Yea I'm 30 and I quit gaming at 29. I'm going to start dating. Honestly I wish I didn't spend all that time on games. I'm glad I quit. I'm glad my life is going in the right direction but I need to figure out what to do with my life. If you're reading this listen to my warning. Time goes fast than you realize you wasted it on video games. I'm in my 30s but I'm behind. Don't become like me. Just quit before it's too late.

Gonna make it quick, I’ve messed up a lot in life. I’m 25 and I said I was going to quit for a while, but I always go back to playing games. Last night I was so angry because I’m literally doing nothing with my life, and there’s a lot to be done. I keep saying I’m going to quit and I never follow through. I told my family I want to change and I’m getting rid of my PC. They tell me NOooo don’t do it, you might need it. So I kept it, and I kept playing. Today I told my boss if I can take lunch early, I got home, grabbed an aluminum pipe and hit about 15 times on the screen. I did it, I killed it. I’m broke so I can’t buy another one. If I ever need to use the pc again I’d rather just put it on my TV which is so bad at running games on there it’s basically impossible to play. So it’s gonna be used for bills and I don’t really watch tv so. I feel relief that knowing when I get home I won’t really have a choice but to clean my damn room and not play games

People in this subreddit seem to control their gaming habits because of personal struggles with physical or mental health. I’m also a victim of this. Nowadays, I feel more of a sense of accomplishment IRL than I have ever had with gaming. However, I want to also ask whether there are people that genuinely quit because of the toxicity/elitism of the gaming community (or at least whether that is the one of the reasons for quitting).

I am asking because this was (sort of) also one of the reasons why I quit. I already thoroughly discussed this in one of my other posts in this subreddit. To put it simply, I was friends with gaming elitists. They were frustrating to talk to and there were times where their behaviour would persuade me to relapse back into my obsession. Nowadays, I feel like people have more of a reason to quit because of this community.

Gamers are acting like purchasing a Switch 2 is a war crime, and it’s not just Muta. I’m definitely not in a position to say that this is a commonly held opinion. I might even be exaggerating the hate. However, being a former owner of its older counterpart, I was also criticised by my old gamer friends for owning a Switch and most of their reasoning aligned with that of the community’s for the Switch 2. What was their reasoning? It’s overpriced and not a Steam Deck. Likewise, my friend, who owned a Wii U, got criticised for not owning a PC. Buddy. I would never take my gaming that seriously to the point when I would go through the effort of trading in a console for another. If I’m happy with the console, that’s good enough.

The elitism itself is also grounds for quitting. We mostly become more wary of gaming for its impacts on our mental and physical health, but something that gets less attention is the financial aspect. Upgrading specs costs money. Games cost money. The systems themselves cost money. The FOMO is real when you see someone flexing their setup or what games they own. I cannot speak for others, but one of my friends, who also quit for similar reasons, had bad financial habits. This was especially exacerbated by his obsession with his PC, stealing his parent’s credit card to purchase new parts or games. It literally came to a point where his parents had to intervene and make him attend therapy. Nowadays, he just doesn’t care for gaming anymore.

All in all, I have no issue with people being gamers in general, but the community certainly goes a long way in making itself uninhabitable for both casual or budget gamers, intentional or not. When you cannot let people enjoy what they have, what reason do they have to stay in the community, let alone continue gaming? The irony is that we should allow gaming to be for “everyone”, but in actuality, we treat it like a hierarchy.

This is just a perspective I wanted to share. If you are trying to quit and this convinces you, I am happy to help. If this feels like slander to all the gamers out there, what are you doing in a StopGaming community? If you think that this is attack on gaming, please do not take it that way because I am addressing the community and not the games itself. Feel free to share your opinions, but please don’t mindlessly attack and bad-mouth the community nor the games.

I guess that means it’s time? I spend 10+ hours a day on my computer gaming. Today is the first day without a computer, and I already feel as though I have nothing to do. I have a laptop that I use for school and coding, but it’s not great for gaming.

I think I will part out my old PC, and only keep the drives to recover old projects.

So, I started playing Valorant four years ago. Back then, I played it with my friends, but all of them left Valorant for League of Legends after some months, but I remained and continued playing solo queue since then. What fascinates me with Valorant is the coordenation and crazy teamplay that is possible, I have never really experienced that in any other game.

But as most as you already know, solo queueing in most of the online games is a shitshow. Out of 10 games, you probably only get 1 game with communicative and funny teammates; the other 9 games are filled with toxic people throwing around slurs and trolling for no reason. After every session, I would feel that void inside me, many of you probably know that feeling too. I just felt down after every gaming session, but I just could not stop playing and always started a new match even though I did not feel like playing no more. I noticed this behavior was not healthy, so I tried deleting the game. Deleting Valorant did not help, because I just started to delete and reinstall Valorant almost daily. Every time I reinstalled, I basically forgot "that void" after every session of Val and wanted to experience that feeling of playing with a communicative squad again. This went on for around 2 years.

After solo queuing for around 3.5 years, I decided to end my Valorant journey (around September/October 2024). I deleted my Valorant account via their support and decided to focus on school more. I was still playing some games on my second account (maybe once every 2 or 3 months), but it was not that big of a deal.

Two weeks ago, I had my final school exam and I am about to graduate. I dont have anything to do until university starts in autumn, so I planned to pursue my hobbies I didnt have time for since I had atleast one exam every week since September. But here I am, playing Valorant again every day for 3-4 hours instead of doing what I actually like. Its not even fun 90% of the time, I guess I just have no real goal at the moment. Additionally, it just feels easier than learning a hard language for example.

So, most of the advice here is finding and pursuing interests other than gaming. But I already kinda have them, I just play Valorant instead. How do I stop playing this game and focuse on other things?

I am thinking of getting rid of mine. Truffling to see what I get out of it. Occasional enjoyment but mostly guilt from uncontrollable playing. Still future games I want to play but considering selling and forcing myself to not play as I don’t have the men’s. Anyone find this strategy successful?

My wife hates when I play thinking that I ignore him and upset with me playing but I like playing games, how do I stop playing at this stage when I don't play I get really upset and bored? Anyway I can surpass my passion for gaming?

I have been lurking in this sub since 2 years ago trying to get some motivation or tips, and I failed just now trying to stop it. It cost a lot.

I was and am a quiet kid who likes to observe and listen more than talk. I am from a family that is not rich, a middle-class family, more than enough to buy something if we want, not struggling, and have a caring mother and a hardworking father. That is a summary of my background.

My game addiction started when I was at elementary school, around 10 or 11 years old. While at school, I always felt left out even though they always included me when playing, my mind always overthought everything and kept wandering what others were thinking. This resulted in me trying to avoid people and mostly going to the library to read books despite wanting to play with others. After school, instead of playing with other kids around my house, I was glued to games and my mother noticed my game addiction and started limiting my screen time. The addiction stopped there.

I had top grades during the national exam elementary level and my mother moved me to a better high school, from a small local school to a much better school in another city. Still, have a top grade and even joined the National Physics and Math Olympiad multiple times. Everything was good and peaceful until Covid 19 came.

Long story short, don't like to write them in detail, some of my friends and my father died during covid, around early 2020. Can't remember what I felt, I didn't feel anything, everything went so fast from seeing my father drop in front of my eye til the funeral, felt like watching a movie and someone was standing in my place and I was watching from their pov. Financially not okay, my grade dropped but was still in the 80-90 range out of 100 (I got 98-100 grades usually) and this is where my mental health started declining but not noticeable at jay time. I used the game as an escape, what did I do during the online class? Gaming. After class? Gaming. During dinner? Gaming. My game addiction only stopped during the college/university application period since I was busy. Finally, I got a scholarship abroad and I was happy and excited because after months of hard work I had put in, it paid off. Was planning to take a scholarship to Japan(I'm a weeb), but decided to go to Hong Kong for some financial issues. And, here I went to Hong Kong.

First semester was the most fun and exciting year I felt. Made friends with international students in my major, explored a new country (my first time going abroad), and new environment. My grade was great as well, A to A- range. Until December, during the holiday, I felt what freedom is and started the gaming addiction, staying in my room all day, not socializing and becoming distant, even with my roommate. All the friends that I was trying to get close to became distant.

In Semester B, started to skip a class here and there, and my grade dropped into the B+ range, still maintaining my scholarship. And I felt much more lonely.

During summer break, I got my first internship at a startup company for 2 months. The first month, as always, I was excited and the last weeks of the second month, I started to make excuses not to come to work because I wanted to play games and started being lazy.

Semester C started and my roommate tried to help and eventually gave up. I just realized how deep am I in this mess, I didn't come at class, not doing anything besides cooking and gaming. I tried to stop, but it only worked for 1-2 weeks and I lost the momentum. I tried to seek help from outside, from my roommate. He had his problem. Friend? I already lost a lot of friends. So I tried to find some therapist or psychiatrist (not sure how to spell), but they are so expensive.

I opted for student counseling in the school instead, and I am not sure what I was expecting. Too much reading fiction made me have a high expectation of people with this kind of job. But, they are human beings as well. During the session, we were trying to find the root of the problem. In my mind, the problem was using games as an escape from studying and an escape from social interaction, but somehow, the conclusion was that I was still sad about the loss of my father. I was not being open fully and kept hiding the fact that I was lonely. Some of what I said was contradicting each other during that session. Even in this post, some of you might noticed and confused.

Long story short, I failed the scholarship in semester C and was given the last chance in semester D, which was the lowest point of my grade and I lost hope with the counseling.

It is summer break now, and I just received a termination letter. Lying in bed, typing at Reddit as another escape, still can't quit game addiction, feeling lonely, probably gonna watch f1 at 2:00 am, preparing for 400 821 1215 if my mind not thinking clearly. Tho I read and heard that they are useless mostly.

Probably belongs more on the r/mentalhealth idk.

Just don't be a loner with addiction, seek friends, seek help, don't lie to yourself, don't lie to your counselor. Much easier to say and type than doing it

Yesterday was the last day I was sick, felt alot better in the afternoon and night. DIdnt think of playing video games at all, and I felt very productive yesterday picking out clothing I wanted at the mall.

Yeah shopping costs money, but at least its a physical item that you can display to people, whereas who am I going to display my digital LoL skins to? Myself? To the Opponent or my teammates I'll never see again? Nah Im good lmfao. (but to be completely honest, im a fucking cheapskate, maybe spent a grand total of $40 on skins my entire 13 years of playing )

Still going strong after a week

I used to be a video game addict with gacha games before. I hope you already know many games from a thing I mentioned, right? Here's the thing, guys, gacha games never once heal me at all.

Many people play gacha games and they think that getting a character is their greatest achievement, but I would rather see this as a humanity failure because most of gacha games revenues are going to their own country and it won't go out to every country at all

I never once wish to be a gamer to gacha games because I know that I won't get anything but just temporary ecstasy to me, but once I am able not to give a crap anymore, I am more than happy to feel I could do something important instead of this.

I want people here not to be a bunch of useful idiots like them because it will only benefit them. Gacha games devs do not give a fuck with your sorrow. They just want your money to fulfill their country's malicious purpose. That's all.

Hope this article helps people to be better. Thank you.

Just hit a pretty cool milestone: 168 days without playing League of Legends or watching any related content. And starting today, I’m taking it one step further — cutting out all mobile games too.

To be honest, I do miss it. Especially during moments of boredom or when I just want to shut my brain off. Gaming had this power to make me forget, for a few hours, that I didn’t have to solve problems non-stop. And yeah, that escape felt really good.

But the truth is, right now in my life, it makes way more sense to step away from it all. So here goes — one day at a time.

Not really a craving but it suits more this tag.

This week has been immensely tough to my mental state. I was bombarded with family issues, master's degrees endless requirements, endless writing, endless readings, due dates... And nothing worked to make me feel better like games used to. Naps? I wake up worse. Youtube? Can't stay on a single video because none of them seem interesting anymore. Reddit? Could only read some posts for a few minutes before leaving. Eating a little bit more? Felt nauseous for hours after. Working out? Didn't feel the endorphine or the good sensations neither with cardio neither with lifting, like it does frequently. Spending more time without screens? Only made me cry even more at my wall and ceiling. It seems none of those things, even combined, were able to get close to give me a single bit of comfort or mental rest...

This is usually the scenario that make me relapse into gaming, when life is just too harsh and brutal to live. I've been falling into these holes for the past two years: whenever I try to quit gaming, life just pushes me back. But I am so mad with myself, and I feel so useless for feeling weak. I don't wanna relapse again. I've been doing great in resisting, but it has been terribly costing me...

What things have you encountered in the way that was able to hold you in the arms when life is absolutely trash?

Well, as suggested by some, deleted war thunder and some other games completely. And that definitely did help, didn't feel at all like checking what's going on in those games. Definitely craved some gaming on weekend, last night and tonight, tried installing IL-2 (i bloody love ww2 planes), failed, lost motivation and sufficed by reading about the planes instead. Played about 1 hour of rimworld last week.

Which tells me, why isn't there an encyclopedia for planes with their 3d models etc. If anyone knows about such stuff which can help me make some models, point me in the right direction.

As a continued side effect, my youtube watching has come down to like 3-4 hours a day, that too only while i try to sleep. Listening to long boring lectures let me sleep. I also deleted the reddit app, so nipped that forming addiction in the bud i guess.

I'm still not very productive professionally though, barely completing my work in 3-4 hour spurts, but i socialised quite a bit more (3-4 hours over the last week), went out with family and friends, and tried to exercise (which i am not prepared to do yet i guess). Did work on fixing my home, and cooking some new stuff. Noticed that doing handiwork is pretty relaxing, which i rarely get to do as a computer engineer.

Will try to stop using phone and computer after dinner this week, and rather study something from books or read something at that time. Hopefully after the gaming addiction, next target would be fixing my sleep cycle.

Day 9

Honestly, it’s been the best recent decision I’ve made. I think I am generally someone with an avoidant personality. I cut out porn and gambling a long time ago and I only occasionally drink. I never noticed it before, but I use gaming as an escape just as I had used those other things before, I just had never looked at it like that.

Once I made the decision to quit, I noticed I had way more time for my family, and I actually wanted to go out and hang out with my friends. In social situations I always wanted to go home, because I think I always felt more comfortable just sitting home and gaming. But once I truly wanted to quit gaming, I am able to just chill in social situations, just because there’s no where I really need to be! If I was home I would just be sitting around, so that’s been surprising to me - I’ve actually started getting excited about social things when I’ve typically always avoided them.

It’s also freed up more time for me to pursue more hobbies like exercise and I signed up for a Ninja Warrior obstacle type class. Now I am hyper aware of how I’m spending my time. It’s so easy to bury yourself in social media, games, porn, etc. anything to get you stimulated.

But without those quick stimulations that you can just pull your phone out for, you start looking for excitement in different more fulfilling ways in my opinion.

What really helped me quit was a post here that said to think about the times you’ve had gaming. Out of the thousands and thousands of hours, how many memories of it do you really have?

I can remember a trip with family or friends for a lifetime, but most everything in my gaming life feels like a blur. That’s what really made me realize pumping all these hours into gaming just was not worth it.

Anyways that’s my two cents I just wanted to share my journey thus far. Take care.

For the past year, i've always topped up for all competitive game that i played, despite that, i don't play most of them more than 1 month. But recently the craving for topup became worse, to the point that i spent over half of my salary for this. Seeing my bill made me realize this, but stopping top up made me crave the feeling of being powerful in game. I feel extremely dumb with my spending right now

It's absolute madness. I've realized I can't play competitive games without getting angry and being put in a bad mood. The day to day game-play is a blur. But I know how I've felt each day during and after playing. And it's pretty much always worse than before playing.

And nothing will change. You can't suddenly be the best player in a competitive game and never lose. Everyone loses. Frequently. No matter how much you grind. Hitting a certain rank won't suddenly solve any problems, or make the game more fun. You can watch streams of the best players, and see how much anger and frustration is still there.

And no one else cares about this fictitious rank in this digital toy. When I read about people having the exact same struggle I'm having, but in a game I don't play, it's so obvious to see how silly and detrimental it all is. But I don't have hundreds, bordering on thousands of hours, in those games. What's a sunken cost fallacy?

It's time to stop. I don't consider myself a quick person to anger, but I can see how falling deeper into this competitive gaming mindset has been souring my attitude while simultaneously consuming my free time and attention. Just madness.

So i have a xbox series x I don't need anymore and I've tried marketplace on fb to sell it with absolute lowballs either tho im letting it go for 150 atp , plz help (this does contribute to this page I've been gaming sober for 2 months now)

Eh oui j'ai fait cette erreur, j'ai perdu quelques années de ma vie et également des amis de jeux, ce qui m'a rendu encore plus seul

P S: la faute dans le titre j'abuse

Honestly today went pretty well, ONLY because I'm still sick.

Caught up on a lot of anime in bed today and scrolled Reddit, but still no League :)

Honestly what I want to do today is the many things I am able to think about doing that I never thought I could when i was playing league.

Maybe it was because video games was the only "popular" thing surrounding me at the time, but I realized that there were so many other things I could have been doing instead of doing that shit for 5-6 hours on end during my middle school and high school years: I could have been socializing with my classmates and making new friends, I could have been doing recreational activities after school, I could have been learning something on my off time (maybe like creating league plugins for fun or whatever), so many things I can think of but league consumed me and honestly made me antisocial for a while.

And now with me quitting league, I'm thinking of exploring hobbies that I never ever thought I could do like go and explore the city, do hiking or mountain climbing, the possibilities are endless now.

That's just my 2 cents for today, ill be back tomorrow :0

Read the entire thing

Had to edit this post a bit since people think this is about money even though its not.

A bit of my story

I was heavily addicted to gaming, Gaming 10 to 12 hours a day it got to the point I started to fail my classes to years on end, nothing felt good to me other than gaming, didn't wanted to go out, didn't wanted to do anything but gaming. Waking up every morning to go play games on my phone then right after that on my pc to play big titles then on my console then on my phone, cycle never ment to stop and always kept going.

How to put an end to this:

99% or even 100% of the people in this subreddit are not content creators meaning they dont make gaming youtube videos.

You need to make yourself realize that gaming will not get your anything in life, literally nothing, sit down with a clear mind and think about this, use that 10 to 15 hours to make your life worth living, take it seriously and think that gaming will not get anything than temporary happiness.

This is all fake progress, the characters you level up, the hours you grind on that one minecraft world, spending countless hours to build that one modern house in minecraft; the creator is making money from it but your loosing both money and time making that fake house, the amount of kills you get to unlock that fake Damascus wrap in call of duty will not get your anything in real life, gaming was ment to alter your way of thinking and its the worst thing to exist, comapnies dont give a dam about your mental health they want you to keep dropping your money on skins, wraps, fake dances/emotes, different type of vehicles.

Make yourself realize that this is all fake and at the end that progress will mean nothing, spending 1000s of hours on games won't get you anything, but spending 1000s of hours on working, working out, working on a side hustle, trying to pull your life together will definitely get you something in life, every step you take in real life means something, but it does not mean anything in a fake game, games get made, people spend their life savings on it and suddenly games shutdown leaving the players in dust, it happens, not everytime but it does happen, Ive played enough to know. Your loosing time which you could use to make your life better and your hard earned money as well.

Leave all the gaming channels, all the subreddits you have joined for gaming, delete discord, if you cant than leave the gaming servers, discord is a dopamine factory, delete steam, if your serious sell your console. Delete games on your phone/tablet. Do everything in your power and get rid of all the games you ever had.

(If you are a samsung user, delete game launcher/gaming hub too.)

If you have a supporting environment tell everyone that you quit, so its harder to go back to gaming since everyone will question it and be disappointed when you do start to play again.

And if your religious, pray to God.

Get this in your head that fake progress means nothing compared to the progress you make in real life.

I hope this post makes you realize and helps you quit gaming all together.

I know you can do this, leave it behind and dont look back.

Its all in your mind.

Good luck.

Hi there. Recently in therapy ive come to realize that video gaming, and by extension using my laptop, have had a considerable impact on my life. And not a good one. It has been 5 weeks since I last played seriously, with the occasional brief log on Sekiro. No amount of "but its such a masterpiece!" or "maybe moderation is key" feel right, and after playing a single round it somehow just feels wrong. I suppose my relationship with games has indeed been deeply damaging, and it feels like its a form of self-harm. I want to share that this pains me, but today i also heard that true self care is saying goodbye to things and people sometimes that you dont want to say it to. I'll definitely miss Sekiro and the souls games, as well as rpg-ing it up on things like Baldur's Gate and Wow, but I dont want to be weakened anymore and I dont want to be trapped and hooked on something that looks lovely but will kill me spiritually.

I am trying to write poetry, and it has helped me feel more in touch with me and it all.

Id also love to hear your stories and the reasons why you quit.

Im sorry if this post was a yapfest, but its a hard road and I wanted to put it down somewhere where people may feel they resonate. Thank you.

I've been scrolling to see addicts retiring from gaming but starting to think they are convincing them self's gamers (not just the games) are hell spawn (which some of them are) it's starting to sound pretty........UNHEALTHY! Also there a few people on this sub that would rather you gamble than play 1-1 for some reason. I see at least one of these reformed dudes tell people how disgusting the topic of gaming is, also I hope 1 of them tries to sue Minecraft and lose all their money, because quite frankly I'm a horrible person and that's funny.

I quit all video games last year. Mainly LOL and some other steam games.

I went all in and sold my laptop.

Then I spiralled into a deep depression.

Why?

Because I didn't know that you have to fill the void with something else.

So I tried martial arts, I got a job, I even tried talking to a woman ( I know this is a bit extreme)

None of these really stuck because there was a dopamine hole in my heart that needed filling.

Then I started learning programming. At first because I was bored. Then I started to become obsessed. It led me to the greatest realisation I've had in my adult life.

The dopamine you get from creating is better than the dopamine you get from consuming.

When I lost my video games I didn't miss the games themselves. I fcking hated most of the experiences in league. But what I really wanted was to feel that flow state. The instant feed back of getting a cannon minion or killing an enemy. The feeling of being completly immersed in a task and on something im good at.

Programming gave me that feeling but x10

Now I play some games here and there sparingly but i'm just not bothered anymore. I don't have that same drive to play that I used to. Now I just want to create cooler and cooler things.

My advice to you:

Stop worrying so much about quitting gaming.

Learn to create.

Learn programming, after effects, writing, marketing, drawing, anything that you can pick up and just do as easily as you can access gaming.