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Ask HN: How do you avoid video game addiction?
21–30 of 165 posts
Re: Ask HN: How do you avoid video game addiction?
#22I can't handle those sorts of skill/ladder games. They demand too much time to keep up your skill and are clearly addicting. Personally I've found music to play a similar role in bringing that "flow state". Find a practical hobby where your time and effort result in something material rather than digital AND has the added benefit of being sharable with others.
I still enjoy videogames but I essentially only play:
- In person co-op games with friends (smash, mario kart, etc.)
- Challenging single player games (souls-like) where I set a timer somewhere between 30-60 minutes and force myself to stop at the end.Re: Ask HN: How do you avoid video game addiction?
#23Game addiction is a multi-year struggle for me that comes and goes. At one point I even set limits for myself using Blizzard's excellent parental controls, but even then I found myself disabling them when I was convinced that I just deserved 'a little bit more' gaming to offset a hard day, and then would forget to re-enable them again. I recently deliberately locked myself out of my Steam account, by changing the password to a random string and giving that to my partner to keep safe. So far that's worked: I haven't just gone and found another non-Steam game to play. But we'll see how long it lasts.
I totally identify with what you say about being able to focus on the game to the exclusion of everything else. The world is difficult to cope with, and games are beautifully, seductively, easy.
Congratulations on your four months clean. I hope that you find something else in life that provides the same flow state, but without the addiction.
Re: Ask HN: How do you avoid video game addiction?
#24>According to Steam I played over 2.000 hours during 2020 and 2021.
Less than three hours a day for passive recreation is hardly out of line with modern western lifestyles. The average American spends more than that watching television.
https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/articles/2021-07-22/...
I obviously wouldn't want to deter anybody from productive work in favor of entertainment, but physical and mental rest is a biological necessity. Don't feel bad for kicking back if it's just a couple of hours a day.
Re: Ask HN: How do you avoid video game addiction?
#25Have you ever been evaluated for ADHD? I'm not a specialist, nor does your post have anywhere near enough info for me to judge, but your second to last paragraph especially sent up some flags for me so I thought I'd mention it
Re: Ask HN: How do you avoid video game addiction?
#26You need something to kill time. You may not like my answer. But how about having kids?
You won’t have time to play video games (or your wife will beat you up) for decades if they keep coming. Then you will be too old to play/care about games.
Re: Ask HN: How do you avoid video game addiction?
#27> Gambling disorder is the only behavioral addiction (as opposed to substance use) identified in DSM-5. There is no such thing as video game addition. Video games do not directly hijack the substrates your brain uses for calculating motivation and interest. It's just another stimuli coming in through your normal senses. There is nothing magical, good or bad, about stimuli on screens.
Gaming releases dopamine and gets you addicted to the reward. It's a whole profession on how to optimize dopamine releases over time.
Re: Ask HN: How do you avoid video game addiction?
#28Its totally possible to avoid video game addition, I casually play videogames, and have been in places in my life where I played in excess, but usually that came with avoiding parts of my life. So I say "Ask yourself why you might be playing to the exclusion of your life outside of the videogame and see if you can find other ways to enrich your time."
It reads like you are looking for something more exciting in your life, not that you are looking to zone out into a "flow state" for hours of gaming. Maybe start there.
Re: Ask HN: How do you avoid video game addiction?
#29Video games affect different people differently. The pattern of behavior you describe, that can be summarized as 'all or nothing gaming' approach is something I recognize through own experience.
The key is to have healthy dose of other activities that will prevent you from going 'all in' on games. Sports or travel come to mind.
And having children... Once you have kids, the days of your glorious gaming past will become a hazy, distant memory.
Re: Ask HN: How do you avoid video game addiction?
#30It's weird, I was very addicted to gaming as a teen. World of Warcraft for 14 hours a day was very normal (and some how I still wasn't incredible at the game). After turning 18, I landed my first job pumping gas and it straightened me out. It fixed most of my social anxiety and stopped spending all day inside.
Now 10~ years later, I've swapped addictions. Cars. Spending an entire weekend dismantling and tinkering in the garage, while spending all my money on car related stuff.
I yearn for the days of gaming. It was a very cheap hobby in comparison.
I don't have much advice, but some people have much more addictive personalities or a lack of discipline. I've avoided all drugs/drinking for this exact reason.
I've been attempting to ease away from car stuff, and go back to a more productive "addiction" by learning EE and programming more.