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So here's the thing. Ive basically played WoW every day of my life since I was in 6th grade and have been horribly addicted to it, playing at the least 4 hours a day and often times over 15 hours at once. I'm 17 now, meaning I've been playing wow for over 6 years now, nearly half of my life that I can remember.
Like i said, I've been horribly addicted to it, id go so far as to say that Ive been brainwashed to log in to wow every day. I honestly don't know how to stop myself.
The problem is, I've never had many activities that I've done, and playing WoW usually filled up all of my free time when I wasn't hanging out with friends/etc.
Now that I've been cutting it out of the picture, I honestly am so ridiculously bored with my life that I think any doctor would say I'm depressed. I've been trying to fill that time Starcraft 2, a game that is easy to put down after a while, but the problem is, WoW was pretty much one of my biggest means of social interaction with other people when I played, and Starcraft offers very little in terms of social interaction.
I've never been good with people, I only have a few friends. WoW was an easy way for me to socialize and interact with people in ways I could never do in real life. Since It's gone I feel so alone and bored all the time. I can't sit and watch TV like a normal person because I'm so used to the constant interaction of video games like WoW.
Look, the summary is, I honestly, truly think that I'm physically addicted to the game. I can't stop myself from logging in no matter how hard I try. I've even started sweating and twitching and acting noticeably irritable when I'm on the computer trying to stop myself from logging in.
I haven't Logged in for 2 weeks now and I CANT GET IT OFF MY MIND AT ALL.
What the HELL can I do to fix myself?
 
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Meet some people in real life? That sounds like the only solution. I don't understand how you can stand to play a game for more then 2-3 hours at a time.
User was banned for this post.
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Sign up for other activities. Play or coach a sport. Every time you want to play wow go for a run.
Any of the above will eventually break you of it.
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All you need to do is freeze your account and pick up any, I mean ANY activity that involves getting out and meeting people. The rest will kinda just come on its own from there.
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Do you buy prepaid cards or do you pay by credit card? I waited until the 2 months finished, then I tried my best not to think about the game and I also forced myself not to buy the prepaid card if I went to any gaming stores. It's tough the first month or so, after that you will be over it 
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1) Find a hobby that you relate with
2) Find Goals for that hobby. No, not the retarded mediocre goals they give you in school to make you feel special. Substantial goals, like turning that into a profession, winning a competition, etc.
3) Put your entire mind on attaining that.
Hell, that could be Starcraft progaming for all i care. And regardless of what that hobby is, theres going to be a community revolving around it, as long as you engage in it beyond the dilettante level, its going to be far more engaging then socializing in WoW.
Also, make an effort to excise each day :3.
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Get a job and a gym membership. Both will eat up a lot of time, be very good for you, and provide some more social interaction. Easier said than done but once you make the first steps its actually not so hard/bad. GL.
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Listening to dubstep keeps my mind off games in general. All you technically have to do is cancel that subscription... if you can bring yourself to do that, you're set. (Unless you make another one subconciously.)
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continue not playing. If you have been doing it every day for 6 years its very natural that you are thinking about it a lot now that you are trying to stop.
You could delete your characters and that would prob reduce your drive to return, but that might be going a bit far because you may want to start playing in a year or what ever. You could let your subscription lapse and then just stop your self from paying for it. or turn on the parental controls to stop you from logging in at any time of day, then get a friend to change the parental password so you cant change the settings back. Uninstalling the client from your computer also makes it much easier to not play, since it would take hours to get it working again.
These things will stop you from playing, but wont necessarily get it off your mind. Really there is no quick easy way to break any habit, it just takes time.
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realize that WoW is simply a grind. Everything you do will be made obsolete in the coming months, so in order to keep at the top you MUST continue playing. That realization made me quit pretty damn quick.
The only WoW I will ever play again is MAYYYYYBEEE get my lock maxed in cata and PvP a little when Im really bored.
I will never set foot in a raid again.
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continue not playing. If you have been doing it every day for 6 years its very natural that you are thinking about it a lot now that you are trying to stop.
Honestly people who are addicted to WoW aren't addicted to WoW itself, but rather, desensitized to other elements of life. Constantly playing WoW isn't really a problem, its a symptom. Of not having a "life" (and I don't mean just not being socialized/having lots of friends, I mean not really being engaged in anything).
Look, the summary is, I honestly, truly think that I'm physically addicted to the game. I can't stop myself from logging in no matter how hard I try. I've even started sweating and twitching and acting noticeably irritable when I'm on the computer trying to stop myself from logging in.
That would make sense. You're not craving WoW, you're craving something stimulating to do with your life. You need something stimulating to do in your life. People do. Replace WoW with something else.
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destroy your PC...Pretty simple
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Try to find some other hobbies, Like really try. Pick up a sport to play, or to watch! Go grab books from the library, get back into console gaming or something. Socialize is a good answer but understandbly may be hard for you. Just try a lot of things until something clicks and goes 'hey, that was awesome, let's do that again'
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do what these guys said, give someone who doesnt give a shit about wow and have them delete everything ( i know it can be restored but w/e ). just dont do what that idiot on tyra banks show did, all they did was trash the CD's rofl.
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On October 05 2010 06:16 Half wrote:Show nested quote +continue not playing. If you have been doing it every day for 6 years its very natural that you are thinking about it a lot now that you are trying to stop.
Honestly people who are addicted to WoW aren't addicted to WoW itself, but rather, desensitized to other elements of life. Constantly playing WoW isn't really a problem, its a symptom. Of not having a "life" (and I don't mean just not being socialized/having lots of friends, I mean not really being engaged in anything). Show nested quote +
Look, the summary is, I honestly, truly think that I'm physically addicted to the game. I can't stop myself from logging in no matter how hard I try. I've even started sweating and twitching and acting noticeably irritable when I'm on the computer trying to stop myself from logging in.
That would make sense. You're not craving WoW, you're craving something stimulating to do with your life. You need something stimulating to do in your life. People do. Replace WoW with something else.
This guy hit the nail in the head. Im feeling somewhat like you are atm OP (except i quit WoW ages ago), even before WoW ive felt like that sometimes. Don't blame the game necessairly, just try to find something else you're interested in. Its just your interests changing.
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Maybe I can offer you some honest advice. I started playing wow in it's open beta, and continued for one full year before quitting the first time after the guild I raided with disbanded. I used that three or four weeks to make some irl friends, only to find out that they also played wow. So, I got back into it. I quit again halfway through TBC for personal reasons, only to come back, completely re-roll horde to play with some IRL friends, and get into a guild doing hyjal/BT by the skin of my teeth. At that point I realized why I wanted to play. You obviously want the social interaction, I get that. To be honest I hated pretty much everyone I met in that game, and played only to be in the best guild, committed to excellence. And, for about a year after wotlk was released, I was. However, quite frankly raiding got ridiculously boring.
I don't know about you, but I got into wow coming straight out of SC:BW. I never thought video games were supposed to be easy, but at the top level WoW was just about the easiest game there was. I remember times when I logged on every day, all my roommates raided in the same guild as me so it was extremely social and fun.
Then, one day my most recent guild disbanded. I decided that I was done, once and for all, after quitting 3-4 times previously. I sold my account for $400 and 4 months later the SC2 beta was out.
Honestly, it comes down to what you want. Do you want social interaction? Well, real life social interaction is a thousand times more provocative than the interaction you'd get in WoW. Trust me. My old roommates and I still drive 400 miles to oklahoma to hang out with our old guildies every labor day weekend to get blasted and have a good time.
Do you want to play video games? Well, there are multitudes of video games that are way more stimulating than WoW could ever hope to be. Starcraft is obviously the best example. You're never going to play starcraft "perfectly" like you would if you were raiding at the top level. The same goes for DotA/HoN. That's what I want out of video games: a challenge. So, as you can see, I replaced the social aspect of WoW with real life interaction between both people in my professional life and my ex-guildmates alike, and I replaced the gaming aspect of WoW with better games.
And I've never looked back. I'm completely desensitized to the entire genre of MMO. I doubt I'll ever pick one up again.
Edit: Like the guy below me says, selling your account is the most sure-fire way to end it for good.
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Sell your account so there's no going back. Find something else to do like a new sport or a job, join some club, do social work, or learn a programming language or a music instrument. As long as you keep yourself occupied, you won't long for WoW. You'll get over it after some time.
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Yeah I was really addicted to WoW and the internet for awhile too. You say you've never been good with people but you probably haven't tried very much to interact with people since you've been playing WoW and thinking about WoW all the time.
You aren't physically addicted to WoW. That's impossible it's a video game. You can be psychologically addicted though. The physical withdrawal symptoms you speak of are just anxiety. Anxiety is a psychological response that can cause physical symptoms. I personally have high anxiety at times and deal with physical symptoms myself. Cocaine isn't physically addicting but it has physical withdrawal symptoms because of anxiety.
Anyway just put yourself out there socially no matter how awkward you feel. Just do it. And start running too that makes you feel good.
Also there are less time consuming addictions that exist that are social too...like weed. Replacing one addiction with another less harmful (and more fun) addiction can help you. You are probably used to your life revolving around an addiction.
Good luck on your road to a better WoW-free life.
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Osaka27148 Posts
I don't think the answer is as simple as "find one thing to replace WoW". It sounds like you have been missing out on a lot of things. My ideas are based on the fact that you have played WoW rather than learn other useful skills in life. Time to play catchup!
-Delete everything, uninstall everything. Make sure that it takes a lot of time to get back into the game (similar to the credit card frozen in a block of ice theory for spenders).
- Make a list of things that, if you could go back a few years, you would like to have tried / started / seen.
- Get out of the house. Take a bus somewhere. You live close to the greatest city in the world. Go take some pictures. Develop them. Put them on your wall to show yourself where you can go.
- Find a free or cheap class at a community center. Learn something random and new, even for just a few lessons. I took Aikido once for a few months before losing interest. It was still fun. You don't have to be pro at everything, just dabble!
- Learn to cook three new meals. Your family will appreciate you doing something to help them (rather than having to call you away from your computer) and in the future you can cook for girls. Having a go-to dinner is a must-have skill.
- Learn to fix something. Find one thing in your house that needs fixing. Recently I painted over a tag someone sprayed on our garage. It gave me a sense of accomplishment.
- Write down what you did today, and what you want to do tomorrow. I personally don't remember so much of my youth, I wish I had kept a journal of things. You will appreciate it so much when you are older.
- Read George R R Martin's series, A Song of Ice and Fire. Big books that will hook you for life.
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On October 05 2010 06:24 xMiragex wrote:Show nested quote +On October 05 2010 06:16 Half wrote:continue not playing. If you have been doing it every day for 6 years its very natural that you are thinking about it a lot now that you are trying to stop.
Honestly people who are addicted to WoW aren't addicted to WoW itself, but rather, desensitized to other elements of life. Constantly playing WoW isn't really a problem, its a symptom. Of not having a "life" (and I don't mean just not being socialized/having lots of friends, I mean not really being engaged in anything).
Look, the summary is, I honestly, truly think that I'm physically addicted to the game. I can't stop myself from logging in no matter how hard I try. I've even started sweating and twitching and acting noticeably irritable when I'm on the computer trying to stop myself from logging in.
That would make sense. You're not craving WoW, you're craving something stimulating to do with your life. You need something stimulating to do in your life. People do. Replace WoW with something else. This guy hit the nail in the head. Im feeling somewhat like you are atm OP (except i quit WoW ages ago), even before WoW ive felt like that sometimes. Don't blame the game necessairly, just try to find something else you're interested in. Its just your interests changing.
Yeah I was in a similar situation, except not even with WoW. I wasn't around for that and didn't get the luxury of WoW (wasn't out t-t). All I got were drugs, my fucktard friends, and wc3.
For me actually, entering a hacking community and ending up really loving programming helped me out a lot.
I don't think the answer is as simple as "find one thing to replace WoW". It sounds like you have been missing out on a lot of things. My ideas are based on the fact that you have played WoW rather than learn other useful skills in life. Time to play catchup!
lol. Maybe I was projecting too much. I guess your advice would be more suitable to him. For me, I guess I was alright in other areas, I just lacked anything I was really passionate about in my life.
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