- cross-posted to:
- games@lemmy.world
- cross-posted to:
- games@lemmy.world
For years I’ve used Video Games to take up the hurt in my life and I’ve been ignoring it. The Games I play are normally quite repetitive such as Minecraft, CS2 and Fortnite. My goals inside of these games change often, sometimes I push for getting as many Achievements as possible or maybe I just want to get really good at the game, even know I’m not recording, streaming or have no plans to join a E-Sports league making these are waste of my time.
I’ve recently achieved over 10k hours across the games I play, some say that’s not much but I always remind myself that not only does Minecraft not track the amount of time I play on it but I also don’t just play the games but research the hell out of them. The other part of my time that I’m not playing games is spend up watching TV Shows and Movies such as Superhero ones (Loki Season 2 has been releasing and I’ve been enjoying that) and Upload is a great series that I’ve been watching but these also seem like a way to escape my reality.
It’s to the point that through my adult life (I’m 21) I’ve had a few relationships and it seems like I put gaming before the relationship especially if I feel the relationship is going a little bad and believe this is one of the key reasons that some of my relationships have ended in the past.
I’ve tried to go full “Cold Turkey” previously and I feel that this isn’t the best route to go, especially as I do still feel that Video Games are a good relaxant for my life but I would like to get my life on track for once by replacing the time I used to spend on Video Games (Or at least 90% of it) on doing my company that I’ve been telling myself for years that I was going to create.
My company that I’ve been wanting to create is a Video Editing one where I can edit my own as well as other peoples videos for online platforms. One of the reasons I have come to terms with the possible Gaming Addiction I have is because I’ve been sitting on Editing a Video for the past 2+ months and it’s been waiting for me to edit. My goal is to try and edit this video before the 7th of November giving me just about a week to get it all complete.
I feel that my best chance of getting anything done in my life, at least business wise (to begin with) is by reducing the hours I play of video games or at minimum timing myself and giving myself ‘work breaks’ making me have to work per amount of time / games I play of each of my games, this then may turn into longer periods where I may want to work instead of game or may get to the stage that I reward myself by gaming in the evening after finishing work.
If you have any suggestions of how to fix myself and have best of both worlds then feel free to say, sorry this is a long post its been on my mind for a while and I needed to get it out in writing to hopefully do something.
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If you’re using video games to self-medicate some other issue in your life then avoiding games by itself without addressing the deeper problem isn’t necessarily going to get you to where you want to be – especially if you do end up replacing that time with TV shows and other escapism as you mentioned. Have you tried talking to a therapist about it? A good therapist may be able to help you figure out what exactly you’re avoiding and how to deal with it in a way that’s more conducive to your goals.
@e0qdk I can’t really afford a therapist as of the moment, actually one of the reasons I feel I need to break this cycle actually. I know that it won’t fix the problem as such, I just know that relacing it with something less destructive such as my Video Editing passion would be better but like you said I might just end up replacing it with something just as bad such as Watching TV Shows or possibly something worse.
I’m very unsure on what steps I should take to fix these parts of my life, someone suggested that I should maybe Gamify the parts of life that I want to focus on to possibly get that ‘rush’ when doing the non-game tasks, this I feel might be a good step as it would allow me to feel some sort of rush without doing gaming for once.
Maybe I should seek help, and I will if I can ever afford it.
If you have any sort of access to health care (e.g. from work’s health insurance, college mandatory coverage in some places, parents’/relative’s/SO’s/etc. insurance in some places, national coverage in some countries) you might be able to get a referral for at least a few sessions to explore your issues with a professional without having to pay an additional fee. I started talking to a therapist for my own issues earlier this year and it turned out that as long as I did it over Zoom I was covered for 10 sessions (which could be extended, if approved) without out-of-pocket expenses. I was expecting to have to pay a $20/session co-pay since that’s what it was on a previous attempt (which fizzled since in-person sessions that I had to drive to with my issues just… really didn’t work very well) but phone (including Zoom) sessions were covered differently. YMMV, but it may be worth at least asking your doctor’s office – if you have one – what it actually would cost if you haven’t checked recently.
You might also get some benefits by journaling every day. I describe how I set up my own journal here if you’re curious what I track.
Best of luck! I hope things improve for you!
@e0qdk Thank you, I will be getting in contact with my doctor soon, it’s just harder to find a doctor right for me as it’s not just my addiction that is the issue but I’m also Autistic and am Trans, not many doctors understand one of those let alone both as well as can handle a Gaming Addiction serious. Hopefully I do get to the stage I need to but it all takes time.
