My Computer Game Addiction – How I Beat It, and How You Can Too!

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I’ve personally struggled with computer game addiction. This is my story of how I overcame it, and how you can to. Best of luck to those struggling with it – Josh

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00:00 – My Computer Game Addiction
01:38 – Understanding Computer Game Addiction
07:01 – Strategies for Fighting the Addiction
07:58 – Establishing Life Goals
08:54 – Controlling Game Time
09:36 – Seeing the Big Picture
10:06 – Helping Others with a Gaming Addiction
10:48 – Conclusion

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#ComputerGame #GamingAddiction #Gaming

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47 thoughts on “My Computer Game Addiction – How I Beat It, and How You Can Too!”

  3. I almost didn't get my degree because of gaming addiction (my poison was World of Warcraft). Instead of graduating at 22 like I could have, I didn't graduate until I was 25 because I had convinced myself that I couldn't handle the stress of school and get that degree. I've quit jobs impulsively before so I didn't have to stop playing games in the moment. Back then, I wouldn't have even admitted that my addiction was the problem. It was the degree program that was too hard. It was the tough or bad professors. It was my crappy manager and the horrible customers I served. It was society at large, even!

    My mom knew but she didn't know how to tell me. Not like it was really even easy – and my addiction was compounded by the fact that I was incredibly lonely and none of my friends lived near my college town. I was in a relationship with someone I met in game, which was a terribly unhealthy force in my life – but I kept coming back for a long time.

    I moved back home and started going to counseling, which along with exercise, helped. I got my degree! I got a job at a wonderful place, a wonderful partner, and we moved in together. Life is good! But, I still found that I was allocating time in ways that would prioritize my ability to play games. League of Legends, World of Warcraft, story games even. I would do less chores and let things pile up. I'd stay up too late and it would affect my ability to work – and I'd even find that things like League with ranked systems would kill my tolerance for getting frustrated – which in turn would affect my ability to do my job effectively.

    I'm so glad you posted this video, I've cut down on my game time drastically from a few years ago but I still sometimes struggle. It's almost like a compulsion to open a client/game, especially on weekends when I feel like I have to relax. Modern games are getting worse in this regard, I think. With ranked systems, achievement systems, cosmetics, battle passes… it's all designed to make you feel like you're missing out on something and create this dopamine-addled brain that keeps coming back. I hate it too, because I grew up playing lots of story games and have wonderful memories playing games with my family and friends. As much as I love playing them – I can't ignore the fact that I'm not doing anything when I am playing them.

    Thank you for posting this video Josh! Coming to terms with your own addictions can be a rough experience. Hearing that you aren't alone is an incredibly validating feeling, and sometimes can help others start or continue their own journeys. Best wishes to you 🙂

    Reply

  4. Hi, apart from this topic I'd like to ask you to ask you for help. My son owns an omen 17 3070 from time to time it shuts down while he's using it can you advise of it's best I get a SSD and are any other advise I'll be appreciate it.

    Reply

  6. With all the respects to Josh, Gaming industry is destroying the young generation. How many percentage of the people are finally making it as their career? at best 2 to 3%, but rest are destroying themselves by this addiction. I really appreciate your effort

    Reply

  10. I live in a nation with four things happening simultaneously —

    1. So many people have guns
    2. Almost daily mass shootings
    3. Zillions of people 'gaming' OR REALLY spending hours on end maiming or killing characters about every 3 seconds
    4. If someone like myself DARES suggest a connection between mass shootings in gaming TO real world mass gaming — assholes line up to say gaming is actually very 'social' (friends getting together), that gaming helps people get out their frustrations, and that no connection between the two has ever been proven. And to that I say —

    — horse FUCKING shit!!!

    Reply

  11. i was heavily addicted to games. but one day I just bought a macbook and sold my gaming laptop and i havent looked back. Not having the option to play really helped me. I have been coding non stop and really see getting a good job like me hitting diamond or something like that.

    Reply

  14. Thinking about it, wouldn’t it be nice if you actually get a reward in-game for taking breaks. Most games already track how long you played, so why can’t it track how long you been off?

    Reply

  15. It's so weird when people talk about competitive online games as if they are the only type of video game around.

    I haven't played a competitive game in 3 years. I spend 20+ hours gaming every week, and 90% of that time feels fun and relaxing.

    Why would anyone trade this for a competitive game where you feel like a piece of crap 50% of the time? I guess it's tribalism or something.

    Reply

  16. My solution: have a child and enter full monetary panic mode lol.

    In all seriousness though. There are games that are more addictive than others. Repetitive MMOs and arena shooters like Paladins, LoL, Dota etc where the matches are relatively short and you get an easy dopamine hit are way more addictive. Switching to something like a puzzle platformer or story-based single player game helped me get out of a rut when playing those repetitive games kept me out of my sleep and affected my health.

    Reply

  17. Hey Josh, I was addicted to video games too, and would spend entire days playing league. Things spiraled and I eventually dropped out of university due to failing all of my classes. Fortunately, my family was very supportive and was there for me when I needed it. Since then, I'm doing much better. I stopped games cold turkey, and have kept it up because that moment when I came clean to my parents was the worst feeling in my life, knowing that I failed what should've been an easy road that was handed to me.

    With games no longer in my life, it's given me a chance to reflect on how much of my life it had consumed. Now I have so much time for exercise and other skills. I can play music now. If I had to compare my life to back then, I could say that now I am a little bit happier. Back then, I was a prisoner to myself. You're right that even though I had life goals, I couldn't DO what I wanted because of games.

    Thanks for this video Josh, means a lot to me.

    Reply

  19. Thanks for sharing this story, Josh. I never thought I'd be able to relate to this kind of thing, but for 9 months I was playing a gacha game during the pandemic in fall 2020. At first, it really helped distract me from a lot of the bad things going on in the world. Life was stressful, the political climate wasn't looking great—and various personal matters were making things worse. Over time, I was lucky to have developed a more positive outlook for what the future held, but I never stopped playing this game. It became a habitual routine I'd developed as a distraction to a grimmer reality. And even when that reality started to look better, I didn't quite realize I didn't need this game anymore. I kept playing it, but I began resenting it more.

    "Why does it take so dang long to acquire X item/character? When is the next update of content? This game is just a money sink!"

    I wasn't having fun with the game anymore, and my real life activities were more fun. Despite this, I'd still pause my real life activities to take care of things in this game. I played this game daily without a miss for 9 months straight. I'd have to login to perform my daily tasks, and sometimes that would require logging in multiple times because they designed certain tasks to refresh at different times of the day. And because I played it so religiously, I'd basically be missing out on some resources if I wasn't on schedule. I literally had reminders set up to login and do these tasks.

    What finally got me to quit was when I bought another game I'd really wanted to play when it was on sale. I gave it a try and started having genuine fun and enjoying the story and characters. But when my scheduled reminders would go off, they'd tear me away from a game that I was having fun with—in exchange for a game that felt like a dreadful full-time job. And when I had that realization of how miserable it was making me, I immediately uninstalled the game everywhere I had it. In fact, I had resources I still hadn't collected (but paid for), and I also spent so much time creating such great characters and stats. That sunk-cost fallacy popped into my head right when I was about to uninstall it. But I reminded myself that it I keep letting those things dangle over my head, I won't ever let go of my addiction. So I went cold turkey.

    The problem wasn't solely the game—there are plenty of people who play it casually. But I did not. I used that game as an outlet for other things in my life, and eventually I became addicted to what it originally made me feel, and as life changed outside of that game, I kept lingering on that honeymoon feeling I'd once had that with it. It was definitely better that I let it go in the end.

    Reply

  20. I have been playing video games since I was a little kid so I've always been passionate about them. I used to play World of Warcraft when I was like 9 or 10 years old and I was completely addicted to it. In my late teens, I was really into CoD and Fifa (the most toxic games lol). I'd play every day for minimum 3-4 hours. A lot of times I'd get less than 5 hours of sleep during school days and I'd be extremely tired. I don't even know how I managed getting above average grades since I almost never studied for anything.

    I only slowed down playing videogames once I got into University and the only reason is that I became way more social and started prioritising partying and going out more. Eventually, I could go for weeks without playing anything. Now-a-days I'm even trying to get back into gaming and I'm struggling to play for more than an hour without quitting and doing something else. I must admit that I missed a lot of the popular games like Fortnite and League of Legends on purpose because I'm scared of getting addicted. I have never played them and probably never will because I know how addictive they are and given my past I don't want to risk it. It's the reason why today I mostly play single player games whereas in the past I only played multiplayer.

    It's also the best advice I can give to those struggling with video game addiction – if you are addicted to multiplayer games, try and transition to single player. You are more likely to decrease your playing time because single player games are less "grindy" and you don't feel the pressure of playing with others and having to perform all the time.

    Reply

  23. Between 2002 and 2018, I put over 20,000 hours into Runescape. It's no coincidence that my channel and health really started building momentum after I stopped. Ultimately I decided I'd rather level up in a game that matters more, life.

    Reply

  25. I used to be like this. Apex legends was my game where I had this bad habit. It not only took me away from my life goals, but also more important narrative driven single player games that inspired me. I decided to sell my PC and get a PS5 so I could go back to playing the games that I love.

    Reply

  28. I just beat it, bought a macbook instead of a pc gamer, radical? yes, did it work? absolutely, do i regret it? nope, i'm loving this machine.
    I concentrate now more on reading my beloved books, studying, working, planning better my day and spending better my time on much more meaningful things like playing bass.

    Reply

  30. Well I sold my razer laptop to get a mbp14 to stop (at least lessen) my gaming. 🙂  I guess it doesn't work to those with access to multiple laptops and pc.

    But seriously, to stop it, you need to make yourself accountable to someone. Be it your God, your partner, your family or even your friend.

    Reply

  36. TBH I've moved past the phase of "i need to be good at this game"

    When josh talked about the feeling of almost willing to break the monitor after dying repeatedly in the game i was able to relate to it. I infact almost broke my laptop when i was a tryhard in CS go.

    Fortunately all that's behind me now
    I've resorted to only playing single player games in the weekend and i play genshin daily because despite all it's flaws the amount of control they give you over your ability to do stuff is amazing

    They have resin caps which limit the amount of boss runs u can do and the only repetitive stuff u can do on a daily basis is your daily commissions which don't take more than 20 mins to complete

    If anyone actually wants to play some game that's relaxing and enjoyable and yet not too addicting i definitely recommend trying the type of games which limit how much you can do in a day a go

    Reply

  37. This is a good video glad you shared. Gaming isn't something I am into, but tech itself can be addictive. Much of it is so expertly marketed it's easy to think buying something will instantly change your life, instead of the more rewarding working and saving, waiting and getting it as a reward when you can afford it.

    Reply

  42. I had the similar problem with League of Legends. I got addicted early on and couldn't stop playing even after all my friends were able to leave the game behind. One of my goals was to actually become a game developer and I'm trying to follow through now. I have even thought about implementing mechanics for safe/non addictive gameplay. I'd love that idea to be delivered to the gaming industry but the truth is, they are in the end money making company. More you play, more you benefit them. Even sound effects in LOL are made in a way to be more addictive, like killing a minnion and getting gold, or leveling up or killing your opponnent. All of this builds up a huge dopamine dependency, that the body simply cannot escape independantly. Now I can't say I'm all out of the woods now, I do have occasional moments of weakness, but I think I'm way, waay better than I was. For the ones that are seeking the way out, I'd say you are halfway there. Wanting to get better is a best foundation, to actually getting there. Sadly there isn't one formula against addiction, but the best thing you can do is to listen to yourself and actually start take care of your life. Games are, in literal sense, a distraction from problems of real life. So find the thing you are trying to distract yourself from and try to solve it or at least manage it. You don't have to do 100% in one day. Do it at your pace, heck even 1% a day is a great result. Eventually you'll get so far, that the addiction will be a miniscule part of you and if you don't believe yourself ,that you can do it, then you can believe me, that you can. So that's that, a random stanger believes in you to get your life better! Now smash that like button for Josh's video for an awesome topic.

    Reply

  44. Hey Josh, former dota addict here, been watching your videos for a while. I think in general I like to agree with what you're saying, even I broke a dota addiction after realizing how it made me feel but there are a few points I'd like to address. Firstly, yes, video games can be an escape for a lot of people. You mentioned that if you're using it to escape, focus on addressing the issues in your life making you want to escape in the first place. However, for a lot of people, that straight up might be impossible. Maybe you're in a terrible economic situation that you can't do anything about, maybe you're in an abusive household with parents that argue all the time and you can't do anything about it so you play video games instead. While I don't think this justifies addiction, it makes it understandable why people develop it, and I don't think people should be belittled because of it.

    Secondly, while success is obviously a good thing, promoting the mindset that if you're unsuccessful, you're a loser is also an unhealthy mindset. There's nothing wrong with wanting to play video games with your life. While we can argue about what makes a life fulfilling, if someone does want to play video games all day and does find enjoyment in that, who are you to tell them what they should and shouldn't be doing with their lives as long as it doesn't impact other people? I do think the mindset society promotes about becoming the best individual you become can in it of itself promote a lifestyle of depression because if you don't work towards that, then you're seen as a loser.

    But regardless, I think the video is great and makes me like you much more as a content creator. However, I also do think that the advice that worked for yourself might be taken the wrong way by others.

    Reply

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