Tell us about something you’ve tried to quit. Did you go cold turkey, or for a gradual change? Did it stick?
In the early 1980’s, I was in the Army, and I controlled my addiction by committing twenty dollars a paycheck to fulfill my desires. There are times; I would spend the entire allotted twenty dollars at one time, causing me to suffer withdrawals until payday. However, I eventually learned to spread out my allotted monies to satisfy my addictive luxury for two weeks.
To add variety, to my addiction, I changed locations where I would indulge in my addictive behavior to give me a sense of exoticness. I always found others who shared my addiction providing me a sense of family because I was never alone.
I continued to function in my job, receiving several accolades and certificates of achievement for my job performance.
It was the late 1990’s when I recognized, and openly admitted I had an addiction after a weekend camping trip with my children when I lost two days of my life due to my addiction. I made the hard decision to leave my video game console inside my recreational vehicle.
My children did not like this plan, but little did they know how addicted I was to the video game. The idea was not to play video games unless, I was camping and after several years I weaned myself from my addiction simply by not having the temptation around the home.
I have relapsed over the years when I fell prey to video games playing at my friends homes. However the past ten years my iPhone and iPad have provided some temptation; However, I have prevailed to overcome my addiction.
I have succeeded in developing the strength and fortitude not to purchase another game system or allow games on my desktop and laptop. computers.
I have always had the strength to stop playing video games but, I just didn’t. I believe, I eventually evolved past the video game phase of my life. Our, have I? 🙂