I'm Addicted to Video Games and Dopamine | How I Overcame my Video Game Addiction 

Not to be dramatic, but this almost made me cry because I can just relate to it SO MUCH. 100%! The worst thing about it really is all the regret over the time wasted. Not having built any skills in your teens and not really having a social life... People say it takes 1000 hours to master a skill. If I think about how many hours I put in RB6, the Battlefield franchise and RU-vid (I too just replaced gaming with RU-vid and Netflix when I tried to quit) alone that would already be 10 things or hobbies I would be good at now. Instead I am sitting here with barely a personality and no motivation. Its hard to get rid of an addiction when it`s the lifestyle you've lived for basically your whole life. And the biggest problem with talking about gaming addiction are probably gamers themselves. Most of the time when talking about it people will just respond with bs-arguments like "Anything can make you addicted" or "Its better than meth". Gamers dont want to hear anything about how bad gaming can be, the gaming community is in denail. And I totally agree, its a problem that is only going to get worse, I just hope that people realize that sooner than later, there are already so many people killing themselves over feeling lonely and with no purpose, and excessive media use only contributes to that. Anyway thank you so much for uploading this.

Thanks for this video. I picked up videogames at the beginning of the 2021 pandemic. Biggest mistake of my life, even though it helped me get through the lockdowns without boredom, I could have been reading, writing or practicing an instrument instead of frying my brain with dopamine. Over the past few weeks, I have been cutting down on videogames, sometimes I play all day, and the feeling of emptiness at the end of the day is not worth it, which helps preventing me from wasting another day on videogames. What helped me the most is exercise, meditation and reading. Reading is a form of escapism which is why I enjoyed videogames anyways. Sometimes these productive things feel like a waste of time, like they're not getting me anywhere, and that is because we don't have the same feelings of progression or dopamine that we get from videogames. Now, anytime I feel bored or frustrated when reading a book, I breathe and think to myself, this is not as much a waste of time, as playing videogames. And then I remember that this is true, and I continue to read without hesitation.

Thank you so much for sharing your story. I have been struggling with this myself and it had ruined my mental structure. So much dopamine in and out everyday, I get mad at random times and never really feel satisfied when I do play games. I can feel productivity calling me, but it is trampled by the lure of the sweet songs and promises of the video games as beautiful as the mermaids is greek mythology. As far back as I can think, I have never had a productive day in my life. No matter what I tried, I could never quit them. Even when I was bored of every game ever made I would still scroll back and forth through my steam library for entire hours at a time, hoping that something would catch my attention. All of this is going to be changed. If anyone has any tips on how to quit gaming then let me know, because this has to end now. Thanks for reading this really long comment.

this popped up in my recommended and i’m so glad i clicked! this was a hella good talk to listen to. keep it up my guy

“Be comfortable with being bored.” This more than anything is so so important!

I always thought games were for fun but I got addicted into games with the fact that I play into the night

It's gets worse when you mix drugs and video games. Playing video games without the drugs is not the same anymore so you find everything in life absolutely boring...unless of course you buy the drugs again.

First of all, I can relate 100%. Tbh, I don't find any other activity other than video games as exciting and fun right now. Even when I stopped playing games for several years, I wanted to play games. Then i got back into it a few years ago and regret it so much. Now I'm ready to quit cold turkey. Whenever relapse though, it doesn't feel bad. I'm in that comfortable, fuzzy state and nothing's bad when I'm playing. I'm good. Next thing I know I spend 8 hours playing and at the end, the regret is too much. I've suffered from lack of sleep, anxiety, and social skills. On another note, when it came to cleaning, it felt like torture to me because it's 1) extremely boring 2) as a perfectionist, I had to clean really well. But I pushed myself to do it and now I can say that I even enjoy it at times and when I think about the results. A clean floor, clean fresh washroom, it feels good. Much better than the accomplishment you feel from a video game. I know it's different, but it's more meaningful and you have a life skill. Seriously, enjoying to do necessary tasks is a skill on it's own. Had to add one more thing... Video games are extremely dangerous in the sense that you quit cold turkey 3 months ago, then one day you feel bored and you think you've conquered addiction, but then it's sooooo easy to fool yourself and make the mistake of going online and tell yourself I'll just play a little bit. So you play some web game, enjoy it and now you wonder hmmm what new games are there, so you try another and it's downhill from there. It's so easy to get hooked but so difficult to break free.

I've been on/off like you described for years. Every time I relapse, it gets worse too. You hit a ton of points that hit home for me as well. My brain is just chemically messed up from frequent gaming and smoking weed when I did game. Dopamine system is so fried I can barely focus at work and my productivity ground to almost a complete halt. All free time was converted to game time. Stopped going to the gym, stopped caring about my side hustles and hobbies. Video games basically keep you in stasis. You don't learn new skills, you don't get any new REAL experiences, all your accomplishments are literally worthless. They exist in a fictional space. You actually go backwards in life, as you stand still in your personal progress while everyone around you moves forward. I'm 33 and I don't even want to think about how many MONTHS of my life, likely even years at this point, have been spent pushing buttons and watching a screen instead of building an empire and improving my life. I could have mastered an instrument, a new language, built several businesses, and been so much farther ahead in life. Video game addiction, while not putting your life in physical danger, WILL destroy your life in every other way.

Some of the most sound advice I've heard. Quitting video games is not about find an alternative or resorting to netflix and youtube. The principle here is using your time wisely so you can accomplish the more important and meaningful things in life. Cam from game quitters has the same message. You related your story so well, it's a boost in motivation for anyone trying to quit.

(1) I also make youtube videos encouraging people to quit video games (i.e., fundamentally, I'm on your side), however (2) I think you're unaware of the subtle way in which you're shifting blame away from yourself, in this whole line of reasoning. People have always gotten addicted to rolling dice, playing cards, etc. --with "always" being many thousands of years. I think it's important to say, "the problem isn't this deck of cards, the problem is me" --and, likewise, the problem isn't the quality of the graphics in these next-gen video games (etc.).

I put in over 2k lol games in college. Assuming each lasts 30 min = 1000 hours or 40 days that I could have studied. Was it fun? Yes. Did it help me in the future? Absolutely not.

"You die from inside out" that line hit me like a truck

Great video

Interesting video here! I don't feel as though I can relate to this. For me video games are just fun for me, and I will play competitive occasionally. I find that the easiest way to not be addicted to something is to find something productive or fun. For me it's skating and drawing :)

Look up useless class, it's a perfect description of what's going to happen within the next 15 years in relation to videogame addiction and artificial intelligence.

Fuck dude I know that cycle of keep going when I win and not wanting to end on a loss… I thought it was just me.

I think i have it bad.

I quit for good

Same here. I had a 8.0 k/d in MW2. LMAO

Addiction is a weakness. Admitting that you have a problem is a good first step however.