Personal Abstinence From Playing Computer Games

Abstinence

Gaming addicts such as me, who attempt to totally abstain from gaming, normally suffer from withdrawal symptoms. These symptoms vary among different individuals. However, majority of us have discovered that we possessed several common symptoms. Personally, I decided to "detox" for a 3-day duration during the weekend where the symptoms were quite serious. During these three days, however, I experienced symptoms of withdrawal.

Some of the withdrawal symptoms that I experienced include:

Unmanageable or changing emotions and mood swings

Trouble with social relations and facing responsibilities

Sleep modifications: excessive sleep or insomnia

Feeling greatly drawn to other electronic forms of entertainment

Obsessive thoughts regarding in-game allies

Dreams and fantasies regarding the game, or regarding being part of the game

Restless, unsatisfying, hurting dreams

Furious and impatience outbursts

Nausea

A feeling of loneliness, emptiness, and/or unhappiness

Despair

Lack of inspiration or direction

Lack of any kind of interest of life's endeavors

Trouble with concentration as well as completion of intricate tasks

Agitation or petulance

Desperate trials to reduce a return to gaming

Nervousness

I am aware that majority of individuals could function and think even better after abstaining from games for several months. The main point here is that it actually takes time for the brain to recuperate from what extreme gaming does to it (Video gaming withdrawal symptoms, 2014).

During those demanding 72 hours, I realized that gaming addiction is quite powerful and continual, accompanied with the ability of making the most ridiculous excuses to appear sensible while attempting to force me back into the games. I have discovered it a great help to learn to acknowledge the voice of addiction and to realize that I do not have to trust its lies or even actually carry out what it wants me to. When filled with gaming cravings, the addiction appears to break down my defenses. It reminds me of my gaming allies, the wonderful experiences I had, and release from boredom and care. It never talks of the demanding hours, insomnia, abandoned health, lost opportunities, work issues, relationship issues, promises of quitting, or feelings of anger and shamelessness. During these 3 days, whenever I felt emotionally troubled by gaming cravings, I was able to stop and assess the thought troubling me. I frequently noticed the voice of addiction and immediately made up my mind to stop paying attention to its lies. I noticed that I could actually bring the deceptions to light, picking apart their poor logic and ridiculous excuses. I noticed that I am not obligated to trust them or even be controlled by them. Even though I could not completely make the voice of addiction vanish, I could usefully deal with it and reduce its hold on me. Gaming addicts experience circumstances like these every time; circumstances whereby they must choose whether to interrelate with the real world or carry on dwelling in their virtual one (The Voice of Addiction, 2014). Unfortunately, the real world hardly ever wins.

According to statistics, men and boys are more addict-prone to gaming when compared to girls and women. Gaming addictions lead to individual, family, educational, economic, as well as work-related issues. Impairments of real life connections are interrupted as a result of the addiction (Video Games, n.d). Social repercussions are quite a real portion of gaming addiction. As an addicted gamer, I invest a lot of time playing whereby I overlooked my personal relationships. In these three days, I resolved to do a rapid search for online data regarding video game addiction that produced numerous tales of damaging, and potentially detrimental, social decisions, individuals have made since gaming assumes priority over all these. One such tale was of a man who installed an online gaming program onto his laptop to enable him play at work, despite realizing the fact that getting caught would mean losing his job. Another tale was of a wife whose husband started playing because according to him gaming took his mind off his problems. I noticed that it is not just "neglect" that costs addicts of gaming their relationships. Some of the addicts speak so much of their favorite games that no one wants to be around them anymore. They hardly take part in real life dialogues. Given that their acquaintances speak of other things, they start feeling left out and subsequently, offended. It actually does not occur to them that they are the ones who chose to be left out because of their focus and time to gaming (Video Games, n.d).