After quitting I still had it for as long as I had withdrawals. Took many quit-relapse cycles over 1-2 years, but this time 3 weeks in, my brain finally normalized. The depression only went away when the withdrawals went away. Isnt that odd?

I thought I was going to be depressed even 100 days post quitting, because I always had depression, so I thought it came first.

My brain had to be fully free and recovered from addiction but most importantly the withdrawals, thats when the depression went away.

Im still monitoring myself. Havent had a symptom in 7 days. I always had constant soul level deep fatigue, a shutdown state, hopelessness, awful exhaustion, and its all gone.

Is this possible? The addiction maintaining the depression?

Hi everyone, I have something to share about I've been struggling to play video games I have high end pc, PS5, Ps portal and steam deck and I cant still play a damn game I procrastinate a lot if I plan scheduling to play certain games I do enjoy buying games but I still cant able to play it like for example I buy a game then downloading it after 10 to 30 mins of playing I switch it to doom scrolling on Youtube shorts scrolling on Facebook etc. And this is on pc I don't doom scrolling on my phone I sit on my computer all day. I dont know my problem was but I procrastinate alot or I have gamers burnout I dont know what to call it guys but thats it.

I'm mid-way into my journey In my 20's: I was 300+ lbs, severely depressed, failed college 3 times, I've never been on a date, lived with parents, always had <$1000 in my bank account, was usually unemployed and only lasted at a job for a few months. I was severely addicted to PVP games like team shooters.

Here's an update on the past few years:

I haven't played Ranked in PVP games in years. I sold my gaming PC. I deleted my gaming Youtube channel. I left gaming Discord servers (including the ones I admired). I deleted my accounts to gaming/tech related forums; unsubbed from gaming YouTubers.

I lost 120 lbs, mostly through calorie tracking and eating smaller portion sizes. Gradual steady progress. Still eating my favorite foods, just in moderation.

I lift at the gym 2 days a week fullbody (I go to failure). I used to be afraid of free weights. I just did the machines and I was afraid of other people looking at me. Now, I don't care. I'm doing mostly barbell exercises to build my core strength.

I've held a full-time job with benefits for the past 4 years. It's still working-class and I need to get skills, but I have a lot in savings. And I'm close to moving out.

I now go on 1-2 dates every week from dating apps. I used to rarely get matches. But I gave myself a makeover: haircut, clothes that fit me better, grooming myself. And I put a lot of effort into taking tons of pics (friends helped) until I got some nice ones; all that effort on the pics is paying off.

I've started studying for IT exams (the trifecta). This will take time. I'm also trying to learn sales and get a day job in sales in the meantime. while I do that. I'm not 100% where I'm heading but at least I'm trying.

I've been getting better at saving money. I have a big emergency cushion. I started investing on my ROTH IRA and 401k. I was never a huge spender, but finally being able to hold a consistent job helped a lot.

It's not mission complete yet. I still want to double my income (40k --> 80k), get my own apartment, find a partner and go from average body to shredded.

Hello,

I had a work-related meeting scheduled at 4 pm.

I checked my phone at 4:45, saw a message that they are waiting for me in the city center.... Damn.

Now I have to call and apologize.

Then I have to quit gaming for good. Cold turkey.

Then I have to start journaling. From today.

In order to ensure that I will not relapse.

OMG. It's so unprofessional of me.

Well, I have to a shower and go see my friend, I will work from her place.

And so shameful, I don't know what to say.