friends help: How to study and lose my addiction of computer games - Help.com

Well!
Used to be a gamer myself…
Thing is to get into other activities that you like and have some level of skill in…
Do, more stuff with people and initially join a course or some fixed event so u atleast have to go out to participate in it regularly…
The other thing is uninstall all your games and disable all your passwords for online stuff!
Just cut yourself loose!
Trust me! if you dont take a drastic step you will keep falling back…

Get on some sports teams or clubs: you will meet people AND spend less time on the computer. As for studying, read your notes over every night. Reading within 24 hours of reception increases your recall tremendously.

> I spend almost 5 hours a day on the computer
Ahem…
That’s actually not much. You can start worrying when you are spending 12..23 hours per day on computer. Yes, I’m absolutely serious, it is possible.

In short, dude, games are okay, if:
1) you have good grades
2) you are happy
3) you have friends AND a girlfriend
4) you are tidy and maintain your clothes and looks in good condition
5) you walk on the streets
6) you aren’t gaining weight
7) you work out sometimes

Since you worry about your parents you obviously aren’t addicted yet.

Few recommendation (if you don’t want for this to become worse):
1) Avoid MMORPGs at all costs.
2) Avoid social networks and blogging. They are as addictive.
3) Same goes about chats, sites with funny pictures, etc.

If you think you spending too much time on computer, find some replacement activitty that doesn’t involve computer and involve a lot of people: join gym, art class, go to the cinema, join martial arts training, etc. It should be more interesting that games for you. Because if you play games, you are getting something from them that isn’t available from elsewhere.

Also try finding something that gives you satisfaction of accomplishing something. Some kind of crafting hobby, perhaps, where you can gradually get better. This should replace games easily.

Also “addiction” is very likely to wear off when you become older - because eventually you will have played everything that was worth playing, and will start disliking all the new stuff that comes out. This should happen somewhere between 18 and 25 years old (I have no idea at which age you go to highschool, because our education system is different)

About this part:
> I also never want to leave home
You’ll have to force yourself to go out and you’ll have to find something interesting to do outside of the house, if you want to fix that. As I said, gym, art class, martial art training, etc are worth a try.

Tell your parents your plan, before you begin, so they’ll know what you’re doing and can help you progress.

Get a notebook, and a pencil.

Every hour that you spend off the computer, give yourself 20 points.
Every hour you spend reading, exercising, or with friends and family, give yourself 30 points.
Every hour you spend studying or preparing for your future, give yourself 50 points.

Every 500 points, you earn one hour on the computer. If you have something to do that takes longer, you’ll have to earn more points. If you spend less time, the points you save count toward next session.

Every Saturday, Sunday or Special occasion (birthday, anniversary, holiday) is an automatic 500 points for that day. Those points can also be saved for another day.

If you go into negative numbers, you’ll have to make those points up before you can get back on for any reason.

Is it escapism?

Being in world were you have control, and your decisions matter?

chunkymove wrote:
Is it escapism?

Being in world were you have control, and your decisions matter?

It IS a bit of escapism, but it has nothing to do with being in control.
In computer game you have a goal to achieve, and your action provide results. In life sometimes you don’t have a goal, and keep struggling with same obstacles forever. Which is why there are so many depressive/suicidal people.

Having a goal makes insane amount of difference…

P.S. Do not forget that computer games have a lot of positive effects…

win.

So if you had a goal in life that you really truly wanted, not just pretended to want to please others ( like dancing with Mille - she is so fine ) AND you felt like progress was being made, stagnation was being avoided, computer games would get less attention?

Well if your addicted to the computor you could study by using a computor going on sites such as BBC Bitesize ECT Use your computor time as a study period.

Also when you go out just remember the computor isnt going any where and will be in the same place when you get back

Try thinking about what you would do if the computor wasnt working

chunkymove wrote:
So if you had a goal in life that you really truly wanted, not just pretended to want to please others ( like dancing with Mille - she is so fine ) AND you felt like progress was being made, stagnation was being avoided, computer games would get less attention?

People still would use games to relax and have fun.
But I THINK in this case person wouldn’t sink in the game world for months.

Don’t forget, there are a lot of people who play with friends and are fairly social.
Depressive loner gamers that escape using games are probably a minority.

Besides, there are other means of escaping - even reading books may work, though in this case there will be less of “goal and reward” situation. And sometimes it may be a bit hard to differentiate between favorite hobby and addiction.