How to quit a video Game Addiction in 6 steps

They say that time flies when you are having fun. Whether it is considered an actual psychological condition or not, the symptoms of "addiction" affect the addicted and/or her surrounding in a real way. Much like gambling, the excitement of beating the beast across from you yields a rewarding feeling of accomplishment. The challenge keeps us hooked and coming back for more to fill the modern and repetitive life interesting.

1. Reflect and think of what your priorities are in life. Remember that your priorities are your personal choices, consider your choices in order to achieve what will ultimately make you happy or satisfied.

2. If you can't come to terms with what is important to YOU in life, take this time to FIND your priorities. If your goal is to game professionally, that becomes an issue of perspective and you could asses realistic methods to achieve that goal.

3. Keep an open mind. Try different things to keep your mind distracted from the games that keep you hooked. Attempt social games that don't involve serious time commitments. Try and force yourself out of your comfort zone. Attempt learning new software, languages, or reading books about history or science, or watching movies to keep your brain challenged. Try new activities to avoid the boredom while you ease out of the habit of going on your "gaming machine" to waste time.

4. Attempt more real life activities such as competitive sports or strategic board games. Attempt to build better relationships with family/friends/Girlfriend or other social activities that force you to ration your "real life gaming" due to other people's schedules. Attempt running or driving for fun, paintballing, wine tasting, bar hopping, or possibly social gatherings/parties.

5. If you have a job, try and devote yourself to your job and imagine life as a game. If you are adventurous enough try to "beat" the capitalist system by starting your own company or helping your family start/succeed in their company. Attempt to learn economics as a game manual to beat competition and DRIVE results.

6. Ultimately it is a decision that only you can make and that requires a lot of willpower or an outside entity that FORCES you to stop/reduce gaming. You could even attempt to quit cold turkey by closing accounts/ deleting game/ selling "machines" but like drinkers and smokers the temptation will arise again and the choices arise

5 Tips to Quit Smoking

Quitting smoking is, just like with any other addiction, a process that can discourage even the most determined of us either because withdrawal symptoms are more than we can handle, or due to other factors, such as the influence the entourage has on us. However, kicking the habit is not impossible, doctors say, especially if we also make use of a few healthy tricks to aid us in our endeavor.

The first thing we should start doing if we want to quit smoking, health specialists maintain, is to start exercising more. Of course, that doesn’t mean we’re to hit the gym and work ourselves off to the point of exhaustion, but it does imply we start paying more attention to our daily routine. For instance, even a 15-minute brisk walk is said to fight off the urge to light up, while also painfully reminding us (at least in the first week or so) why we shouldn’t smoke. Moreover, exercise is one of the best ways to relax, so we would no longer be in a position to use this excuse to smoke.

Doctors also advise us, in case we really want to quit smoking and we’re not just doing it to “show that we can,” to not go cold turkey from the very start. Anti-smoking aids, although with a somewhat tainted reputation, can come quite in handy. We should always have patches and chewing gum at hand, they say, even if we don’t plan on using them, so that, if the urge appears, we have something to use and make it go away. These assistants also reduce the irritability and agitation that come with nicotine withdrawal.

Since one of the worst things about quitting smoking is said to be the tendency to always be chewing on something, health experts are telling us to indulge in this craving if we feel it can fight off temptation. Regular chewing gum or mint drops, but also healthy snacks (celery, fruit or pistachio) should keep our hands and mouth occupied, while also not making our weight balloon overnight. Of course, other low-calorie snacks are also a viable option, as long as we make sure we don’t overdo it, specialists explain.

Identifying the triggers of smoking is also an important step in the process of kicking the habit, doctors point out. If we know what makes us want to smoke or the things we associate with puffing away on a cigarette (a stressful situation, a cup of coffee in the morning, and so on), it’s much easier to eliminate temptation. Learn the facts on what smoking does to your body, doctors also underline. The anti-smoking campaigns now in place all over the world may not be enough – so we should read up on the effects of smoking and only then decide if it’s a habit we still want to indulge in.

Last on the list of useful anti-smoking tips is finding other ways to relax. For instance, doctors emphasize, we could pick up meditation or yoga (even Pilates would do) to unwind after a stressful day. Then, there are the simple options that also work wonders, like taking more walks in some quiet part of the town, reading a good book or watching a nice movie, or doing something to boost our mood. For instance, health experts suggest, we could get our teeth whitened professionally because, other than doing something just for ourselves, it will also show us how we could look if we did not ruin our beautiful smile by smoking.

These said, all that’s left for us to do now is to think if smoking is really worth, or whether we’re willing to give quitting a try.

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Did you know that:
53,000 Nonsmokers die every year from secondhand smoke?

How to quit a bad habbit by answering four big questions

1. What will you do instead?

Quit! Stop! Control! If there’s something you really want to remember about this post, it’s the idea that you should turn a negative worded goal of “quitting something” into a positive one. I’ll give a few tips on how do to it, but you are flying solo here, and gut feelings will be your guide.

Let’s make a specific example: how could you turn the negative worded goal of “Quit smoking” into a positive one?

Look for positive consequences. Any habit change opens up new possibilities. Let’s forget for a moment the health benefits you get when you quit smoking: you’ve probably heard them a million times… If you are short on cash, when you stop smoking you’ll suddenly increase your pocket money: is there something you’d love buying with such money? For me, the goal could be: “I’ll buy myself a luxury breakfast everyday with the money I was previously using for purchasing cigarettes!”

Look for mutually exclusive activities. Sometime if you choose to do something new, and then stick to it, you became practically unable to engage in your old bad habit. For example, it is difficult to smoke a lot when you are preparing for a marathon.

Go nuts! Have fun thinking of weird and interesting things you could do instead of smoking cigarettes. For example: “When I feel like smoking a cigarette I’ll have a sexual fantasy instead!”

2. Do you really want to change?

I have a confession to make: sometimes I complain about something even if I don’t really want to change it.

I guess it’s a way to release stress, and I accept it, even if I don’t particularly like it.

What about you? Have you really decided to change? If the answer is no, praise yourself for your ability to have such a deep insight about yourself, and buy a little treat. On the other hand, if you really want to change, get ready to answer the next question.

3. Is now the right time?

You’ve heard it many times. I’ll tell you once again. It’s important to focus only on one habit change at a time, so if you have too much on your plate right now, you might want to wait before introducing new challenges.

4. What’s in it for you?

Successful habit change requires a strong motivation.

The best way to fire up you desire to change, is having a full picture of all the positive things you are bringing into your life, and of all of the negative ones you are moving away from.

In short, you can answer the fourth question by writing down two separate lists: “Good things I move forward to”, “Bad thing’s I get away from.”

The trick here is to make sure that all of your personality has a say in writing those two lists: you don’t want to approach change only with a parental attitude “I should be doing…”, or in a purely logical fashion “smoking is detrimental to my health, hence I quit”.

Follow the steps below and you’ll make sure that nothing is left behind.

Put a piece of paper in front of you and write down: “Good things I move forward to.” What would be those good things for your parents?

Keeping the focus on good things, consider all of the objective information you have on your habit change, and write down all of the benefits that such change will bring.

Imagine explaining the advantages of your habit change to an intelligent 8 years old child. Write down simple worded benefits which could be attractive and understandable to a little boy.

Now repeat the same process with the “Bad things I move away from.”

You’ve done it all: it’s time to celebrate! Hurray!

The ideea of quitting something...

Maybe you have even tried, but things haven’t worked out as you hoped. Unfortunately, the very idea of “quitting” can make things difficult for you: let’s discover why.

The forbidden fruit is always very attractive. When you were a child, do you remember how everything became more attractive after it was forbidden? Well, there’s a part of you which still works in the same way…
Quitting something is difficult when you always think about it. When your
habit change strategy is driven by the idea of quitting – quitting cigarettes for example – you’ll often think about the very thing you want to forget.
There’s no excitement in just saying no. Have you ever tried to take something away from a little boy? Not easy. And what if you give him something else instead? Now you’re talking! If the new toy is “exciting” enough, the old one will be given up with ease.
Our unconscious mind doesn’t understand negation. As Freud said, and as every hypnotherapist knows, there’s a part of our brain which simply doesn’t understand negation. And there’s more to it. An hypnotherapist would avoid telling you to “Quit smoking”, because your unconscious mind might drop the word “Quit” and produce an urge for “smoking” instead…
You never simply quit something, you do something else instead. Your bad habit takes time. When you stop, you’ll have some free time on your hands: you can make space for something new and exciting, or simply indulge more often in a pleasant activity you already know well.

In short, the idea of “quitting” is not doing you any good: something positive need to become the engine of your habit change. And this lead us to the first question…