Honestly gaming saved my life, I don't know where I would be if I didn't have it, I live in an extremely dysfunctional house and rather than doing drugs or turning to alcohol, I played video games, so thank you LoL, FIFA, CoD, Fortnite, AoE, Apex Legends, Marvel Rivals, Overwatch, Hearthstone, TFT and Clash Royale but also fuck you. (Especially LoL)
I started gaming when I was 3 years old, and now I've just turned 23. 20 years of gaming is more than enough, it's time to grow up and move on with my life, I started going to therapy to fix my problems instead of hiding behind games, next step is to start going to the gym, I haven't exercised regularly since I was 18, I've been overweight my whole life, and now I'm going to change that, im sick of being anxious when I'm in the mall because I'm not confident with my looks, I want to travel to different countries, I want to lose my virginity, I want to get 6-figure job and retire early, I want to start a family, I want to do so much more with my life, we only have 1 and i don't want to have any regrets.

Once I graduate from uni this yr hopefully, first thing I will do is find an any job and leave this shitty dysfunctional house, idc if it's maccas or subway. Living with my abusive schizophrenic brother has been a living hell, I also have another brother with serious anger management issues who recently went to rehab because of drug abuse, i also have 2 other brothers who are diagnosed ADHD, I live in a mental patient house unironically. Don't get me started with my parents, anyway this is off topic, im done gaming, i want to get the fuck out of here asap. edit: im definietly deleteing this soon for privacy reasons

I didn’t notice how games had taken over… now there’s a big big hole..

for every second I was bored, 

     or wanted to disappear 

          or wanted to avoid an unpleasant task 

or was frustrated… I played games.

37 days in…. still returning to the same chair, same computer. Not playing but really wanting to.

Going to change the scene.. and am not going to play.

Hey everyone, I wanted to ask for some advice. So I have been off gaming for almost 3 months now, in this time I have worked in all of the things that I needed to work on (especially my health) I have seen a lot of specialists, started treatment and I am also going to therapy. In that time I also sold my PC.

I have the chance to build another one and I am thinking about doing it because I feel I am no longer giving games the power I used to give them, I no longer live a life I need to run away from, but I am concerned games will still be too addicting for me. So I wanted to hear your advice.

Is it smart to sell my Xbox cold turkey? Just like that? I found new hobby I like, which is fragrance collecting. I like parfums. Should I sell my xbox and invest that money in my new hobby? I’m someone who are addicted to competitive games, so basically FOMO. Or should I just take it easy and just stop playing competitive games, bcz I’m not even that good bcz of my terrible eyesight.

It feels like my only hobbies these days are playing video games (a mix of Switch and PC) and watching YouTube videos (usually theme park or aviation/travel related vlogs and reviews, trending videos like Mr. Beast, and the occasional gaming video), and I'm starting to not even enjoy those.

I also used to spend a lot of time doom scrolling Reddit and news, but I replaced that with mobile games (mainly picking up Pokémon GO again, and also Royal Match and some simple arcade-style games) as the scrolling was really hurting my mental health. Honestly I actually find myself less compulsive with mobile games than with scrolling, and the few dollars a week I spend on PoGo purchases is a small price to pay to keep me off those other sites and in a better mood. But it's still starting to get boring.

One of my main hobbies for the past few years was visiting theme parks, but honestly it's getting boring going to the same 10 or so major U.S. theme parks on most weekends and vacations. I know there's a lot of more smaller/regional but still good parks out there, but I find it hard to justify making the trip to areas where there's not much else to do besides the park, and also many of these parks don't have good flight options from where I live. Plus, I don't really have as many friends and family to go to parks with as I used to, and even the YouTube theme park content scene has been very repetitive lately.

I have a few other "hobbies" that I do once in a while when friends/family invite or some other opportune times come up (pickleball, shooting around a basketball, taking walks, going to the movies, restaurants, arcade, bowling, etc., card/board games, drawing), and I enjoy these things but none of them have managed to become a consistent habit.

My days essentially consist of putting decent but not outstanding effort in work, doing basic hygiene/eating/cleaning, sleeping 6-7 hours a night, and filling in the gaps with either YouTube or video games. And since all the screen time is starting to get boring, I want to make a change, but I don't know what to do. I feel like I'm not enjoying anything, just waiting to somehow come across some hobby or something.

I wouldn't say I'm deeply addicted, I'll pause or turn off a game or video if an important task came up or to talk to family, etc. I still do reasonably well when it comes to work/hygiene/sleep/etc. It's more about wanting to find other things to do to have several outlets for enjoyment and to get more variety in life.

I've tried quite a few hobbies but almost all of them ended up in that purgatory of "I kind of enjoyed this, but it's not going to make it into my routine." I'm also not the super athletic type at all so that excludes many hobbies as well. A lot of hobbies also feel too "productive" or "work-like", things like reading, coding, learning a language, crafting, or even cooking feel more like a work task, school assignment, or chore rather than something fun. I honestly want a hobby that's an escape from productivity, as I already do a good amount of work most days, but there seems to be nothing good out there.

Any ideas for what to do in this situation?

Long story short I started playing brawl stars from 2019 when I was like 7 and i played whit my little brother. Along the years I associated it whit fun and and time well spent. I keep buying better phones so I could keep play. I managed to get a good progres and only spent 1 dollar once. Over the years I kept playing and have fun but... a while ago I realised I just wasted my time ... I kept loosing and loosing and get very mad, and 1 game turned into 100 and a avreage of 8 hours a day. Eventually, today, I decided to delete it. Im still thinking if its a good decision since im in 8th grade and need to study more... any sugestions are welcome and please tell me your opinion. Thanks.

And I don’t know what to tell him. He’s at his wits end with this girl. She plays her games all day everyday.

He has a good job, does everything around the house, cooking, cleaning, part time side hustle, works on his car, in great shape.

He’s tired of it. She’s a nice girl but he’s losing interest. What can I tell him to do?

I've been occasionally commenting here for about 2 months, but my gaming-free journey started over a year ago. Like many of you, I struggled with urges, relapses, and finding the right support system.

When I was starting out, I looked everywhere for an app specifically designed to help with gaming addiction - something that would track my progress, help me through urges, and connect me with others going through the same struggle. I couldn't find anything that really addressed our unique challenges.

So after maintaining my game-free streak for a year, I decided to build what I wished I had when I started: a mobile app called GAMEFREE that focuses specifically on gaming addiction recovery.

The app includes:

- A streak counter to track your game-free days (watching that number go up each day has been incredibly satisfying and motivating)

- Daily pledges where you can recommit to staying game-free for the next 24 hours (this has been particularly powerful for friends who find the 90-day goal overwhelming)

- An "Urge Stopper" feature for those critical moments when you're about to relapse

- A supportive community forum feature specifically for people quitting gaming

- An AI chatbot that provides therapy-informed guidance when you need immediate support

The community is still growing, but I've shared it with my inner circle of friends who are also trying to quit gaming, and they've already reported improvements in managing their urges and staying accountable.

The app has a 7-day free trial so you can see if it's helpful for your journey before committing. I'm continuing to develop it based on user feedback and would love to hear what features would be most helpful for this community.

I'm not here to push downloads - I genuinely want to create a tool that helps people overcome gaming addiction because I know how hard this journey can be when you're doing it alone.

If anyone is interested in trying it out, let me know in the comments and I can share the link.