I have been videogame free for over a year and a half.

Lately I have been feeling empty. Like things don't fulfill me enough. And in that emotion videogames crawl back into my mind again.

"I know I can control it", "It will only be 30. Mins/and hour", and I know it is all a lie, but I feel so tempted. Why shouldn't, why shouldn't I....

I try to do other things but the thought came back. And I know I can't I am an addict, I know that my personality is all or nothing. I have no middle ground. But still the fight is real.

Wishing you all the best in your own struggle.

This year, I haven't played games as much as I just don't have the energy or willpower to it anymore. I only really play when my online buddies are on for like an hour or so. I feel kinda ashamed being adult without any job or anything going in life who plays video games.

Ultimamente e estado pensando ya en abandonar los videojuegos, compre hace poco una switch 2 y ya estoy considerando venderla porque realmente ya no me motiva jugar nada, no me motiva pasar horas jugando cuando ahora me llaman la atencion otras cosas, tal vez me duele un poco dejarlos porque cuando era niño mi papá me enseño muchisimoso videojuegos y todas las horas que pase junto a el seran un recuerdo hermoso en mi, pero creo que me gustaria aprender a dibujar ahora y editar video o programacion no se, siento como si estuviera diciendo algo que mi yo de 14 años jamas diria

27M and been gambling since I was 18. I’ve banned myself from multiple venues and always manage to find a way in a place. Slots are especially a problem for me, today alone lost $2k. I need help but don’t know where to start. Note that I live in Sydney Australia and there are multiple “pubs” with slots or ‘pokies’ in all surrounding suburbs, so banning myself from all venues is near impossible as I can just walk in with barely any security depending on the time of day. Any advice or help is appreciated. Ty

Every time I wake up or come back home, he's usually in the same spot. His desk or lately in the living room sorting through every single one of the champion cards. I game myself but very moderately, so at first I thought it was chill that he would game with me but hes dropped thousands of dollars on games (He has a salary of roughly 100k) but refuses to spend any of it on our dog unless it is a medical emergency/check up. He used to addicted to another game too and he would set alarms to do events EVEN in the middle of the night or during family time.

He's still a good dad and has a great relationship with everyone but anytime a plan is hindered by his gaming addiction he will get immediately defensive and say he's not bad at all.

At the beginning of the summer I began by completely cutting myself off from video games.

I found that as a result, I became engrossed in exercise, hiking, travel, and climbing. Free time was spent walking around town and listening to music. Outings felt natural and enjoyable.

However recently I heard of a gacha game called Morimens. Before I knew it I was pulled back into the cycle of gaming, slowly but surely.

It began with appreciating the story of the game. Then joining discord. But eventually the game started to slow down and I needed further dopamine. So I found Reverse99 which has an amazing story - but the story wasnt enough I needed more dopamine. So I started playing league of legends again. The game started taking all my time, and that mixed with gacha games and suddenly I found all my other hobbies fell away and day by day was spent in front of a screen.

It wasnt until today, when some people I met in a league discord server started yelling at me mid game did I realize what is happening to me. Im falling back into an unfortunate dopamine cycle and seeing it effect my life in ways that it always has. Today it stops once more.

I Uninstalled the gacha games. League. And am going full turkey once more. This was a serious relapse. But I can start back again, and each time it will become easier.

Stay strong people!

M24. This summer I wanted to to try explore new hobbies and I found Angels & Demons by Dan Brown on a shelf in our house. I haven't read a fiction in ages, so it was kinda hard to get into it again. Really liked the book and I picked up and read some others books we had and I've read 5 books now this summer

I only play games like 1-2 hours a day and it doesn't feel as fulfilling to me anymore. Most of my days is just reading, walking, exercising.

Maybe it’s time to just let them have their little fun instead of trying to beat them. I’ve heard people say that that’s probably all they really have going for them in life, but do you find this to actually be true? I feel like if you’re removing the challenge from the game how can anyone possibly find it fun (I’m talking about multiplayer cheating just fyi). I guess in real life things are actually challenging and you have to work for it so it makes sense people will try to reap the rewards of cheating in a game which doesn’t really require much effort.

I have been battling addiction of Clash Of Clans from past 2-3 years. I play for months then quit and then come back. I started playing back 2 weeks ago after quitting for several months. I told myself I will play in moderation but it was not possible for me. I started getting mild headaches from playing this game. I again deleted the game today and am looking forward to quit this gaming thing for life. Hope I succeed.

hi all. i quit gaming completely on June 28th 2025

and in the past few months ive seen games like FC NBA and GTA6 prices for over £100 some at £140. i used to pre order all these games and not even think about it but now after over a year away from this hobby it makes me absolutely sick that i used to spend all that money on games that you dont even own. i didnt quit to save money but man do you realise how much you save by not consuming this stuff. happy weekend :)

Apologies if this is posted often.

My Steam account contains over 300 games. Thousands of dollars. And that’s not counting all the hardware, from controllers, to VR, monitors, and the PC itself.

There is so much I know I want to do in life, I know the amount of gaming I do is constantly holding me back. But the amount that I’ve spent monetarily, knowing I have this library of so many games and such capable hardware, makes leaving it feel so irrationally difficult.

If not advice, knowing somebody else has at least felt this way would be nice.

(to be clear, I will not be selling or giving away any accounts or hardware on this subreddit)

male in his 30s, married but no kids. I have a good job, but lost touch with my friends, stopped playing sports, stopped working out, etc. Runescape was im my head rent free the moment i woke up till the moment i slept.

I spent 60-80 hrs a week playing runescape. I watched streamers play runescape. I posted on subreddits and discords talking about runescape. I think my account had over 80 days of playtime. Only game I played but it consumed my life, literally.

What made me quit? Truth was I suck at the game, and I mainly spent time doint the easy repetitive stuff like mining a rock every 2 min. New quest was released and after 50 tries i said F this game, thank god they released it, it gave me my life back. I play basketball and pickleball again, I read again, I give my wife my full attention when shes home instead of thinking about that stupid game.

Hi, (19)M here and my first post here on Reddit. You can call me Rayne. I've been addicted to gaming, both on mobile and laptop, for essentially most of my life ever since I received my first phone. I don't need parenting or relationship advice because it's not needed. I just wanted a place to say what I've felt for so long because sometimes it feels like I'm the only one struggling with this.

I don't have vices or anything. I know better than to let drugs, cigars, booze, or even sex get a hold of my life. Yet at the same time, I don't have a good vision of what my life will look like for the next five years despite having a lot on my plate.

I grew up in a middle-income family where all my needs were provided for thanks to my parents. I didn't struggle much even in high school since my mother was the principal, and everything I needed could be provided to me conveniently. The concept of bullying never really crossed my mind because everyone I knew was such a good influence, just as I tried to be for them. I even have a girlfriend now in my third year of college, and we've been official for four months.

Yet the one thing that persists, the common denominator in almost every argument I've had with my family, friends, and girlfriend, is:

"You play too much."

"You don't do anything aside from your games."

"What will you do with your life, Rayne, sitting there all day?"

"Do you have a hobby other than playing games?"

There's more, but it's all basically the same thing.

I never had any long-term hobbies. There was a time when I tried everything, but I never committed to anything. Eventually, I always relapsed into the one thing that gives me comfort.

Gaming.

I don't know why, but I know most of my days are consumed by gaming for at least 6–10 hours a day. By my math, that's roughly 42–70 hours a week.

I feel like gaming is the only thing that gives me comfort and a sense of being skilled. I guess most of it also comes from the kinds of games I play: RimWorld, the Total War series, Roblox, Call of Duty, Mobile Legends, Skyrim, and so on.

I'm fully aware of what I've been doing with my life. I've made schedules. I've deleted all my games. I've meditated, read books, and even written unfinished novels.

However, gaming never really leaves my mind. Once temptation gives in, I... I play nonstop for hours, sometimes even days, and my logical brain just switches off.

My routine could've been okay in high school because I had easy access to the materials and resources I needed. But in college, where I'm away from that comfort, I've been slowly crumbling.

Failing grades. INCs. Missed major subjects. Watching friends move on to better things in their lives while I already know that if I continue pursuing my major at my current pace, I could end up taking 5–6 years before I graduate.

My girlfriend is increasingly worried about my habits as well. She has told me that despite me being a kind person and the type of guy she wants in her life, she's afraid we won't last if I don't change.

Everything is the same old routine, and I hate it.

The answer is simple, but it's much easier to say than to actually do.

Then I woke up one morning with a fever and started contemplating everything about my life and what I truly wanted.

I realized that I already had a future I wanted buried somewhere inside me.

I want to go out and see the world. I want to go to Italy, especially Rome, and see the Northern Lights. I want to start a family someday and have lots of kids to look forward to, tell stories to, and sing songs with. I want to develop a successful game of my own. I want to give back to my family and show them how much their care for me meant despite everything.

I'm still young, and I don't want to waste my life doing this over and over again. I especially don't want to relapse when I'm finally in the process of improving myself.

Which is why I've started taking things more seriously.

I've restricted all my accounts for now. My passwords are locked in a safe. I wiped my YouTube history, deleted TikTok, made a fresh account, and started taking my planned schedules seriously. I'm also working on fixing my current relationship and planning for the future I actually want.

I don't know if this will finally be the time I break the cycle. I don't know if I'll relapse again.

But I know that I don't want to keep living the same way.

So if you're like me, I just want to say this:

Gaming is fine as entertainment and a way to pass the time. But as someone who has spent years letting it consume most of his life, I wish I had used that time much better.

I'm 19. I still have time.

I just don't want to waste more of it.

I stopped playing video games 3 years ago. Today, my life is completely different, but I still think back to the moment where I nearly lost it all.

I used to play CS:GO, which transformed me from a passive player into someone whose unchecked gaming rage progressively led to worse things

I used to tell myself that gaming was just a harmless way to decompress after a long day. Looking back on my years playing competitive Counter-Strike, I realize how blind I was to the slow, steady escalation of my anger.

It started small. A missed headshot or a bad callout would lead to slamming a fist on the desk. Then came the broken peripherals a shattered mouse here, a snapped headset there. Eventually, during a particularly frustrating loss, I punched my monitor. I replaced it the next day and told myself I just needed better emotional control. But competitive gaming doesn’t give you control, it feeds on your obsession.

But the worse happened after we were locked in a overtime match. Every round felt like a life or death scenario. When we lost the final round to a ridiculous clutch, a switch inside me flipped. outt of pure anger I went running straight to my car and stomped on the gas. I didn't care about the speed or the risk I just wanted the rage to stop. I lost control and rammed the car full speed against a tree

violent deployment of the airbag brought me back to reality instantly. Sitting in the wreckage with smoke filling the cabin and my chest aching. I had almost traded my life for a loss in a video game.

That night was my absolute rock bottom, but it was also the day I finally uninstalled everything and walked away for good.

If you're reading this and noticing your own anger escalating if you're breaking controller triggers, punching walls, or letting a rank govern your sanity please step back before the destruction spills into your real life.

Honestly, I am not really sure why I am really posting this. Perhaps I am just looking for some people to reflect with? This is about someone who I used to be close to, but no longer am, and I am slowly coming to the realisation that it might actually be due to his gaming addiction.

Gaming has completely destroyed someone (M, 39) I know as a husband and father. From the outside, it genuinely looks like he cannot stand being around his own children. He seems constantly irritated by them, avoids engaging with them wherever possible, and treats normal parenting responsibilities like some enormous inconvenience standing between him and getting back to gaming. Rather than appearing to enjoy being a father, he comes across as resentful that his kids require any time, attention and energy at all. Gaming has become his escape from virtually every uncomfortable part of family life, while his wife appears to have been left carrying the parenting, household and emotional load. He is physically there, but totally absent as both a partner and a parent. His wife (F, 42) has expressed a lot of concern, but doesn't want to get in the way of his "hobbies."

The saddest part is that I’m not sure he even recognises what is happening. He probably really thinks of gaming as his hobby or his way of unwinding, but when your children seem to experience you as someone who wants to be left alone so he can play games, something has gone badly wrong. I’m not anti-gaming at all, but watching this has made me realise how destructive it can become when someone starts treating their actual family as an interruption to their gaming life. His marriage appears totally miserable, his wife seems exhausted and carries the weight of the entire family on her shoulders, and his relationship with his kids looks more like resentment than affection.

As for me? When we were in our 20s, we used to do heaps together. Go hiking, cycling, occasional holidays together. Yes, we did some occasional gaming, but it was not a significant part of our friendship. He just seemed to gradually drift into gaming. Now? He is never available. Always busy. He deeply resents his wife. He sees his kids as a burden. He doesnt talk with his entire extended family. I feel sad watching him become a shadow of his former self. It really breaks my heart. He never used to be this way. We barely talk anymore. He is about to turn 40.

To me, this seems like a much deeper problem than "gaming addiction," but I am still curious about your thoughts. To me, this looks like a whole collection of other issues underneath. I am not sure whether gaming caused the withdrawal and resentment, whether it was just his coping strategy, or perhaps a combination of both? For people here who have quit or drastically reduced gaming, can any of you relate to the presentation of my friend and if you can, did any of you realise at the time how much you were withdrawing or the type of feelings you were directing toward your family? Or did these things only become obvious afterwards?

Would anyone tell me?
The thing is, I watch YouTube videos of games I’d actually like to play, but I never get around to playing them—even though I own them and have the time.

Instead, I always end up just lounging in my chair, mindlessly watching YouTube, even though I want to play through the story-driven games I’ve bought and own.

Another thing is that I prefer watching YouTube over Netflix or HBO series; I know there are shows on those platforms I’d genuinely like to watch, but I can't bring myself to focus on them—I’d rather just watch YouTube.

It’s so fucking hard to quit gambling. My conscious mind is aware how I am loosing myself, money, and fucking self control, yet I am having a hard time to quit.

I hate being poor! Being in a constant loop na online gambling will give me the shot. Pero putangina when I win, nauubos ko lang ulit pabalik. I hate myself! Ang hirap mag-quit!

You’re nababaon sa utang, and you’re loosing yourself pa. Fuck this!

Hi, I am extremely addicted to video games. When I play video games I have the impression of wasting my time as if I was doing nothing because I find that it will bring me nothing for later when I will be an adult and the only thing it brings me is pleasure and the fact of breaking my stuff because of rage when I lose because I play a lot of fps games.

So I wanted to uninstall the games from my pc and especially I play a lot of Roblox so I uninstall it then the next day I have an excessive desire to play and I can't hold myself back so I reinstall the game and I thought about putting parental control by asking my parents but I told myself that I would be limited everywhere so I abandon this idea and since I do programming so I can create an application that would prevent me from accessing the site to download the games I play or I could block the application directly but I work on another project so I can but while I do my project on the side I play again and again.

I can play for almost 6-8 hours per day and work on my project for only 1 hour and it bothers me enormously the fact of playing instead of creating something productive that could bring me money compared to video games.

Please help me how to stop playing video games at all and thank you for listening to me and any help is welcome

I really need help 🥲

Point 4 of the rules are "Don't justify or rationalize gaming." and "This forum is for people who identify as gaming addicts, for whom gaming has become a self-destructive habit. We have justified our own gaming habits for far too long already."

I came across many postings of people who desperately looked for a way to quit gaming while there were comments to "moderate gaming" or "just play the right kind of games".

I guess some (gaming) people are triggered by stopping gaming and try to justify their own gaming in the comments. Convince me otherwise.

1st Topic:

I have never been addicted to video games and can easily stop after an hour as well as spend days, weeks, and months without playing them.

I like reading novels from Japan, albeit in English, but what I noticed was that after playing certain video games for merely an hour, it causes me to be unable understand to read for at least three days.

What I mean by being unable to understand what I read is that I am not able to visualise or conceptualise what is going on, so I am mentally "blind" in reading.

I noticed this with Kirby and Mario platformers, Mario Kart, and first-person shooters.

So I initially thought all video games do this until I happened to play Mario vs. Donkey Kong.

Surprisingly, I could play for an hour and would be able to understand what I was reading.

Then I played Detective Pikachu Returns and I was still able to read.

So I decided to test whether Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker impairs my ability to read and after two instances of playing them for an hour, I was still able to read.

Maybe these video games do not produce as much dopamine or maybe the mechanics of them are different so they do not disrupt my circuitry in the way that platformers, racing games, and first-person shooters do.

For example, Detective Pikachu Returns, you have to move the character around, but it is mostly reading text boxes from other characters.

Also, this is what affects me personally and someone else may not encounter this impairing effect from playing certain video games and other people may encounter a worse effect.

The same thing happens with certain foods.

My cholesterol goes up easily after eating eggs but for many people, dietary cholesterol does not raise their cholesterol.

So now, the way I personally determine whether a video game is bad for me or not is whether it impairs my reading ability after playing it for an hour, since I rarely play more than that.

Of course, I do not play video games regularly, so maybe if I kept playing an hour every day of those video games, they would eventually cause an impairment to my reading ability.

Maybe I will test this out one day if I have the time.

---

2nd Topic:

For this topic, it has to do with bullying, which was something Cam Adair suffered from:

I read Cam Adair's Video Game Addiction Story on the Game Quitters website and read that he fell into his video game addiction due to shutting himself in from bullying.

I thought it would be interesting if Cam Adair could research and make videos about the science behind why people bully others and also to create resources and advice to help people who are undergoing or recovering from bullying, especially psychological bullying.

During 2006 to 2011, those were very terrible times of my life because I was constantly verbally bullied and excluded by certain people in my school.

I was socially awkward and in my attempt to fit in, to be funny, and to be popular, I talked too much and did things that were annoying or even offensive to people and would be excluded and verbally bullied in response.

I am a Chinese American and went to a private school with other Chinese Americans and international students from China.

One girl called me F.A. and F.U.B. in front of other girls and would not tell me what the abbreviations meant because it was their inside way of making fun of me.

This girl and another boy would always mention something interesting and when I asked them more about it, they would just say, "Not telling you" while telling other people, and those other people refused to tell me to, which was their way of excluding me.

Interestingly, that boy, who was from China, loved playing Defence of the Ancients and was still smarter than me despite me not having played much video games in high school.

One boy was skilled at self-defence arts so I felt that he wanted to verbally harass me to lure me into assaulting him so that he could legally hurt me in self-defence or if I did not assault him, I would burn in painful silence knowing that he was smarter than me and that I did not dare to do anything physical to him.

He enjoyed calling me stupid, idiot, moron, thick-headed, and loner.

Another boy called me mentally slow in front of everyone for having a difficult time being able to think of a line for a poem quick enough for World Literature and his female friend joined in to harass me.

I had at least six schoolmates verbally bully and exclude me on a regular basis, which was not a lot of schoolmates, but because I was stuck with them most of the time, I was constantly subjected to their verbal bullying.

It was so terrible that I threw away all of my school yearbooks and wished I had been smart enough to run away from school like what happened to a classmate of mine from middle school.

I am likely on the autism spectrum but do not have an official diagnosis.

---

3rd Topic (You can disregard this one)

This topic is part of my faith that I always include in my posts:

Nakedness, the sexual areas of the body, sexual intercourse, and its related acts represent shame, sin, poverty, and death, but God had to temporarily allow married couples to have it with each other for the temporary roles of reproduction and the illustration of the marriage to Jesus.

Within earthly marriage, nakedness, the sexual areas of the body, sexual intercourse, and its related acts highlight that the relationship between the husband and wife is so intimate that the shameful parts of the body are allowed to be freely shown to the other spouse in order to illustrate how intimate we will be with Jesus in heaven, so it was God's way of using something bad to illustrate something good even though Jesus wants nothing to do with our nakedness.

Non-revealing clothing represents the righteousness of Jesus and eternal life covering our shame, sin, poverty, and death and this is how people will be dressed in heaven when we are married to Jesus, and there will be no place for nakedness and sexual areas of the body in heaven.

In heaven, men and women do not marry or remain married to each other, our bodies will not have sexual desires or reproductive abilities, and we will not be naked or wearing revealing clothing, and we will perceive nakedness and the sexual areas of our bodies as repulsive.

Like probably many of you here, I saw the GTA6 trailer and tbh, it looks fking awesome. Lets be real here, the game looks incredible from what we saw. And that is the problem. Games are only gonna become more and more realistic and immersive wich will make you not want to leave ur room and waste ur life looking at pixels in ur dark sad disgusting room. Dont be fooled by GTA6 guys, its a trap.

If I can help by telling you guys what works for me when I get urges to play a game is ; I look at people playing the game on Youtube. This works for me and maybe it wont help you out, but yeah hope this helps any of yall.

And remember : Lucifer (Satan) was once God's most beautiful and favorite angel before falling from grace.