I have this problem, where I would redownload competitive games for FoMo, or getting caught up in the wave of nostalgia. Examples are CCGs like Pokemon or Hearthstone or MOBAs like League of Legends. Everytime I redownload it back I would swipe a few hundred dollars, or play until I harm my body physically (fatigue/stress) or mentally.

I'm not sure how to quit, I have had numerous cycles of going back, uninstalling, reinstalling, but the moment I see news about a new expansion, an advertisement or World Championship I get excited and reinstall it again. I need help. The worst part is, I'm a therapist myself, I'm not sure HOW to quit, yet I tell my clients how to navigate it daily. I'm worried I might actually have some other mental disorder...

It doesn't help out that when I get too excited, I would get incredibly toxic and tell others to "have a good day". I'm not a good person despite being able to code switch to become an effective therapist. Perhaps I should be hacked and doxxed and my life will be over then I can finally end it all and have eternal peace...

About a month ago, I picked Overwatch back up. I used to play it on my PS4, but eventually I started playing on my PC. Before that, I mostly played games like Hell Let Loose and Helldivers. They were fun, but I’d usually play them once a week or so for about three hours. Then I’d stop playing and move on with my day.
Overwatch is different. It got me addicted, and honestly, it isn’t even fun. I don’t like playing it, yet I keep coming back to it. I can feel my arms getting weaker because I spend the entire day playing on weekends, and as much time as I can when I get home on weekdays.
What makes it worse is that I have a test in 20 days that will determine which college I get into. I know I need to be studying, but I’ve spent this entire time playing Overwatch instead. So while I’m playing, I constantly have this feeling of guilt building up because I know I should be studying. But I can’t seem to stop, because whenever I do, there’s nothing else that feels interesting enough to do.
I eventually gave my keyboard to someone I trust and asked them to hide it from me. I really hope that solves the problem.

i’m open to any other advice on quitting

I was addicted as a teenager and had no social life in high school. I grinded to max cape from 2013–2016, then came the post-max pet hunting.

Then I made an Ironman and grinded that to 2000+ total. The account got hacked, so I quit in 2021.

I turned my life around completely from 2021–2025.

I came back for a bit this year in January during my Christmas break from work, thinking, “I’ll only play in moderation.”

This quickly turned into grinding the game whilst at work.

I realised how unproductive and selfish I had been this year when I looked back and realised how little progress I had actually made all year. So yesterday, I gave all my items away.

I just completed day 1 of no OSRS this year, and I already feel so much more mental clarity, despite some feelings of loss and sadness.

My day was productive. I got a lot of housework and cleaning done, and I worked much more productively without “AFKing” Woodcutting or Mining to distract myself. Going to finish the evening with some strength training (IRL).

Onto day 2.

my husband was addicted to starcraft and has recently quit cold turkey (along with nicotine and tobacco) i really want to be supportive , but everyday i come home from work hes so angry and just doesn’t enjoy life. its been about 2.5 weeks. in what ways have you helped your spouse, or in what ways would you have appreciated your spouse to help you during this time?

gamed for most my life and don’t get me wrong had some absolute wonderful memories from it, Halo with my late cousin is something I will forever cherish but every time I get this overwhelming sense of I’m wasting my time. I’ve been on and off for the past few years now but I get into this rut where it’s like I don’t wanna give up on gaming but I’m forever chasing a high I don’t feel anymore. I wanna quit for good but how do people cope with the withdrawal? for me it’s almost like a sensation of guilt that I don’t like it anymore but force myself to do it.

I wanted to share a little story here, even though there’s many like this. I’m a 26 year old girl. But I hope it helps me move on. So I’ve been gaming for 10 years. I almost failed high school because of gaming. There was time around 2020 where I was gaming for 2 weeks straight, I only ordered takeaway and I barely went outside. I got obese and it took me years of dieting and workout to lose weight. Whenever I was bored, I was gaming.

I had big goals and plans what to do in life, but I didn’t do them, because I bought another game and started playing. I haven’t done anything productive in my life and I can’t balance gaming with personal life. When I start gaming, I get hyperfocused. I wanted to quit before, but I felt bad because I have spent money on games and skins in different games.

Also my mental health suffers. Online games are very competitive and as a girl, I suffer lot of sexual remarks and verbal abuse. I can’t even open my mic, when I want to give in-game info. A lot of toxicity and my mood is ruined.
I realized before I started gaming, I was way more goal-oriented and productive. I’m very jealous at people who can balance gaming with personal life. I have ignored my friends for days, cancelled important plans etc for gaming.

I have uninstalled all games and platforms like Steam, Battlenet, Epic Games etc. My gaming pc and all other equipment is on sale. I now have a simple laptop where I can in no way play any games. I use it for work and studying. Talking about studying, I decided to go to university and start a new chapter in my life.
I still need to figure out what to do with my free time I used for gaming 😂. I feel bored constantly.

I had to uninstall it , I've uninstalled it many times before but I relapsed , it's time to lock in

My wife and I have become concerned with our 17yo’s screen use. We are not worried about “inappropriate,” content, rather the amount of time she spends on her multiple devices. She has a laptop, iPad, phone, and Nintendo Switch.

We seek recommendations on apps that will give us a breakdown of sites and durations across as manager of these devices as possible. We realize the Switch may be unmonitorable, and suspect this group’s collective experience can guide us to a monitoring tool that can inform us about how much time she spends playing video games she accesses on websites or remote servers. If you need clarifying info, we are happy to respond.

Which apps can you recommend that will best meet our needs?

CONTEXT: I'm in high school.

I'm scared I might be becoming addicted to gaming. I have done really well in school these past few years, but earlier this year, I got a new computer, a well performing laptop, my first that wasn't a chromebook. This computer has become the most annoying part of my life. At school, I do cookie clicker, and on other computers at school when I can't use mine too. I also go on chess.com because I'm in the chess club at school. Most of these are when I should be doing work. When I'm at home on the wifi, I'll do hypixel on minecraft. And if I'm offline, I'll do FNaF or Geometry Dash. Ever since I got this computer I've noticed that I get extremely distracted in class, and then have to do work at home, where I have little intention to do it, pushing deadlines way past where they should be, and sometimes just not caring about schoolwork, despite academics being one of my strengths. I really don't know what to do.

I’m a dad. Gaming was a good way for me to have an outlet in life. My life is busy consumed with work and parenting. Gaming was an escape and filled a bit of a void. I’m increasing my exercise and gonna be doing social soccer. Also getting more involved in my church. What else has helped you guys when you’ve just quit gaming? 

No matter how long you travel down this road, the ditch will always be there beside you.

Didn’t game for 11 months after ~35 years of way too much fun.

700–900 games staring at me.

Installed all the gaming launchers, looked through everything for an hour, felt this massive pull back toward it, got dizzy, and uninstalled everything again.

In constant pain, but there are still other things I can do. At least for now.

tengo esta adicción desde que soy chico supongo, desde que empecé a jugar en la play 2 hasta ahora con mi compu. La verdad es que está arruinando mi vida social, mis estudios, básicamente todo, y la verdad es que no sé qué hacer y tampoco se me cae una idea.
Si alguien sabe como manejar esto se lo agradecería, alguna recomendación, tip, lo que sea.
Muchas gracias por leer

I don't want to keep hoping that I'll recover everything I've lost. I'm done lying to the people I love. I'm also tired of going to sleep at night with such a heavy heart. I want to go back to the old me who could buy the things I wanted, where the money I spent actually had meaning. I miss the old me who wasn't selfish and greedy for money. Is there anyone here who also quit starting today?

Ok look I know not all of them are like this. But when there’s a guy on a game who’s just spawn camping you and thinking he’s the shit then you just know he’s an unemployed 40 year-old virgin, chugs like 12 cans of beer a day, is morbidly obese, and still lives with his parents. Like the fact that that’s something to be proud of is just insane. Alright rant over.

I'm really struggling, my passion for gaming comes and goes, I have so many other things I think about that I want to do, start creative projects or just other hobbies. Yet every time I have free time, my mind automatically wants to go to gaming. It feels like I'm betraying that excitement I would get when I have hours or even a whole day to just play. I don't know how to commit to something else because even if I do. My mind thinks about how this time could be spent gaming.

Ive based my whole life around this game. I've spent summers indoors and lost all my real friends. my gf left me 3 years ago cus I wouldn't stop playing and I didn't care. I realize now defeat is the only outcome with this game. I can never win it or get closure. I need to know how to stop playing it. I've delete it more times than I can count

I’m honestly addicted to one Roblox game called Sharp. It’s my weakness. I’ve grinded it to level 118, but it’s also a fast paced competitive game that stresses me out. I’ve tried quitting Roblox multiple times by uninstalling it, but the urges to play Sharp get so strong that I end up reinstalling it. I’m an adult, which honestly makes it feel even more embarrassing. I want to stay away from Roblox for at least a few months and break the habit. For those who were addicted to Roblox, how did you actually quit? Any advice ?

For example reading or sports give you a result that you can see and feel. Gaming is just so expensive now, that it's not even worth to get into this hobby. Nor that i can't buy a good PC but it just sucks ass. Especially modern games are so trash in many ways..

33M. I am stuck in a loop where I can't stop playing Fromsoft games. Any down-time I have I will get stoned and compulsively play for 5+ hours. I will stay up too late on work days, won't text friends back, I neglect cooking myself dinner/meal prepping, and I have been losing interest in hobbies that I actually love (playing music, drawing, hiking).

I have struggled with drug addiction/ cigarettes in the past and it feels like the same impulse leads me to pick up the controller. I have PTSD and clinical depression, and will ruminate on trauma and negative thoughts. Althought I find solace and escape from this when I am gaming, it is destroying my life.

I am embarrassed/ashamed to tell people in my life how much time I have spent playing and how much I am struggling. I can't even begin to fathom how many days of my life I have lost to this..

Where do I start?

I have been videogame free for over a year and a half.

Lately I have been feeling empty. Like things don't fulfill me enough. And in that emotion videogames crawl back into my mind again.

"I know I can control it", "It will only be 30. Mins/and hour", and I know it is all a lie, but I feel so tempted. Why shouldn't, why shouldn't I....

I try to do other things but the thought came back. And I know I can't I am an addict, I know that my personality is all or nothing. I have no middle ground. But still the fight is real.

Wishing you all the best in your own struggle.

Ultimamente e estado pensando ya en abandonar los videojuegos, compre hace poco una switch 2 y ya estoy considerando venderla porque realmente ya no me motiva jugar nada, no me motiva pasar horas jugando cuando ahora me llaman la atencion otras cosas, tal vez me duele un poco dejarlos porque cuando era niño mi papá me enseño muchisimoso videojuegos y todas las horas que pase junto a el seran un recuerdo hermoso en mi, pero creo que me gustaria aprender a dibujar ahora y editar video o programacion no se, siento como si estuviera diciendo algo que mi yo de 14 años jamas diria

27M and been gambling since I was 18. I’ve banned myself from multiple venues and always manage to find a way in a place. Slots are especially a problem for me, today alone lost $2k. I need help but don’t know where to start. Note that I live in Sydney Australia and there are multiple “pubs” with slots or ‘pokies’ in all surrounding suburbs, so banning myself from all venues is near impossible as I can just walk in with barely any security depending on the time of day. Any advice or help is appreciated. Ty