Reply To: My story

[dave]

Welcome Jim! I could so relate to gaming becoming all about competition and achievement and stressful and to the horrible mood swings when I would try to not game for a day or two. What helped me get free was the online meetings here. Hearing others who went through exactly what I did and got out, gave me hope and direction and a feeling I didn’t have to do this all alone. I went through about 8 days of agonizing withdrawal with the moodswings, depression, empty feeling, but can say it lifted after that so don’t be surprised. Gaming addiction is real and affects our brains the same way stimulant drugs like meth or cocaine do and so there is real physical/mental/emotional withdrawal when we’ve been doing the type of gaming you have been.

The 10pm EST mumble meetings have the most people and you can share by type or voice or choose to just listen. You deserve a whole life in the real world – if you are like me, I would bet you haven’t gone outside to a park or felt the sun and wind on your face and truly smiled at the beauty of the real world. Instead, you have probably been locked in your small gaming room for hours and hours every day, like a prison cell like I was.