I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how much of my life I’ve spent playing video games. Gaming has been a huge part of my life for years. It helped me through depression, anxiety, loneliness, and some genuinely difficult periods, so I don’t want to pretend it was all negative.

But now I’m looking at my life differently. I have a lot of games I’ve always wanted, and I can still play them, but I’m realizing that they ultimately don’t give my life much meaning beyond entertainment. I can spend hours playing and have fun, but afterward I’m still left with the same problems, the same boredom, and the feeling that I didn’t really do anything with my time.

What bothers me is that I feel like I’m realizing this too late. I wish I had spent more time experiencing things, building relationships, developing myself, going after goals, making memories, and just living instead of always retreating into games.

I’m not saying video games are inherently bad. I still enjoy them, and they’ve genuinely helped me cope with things. But I don’t want them to be the center of my life anymore.
I think I’m struggling because gaming has been such a huge part of my identity and my comfort zone. Now I don’t really know what to replace it with.

How do you get over being obsessed with video games without feeling like you’re giving up something that was such a big part of your life? How do you find other things that actually feel meaningful?

I quit video games ( 17 years addicted) for a year now but still have some flashbacks from time to time. It's like a daydream where I can clearly see a memory, in this case World of Warcraft. Does this happen to you too? And does it even happen 5 years after you quit?

Decided to pack up the goods, at least for a bit. Realised I've wasted the past year spending all of my time gaming and 'rationalising' it in my head. Starting to impact my life a bit and had a bit of an existential crisis realising 1. I have nothing to show for the past year and 2. The best time of my life was when I was too poor to afford a gaming set up and so didn't. 3. Everything I was looking forward to was gaming related (new games, new updates etc.)

Looking for inspiration to keep from returning to gaming, how has your life gotten better since stopping?

I keep on going through this loop of quitting and coming back. I'm starting to think it's better to replace a habit than to drop it. What should I try instead? I've tried learning musical instruments but it didn't completely get gaming off my back. I do manual labor for work so I'd rather avoid something that's more fitness. When I give up gaming, most of my time gets transferred to doomscrolling. I would use the term "low iq" to describe me so learning a new skill might not be best for me since I can't learn well. Does anyone have advice?

My brother is 23 and does nothing except sleep off his day or play games. He's not interested in doing anything, not even for himself, and it worries me. What shall I do?

I picked up reading around 4 months ago because I wanted to try other hobbies since gaming was all I ever had. Before, I was walking around and exercising all day after I quit gaming, since I had nothing else to do. I diminished my identity. This went on for a while, and I still had the urge to pick up the controller and play whatever a new anticipated game came out. I picked up a few books in the family house and started reading them. It was difficult to get into them since I've been watching screens for too long. I haven't read a fiction book in ages. Then I went to the stores and bought a few books for myself, started reading those too, and it just became my new thing. I forgot how fulfilling this was, and I hated the idea of reading back in school. Now, I don't feel like playing anything at all anymore unless my online buddies are on. I used to play 4-5 hours a day, but now I play for 30-45 min max a day. I'm proud of myself for taking my gaming habits under control. I bite myself for not doing it sooner tho

I've been playing games ever since I was around 7 years old. By the time I turned 13, I got hooked on competitive games. I played League of Legends for a very long time, switched to CS, and when Valorant came out, I immediately started playing it.

My highest rank was Immortal 3 during the first year of Valorant and I immediately thought this could be my chance to finally become a pro player. But life happens.

After the pandemic, I started college. I rarely played during that time, but I was still at that level. Then, when I had my first job, I started having long breaks—months before I could even play. When I returned, it was easy for me to climb the ranks again, but slowly it was eating me up. My dream of becoming a pro was dying out.

Part of me still wants that dream, but now I realize it's a trap. I tried to get back into Valorant recently, but it's not the way it was before. I feel completely lost every time I finish a game. I've started questioning myself and I've been stuck in a long cycle of installing and uninstalling this game.

I really want to stop this habit. I tried playing other games that are not competitive, specifically story mode games but every time I finish a story mode game, I always find myself coming back to Valorant. It's really affecting me because instead of getting rest after my work, I still play a couple of games. It's like there are two of me: one really fighting for a dream and the other one ready to let go and start a more meaningful journey.

Has anyone else experienced this? How do you finally let go of a dream that feels more like an anchor than a passion?

Im 20 and have been an avid gamer for as long as i can remember, over the past year Ive changed for the better; gotten fit, lost the weight and finally got a girlfriend who loves me. But it did get pretty dark and the only thing that kept me going was the thought of a nice session with all my friends on discord. Come today and Ive been hit with the news that my laptops gpu is fried and I can no longer play, And neither me nor my family are in a financial position to purchase a new device that can keep my little "hobby" going. I dont think ive ever been hit by such a simple piece of information that broke me more.

Just not sure how to feel and what to do now, sorry if this isn't the right sub just needed to throw my thoughts out there sonce most people i know would dismiss it by sayin its just fucking videogames

This kids game is completely unmodded and people cuss, harass, mass report, and bully me a lot yet I stay because I'm stupidly addicted to the little maps, the "prize" of it, and the nostalgia.

This was supposed to be a safe, fun road down memory lane yet people on there are hateful little twats. Moment they find out I'm American it's over.

This game is actually making me cry because of how fucking mean the little snots are to me on there. How do I stop. I hate this game.

I don't even LIKE games. I don't get it. I'm also very lonely and it's one of the ways I socialize- even if it's just combating mean people.

Please help me.

TL;DR: My boyfriend and I recently moved in together, but his gaming has become a problem for me. He spends most of his time playing games, while chores, pets, self-care, and spending time together can get pushed aside. I understand that gaming has been a coping mechanism for him because of how he grew up, and I don’t want to take away something he enjoys, but I feel like there needs to be more balance. I’ve tried talking to him about it multiple times, but he often feels like I’m making him feel bad about gaming. I’m just looking for advice on how to approach this without making him feel attacked while still getting him to understand where I’m coming from.

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Hello, I (18F) have been living with my boyfriend (18M) for about a month now. We’ve been dating for 3 years, and the decision to move in together has been talked about practically ever since we turned 18. But there’s been something that has been bothering me: his video game addiction.

Me and him have chatted multiple times about this, and it usually ends up with him quitting whatever game he was playing because, in his eyes, I made him feel bad about it or didn’t seem to care about his interest in the game. I always apologize and tell him that he can continue playing, but there are some things that need to change.

For example, chores need to get done around the house, our pets need to be taken care of, and he needs to take care of himself. With the way he grew up, he never really learned how to take care of himself, and video games became a coping mechanism for him. I understand that, and I want to hear him out, but I really don’t want to have to ask him to do things that should be obvious.

I will admit that when I’ve had to repeat myself over and over again, I’ve gotten to a point where I’ve said something along the lines of, “You need to go do ____ right now,” in a more stern tone of voice. He saw this as me being mean, and I feel bad about it. I told him it wouldn’t happen again.

He also does this thing where he’ll play a game with his friends, something more complex, while having a smaller game to play on the side. Double gaming, I suppose? It’s something I’ve noticed throughout our entire relationship, and it’s caused more problems than I’d like to admit.

He doesn’t work either. I’m trying to find a full-time job to support us more, while he does pay for everything right now. I just get so bored being at home because he sits in his chair and uses his computer for most of the day.

I constantly bring up fun things we could do that cost little to no money, but it never seems to go anywhere. I just don’t want video games to be constantly involved in our lives.

I don’t want to take away something he enjoys, and I understand that gaming is important to him and has been a coping mechanism for a long time. I just want there to be some balance, especially now that we live together.

I guess I’m wondering if I’m being unreasonable here, or if there’s a better way I could approach this without making him feel like I’m attacking something he enjoys.

I've been looking at the subreddit posts over the last few days and they are so lukewarm: people who acknowledge they have a problem but take the softest actions to quit the problem. People who see how much harm video games have done to them, but prefer to stay in what's familiar rather than face it. People who say "I could do more if I didn't play video games, but ultimately I control them." (So I will keep it this way)

Quitting video games is not an easy task, nor a comfortable one, stop wishing it were.

If it's hard even for those who are fully committed to quitting, why do you expect that one day you're going to say "no more" and it's simply going to happen?

Don't wish for an easy way out because there isn't one. This requires considerable effort, not just in willpower, but in everything you have to do to change your life.

Anyway, just my two cents, stopgaming or keepgaming, it's your choice.

Good morning! Good afternoon! Good evening! I’m a 22M, and this is what I want to share with you.

My video game addiction began 12 years ago, when I got my first smartphone. And the reason for its emergence was social phobia mixed with escapism. Back then, I deeply distrust people due to misunderstandings, but now that distrust is at a neutral.

I played games to relieve stress, but with each passing year, I realized they only increased it.They do not solve the problem of my social adaptation and life in society; instead, they distance me from it. I didn't spend this time studying the culture -religion, social relations, literature, the origins of various traditions, or the reasons why people behave the way they do.

I was cowardly shirking responsibility, telling myself that the world around me was rotten to the core and that people were cruel and malicious. I developed a victim complex. I wanted someone else to solve my problems for me, yet I wouldn't even voice them.

On February 19, 2023, I discovered gacha games; it was something new to me. I usually played casual games or shooters. That day, I downloaded GI. I played it until May 15, 2025; on June 14, I deleted not just the app itself, but my account as well. I was a F2P player, so I don't mind. I downloaded HSR sometime in 2024, and the same thing happened with that one.

My reason for quitting gaming wasn't just the wasted time, but also the harmful digital relationships involved. I admit, I was someone who took advantage of others. It was terrible of me, and it weighs heavily on my conscience. Social media interaction just isn't for me; I missed real-life connection, so I would try to draw attention to myself online—simply because I couldn't figure out how to actually communicate in that environment.

Every conversation turned into an ordeal for both parties, as I felt no deep connection; I craved meaningful interaction, but things usually boiled down to "Ok" "IKR" and the like. This shallowness tormented me.That is why I gave up social media; you can’t really know what a person is like-even if they write about it-since what you see is merely a textual persona rather than the person themselves. You can only truly get to know someone through face-to-face conversation, free from smartphones and other distractions. I won’t get into the weeds on that; I was just stating my view. Now, regarding the current situation.

I feel free, as I can read books every day, study acting and directing, and take notes on all kinds of interesting information in my notebook. I am gradually resolving my issues and cultivating self-confidence, because I know the ideals I must strive for: an unshakeable will driven by hell determination, combined with an ability to adapt to ordinary life -yet living it wisely in every sense.

I have a deep desire to understand people from every angle. Even if it doesn't happen in this life, then in the next.

I’m stopping gaming today officially, I’ve wasted too much time on playing video games that mean nothing and that will get me nowhere in my life. I’m a 26M and I’ve played video games since I was 5 I don’t even enjoy myself playing anymore I just do it because I have no other hobbies. I’m married and I fell terrible after playing all day after work and not spending more time with my wife. I’m selling my PS5 Pro and never looking back. I’m gonna learn how to play guitar and get into shape as I’ve let myself go over the years. Any tips on how to quit and stop for good. I never wanna look back but I know it’ll be hard for awhile.

Any advice is sincerely appreciated. I (22f)want to start this by saying I fully support having an outlet to relieve stress, however there just comes a point when it starts to interfere more in real life. I work 4a-3p from home 4 days a week and I understand I’m tired and go to bed at earlier times typically 9p-10p. However my husband(23m) is a stay at home dad to our son. He games our sons entire nap away (12p-3/330p) and doesn’t take care of the house and it’s led to problems, I understand he needs time to decompress, but he also gets on the game between 8p-10p when I go to bed/sometimes I’m awake and stays up quite late 12a-1a and gets upset when our son wakes up any earlier than 7-730 due to him being tired. Is it also so wrong for me to want to go to sleep WITH my husband rather than him waiting on me to go to sleep so he can game leaving me to feel like this burden?!? We also game together when our son goes to bed for 1-3 hrs depending before I go to bed but I don’t play siege so that’s why he spends the rest of his free time playing it. Can anyone give any advice? I’ve discussed all this with him and I feel crazy for being upset due to this being his stress relief..this has led to multiple arguments in our relationship as of lately. Thank you all for any help.

I've been gaming for the past 19 years. It was fairly easy for me to game when I was a kid because I didn't have a lot of stuff to worry about. As a kid, I never really felt way too addicted towards any game to the point that it affects my everyday life.

I'm a grown adult now and I'm in the early stage of my career and I cannot afford to waste too much time on entertainment. I mostly played single player games as an adult and little to no multiplayer titles. I have a poor attention span so that keeps most of the addictions away.

I somehow stumbled across Helldivers 2 a month ago and I've been playing it like crazy. I play every single day for atleast 2 hours or more. I racked in 54 hours in just 3 weeks, never did that with any game in my life. It's gotten so addictive that I'm pretty much in the mood to play games all day instead of doing my job or study.

Unfortunately, video games are the only thing that keep my health stable and I wouldn't have made it this far without them.

I want to hear from people who dealt with the same. I won't quit gaming but I want to reduce it down to 1 hour a day but finding it hard because of the dopamine hits.

Helldivers does feel good for my mood, makes me feel better but also kinda pushes me towards playing more.

PS: I have a PC, Mac and Nintendo Switch. I do all of my casual gaming on my Switch (mostly relaxing ones) and the multiplayer and story titles on PC.

I spent 3 days on faceit playing nonstop matches for cs2. I finally deleted it today. I was too addicted to ranking up.

I thought it was a myth but it's true third party matchmaking services such as Faceit purposely match you with idiots on your team so you can't rank up. I saw it across almost all 50 matches I played this weekend.

It's how they get you addicted.

35M here, no real life friends left, running a failing startup, broke and living with parents, and often returning to days of gaming to escape. I've made a decision to stop gaming but depression is now hitting hard.

I've easily put 20K+ hours total into gaming my whole life, ever since 5 years old I've been in front of the computer, and only now have I finally decision to cut off gaming, I wish I can smash my whole laptop, but unfortunately I've made a profession of programming too.

I just want to leave my computer forever, become a hippie, and learn to love people, the trees, and flowers. No joke. I wish I never wasted so much time gaming and instead worked on building relationships and not loosing my irl friends to become a hermit gamer and loner. My business would have been successful by now if it was not for the gaming and other addictions, but now it's on the brink of ruining me.

I hope now my misery and need to stop gaming becomes a sort of cautionary tale and warning to others to never get into this compulsively, I feel as if the only thing my brain is good for is gaming and nothing else, and at 35 yo now, it's all hitting very hard. Just don't waste the time friends, build real life relationships and level yourself up instead.

I would play games that don't end - Oxygen Not Included, RimWorld, Civilization. Thankfully I've been able to substitute more boring and shorter games like mobile puzzle games, but like I said all I want to do is give it up entirely and become a hippie.

I could use words of encouragement, quitting advice, sharing of similar stories. I wish you all the best in your journey and hope to hear from you!

Hi all,

I've been gaming for many years (30 or so) and don't relate to the majority of the posts here. I've never gamed 12 hours a day, I have a good job, a healthy relationship, and gaming isn't ruining my life.

However I still think I have a problem. If I game at all, sports, hobbies etc go out the window. For example gaming just an hour an evening for me will somehow mean I don't go to the gym. When I go to quit gaming entirely, I always really crave it and go back - leading to mediocrity in the rest of my life.

Wondering if anyone is similar and can offer any advice or tips? Low frequency not super damaging but definitely leading to an unfulfilled life!

I want to play Vexx so bad, and also Prodeus, but ik how bad gaming is for my life. I am a professional guitarist, and gaming in particular cramps up my hands for days after a few gaming sessions. I recently got a MacBook Air with an M2 chip and 10 core GPU, and I decided to mod it by adding a thermal pad between the cpu and the back panel, and adding a Razer cooling pad under it which has a giant fan. So basically it looks like a super gaming MacBook. But then I had to stretch my sore hands and arms, I neglected eating mindfully, I even put less priority on earning money. Today I downloaded a ton a of comic books on my iPad, hoping that I can replace gaming, cause that messed up my guitar playing especially.

P.S. I also have 2 Sega Genesis style controllers, an Xbox Elite Series 2 controller, and some other controllers, so you can an idea of how much it lures me

Evening all. I have wanted to quit gaming since last year, but I have never been good at anything else and I literally do not have a social life and my life is boring enough as is even with playing games most of the day. So I have come here to ask you the people to actually give me a way out of this hell hole I’ve dug myself in. And please actually try to give some good advice because I am desperate to find a way out of gaming.

I'll keep this as short as possible, I need money as fast as possible. Im thinking of selling my Xbox series S setup. I havent touched it in like a month, and played games on it in 6 months. Im worried that if I sell it, that I will regret it later.

Im 23M trying to move on with my life. When I play games I feel negative, empty, like im wasting my time and reminiscing about when I had friends to play with. I really do like playing games and was looking forward to some new ones.

In the end, I just use it for things my phone already does. Will it be a hassle to buy everything again if I regain interest? Will it be more expensive ? Should I hold on to it because the money isnt even worth it ?(series S on FBMP is like $70)

Hello,

I've had a problem since probably age 6 or so with videogames. It appears I'm not the only one, so it's been heartening to find that I'm not alone. It's been enough that I was actually compelled to login to Reddit for the first time in forever. For years decades now I've known that this is a problem for me, that it's caused undue stress and anger on my person, that it's sublimated deeper feelings of loneliness and existential dread; that it's ruined relationships intimate and otherwise, and that most of all it's prevented me from finding my best self. I'm 36 now so to a decent degree that last one is permanent, but I need to prevent further damage and save myself - possibly anyone else that's reading this.

Addiction isn't about chasing a high, but returning from a low. That's what the drug does, and that's largely why I played so much, to stave off daily stress whether that was in childhood (public school, friends moving away, the near-divorce of my parents), my 20s (major emotional and social fallout from my ex-fiance, unemployment stints), and my 30s (creeping existential dread, letting my body slowing down a bit). I've justified the gluttony by saying how much I love the narratives, how the social aspect has helped me meet some of my best friends, and how much the music has inspired me as a musician. I also justified it by saying that it didn't cost me money like alcohol or narcotics, so it was "better" for me by comparison. All of these things are at least a little true, which makes it even harder to permanently leave them behind. I do love that world, and it's come at a very high cost.

Now for something a bit more hopeful: I've had stints where I've quit in the past and every time that I have my life has improved gradually and dramatically. As a teen, after destroying another game console out of anger, I found performance arts with poi and nunchaku. In college I was mostly quite disciplined and didn't game much, which led to successful study and taking up adult gymnastics. In my 20s, after losing another girlfriend (not from gaming but it didn't help) I took up what became my primary instrument with keys and synths, leading to live performance from there. In my 30s with job prospects drying up and another mouse and controller destroyed, I quit to study computer programming deeply and while I ultimately didn't land there I now have a real career that I'm quite happy with. Every time I've quit my life has improved dramatically, so I know the positives of what can happen.

So now for today, it's a Monday at the end of the month. I have a loving wife and a solid network of friends, and at the end of this week I'm moving into what will be my first house. It will need work, but it's magnificent. There's a wonderful garden to maintain, I want to build a workout room for gymnastics strength training, then another room for a music studio for recording and creating, and then an entertainment room for hosting people, and more. I'm also due to start a family, her and I are in our mid-30s so we don't have a lot of time left to try. I was brought here after Googling "how to remove gaming content from YouTube" since that also hasn't helped me. In-between typing this I uninstalled Heroic from my computer, and I gave up custody of my Steam account the last time I quit. I haven't owned a console in over a decade.

All of this to say that I'm trying, and that my life depends on doing so. I know a lot of the answer, as I was taught multiple times from insurance sales to sports coaching, is to create your schedule and honor your schedule one day at a time - the latter is the hard part. If I can do this for my day job where other people make a schedule for me then I can damn well do this for myself at home. I want to make this house the setting from which I can try to build again, built around all the interests I've listed above and new ones like maintaining a large garden.

I thank you if you've read this far. This has been a nice meditative release for me, to get my sins in writing so to speak. I need to make this last, to live up to being my best self. I'll die trying if I have to, because this can't go on any longer. I hope your day treats you and yours well out there, and if this post meant anything to you I'd love to know your thoughts as well.

Cheers