What are they going to say? I mean, really, what kind of help can you actually get?
It isn’t like we are talking about an illness you medicate. I feel like a lot of help for mental rather than physiological addiction is vague “we’re here for you” type stuff that doesn’t help at all. Not to be too bleak but a lot of people “help” because it makes themselves feel better rather than having a genuine sense of empathy. Because being actually empathetic and still exposing yourself to hurt is draining as all heck, like being a sin-eater.
I’ve never been that way, at least not recently with wow. I can play at most three hours, and more if I’m with others, but alone, burn out sets in quickly, and I hanker Skyrim or Total War Warhammer 3 again. And I have some personal writing obligations which devour much gaming time usually. Not a bad thing, if I make a good book some day, I’ll have more time XD!
Schedule your play. Make sure you do all the things you need to do before you allow yourself to log in for the day. Gaming is a reward, you can’t just skip straight to the reward.
Don’t lie to yourself and say “I’m going to do chores, workout, homework, w/e after I play for one hour” because let’s be honest once you’re in convenient stopping points become less convenient and procrastination is too easy.
Change your perspective of how you look at this game. What is it you’re addicted to? Achievements? What’s the point of those if 90% of them give no rewards. Mounts? Well, they’re useless now because we only have 4 that are usable in the new expansion. Transmog? Gear sets have been hideous for a solid two expansions. Anything that’s worth getting will be there later and won’t take but 20-30 minutes of your time each week.
Worst of all, are you addicted to the FOMO? This game isn’t going anywhere for a while and there really isn’t any content to do in dragonflight at the moment. The only things to do is pvp, level, dungeon or raid and of course the other minor things like grind renown or achievements. You won’t miss out on much except for higher item levels which will be obsolete next raid tier.
For me, the idea that I won’t have friends to play this with and show off my stuff to (not that any of them cared even when they played) is what makes me quit as none of this stuff matters long term. Take a break and play something else, this isn’t the expansion to be addicted to. This is just the same old stuff we’ve had since vanilla.
Find other things to occupy your mind and time. I either walk or use my rowing machine everyday in the evening. Finding other things to do consistently will lessen the importance of games in your life.
I used to have a hard time not playing daily.
I usually play maybe 2 times a week, sometimes I don’t play for weeks at a time
300mg of Tren per week. You’ll be too pissed off to play. You will also be very horny, so you gotta figure out how to deal with that. There are also some psychological issues that will most likely arise. But hey! You won’t be addicted to WoW
Some giga-brain takes in this thread - “Just don’t be addicted”.
This is actually helpful though. If you are prone to fixation… fixate on something less self-destructive. You can’t change your personality and be someone who doesn’t get fixated on and latch onto something but you can focus on something else.
In fact, I made a thread earlier today, I’m happy to be back at work because work drawing my attention means it isn’t all being sucked up by WoW. Obviously that doesn’t help you during your leisure hours, but something.
I made it a routine to take my doggos to the park every day. Which is normally great, it just wasn’t enough during the break (and don’t want to overwork the dogs just because I have more free time).
It can absolutely be a symptom of a much larger issue, but the way you get ‘addicted’ to a video game is wildly different than actual addictions like alcoholism and narcotics. And unlike an actual addiction, the compulsions to spend that kind of time on a video game are completely different.
You can’t tyrannize yourself out of bad habits. If that worked it wouldn’t be a problem.
Im not perfect with this either this time of year (live in alaska and dark gloomy seasonal depression is a thing).
Go to the gym, read 30 minutes, meditate, cook, wash your laundry, etc as early in the day as possible so that youre not fighting yourself while playing.
Also, if you absolutely feel powerless, talk to a counselor. Or talk to someone at your local church. Definitely unsub/ put your pc power cord up for a few weeks and do a hard reset.
People much smarter than you and I can help you with full stop addiction.
Addiction can be almost anything. Smoking, drugs, sex, video games, collecting stuff, listening to the screams of dying elves. All possible of addiction.
but if it’s triggered for different reasons, relies on different physiological methods to encourage repetitive behavior, and the cure is completely different, it can’t really be called the same, can it?
There is a massive difference between alcoholism and nicotine addiction and, say, video game ‘addiction.’
One introduces a novel chemical dependency into your body which will produce real side effects to drive continued use.
The other is, as you said, something that can happen with anything. It’s important to distinguish between the two because the subject of overcoming it is completely different. You’d never tell an alcoholic to quit cold turkey. Quitting cold turkey can absolutely work for this, but the problem is that people frequently aren’t actually addicted to video games. It’s just a compulsive habit they engage in.
It’s the same reason why rates of alcoholism in obese people explode when they get stomach reduction surgery- they replaced their old coping mechanism with a new one. Understanding that it’s a coping mechanism rather than an actual biological addiction is important because if you fail to understand that, you’re just going to replace one habit with a different one.
Hence my original post asking what they’d be doing if their computer was broke.
I play the game until I realize how shallow and boring it is then I leave for however long until I feel like coming back cause I’m bored.
I wouldn’t even call it an addiction honestly as I don’t care much if at all about any of this. They could delete the WoW servers and all my characters and I’d just prob laugh and move on.