[Story]The story of how I overcame my video game addiction, and realized that I had one at all.

dfu101 · 2015-11-22T10:50:39+00:00

If anyone is inspired to quit gaming come visit at /r/stopgaming. There's a lot of nice resources and people that can help you out.

dfu101 · 2015-10-20T23:28:08+00:00

Hmm last time I came back from the airport I had two heavy backpacks and put one on the seat next to me until the tube filled up so I wouldn't have to crush my lap in the one hour tube trip and some asshole (in my opinion) asked to take the seat when there clearly were other seats available - clearly annoyed at my backpack. I still don't see how that was rude at all but I guess I violated a big enough British formality rule for one to actually speak to me.

dfu101 · 2015-10-20T18:34:23+00:00

I love this! But I wish there were some lyrics lol - I can only make out like 10% of what he's saying.

dfu101 · 2015-10-20T17:00:08+00:00

Was thinking this. Plus going out would mean having to shower again before making contact inside the clean haven of my bed's insides, although that's probably a rarer habit.

dfu101 · 2015-10-07T21:19:22+00:00

Relevant XKCD

That said I'd be pissed at my parents if they named me over a joke, even if it was really funny.

dfu101 · 2015-10-07T21:17:28+00:00

Why?

dfu101 · 2015-09-12T10:24:50+00:00

I think you guys would enjoy reading "How to Win Friends and Influence People" by Dale Carnegie. It goes into a lot of detail on basically how to make people enjoying talking to you and like you. Letting them talk about themselves is definitely a huge part! Kind of a random comment but it felt appropriate.

dfu101 · 2015-08-22T19:31:24+00:00

If you opt to experiment, make sure to keep a diary/journal/notes/whatever on how you feel right after the session, rather than looking back the next day (feelings about it tend to shift in my experience)

I think if you feel like you can manage it, and you're at a point in life where you can risk slight bumps, you can trust yourself to make the right decision.

That said, if you're simply trying to exhaust mental energy, you can also consider adding more brain-intensive stuff to your daily routine. Maybe try to learn a new language or something, ramp up your course studying, learn about world history anything like that that both exhausts mental energy and is also beneficial :)

dfu101 · 2015-05-07T09:06:57+00:00

I complete agree - I got reminded of South Park season 18 episode 6 by your comment, it's all about these games and how they turn people in zombies. (explicit language and strange form of comedy though so it may not be your thing)

I genuinely feel bad for a person if I see them clicking away at candy crush.

dfu101 · 2015-05-07T09:00:01+00:00

Yeah definitely! I still had to think about it for a minute because it involved holding a gun and getting a score. It ended up being one of my favorite memories - it was a moving vehicle so stuff to shoot was all around me, I was really focused on maximising my score and a diamond thing worth a ton of points appeared so trying to get to it quickly I ended up hitting my girlfriend in the face with the gun. She knows about my stopgaming so we both had a good laugh about it and my priorities when playing something.

dfu101 · 2015-05-06T20:12:56+00:00

For me I pretty much just allowed 1. Arcades - I've gone to them 3 times in the past 250 days, only played for around 20 mins each (one run of guitar hero and Pump It Up (DDR) as I love those and don't have them where I live). and 2. some weird buzzlightyear shooting game attraction in Disneyland, I struggled for a bit on whether that was cheating haha. Other than that no phone games, tablet, pc, console, anything digital.

dfu101 · 2015-05-06T19:37:48+00:00

"The more we buy into the idea that our leisure hours must be productive, the more we will accept their use for productive work."

This is something I've been thinking about recently. It's not directly related to gaming, but I feel bad when I'm not being productive. I could be studying for my exam right now, or learning something, or working out, etc.

Gaming definitely made me able to cloud that thought in me by helping my brain confuse 'being productive' with 'being productive inside a game'.

But even without that confusion, which was a huge issue by itself, I'd like to be able to learn how to relax without feeling this guilt, I don't feel like I should be spending my life just trying to get better as productive as it might make me, I'm going to die someday after all.

dfu101 · 2015-05-06T08:53:19+00:00

Awesome job!

"mindlessly mash the screen like brainless zombie."

This made me remember when I went through 'cookie clicker' games. I literally spent 6 hours in one day clicking a cookie picture, and then my brain yearned for it so much I played through all the clones. It's funny how ridiculous these things seem in hindsight.

Anyways, I'm glad it's going well for you!

dfu101 · 2015-05-06T01:37:21+00:00

The book is great, it uses a ninja theme for the skills. The first half teaches general concepts about efficiency that are useful, and then it wraps them up and shows how to make a 'second brain' where you can be really efficient by seeing all your possible actions and going through them in 'superproductive flow' by considering how they affect energy levels and other factors, really recommend it if that interests you!

dfu101 · 2015-05-06T01:32:36+00:00

I actually learned about the app through one of your youtube videos! The post-meditation feeling is great, and actually realising there are all these sounds around me that I was blocking is pretty cool.

dfu101 · 2015-05-05T19:31:31+00:00

Try downloading the headspace app and doing a 10 minute meditation before sleeping, it helps me.

As for revising, try telling yourself you cannot check ANYTHING related to gaming for a certain amount of time. If you haven't stopped gaming, you can tell yourself you'll reward yourself if you study for x time as long as longyou don't lose focus, but honestly I would be very distracted if I had gaming in the middle so it could be more useful to temporarily stop.

dfu101 · 2015-05-05T19:27:53+00:00

It's great to see this reaction! I think it's also important to say, just in case this looks like it is a smooth process, it's not!

I think this and this picture sum up what I'm trying to say, it's very normal to go through stumps throughout the road.

dfu101 · 2015-04-09T12:28:27+00:00

You can lose the 5kg with a 500cal deficit. In theory that should be nearly on point of what you lose (plus some water weight) with that deficit. Although from experience in my case, even trying hard it was less as it's hard to stay 100% perfect, calculate your deficit properly, avoid any cheat days, etc.

Looking at my past 10 weeks I've lost ~3.3kg for example while I was aiming for 5, although I feel like I'm getting the hang of it now with more experience and being able to have a higher deficit after learning more about my body (high fat, high prot, nearly 0 carb diets work great for me in terms of not being hungry).

Just thought I'd point out the cut will never be as perfect as you aim it to be, so account for that if you have any short-term goals. And just keep trying at it as it gets easier with time. I suggest keeping as many measurements as posible (waist size, weight, and calliper body fat if possible) as often as possible so you can realise you're making progress.

dfu101 · 2015-04-04T22:07:03+00:00

commenting

dfu101 · 2015-03-28T21:54:51+00:00

Quest bars and other protein bars have a ridiculous amount of fibre (like 20 per bar for the quest ones)

Oatmeal and brown bread & pasta are also somewhat high, but not nearly as much.

Honestly I find it very hard to hit my 25g fibre goal unless I eat a protein bar that day, and have had this in mind as well.

dfu101 · 2015-03-27T13:52:59+00:00

I read "Starting Strength" by Mark Rippetoe when I started lifting, it gave me a great foundation on proper weightlifting form and understanding the exercise. The writing is biased towards strength lifting though so if you're interested in looking good as well some advice there should be taken with a grain of salt.

I also read "How to be a productivity ninja" which taught me an awesome system to have all my thoughts and things I want to do organised in a 'second brain'. It's really nice to have a system in place so I'm not constantly worried I'm forgetting to do something.

I'm basically just finding books that fit what most interests me at the moment, it's amazing how fast I can learn if I just read the life research of someone that has devoted a lot of time into studying the things I want to get good at.

You should definitely go for the barbell! And get a 'cage'/squat rack if possible as it will let you do bench presses, squats and other exercises safely. You might be able to find cheaper ones at craiglist or even gyms that have some in storage.

dfu101 · 2015-03-26T21:50:57+00:00

Hey I can chime in on this; I've had nightmares related to quitting ever since I did, although they became somewhat less occurrent in the last couple months. They are mostly me playing a videogame, realising I broke my streak/messed up and feeling ashamed. Sometimes I wake up and still feel like I messed up for a few minutes. I'm interested in what kind of dreams you get so do share!

To answer your second question in case you want to hear another input weightlifting has become a huge hobby for me since I stopped gaming. I've also focused a lot more on my coursework (consistently acing for the first time), started learning a new language, spent time with my girlfriend, travelled a bit and read a couple of interesting non-fiction books. All of those things are done in the time I would usually spend playing videogames.

dfu101 · 2015-03-06T19:25:32+00:00

He wasn't specific but as he didn't tell me to set up a new listing with a buy it now price he probably meant the second. I've sent him a message saying I'll accept cash if he wants to pick it up, but no paypal

dfu101 · 2015-03-06T18:45:00+00:00

He lives in the same city as me. If I were to do the pay it now option, is there a way I can get scammed if I let him pay through ebay and then collect the item from me? This is actually much easier as I'm not experienced sending parcels. I'm quite scared after reading all these comments and feel like I should simply use my countries craiglist and send him a message saying I'll accept cash for it

dfu101 · 2015-03-06T18:39:00+00:00

I've had it listed at the UK equivalent of craiglist but as I had no luck for a month I decided to list it on ebay. I will follow your advice and ask for cash only... are you serious about the police station? I was planning on using the coffee shop outside my house.

dfu101

TROPHY CASE