For some time already I have been noticing that gaming went from being a hobby to being a burden. It started to replace my real life and it started to ruin my university grades, personal life and attention span. So I decided to completely stop that
From now on I am forbidden to play any games. I will also try to consume less game related media. I tried this before, but the motivation didnt last long. But now I am determined. I plan to update the day counter every day (or at least every few days) to keep myself going. If I will ever manage to learn to control my gaming urges, I will try to reintroduce it to my life as a hobby (only two hours a day or less). But for now I need a full detox or I will not be able to control myself
I hope it will not be counted as spamming. I just think that it will be easier for me to stay motivated if I will have a feeling that some people are seeing my attempts. I dont know how to explain it better. Thanks for reading! :P

Help, my brother is addicted to his phone. He's 12 years old and has always loved playing video games. Back then, it was just Minecraft on the Nintendo Switch or some Mario games. But things changed drastically.

He got a PlayStation 5 and a VR headset about a year ago, and ever since, everything has gone downhill. When it all started, he was in 5th and 6th grade at Gymnasium. He started gaming more and more, especially this one game: Roblox.

Because he was playing constantly, his grades plummeted and he failed to make it into the 7th grade. Up until then, he was at least playing with real friends from his actual life. But last summer holidays, that changed.

Through Roblox (specifically 'German Voice', a voice chat mode where you can talk to strangers online), he met older people online. His 'best friend' there is a 16-year-old junkie who smokes and drinks. Over the summer, my brother started drinking too—drinking vodka just because he thought it was cool. When my parents found out, they poured everything out, and things were quiet for a bit. But he stayed aggressive the whole time.

When my parents realized he was talking to older strangers online, they tried resetting his Roblox account to his actual age. (He had tricked my mom earlier by using her ID because my parents don't know much about this stuff.)

But now his account is finally set back to his real age. His account was set to the 16–17 age group, which allowed him to accept money, play with older people, and play 16+ games. Because it's set back to 12, he basically loses access to around 800 euros worth of in-game purchases until he turns 16.

When he found out, he completely wrecked the house—throwing chairs around, unhinging a door, and screaming at the top of his lungs for three full hours. This isn't the first time an outburst like this has happened. He's even run away before, just for a few hours out of pure anger.

Then, a few days ago, this happened:

My mom and I happened to drive past the South Station because we had an appointment in town, and I wanted to go to the next big city to buy some manga. My mom dropped me off, I went to the platform, and who do I see? My brother, sitting there having been there for ages. He wanted to meet his online friends in that city and go to their place. I decided to go with him to keep an eye on him while I bought my manga.

In the city, my brother checked our parents' location and saw they were waiting for him at the station—they’d figured out he went into town without permission.

He immediately turned around and called his online friends to arrange to meet somewhere else in the city. My parents tracked his location and started running after him.

Suddenly, they heard my brother's voice coming out of a phone speaker held by two kids standing nearby. They went up to them and asked if they were meeting up with my brother. The girl was reasonable and admitted that wasn't right. But the boy—his 'best friend'—was completely unapologetic, saying it's totally normal and that he was just like that at that age.

Where things stand now:

- My brother doesn't have Roblox anymore, just Minecraft and TikTok.

- He still talks to those people.

- He's started stealing: alcohol, energy drinks, lighters.

- He vapes (he has two vapes right now).

I honestly have no idea what to do anymore. My mom took him to therapy, but the therapist couldn't help either. He's also skipped school for two days.

My mom spends all her time in online webinars, but they just beat around the bush and try to sell you expensive programs in the end. I don't know what we can do anymore. He's only 12 years old and comes from a good family.

As a 24M who quit video games for the first time in summer 2019 and definitively in 2020, the euphoria tens of millions of young men are feeling right now is very familiar to me. The last game I was excited for and played before the hobby felt empty for me, was RDR2 in 2018. Nothing came close to how that game pulled me out of my mundane, empty life and made me feel like I was a handsome cowboy on an adventure across the wild west.

Flash forward to 2026 and the same company is releasing its next juggernaut, with all the same promises as the last. It promises to outdo its predecessor in immersion, realism, things to do. It even seems to give you a nice girlfriend to commit misdemeanours with. I cannot help but worry about how this is going to further keep young men secluded and essentially put their lives on hold for many months to come, thus promoting sloth and laziness.

GTA 6 looks to be a life simulator which is very conveniently timed by the men in suits, as life gets harder and more uncomfortable for a lot of people. Has your rent increased in the last few years? Why not live out a virtual life in GTA and live in a big, cozy mansion! Have fuel prices increased in your area? Why not play GTA 6 and drive your flashy sports car to the beach to hang out with your virtual girlfriend! This is all very diabolical. And speaking of diabolical, although its "just a game", GTA teaches us to hate God's commandments and very boldly opposes God, and represents everything a Christian ought to abhor (not everyone here is Christian but enough seem to be for me to add this point).

Lastly, and this is not unique to gaming, but is to do with consumer rights in general: they are using the hype for this game as a vehicle to end physical media. Notwithstanding the fact that all the other negative gaming trends are here in full force, with various editions paywalling what can be considered basic features.

To everyone out there who is being tempted to buy this game, just remember that to simply not buy it is a winning move. The CEOs are literally banking on everyone mindlessly buying it out of sheer hype. They will never get my money again.

I wish you all well.

I had this thought come up, this is point a to point b. But the path is windy, difficult, and long, i get that. Thing is what can i do, i really don't have many interest in hobbies. I would like to get into crafts but it seems my minds not all there, easily distracted. Biggest addiction is not the games in my hands but in my head. I think about games, mostly ttrpg alot and i don't want to since its addicting and interfering with my day to day life, even causing anger and being distracted or moved away from it. I just cant do hobbies, rather than a lack of discipline it feels like im thin brained as doing anything with focus just drains me.

Because I was upset. But then I calmed down

Im a daily gamer only for one game.

The problem is that it's free to play so I can't just delete it (I tried) because I just redownload it again later.

If this was a pay to play game it would be much easier for me to punch through this hurdle.

Im happy playing other games but i hardly play other games even though I have them already in my purchases.

I don't have an interest for gaming anymore except one annoying game that I've played for a decade.

I don't want to "stop" gaming but I would like to reduce it. Like currently I am working from home and I end up playing games just after lunch for an hour or so, then I shut down my laptop for work sooner and again play games. Then again I end up playing after dinner till late night.

I love playing and have loved since I was 10. I am 30 now. I couldn't play during my 20-27 years age due to studies and some very toxic job. So now that I have got time to play again, I just keep finding time to play.

I would like to reduce it, like playing maybe just an hour a day or play only weekends.

Anyone who has tried that and able to focus on career at the same time? Or does it really have to be No gaming at all. I can do that as well as I have done it in th3 past :'( But I didn't think I would have to again.

My husband wasn’t ready to quit completely and him going cold turkey made him slip into this cycle of depression and suicidal ideations. Would it be better for him to do 1 hr a day until he eventually learns coping skills around it and quits?

I've been addicted to video games for 6 months, playing day and night. Last 4 days, I went to the mountains to get rid of the addiction and didn't play. I'm now back home and I have to study but the urges are extremely strong. Tried to delay the decision to play or not, remind me why I shouldn't play for an hour, but nothing seems to work. It's been an hour and I'm unable to do anything but think about it.

*I don't speak English, so please forgive any mistakes.*

Hi, my name is Eike, I'm Brazilian and I'm 27 years old. This is my first post here.

I'm a very withdrawn guy who rarely leaves the house except for work or college. I don't exercise, I don't go to parties, I don't talk to girls, I don't date, I don't have children, I haven't achieved anything great, nothing! Absolutely nothing! I feel like I'm not living my life.

Actually, I was born with a malformation in parts of my face, which makes me feel excluded and prejudiced. My father has always been very negligent with me and says it's all in my head. Because of this, I just rebelled and today I abstain from social relationships with other people, and you might be wondering: "Okay, but where are you going with this?"

Well, in the last 10 years I've become the kind of guy whose only source of leisure is games, movies, series, and things like that. Especially games. I often find myself playing something or watching a video about game recommendations for a particular platform. By the way, in this decade I ended up buying video game consoles, which makes me feel obligated to always rotate them so that they don't sit idle and develop a defect or something like that.

I'm anxious, very anxious. Sometimes I get a feeling of unease in my chest that makes me feel very bad, because while other people are exploring the world, I'm locked in my room, in the dark, playing games...

What should I do? Sell all my consoles? Try to go out more (I've tried and the experiences were terrible)? I have no idea what to do...

​

I honestly can't take this anymore and I feel so terrible.

Was playing Pokemon Go competitve ranked mode and I was so close to getting to a high rank, but then I face against teams that hard counter mine and dropped down my elo.

Got so mad because I just needed 4 consecutive wins. Got mad that I ended up not thinking straight and punched a hole with my right hand. And now its red and bleeding alittle.

Hi guys! New to this sub and never played this game. My brother has been highly addicted to this game and becomes extremely aggressive when been asked to stop. He even physically attacks the parents and verbally shout at them cursing them. He doesn’t want to go to school and even tries to attack anyone coming near him. Other times he’s completely normal. Has anyone else been through this? Any solution?

I don’t even like classic wow that much, despite the amount of hours I’ve put in. I’ve been playing the beta, and I’ve been realizing this. It’s an archaic game format. Leveling takes forever, endgame is just micro adjusting your gear/build to get 1% more damage all while ruining your real life. I’m an addict. I prefer OSRS greatly more (Ironman) but I had to cut it out because I cannot feel happy to put time into it at this stage of my life. I don’t feel happy even playing my favorite game, Tekken 7, anymore. I played them by justifying to myself in my head, life is bullshit, we all die, don’t make someone else rich etc etc etc you’ve heard it all before

Quit before you do irreversible damage like I have. I won’t say exactly what health ailment I’ve picked up. it’s not the worst, but it’s bad and could have been WAYYY worse. Self-gaslighting myself, telling myself what I don’t want, and justifying cheap dopamine. My 20s are gone. My prospects for a better life are objectively worse now.

28 m. I was playing valheim, lost my gear to a bad run felt awful and something clicked. Idk exactly what it was but, everything has been pushed aside for games, I had nothing else to live for... I deleted my stuff but that doesn't really matter. My mind has changed, i feel there's been an internal shift. I've been running, hiding, avoiding, numbing pain for so long. I want to live. Games have stopped me from living for long enough. But I'm not angry, or cathartic, or desperate. I'm peaceful. It's strange. This is right tho. Maybe it had to take this long maybe it didn't but now this is right.

I don't know how active I'll be here, thinking about it may tempt me, I just wanna celebrate the here and now.

I came to a realization that, ever since I was an early teenager, I pretty much always had some game that I was working on. Always some chase that I was after. Always something I would occupy my mind with when under stress. After quitting, I am hit with a profound sense of anhedonia. It's as if nothing feels like anything anymore.

I have been successful with my education and job responsibilities. In fact, I just finished medical residency and am working as a physician now. Gaming didn't really interfere with that as my policy was always treating gaming time as a luxury when all work and household chores as well as studies are done (I practice Russian every day after work in addition to always learning medicine). However, I am single and don't have many friends. I spent the remainder of my free time gaming. I wanted to develop other aspects of myself like building more genuine relationships and going to the gym. I also wanted to find pleasure from other hobbies instead of gaming. I didn't really quit because it was dramatically affecting my career or anything, but wanted to find joy from other things in life.

The issue is that one month in to quitting, it's like my brain feels broken. I can't find pleasure in anything. I definitely meet criteria for major depression, but it's weird because I am still highly functional. I go to work every day, go to the gym five days per week, have worked on relationships, etc, but my main issue is that everything just feels completely grey, flat, and pointless. I realized through all the stressful times in my life that I depended on gaming to give me that constant dopamine hit. Without it, I just feel completely awful. I am to the point of caving and starting to play something like Hearthstone again just to give me that hit of pleasure to start feeling something again.

Anybody else like this? When did the anhedonia improve for you?

I am so overwhelmed with being the singular caregiver for everyone in my home.

I work full time, cook, clean, laundry, do all the shopping, care for our 2 young children and dog.

My husband? He works 7 to 3 M-F and spends every single second at home gaming.

From 3 o'clock until 10 or 11 he games.

He ignores us.

He eats dinner at the computer.

I am a single mother with a man child ruining my life.

He gets mad when I need to ask him something.

He plays pubG with his friends (who, shocker ARE ALL SINGLE MEN).

He doesn't want to do anything else.

When I have broughten up the games before (we've been married 10 years) he gets extremely defensive.

I guess I didn't realize a hobby was supposed to be your entire life.

My partner stays up all night playing video games, until the morning when he goes to work sleep deprived. On the days when he doesn’t go to work, he stays up all day too but is too tired to engage in any activities together or do house chores.

We don’t see each other during the day because of our schedules, he gets home earlier than me and around 8-9 pm when I get home he’s still gaming and keeps on gaming until the next day. This doesn’t happen every day, only a few times a week.

It bothers me not only because I feel like we don’t have enough time together, but also because it messes up my sleep too. It’s hard for me to go one night together and one night alone, I get anxiety and wake up multiple times and stay awake when he’s not there.

It also worries me because he has a somewhat dangerous job and he needs to be rested and sharp for it. I watch him and see how he neglects sleep, food, and literally everything on the days when this happens.

I don’t know if it means he’s addicted since it doesn’t happen every day.

Hi. 25M, Final-semester student. In an effort to reduce gaming, I've started reading in the morning, instead of gaming first in the morning. I thought i needed to get my life together, and with depression and burnout kicking alongside breaking up with my ex and failing horribly at a big test, nothing in my life felt fun anymore.

Then I remembered that in my youth, I loved reading novels at the morning, sipping some coffee. Tried it again. Difficult to concentrate at first, but as the time goes on, I rediscovered the joy of reading. Now I don't bat an eye on my ps5, and my 3ds. Maybe I'll sell it, maybe not.

What were your methods that got you out of gaming and into a more healthy hobby? I'd like to know, and get some advice from where I can. Sorry if my english is a little all over the place. Non-native, so may not be perfect.

Since the person I wrote my answer to decided to remove either their whole profile or just all their posts and comments, weird how many of that kind we have on this sub, let me give this advice to everyone since so many seem to get stuck in this trap:

Yeah, you were wrong. Not your fault if you never learned sports and similar activities in a group from childhood and almost everyone on this sub is in same trap. And similar trap is for everyone who tries to lose weight or gain muscles or learn martial arts at home before they start "for real". Almost everyone fail.

Mostly because of multiple reasons:

- it is much more fun to do things together and meet new people and friends. But that also means that if a club is bad or boring, even a fun activity will become boring. So find your people so to say. I know the difference between my last club and the one before that. There is a very good reason why last club became last...

- we are really bad att setting up any kind of real deadlines and holding ourself to them without any good reason or pressure. Clubs are much better at that.

- we are also rather bad at creating good teaching plan for activities we never taught, much less have even done before. Clubs are not.

- there is a lot of ways to engage with both people and the club in most cases which is missed when doing things solo: helping out with regular training, with competitions, helping and teaching beginners, going to competitions or camps and so on.

This is why I could take chess and make it both the worst and the best activity a gamer could do instead of gaming. All depends on how it's done.

I'm about to turn 44. I thought about going back to gaming and buying a new system but I don't think I can do it. I feel like gaming made me feel less lonely but at the same time it stopped being fun. I couldn't play longer than 20 minutes.

I joined a book club but I still have trouble reading books. I can't seem to sit my ass down long enough to finish one. One reason I quit gaming was to have more time for books. My attention span is still shit. I use Reddit and YouTube more than before.

On the weekends , I spend most of time running errands to not be at home alone. I just don't know what to do. I like being alone but it is getting old doing stuff by myself.

I went to a football game alone last weekend and didn't even stay the whole game because I felt lonely while there because everybody there was with someone.

How do you cope with the loneliness in your life after gaming?

Anyone who has this kind of problem I am very convinced they are doomed to never have good life style habits ever, things like being avid reader, being very good student in school, especially if it completely fries your baseline dopemine that makes you incapable of achieving anything else. I am sadly in this situation and I probably have to accept the fact that my goals I wanna achieve like being avid reader, being good student and just have overall not have shit unattractive life style habits is just impossible. I don't even know if it is possible to fix my situation I am just sick and tired how people who were very good students in school, avid readers, acting like they did it purely because of hard work, and that anyone can do it if they are like them, but reality they were just born with right genetics since the start, they had innately better self control, better conscientiousness etc.

Do I enjoy video gaming or does my brain like the easy dopamine?

There has always been this loop, I will see a random clip of a video game I want to play online. I will say no I don't need it. I might even start playing a mobile game. Then I will cave in and get a gaming laptop or a console.

I will then buy whatever particular game I wanted to play, play it for a few weeks or months and then buy another game and never think of the other game again. The cycle will repeat itself until eventually I go from playing all day to playing for like 20 minutes here and there and then I get bored and turn it off This will last for a few months to a year.

Then I realize this is kind of wasting my time and it was a waste of money. So I end up selling the console or the laptop getting my money back and then I'll go for the same amount of time without gaming until the itch comes back.

I'm not sure if I enjoy gaming or if it's just a short dopamine thing or if it's even a shopping dopamine

Any advice or thoughts. currently, I just sold my Xbox.