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I don’t normally post a lot on Reddit but I felt like I could use some encouragement.

I (23M) wouldn’t consider myself addicted to gaming in the traditional sense. It’s not a compulsion per se, more of a habit of just sitting on my computer at the end of every day.

I used to pair this a lot with weed or drinking and just kinda melt into my seat and play games and chat with friends that I live far away from. On its own it seems harmless, but the more I think about it the more I realize it’s creeping into my life in ways I don’t like.

I often structure my nights around having this set aside computer time (3-4 hours) pretty much every night. And on weekends sometimes I’m just stuck in my apartment all day.

I have lots of hobbies outside of my computer that I’ve recently just been neglecting for computer time. Electric guitar, photography, hiking/camping, enrichment time with my dog. I just feel like I’m turning into a blob.

Part of it is because I’ve started a PhD and in recent years have just been super stressed. Sitting at my PC is comforting because it’s so low stakes and it’s always there.

I’m conflicted because I love catching up with my friends from back home and it’s a chance for us to hang out. Some of these guys I’ve known since elementary school. I guess I can still talk to them but not game for a bit. I just know they’ll have a cow when I tell them I’m taking a break 😂.

I think one of the biggest reasons though is I haven’t been making good connections with people since I moved away. No relationships, distant from peers, too afraid to put myself out there. And I just know deep down I can be more.

To be clear I probably am not completely quitting gaming forever. I just need to take some time and come back when I know I’m not gonna sink into myself anymore.

Thanks for those who read and listened, any advice or just encouragement is appreciated. My plan is to unplug the whole thing and stow it away in a moving box for a while and turn my desk into a study station.

Ex gamer here. Quit about 6 months ago. Went back recently for a week and stopped because it was a problem.

Long story short, always been a gamer. I was outside often, bike, rollerblades, whatever, but also gaming.

Fast forward to adulthood, nothing else but gaming. All day all night.

Got married. Had enough social life for that. Yet every moment home was gaming.

Had children. Hard time. Takes a lot of time. Cut my gaming time. Over time, I got anxious. Less time for me, for gaming. Gamed later and later. Got more tired.

I got negligent towards my wife and kids. Violent even. Not physically on them, but yelled a lot. Threw things around.

My wife got sick of it after an outburst. She left. That was September 2025.

I was down. Cried every night, realizing what I had lost. After a month, decided to get better for my kids, which I had 3-4 days a week.

I stopped gaming, started counseling for anger. Realized gaming was more a symptom than the problem itself (a problem for sure, but not the main problem). I was depressive and gaming was a way to evade myself.

Wellbeing podcast, better sleep, physical training.

As of today, prouder than ever. I did have a relapse last week. 4 days. Was strong enough to quit fast and not looking back.

My wife? I got her back at the end of June. Apologized for everything. Told her that it wasn't against them. That I got help and that I want to live my life with her.

"Leaving me was a courageous thing to do. Leaving me was the best thing you ever did for us and I love you more than ever for it.". That, and more, got her back.

Writing that, I'm crying over my phone. It's hard sometimes to care about ourselves.

I found this group scrolling. Reading your stories made me realized I'm not alone. You're not alone. This group of strangers is our way to keep up, even when the games we used to love are calling us back.

Stay strong. Even...no.... Especially when being strong means assuming your tears, your fears and confronting the person you hate in the mirror.

It is time to get up, tell yourself you're worth more to your close ones than you are too Blizzard and be proud of who you are.

It's not time for "I should". Sometime, we need to get up and tell ourselves "SHUT UP! There's no but... You know what to do.

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Man... That was long. Thank you for reading. Hope this get to the people who need to hear it.

I pour everything I have into trying my hardest, yet it constantly feels like none of it is worth it. In the end, I’m just tossed aside like some nameless nobody, completely invisible. All I really wanted was to be genuinely good at any game. I’ve sunk countless hours into practicing and putting in the time, only to be completely defeted by someone who just started. In moments like that, the motivation just drains out of me, and I want to give up entirely.

​It leaves me spiraling into the belief that I’m just a loser, trapped in a mindset where I convince myself I always will be, and that this world simply has no place for people like me. To keep from feeling entirely hollowed out by that defeat, I’ve built up this defensive ego and I usually type insults to the winner in the chat just to compensate for how inadequate I actually feel.

It's been a tough year. I have cracked multiple times, and struggled at many points. But recently, I spent nearly 45 days gaming. I seem to cling to gaming at moments of weakness, seek it out as a momentary respite from depression or boredom, or just a random impulse.

What I found this time is that the repercussions are continuous and insidious. I am constantly thinking now still about the woulda-coulda-shoulda I could have done while gaming.

Luckily, I have deleted all 3 of the characters I created, and I am strong in my will to not go back. For now. For many reasons, but mostly because it takes up a great deal of my energy to play characters.

I won't say what the game was, but you can imagine it was an mmo with world building elements. This made it difficult to get into with a large learning curve, and hence hard to get out of once all those dopamine loops were in place.

My hope is that I can stay off gaming at least until end of year, and try and get my life in order. I just feel like such a failure, and that I'm not able to keep gaming at bay long enough to really dig into life.

I (F30) have been with my boyfriend (M29) for almost 5 years. We bought a home together last year and ever since I’ve slowly started having some major doubts about our relationship. I knew he gamed before we bought our house because we did live together in rented accommodation but at that time we had some roommates so it definitely felt less lonely and I noticed it less.

Since we moved into our own home he finishes work at 5pm and typically goes straight on his computer and stays on it until midnight most nights. He will come and sit with me for 10 minutes here and there, sometimes cook me dinner (usually not even eat with me though), check on me etc between games but I still spend most evenings alone apart from if we go to the gym (which isn’t that often). I’ve brought it up to him multiple times how he games far too much but he just says it’s his hobby and how he keeps in touch with friends. Then the week after me bringing it up I notice he will ask if I want to watch a movie one night, so we do, but it just feels like he’s making an effort to appease me and not because he wants to. I always feel like he wants to be on his game instead of with me.

He is a really genuine and lovely person though, super kind and caring to me and his friends and family, does help around the house, always asking me if I need a hand with things, cooking, looking after our pets but I feel like there’s a real lack of quality time and affection - rarely will he initiate cuddles, kisses or anything. He never plans dates and we haven’t even been away on a holiday or weekend away for years. I went on a girls holiday for a week and he barely got in touch with me and I didn’t even really speak to him either. I do love him and care for him and he does make me feel loved in other ways, but I just don’t know if this is the life for me.

I am worried I am thinking the grass will be greener with someone else to find out that they will just have other flaws that might end up even being worse? At least I feel secure and loved now? Any advice would be great.

So I’m basically an unemployed game addict. There’s this one game in particular that I play and I’m in a discord server for it. I would say that most of the people on the server are probably also unemployed. Now I can’t say this with certainty but seeing that people are online and sending messages at pretty much all times of the day does make me think that it isn’t too far of a stretch to come to that conclusion. Most people on the server are highly competitive in this game as well as a few other games but don’t really seem to have everything in life. Now if I’m being honest idk how I really feel about this. At first I kinda thought that being unemployed was a big concern and maybe I’m one of the very few unemployed people but now I’m seeing that I’m probably not the only one in this situation. It kinda makes me feel like a little better about myself that other people are doing it also. Idk if that makes sense. I think part of what keeps me addicted to the game is just the fierce competition of all of it and feeling the need to contend with the top players in the game. I have talked a lot of shit to other people in the game and also received a lot of it. I feel like people think they’re the best at the game and that makes them better in life somehow but maybe that’s just reading too deep into it. So then I need to defeat them in the game to humble them.

Gatting addicted to gaming became a real thing. Especially after online gaming came around in the early 2000s.

Did you get addicted yourself? Did you end up losing anything or anyone because of it?

Stop on by and share your story.

Hi everyone, my friend and I know the struggles of video game addiction so we decided to make an app dedicated to helping people quit gaming while keeping the journey fun and enjoyable therefore making it easier. The app will be launching on the 25th so if you're interested then leave me a dm :)

Hi, I‘m 15, and for context, I’ve been addicted to games since like 2021/2022 and I quit back in April this year, so it’s been half a year since I last played and talked to my online friends. 

I‘m, to be honest, kind of friendless and these online friends I didn’t even know were really important to me. I think I was more addicted to the social aspect of gaming than to gaming itself. I really miss them even though I know I probably mean nothing to them since I stopped gaming and we have nothing in common anymore. 

So here’s my question: Should I try to reconnect with a few of them by returning to the game or should I leave those friendships in the past and move on? Thanks for reading and I want to thank everyone on this sub since all your posts helped me feel not alone when I was struggling with quitting. 

To everyone who is still struggling with quitting: I believe in you, never give up! 

It seems like I have a string of bad luck along with all the accumulated problems that I avoided while being addicted. I'm not young anymore either so the expectations of where I should be in life as a man is way higher so I can rule out any form of relationship with a female. I feel very lonely and gaming was one of the ways I could communicate and bond with people even though everyone is there for rank points.

I have been using reddit for like 4 or 5 hours everyday. I think I need a break. I kinda want to check in everyday for support to stop using porn because I have no one I can talk to in real life about it. But I have noticed my mental health get worse since using reddit more. Anyone else use Reddit more now that you stop gaming? My brain is still rotting lol

But just to forget that I'm lonely and undatable.

Senior in school, I play a ton of games, literally my only hobby. Mostly fighting games to be specific. I dont know if its because of me but I dont really have friends. I talk to people in school and in class, im not exactly lonely there but I dont have crazy close connections but I go home and I dont play games with anyone, I play alone. I play alot but I dont feel like i play that much. I feel like I can only play fighting games and if I play anything else im losing time to get better. I dont go to party's or events or hang out with friends outside of school my entire high school life. Now then Im on my last year of highschool I dont exactly feel like i wasted my years but I do feel like I could be doing better. I only have irl classes for about 1-3 hours now so for the first time ive been going to the gym. Worse part is about 2 months my family is moving to Texas so all my "friends" ive made will he reset, and i am NOT a very socialable person. Im scared that once im done with high-school I wont know what to do. I just play games all day I can. Sorry if it seems like I have no point in this just late night worries.

I quit in May 2024. My last game was Tears of the Kingdom. I quit because of mental health reasons, using gaming as a distraction.

Lately, I've been feeling particularly lonely. And just, down. And gaming, at least, offers some comfort from that. But I'm sticking to it and not gaming. But I am missing it right now, that crutch. I read a story today that EA is shutting down BioWare. Someone commented they have a Steam backlog to work through. I miss that feeling of disappearing into an open world.

But then, playing it forward, I don't miss emerging from those sessions feeling like I'm coming out of a trance, wondering when I can get another couple of minutes in to continue going. I'm trying to get into tabletop gaming (DnD), which I assume this sub is okay, which would be in person and social.

Okey, espero no ser repetitivo, pero la pregunta es sencilla: ¿Vale la pena borrar todos mis juegos o simplemente debería probar controlandome? Aclaro que ya pase por un proceso de adiccion de varios años con el lol, lo habre borrado e instalado mas de 20 veces a lo largo de unos años. Hoy en dia simplemente no siento la necesidad de jugarlo. Quiero dedicarle mi tiempo a más cosas en mi vida actualmente (aprender a manejar, pasar tiempo con mi novia, estudiar en general las cosas que me fascinan) pero tengo demasiada facilidad para desviarme en general, y los juegos son una cosa mas, pero de lo mas significativo. Aclaro que a veces simplemente estoy en el juego, ni siquiera lo juego, solo pierdo el tiempo.

Recently I stopped using porn as well (you can read it here), So I thought I will repost this as well after a year

Let's say gaming stop you from doing something useful, so you stop gaming. Somehow you end up with a worse habbit like going out, partying or watching anime. So what's the point of stop gaming actually?

I posted earlier
https://www.reddit.com/r/StopGaming/comments/1qe1dyx/i_dont_understand_my_bf_addiction/

After multiple conversations, we eventually agreed on some rules and dedicated quality time together. It helped, and at some point he even lost interest in gaming for a while and became more present in our shared life.

Those were honestly the best two months of our relationship. He was more engaged with me, we spent more time together, and he also made significant progress on his personal projects. It showed me how good our relationship could be when gaming wasn't taking up most of his time and attention.

But then a new game came out, all his friends started playing, and suddenly he was back to gaming around 60 hours a week. Everything else became secondary again. And even his health and well-being.

I felt like I had to compete with a screen and constantly come up with something more interesting to do together. But how can you compete with something that provides an immediate dopamine hit, especially when someone is already so invested in it? Also, all responsibilities got back to my shoulders.

We eventually broke up. I had a hard time imagining a future together, even though those two months showed me what our relationship could look like without gaming dominating his life.

He was also very clear that, at this stage of his life, gaming is one of his main priorities.

And that's what I keep wondering about: Is gaming really worth it?

I'm not saying games are inherently bad, and I understand that people have different priorities. But when a hobby takes up 60 hours a week and starts affecting your relationship, personal projects, and everyday responsibilities, what are you actually getting out of it? Is the enjoyment worth everything else you're giving up?

A few years back I was living alone, got laid off from my job, drinking a lot, and playing hardcore WoW for 16 hours a day. Pretty much every single day. I rarely left the apartment, I spent a fortune on DoorDash, I didn’t reach out to friends, I gained 30 pounds, I wasn’t trying to date, and I had no self respect. No self love.

What really started me on the right path was changing my environment. Renting a house with friends in a new city. Pursuing other hobbies with intention. And getting clean off the booze. Hit the gym 4 days a week with no excuses.

Now I’ve got a great job, a new girlfriend, my friendships are mostly in a good place, and I’m learning guitar. I’m making art more than I have in years too.

Drinking and video games are my two most toxic vices, so weaning off both has done wonders in all areas of my life.

The TL;DR is: Sometimes a change in environment can be a huge catalyst for change in other areas.

This is my second post on this journey. While I feel the will to return to gaming, I know that going away from it is for the better. Because it was not a hobby anymore. It became to destructive to my life. So I feel somewhat happy that I managed to start the journey. My head feels a little clearer. Though I still have many things to fix and many non-gaming hobbies to enjoy in my life. I didnt write yesterday, and this day is still going. So I settled with a day 2.5 thing

My roommate's always been a gamer but something about Wardogs is basically meth to him, and not in a good way.

He's becoming anti-social, aggravated, he doesn't talk to anyone and he's uncharacteristically antagonistic.

I want to be clear that this isn't him, he's one of the best men that I know and close enough to a point where I consider him family - my brother in all but blood.

He's also not getting enough sleep in the night --- barely 5 hours, on a good day 6 but good days are becoming increasingly rare --- because of his gaming habits.

I really worry for him, it's having an obviously negative effect on his job

I'm a (20M) gamer. Yesterday, I had a problem, and I realized my behavior caused it. I became very possessive and afraid of other people. I control the people I love and am afraid of people who may get close to them. After thinking for a while, I realized the core of this behavior. It is a gaming addiction.

I've been playing video games for the past 10 years; during that time, there was barely a day when I was off. I probably racked up over 25k hours. It's almost 3 years behind a screen.

Because of that, I neglected every other aspect of my life. I know I haven't used my life to the fullest. I compare myself to other people, who are actively going to the gym, working, or doing other hobbies, and I was procrastinating, doing everything as late as possible, or even quitting things. Because of that, I think I'm worthless to my friends, and I tend to overthink and act badly toward them.

All my friends have left me because my behavior was enough for them. I have just one online friend that I have known for the past 7 years. She is someone I want to change for.

I have tried to quit gaming addiction many times, but every time I failed. For me, quitting is hard because I can't fill the void in my free time. Secondly, gaming addiction has shaped my expectations so much that if I don't see fast progress in something, I get bored or irritated and quit that hobby/thing.

Lastly, for now, I think the best thing I can do is quit gaming 100%. But I would also like to return to it when I get more stable; I still get a lot of joy from it, and I have met many wonderful people. I just don't know if it's a good idea.

I would like any tips on how I should try to quit. Also, I'm a little afraid that I will lose the only friend I have. But I think this change is needed if I want to improve myself and my behavior.