Gaming Addiction

[Chopperjr]

Ive been Gaming since about late 2008 and im 16. I've developed an addiction and its screwing up my educations and possibly my future. I've become extremely lazy and I play WoW and runescape clocking the following

39 days 14 hours - Paladin (wow)
33 days 12 hours - Hunter (wow)
39 days - Runescape

Thats over 100 days of in game playing time playing time which is almost a year of constant gaming. I've recently been grounded and lost most of my electronics and have a short fuse when it comes to certain BS in video games. Anybody have any suggestions, im in fairly good health at 6' 1.75" and 176lbs. I want to get a girlfriend also after losing mine close to 2 years ago, but im afraid of screwing up because i tend to put video games above all other priorities. Help is much appreciated
P.S. Im also sorry if this is the wrong forum, im newly registered.
~Kenny.

[Dimitri]

Well Kenny,
I would suggest that you talk to your parents, you are being grounded from your video games, have them take them away or help restrict the hours that you are allowed to play them. I can imagine they will be more than happy to help you due to the fact that you feel it is impeeding your education.
Sincerely Levi

[anonymous.john]

Thats over 100 days of in game playing time playing time which is almost a year of constant gaming.

Not quite.

If you're serious about shelving the addiction, uninstall the games and just don't reinstall them. Think about all the things you could accomplish in the time you've spent playing video games. You could have read the complete works of William Shakespeare, earned (a lot of) money doing something for a neighbor or relative, or come up with a master plan to woo that special someone.

I know games are fun, trust me, I've been there. But you can't always have a jig or tale of Bawdry my friend.

[MrZero]

Honestly i dislike the term "gaming addiction", because for every person just looking for some advice in changing their habits, there's 50 morons who understand gaming is evil from it.

Back on topic - The trick is to have some other preoccupation, I don't think it takes more then a few days to stop "craving" it ^^ as it's just a psychological addiction.

I remember one time i went on a trip in the summer. At the time I was one of those people that 'can't' eat without watching something. The first days i was really missing idle entertainment like sitcoms and porn, and I was super cranky all the time :) but it was all fine in about 3 days.

You might want to cancel your WoW sub for a little while, so you can rethink your priorities in peace. If you enjoy gaming, I see no need to give it up, just be aware that games don't end up being more stress than fun. Take as much time as you need to think about it. Priorities, plan gaming around other responsibilities, this a general self discipline and awareness issue.

[Four_Winds]

Oh, man. I almost fully understand this. Haha. When I first started playing WoW it practically became my social life.

I mean, some differences are that the majority of my school played, so I wasn't missing much in the friend dept. Though that did make it kinda difficult to stop. I lost a considerable amount of weight playing. The "Warcraft Diet", if you will. Yeah, yeah, not healthy, but I ignored allllllllllll my body's needs. If I had to eat, it would be after I finished ICC, and that was final. lol. (I've stopped playing for over a year and a half since, but I'm getting to that.) My whole sleep schedule got altered around it. I'd fall asleep when I got home from school, and stay up all night after I awoke 'til I had to get ready to leave. VERY embarrassing. If I knew you in real life, I'd never admit that. xD

BUT! the point, if you're really out to fix this... Uninstalling it would be the way to go. Or finding some way to limit the amount of time you play. Set a sleep alarm thing on your comp. Make it automatically shut down after a certain hour. Truthfully, I never used this method, but a friend of mine did and it worked for him. I'm not sure if it was a sleep alarm thing on the comp itself, or the Internet though. One or the other I'm sure, though, so whichever. I'm not sure how big your will power is, but I'd definitely advocate you setting your priorities in this.

Education's very important. (I'm not gonna preach about it.) You'll definitely need that in life, though. lol. and girlfriend's are always fun, as well. Maybe you'll get a stroke of luck and find a girl that you can play WoW with. They do exist. And I mean, a healthy amount of time, obviously. I'm just setting a cool scenario. lol. Besides, without an education and a future, you won't be gaming much longer. But that's obvious.

Hope this wasn't completely useless. You have my axe.