How to quit Video games

Preface

          This article is written for those "gamers that find gaming hard to quit". It's advisable to re-read this article a lot of times so that you will remember it. I struggled in quitting video games like you. I want you to save your time from the trial and errors you will need to face to successfully quit. For 3 years, I had a gaming addiction. I often procrastinate because I don't really like to accomplish my tasks. With the information contained in this article, surely your life will change.

          Treat this article just like a "recipe". Every step is important in a recipe right? Skip a step, you will get a disappointing result. Every page is like the "steps" in a recipe that you need to understand and follow.

          The advantage I have in writing this article is I'm an ex-gamer. I know the feeling of boredom you will get while reading since your conditioned to get instant rewards. I want to write my story in this article, but I realized who cares about my story. This article will be straight to the point.

               I want to emphasize that once you start to read this article, you need to finish it. Each page is crucial to digest.  I'm not a psychologist, or a mental health professional to be honest. I don't have any certifications but the important thing here is I don't play games anymore when I implemented the strategies to be shared in this article.

 

          The strategies written in this article:

          1) Works in an instant

          2) Gives you a life-changing perspective

          3) Will make you productive

          4) Turns you into a responsible person

          5) Makes you treat your life seriously

 

 

          What will happen to the future of humanity if everyone play games and excel in the virtual world? It's much easier to play games than to achieve tasks in life. In games, you do something and you'll get an instant result. In real life, it doesn't work that way, to finish a task, it takes a lot of time. Games are conditioning your brain that if you achieve a task, you'll get the reward fast. Instead of using your time to be so good at the virtual world, why not use it to get good at real life?

 

          You'll find out how to escape from the prison after reading this article. I really hope this article will help a lot of people.

         

 

          Enjoy reading!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Introduction

          Gaming addiction can make a person lose interest in real life. You would rather play a game than do your task like your homework. This issue isn't often regarded serious by your peers because themselves are also addicted. Take pornography as an example. If you watch it, you feel okay about it, more likely because you know a lot of people also watch it. This is a psychological error. It's like saying it's okay to take drugs because people also do it. 

         There are a lot of detrimental effects that porn can bring to you. It's not to be included here in this article, just search it. I want you to realize that people can bring illusions that you can easily believe without doubt.

 

           Here are some signs that you are addicted to video games. Think if the following questions agree with you:

          1) Do you spend so much time thinking about the game even without playing it?

          2) Is it ok for your relationships to get negatively affected as long as you can play?

          3) Does gaming give you consequences in your life? (e.g. poor financial decisions, poor study habits, poor work performance, failure of relationships, lack of sleep, poor decision making, etc.)

          4) Do you use gaming to escape from your problems and issues in life?

          5) Do you play a game much more time than you originally intended?

 

          I know someone that I always persuade to quit. He completely agrees with what I'm saying. Here are what I said:

          1) Instead of spending your time getting good at the virtual world of games, it's much better to use your time to gain skills and knowledge that you will use in real life.

          2) If you use 4 hours a day playing this game for a year. You'll get very good at it. What if those 4 hours are used in something important such as reading a article, creating a business, learning to code, exercising, learning to trade, etc.

          3) Video games condition your brain to expect an immediate reward repeatedly. If your brain works that way, it will be a severe disadvantage since most rewards in real life takes time. Making you mostly complain why does it take a lot of time and effort to achieve what you want.

          4) The developers of the game are like the scientists and the gamers are like the lab rats. The scientists can get the rat to perform what they want so easily since they can train the animals by giving them instant reward such as cheese. The developers(scientists) lure you to play their game so they will earn money from players(lab rats) who buy virtual items and watch advertisements. The "cheese" that gamers get can be the gold, diamond, coin, XP(experience), etc. programmed in the game.

          5) Instead of playing, why not use your time to create something that can contribute to the society such as a laundry business, food business, electronics repair business, blogging, creating a valuable website, teaching others your skill, etc.

 

          After I said these, he still played maybe after two days. It's like there's a part of him that doesn't want to play, and another part of him that wants to play. These opposing forces are what I think is the problem why it's so hard to quit.

 

 

 

Types of Gamers

          When Wan was in high school, he often brags to his friends that the massive amounts of gaming that he do, doesn't affect his studies at all. His school schedule was from 7 A.M. to 4 P.M. When the class ends at 4 P.M., he always hurried to go to a device (e.g. smartphone, computer etc. ) to play a game instead of doing his obligations. It's typical f0r him to do homeworks at 12 A.M. onwards. Unexpectedly, it inflicted damage to his health and overall performance.  He was unmotivated to listen to the class discussions aside from math (math is intuitive to him). 

          When analyzing this story, it's easy to say that Wan is brainwashed. The thought that gaming doesn't affect his education is doubtlessly wrong. The prerequisites to effective learning is having an adequate sleep, time management, motivation and etc.  Him bragging to his friends, clearly shows that his peers are also going to suffer because he's spreading an illusion that "gaming doesn't affect studies at all".  

          By analogy, Wan is using drugs before he does his school obligations. He brags to his drug addicted friends that drugs doesn't affect studies at all.

          Hearing this analogy, it seems to you that drugs are wrong and dangerous because you aren't brainwashed yet.

It's easy to fall in a trap if a lot of people you know brainwashed you it's not a trap.

 

Here are some more examples.

          Casual Gamers

          There are two classifications:

          1)  A heavy gamer who wants to stop, thinking that                                                  he or she can't. This type feels like being unable to live without gaming, forgetting the fact that he or she once lived without it. 

          2) Newbies that are trapped without realizing it. This is the type that are brainwashed by people they know. You can't blame them for falling in the trap since it's human nature to follow the crowd. The lesson here is to learn to ask questions if something is really okay.

          Disappointed in life gamer

          These are the type of gamers that can't accept their harsh reality (e.g. low salary, loss of a loved one, health problems, loss of opportunities, etc.). Life for them is not to be lived, it's much better to live and escape in a fantasy world of video games. If I were to meet a person like this, I'll say to him/her, why not use your time to change and improve your life? Accept that reality is cruel, live with it. Cruelty produces problems. Treat your problems like challenges. Challenges can be fun because it makes you get out of your comfort zone. It's so boring t0 live in a comfort zone where everything is almost predictable and tedious. Life can be cruel or awesome, depending upon your view.

          Pseudo-quitter

                This is the type that says, "It's so easy to quit playing, I've done it thousands of times!". If you really quitted, you should stop playing forever. The logic of a "pseudo-quitter" is dubious and laughable.

          Once a day Gamer

          This type is similar to casual users except that there's a difference between the frequency of games. People like this desperately want to quit but they can't. One of the reasons is the opposing forces discussed in this article earlier. A part of him wants to quit and another part of him doesn't want to.

          Aspiring esports player, streamer and etc.

          This type is okay but make sure you'll set your own time limit (e.g. one year, two years, 6 months, etc.). Some people after the time limit is so good that they can be labeled as "prodigies". Have you heard of someone who quitted as a professional e-sports  player in one type of game, and then became so good in another type of game quickly? This type of people exists. If there's still no considerable achievement after your time limit, it's time to quit. You're wasting your time. Accept that some people are born with talents. Think of this, who's going to be a better basketball player, the 6 ft. player or the 3 ft. player? Of course, the 6 ft. player due to the height advantage. The height is similar to the talent. It can't be modified easily. If you were the 3 ft. guy and you want to be 6 ft., it's impossible, except when you hang yourself on a metal bar! Just kidding. The lesson here is to identify your talents, be aware of it. Once you achieved something that you know you're capable of, your time is not wasted.

          Another thing, the chance of being a successful esports player, streamer or any other profession similar to this, is so low. You should consider if your wasting your time winning the lottery before it's too late!

          Wannabe esports player, streamer etc.

          Wan wanted to be an esports player he said. He's not going to college to fulfill his dream. Despite that he is lacking the "learning speed" in gaming skills, he continued. He's really hoping to be one of the best.  So he decided to stream while he was honing his gaming skills, his planned time limit was 1 year. He still continued to reach his dreams after his time limit and he keeps on saying that "hardwork beats talent". After 4 years trying to reach his dream which is against the odds, he started to feel regret. He said its much better if he studied in college to get a degree. People his age already have a stable job and side hustles.

          Wan felt like a failure. If he stopped gaming totally after the time limit, then his time will not be wasted...

          What's the lesson of the story?

          Invest your time if the odds are in your favor.

          If you know that your "learning speed" isn't enough, it's okay to just give up instead of wasting your time. Your time is limited, don't waste it.

 

 

It's easy as pie to stop

          This chapter discusses how you will stop. When following the steps, you'll realize it's too easy for you. It's like blowing a dust from a table. You'll be so surprised that it works!

Here are the instructions:

1)  Make a decision that you'll never play a single game again.

          Delete all the games in your devices. You don't need to cut off your friends that still play. You can still hangout with them, but decline whenever they want you to play. You should be focusing on getting good at the real world, not in the virtual world. You could journal the improvements in your life once you quitted gaming. In the future, you'll be so amazed to the positive changes in your life.

          Most of us sleep for 8 hours a day, leaving you with only 16 hours a day. Roughly, 2 hours of your day will be used to maintain yourself and your environment(e.g. laundry, taking a shower, eating, call of nature, decluttering, cleaning, etc.). So now you only have 14 hours per day. Fourteen hours is so small actually, so spending some portion of your time playing games for fun is absolutely stupid. Ask yourself, why do you want to be so good at the virtual world when it can't be used to get so good at your life?

          If you're still a kid, I want you to know something important. Your brain at this age compounds the skill you'll learn. Have you heard the advice to "get good at something, start young". Most chess super grandmasters started when they we're young. Don't waste your brain's capability. Use it for something important.

2) Destroy the beliefs that you should play a game.
          Gaming is my past time, it's my stress reliever, it's my way to fight boredom, it's my to escape, it's my relaxation and etc. All of these are just an illusion, it's fake. Why would you pass your time? Don't you know that time is limited? Do you think your time here on earth is perpetual? Do you think stress is really bad for you? No it's not. Boredom is just a state of mind when you don't do anything. Is it really your way to fight boredom or to cover up that you're not doing anything important?

          Why will you choose to escape your obligations? Are you a coward? Are you afraid of failures? In fact, failures are your stepping stones to your success. Is it really relaxing to play a game? No it's not. It just makes you forget your problems and obligations temporarily. The real relaxation is to do your obligations, and to solve your problems because once you are finished, you have nothing to worry about.

3) Accept that gaming is not beneficial for you.

          It's not really beneficial for you because your using your precious time to be better at the virtual world. Remind yourself it's virtual, not your reality.  You will not lose anything if you quit playing video games. In fact, you're taking your self out of the prison and about to see a lot of tangible progress in your life.

4) Accept that quitting gaming is not a sacrifice, it's very easy to quit.

          Thousands of people in the past was able to survive without video games. So if you insist that you can't have an enjoyable life without video games, think for a second. Life will be more fun if your living in the real world. Your accomplishments in real life will be easier to achieve since you're completely focused at it. It's your brain's natural desire to improve progress so if y0ur using your energy to level up in the virtual world, then it's a total waste.

5) Accept that you can't have a good career in gaming.

          If you have not been able to see considerable "progress" after your time limit, then it's now time to stop playing. It means you're rate of learning is not quite fast enough, you need to stop, or else you'll be wasting your time.  There are a lot of opportunities out there besides from gaming. After all, the chances of having a career in this field is so low, it's like hoping your ticket will win at the lottery.

6) Know how to deal with withdrawal pangs

          Since you conditioned your brain to play games for a very long time, it'll feel weird once you have quitted for a few days. It's like the urge to eat sweets. It's so intense, there'll be times that you can't help it t0 relapse. Don't worry, a technique to deal with withdrawal pangs will be discussed in the future chapter.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Why it's so hard to stop

          Games are downloadable in your smartphone, in your computer, and etc. Almost everyone play games, why you should stop? Because they're trapped, they don't know it.

          For thousands of years, humans that don't experience pleasure when accomplishing a task is disadvantageous so they die and they can't pass their defective genes. How can they eat food if they don't receive a slight sense of satisfaction in doing every single step in hunting? How can they protect themselves from predators if they don't feel a bit happy in doing every single step in creating their shelter? So, the ones who feel satisfaction after finishing a step should be able to pass their genes. It's so simple to understand.

          Since we feel a bit satisfied when completing a task, this can be a psychological flaw that someone can take advantage of. Let's say your a game developer, what's your first plan to get players hooked to your game? Of course, take advantage of the psychological flaw, so they keep playing. So you as a game developer, should create a lot of tasks inside the game and once they've finished a single one, give the player a reward (e.g., XP, gold, diamond, etc.). When the game is stimulating enough, the players can't stop playing. It's so hard. They want to pass this level. They want to kill the boss. They want to be the best player in the world. They want to finish your mission. They want to earn the money inside the game. What is it they are using when accomplishing the tasks? Yes, their time! They're investing their time to get good at the virtual world. As a gamer, ask yourself, are you really living? Are you really free? Don't you think your stucked in a prison spawned by another person?

          Now this is the scary part. The rewards in the game are designed to be instant and more attractive. Hence, it's more motivating to play a game than to do your obligations. This is one of the reasons you procrastinate. Remember, if you sleep for 8 hours, you'll only have 14 hours per day (2 hours is deducted for maintenance of the environment and your self). Use your time wisely.

          Any machine operates according to its design. For example, a ballpen is used to write in a paper. Using it to hammer a nail will lead to machine failure of the ballpen. The calculator's function is to solve abstract problems. Using the calculator as a remote control is obviously a stupid idea. A mouse is designed to withstand the clicking of your fingers only when it's not exceeding the "number of maximum clicks per second". Surpassing the limit will destroy some functions of the mouse. Thereby, the user will not be able to efficiently use the "click button" that was abused before.

          The human brain is like a machine. It's the most complicated organ in the human body. The number of connections that can be made between its neurons surpasses the atoms in our universe! But, the problem with biology is it takes a lot of time to evolve. The brain isn't updated yet to face the consequences of modern technology. For example, some men are addicted to pornography because of the abundance of hot women that can be seen. Before pornography, being able to see naked women is scarce, so the brain puts a huge importance in appreciating its beauty. This appreciation makes a man eager to have sex, important for perpetuating the species' generations.

          In the case of achieving tasks in video games, the brain isn't prepared for the consequences of it. The rewards from the accomplishments in video games are so instant that the brain chooses to engage in the virtual world instead of reality. The pleasure you get from achieving goals is crucial to your survival, so it's no surprise that it's easy to get addicted to video games.

          With the right knowledge, you'll be able to get yourself out of the trap. It's never too late to change and improve. By finishing this article, there'll be no more video games, no more procrastination, forever!

 

 

 

 

 

Is willpower effective?

          Gamers who are trying to quit with willpower are often disappointed because it doesn't work. Imagine your trying t0 push the moving walls with your hands. You keep on pushing so it'll not crush you. Eventually, you'll get tired and will be crushed by the walls. This is how willpower works. It's exhausting! What if there's no more walls? You'll not need willpower anymore to do this.

          So the solution is to remove the moving walls. Now, what are the moving walls? It's the illusions your subconscious are carrying. You need to break it because it's not true! These are the stuff that convinces you to keep playing. Once you've become addicted in playing games, your subconscious will gather a lot of information to persuade you to keep on playing because your brain is becoming hardwired to it. Listen, your subconscious is like a kid. If you give a toy, and grab it back, it will do anything it can to get the toy back. So if you give your subconscious the games to play with for a very long time, of course it will also do anything to play. It will form illusions so it can convince you to keep on playing. Your job is to eliminate all of these.

          Try to write the illusions in a piece of paper in the sample story below.

          Wan just got home from school and the first thought he had was to play a game. He reasoned, "school is so tiring, I deserve to have fun." Eventually he went to his device and played for 5 hours straight. That night was friday, so he thought he would play more. Since he played overnight without sleep, he slumbered in the day for 7 hours. He decided to play after he finished all of his homeworks. While working with his assignments, he noticed it required some searching on his computer. After 5 minutes of surfing, he had an urge to play a game. He reasoned,"This assignment is so boring, perhaps I will just do it tomorrow." So he continued to play 'till 9 PM that Saturday and after that he went to sleep. As he woke up, he remembered that he only needed about 4 hours to play so that he will finish his in-game task. So without further thinking, he went to play again. But he was wrong, it doesn't really take 4 hours, it's actually 7 hours. After those games, he was so exhausted he decided to take an afternoon nap.

          Wan is so happy that he accomplished his in-game task so he went to do his assignment and prepare for the exam. He is surfing the internet to dfind the step-by-step instructions to solve the problem in his homework. Suddenly, he got an urge again to play a game. He said to himself, "It wouldn't hurt if I play for 30 minutes." That 30 minutes became 2 hours. He became tired again because of the game so he decided to nap. Unexpectedly, that nap became an overnight sleep. As he woke up, he can't understand why he is procrastinating. He's unprepared for the exam and have no assignment to pass for that day. In spite of this, he kept on telling to people that gaming doesn't affect his studies at all.

          Obviously, Wan is addicted to video games - interference of his daily tasks. He has these false illusions that even himself doesn't know where it came from. He just follows the thoughts popping in his head without doubt. He doesn't consider the thoughts to be harmful. As you can see, awareness of your thoughts is so important in your life. Not everything that pops inside your mind is true.

 

Awareness exercise

          Try to write your thoughts in a piece of paper and analyze. This will train you to slow down and observe your thoughts. By analogy, instead of swimming in the river, you will look at the river. Look at how the water splashes, how the fishes jump and how the birds descend to grab a fish. These events are your thoughts, it can be violent just like how the water splashes, it can grab your attention just like how the fishes jump or it can disappear just like how the fish was caught by a bird.

 

 

 

 

 

The Problem with Willpower

          Using willpower is not effective because it's similar to running away from dogs. The dogs are your urges. Eventually, you'll reach a point that you'll get tired and be attacked by the dogs. It will be easier for you to put the dogs away. This can be done by eliminating the brainwashes and illusions. When you search the internet about the benefits of video games, you'll find so many of it. It can be the cause of your urges(e.g. video games improves my focus, video games eliminates stress, etc.). Now ask yourself, is it true? Most of them are true to be honest, but the benefits are short-term. Think of this, some people will say that one benefit of drugs is to eliminate the stress. In the short-term, yes it will eliminate the stress according to them, but in the long-term it will cause a person to be dependent to drugs which can lead to addiction.

          Do you see the point? What you think is beneficial is actually false. In order to know if something is really beneficial for you, look at the future. What will happen to you if you keep playing video games?

 

Here's the day-to-day schedule of Wan and Peter.

From 7 AM to 10 AM

          Wan wakes up and plays video games 'till 10 AM.

          Peter exercises his body. He wants to be physically fit and healthy.

 

From 10 AM to 12 PM

          Wan rests a bit and ate his lunch then he proceeded to play video games.

          Peter is curious how programming works because he somehow heard that it dictates how websites operate, so he decided to learn programming in the internet. After some searching, he ate his lunch.

 

From 12 PM to 5 PM

          Wan searches the internet on how to be the best in his game. After that, he invited his friends to play.

          Peter joins an online group composed of programmers so that he will be able to gain connections. He knew that his connections will help him satisfy his curiousity and improve his programming skills.

 

From 5 PM to 9 PM

          After an exhausting amounts of gaming, Wan decided to do his household chores and watched a couple of funny videos in an online video sharing platform.

          Peter met some new friends in his online group. They shared tips and tricks about how to make programming easier and efficient.

 

          Now let's say the schedule of Wan and Peter prevailed for 3 years. Who will be the most productive? Of course it's Peter. Programming is one of the hobbies that can contribute to the society. Who knows? Maybe Peter becomes a successful programmer someday. The success rate of Peter is higher than Wan if you were to approximate it carefully. As you can see, you can predict what will happen to a person just by looking at its habits. Your habits define who you're going to be.

 

Fear

         Aside from the brainwashes and the illusions, there's also your fear. You fear that you'll lose something you enjoy. You must bring the fear up and recognize its existence. Challenge and destroy the fear of quitting with a simple logic that you'll lose nothing if you quit. Quitting won't deprive you of something you need. Quitting will not put you in danger. You will only fear quitting if it will put you in danger, but it will not. As you can see, gaming became normal for you. You think that going out of your conformity is dangerous since it's unfamiliar to you. You're wrong! You're fearing the urges that you'll get once you quit. You're fearing that you will lose the fun. You're fearing that you will never be able to socialize. You're fearing that you will never be able to handle stress. You're fearing that you will lose your concentration if you quit. Hey! Quitting won't put you in danger, in fact you will take yourself out of the prison and about to see improvements in your real life.

          Playing video games doesn't really benefit you, you'll lose absolutely nothing when you quit. Remember to destroy your fears.

 

Withdrawal pangs

         Many gamers believe that they play games to enjoy, relax, concentrate and etc. In reality, they're just relieving their withdrawal pangs. Try to quit for a couple of days, you'll feel an intense urge to play. This urge will rationalize to convince you to play a game. Where does this urge come from? Is it coming from you? The answer is no!

          It comes from your midbrain. It will always convince you to play a game with a lot of varying reasons. It is a voice in your head. It can show you mental pictures of a game or it can devise a strategy so that you can play a game again. Why is the midbrain doing that?

          Your brain has these two parts, a large neocortex and a midbrain. Your midbrain is an organ of physical survival. It controls your bodily processes such as breathing, temperature regulation, digestion, heartbeat, and the biological drives and appetites for oxygen, food, sex, rewards from accomplishments etc. Your midbrain isn't totally bad. In fact, it's crucial for your survival. It makes you eat, breathe, and your heart beat. Nothing is perfect in this world, so it has its own flaws. It can make you do something destructive(e.g., addiction to video games, porn addiction, alcohol addiction, etc.) because it thinks it's crucial for your survival. The other part which is the neocortex, is basically you. It is your organ of consciousness. Also, it is what makes you self-aware giving you an identity and a sense of existence. Your smarter than the midbrain because the neocortex is the organ of memory and reasoning. This is important for you to remember...

          Your midbrain doesn't have a language, but it can access the "language part" of your brain. It can use a part of a brain just to get you to do something which can be drinking alcohol, watching porn, smoking cigarettes, playing video games, sex and etc. It's very important to notice if the thought in your head is just the midbrain. When you see a person holding your favorite flavor of an ice cream, your midbrain will access the "language part" of your brain and say, "That ice cream looks delicious, I should buy one!", but you forgot your wallet so the neocortex will inhibit the urge. While your reading this, your midbrain is now devising a plan to get you to play a game regardless of the information you learned here. Your midbrain might say, "This article isn't real, it doesn't work!" or "I can't stop playing, it's always going to be that way, nothing can change me!". These thoughts or the ones similar to these is caused by the midbrain.

          A technique that you can use to blow the cover of the midbrain is the modified version of Addictive Voice Recognition Technique (AVRT) which is Gamer Voice Recognition Technique(GVRT). Historically, AVRT is used to abstain from drugs or alcohol. GVRT is just a modified version of AVRT. Note that the author of this article didn't create AVRT, but it modified it a bit by devising GVRT which will be targeted to gamers like you. The instructions on how to use GVRT will be discussed in the next chapter.

 

 

 

 

Gamer Voice Recognition Technique

          This technique is simple, all you need is a notebook and a pen. It’s advisable to use a physical notebook because having a digital notebook on a smartphone or any gadget will make you unfocused. Devices contain a lot of apps, which could lead to distractions.

          In your physical notebook, write down the strategies of the midbrain to get you to play a video game. Some examples include:

a)   It whispers to you saying that after all this hard work, you deserve to play a little.

b)   It plans to play a video game in the future by preparing free time for yourself.

c)    It makes you hang out with your gamer friends because you can’t resist not to play with them.

Etc.

There are a lot of strategies that the midbrain can do. The trick is, sometimes you think it’s you that is wanting to play a video game when in fact it’s not. It’s helpful if you were to associate your midbrain while it’s persuading you, with someone or something that you don’t trust. For example, you can associate your midbrain with a primitive ape, since according to evolution, you came from a primitive ape. If you were to do this, you will automatically think of a primitive ape trying to convince you to play a game. When it does, it will make you disgusted why there’s a primitive ape wanting you to do something that it thinks is crucial for survival when in fact it’s not. Some people use their hated relative or friend to associate with the midbrain. The key idea is to find someone or something that you know a lot, which you can use to remember that the midbrain is stupid then it’ll be easier for you to recognize the strategies of the midbrain.

While your on a new mission to quit video games, it's now time to find a new hobby that can benefit you in the future. Always remember that video games make you good at the virtual world, not in the real world.

I hope this article helps a lot of people. ;)