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Uninstalled every other game, can't quit Counter-Strike

srodrigo

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I've concluded one thing for sure. Competitive games will never make you happy. If I play CSGO now, I play offline maps with chill music and I enjoy those 30 mins very much.
Lol, taking about that, I just installed wc3 again today -_-
 
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Aight I had the nerve to delete all games on steam except CSGO. I can't believe I wasted 4000 hours (only 500 were worth because of friends) on this game. I love this game but I spent most of the time playing it alone. I used to no life 12 hours every day. It's a lot better today, about 2 to 3 hours playing two or three matches. I still remember back in May 2019 I played this game, and I still have so many memories with friends online to this day. After reading @RHL's post I deleted all my games but I can't press the uninstall button of Counter-Strike.

I know if I get rid of Counter Strike I'd be happy but I can't, too scary to live without it.
I don't think you need to delete stuff. It's more just being self-disciplined and coming back to it time to time. It all depends on how aware one is of their pain and reward center in the brain. Pretty much you can get the same affect with Entrepreneurship since really it is high risk, high sensation seeking, challenging, the hunt, the warrior, and it's just using it in a different form then on the game.
 

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GoodluckChuck

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Try putting your computer at your parents house or somewhere you can't access it for a week. You'll see that once it's out of your environment, the urge to play it goes away because your brain looks at all the work involved to do it. Your brain will start to find easier things to do in order to get dopamine.

I've played a lot of games in my life and every time they were removed from the environment, it was like they were never there in the first place.
 
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Lol, taking about that, I just installed wc3 again today -_-
You were gonna go back to wc3 anyway, now it depends on you how you let it affect your life. I only play CS when I don't have anything to do now.
 

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Try putting your computer at your parents house or somewhere you can't access it for a week. You'll see that once it's out of your environment, the urge to play it goes away because your brain looks at all the work involved to do it. Your brain will start to find easier things to do in order to get dopamine.

I've played a lot of games in my life and every time they were removed from the environment, it was like they were never there in the first place.
I remember my father took my laptop away from me for 4 months. Couldn't get over it for a week, after a while I literally forgot about it.
 

srodrigo

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Say goodbye to 2021!
2011 was already gone I'm afraid. This month "off" was interesting though. I started working on a pet project, on building a contractor porfolio, and writing a book. Definitely worth uninstalling certain games.
 
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srodrigo

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You were gonna go back to wc3 anyway, now it depends on you how you let it affect your life. I only play CS when I don't have anything to do now.
Definitely not watching tournaments and tutorials, otherwise the whole thing just takes me over.
 

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Definitely not watching tournaments and tutorials, otherwise the whole thing just takes me over.
Oh, the ultimate trap, I used to watch every ESL tournament out there. Spent hours watching other folks play lol. Not to mention, utility tricks and strats
 

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Used to play ALOT of video games every day (8-10 hours/ day).
Games ranged from Call of Duty to Maplestory.
Back then, I was just a kid coming home from school. FREE TIME!

As of today I play Apex Legends.
The difference is that I don't have the urge to play it more than 1 hour / day, in the evening after sending out a bunch of cold emails and working on my copywrite.

The issue is that you aren't keeping yourself occupied enough.
Similar to how people eat because 'they are bored'. That's an actual thing.

What you need to do is create goals and develop skills to keep yourself busy (in a good way).

There will be that point where you just can't handle playing videos games anymore.
Good Luck!

PS. I can barely handle more than 30 minutes of Apex Legends. Eventually I'd just get so tired I just go to bed after a long day.
 

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Get an ipad

If it wasn’t for my radio show, I wouldn’t even need a computer and I’m hoping it won’t be long before an iPad does a better job of that too.
 

woken

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I understand where most of people with gaming addictions are coming from.

But I secretly believe you’re not busy enough :)
 
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Tiago

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I second what people say here, get a Mac. I used to play games for 16 hours a day sometimes. Ever since I got a Mac, I play Worms for an hour once a week to catch up with a friend.

Addictions can be much stronger than your will, so instead of forcing yourself, just change the environment so it doesn't allow for the addiction to happen.
 

JAJT

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Games are an escape.

They are the path of least resistance for your mind to either flee from something, or to obtain something it's missing.

I've been a gamer my entire life and I can honestly say that when life is good - I play very little. When life is shit - I play too much.

When work/life is overwhelming and I get anxious and stressed and feel out of control, games provide me with a universe I can control in a risk-free environment that makes me feel good. I escape life and obtain control. I replace a lack of victory and satisfaction in life with an overwhelming amount of victory and satisfaction in games.

All this is to say - deleting games doesn't fix the problem. The problem is your need to escape and/or your need for victory/control.

It's a brain thing, not a game thing.

If it wasn't games it would be alcohol or drugs or eating or sex or driving or a hobby or whatever else.

The smartest folks funnel that energy intro productive places - exercise, reading, journaling, meditation, helping others, mentorship, producing content, etc...

This is one of those areas of life where I think people should stop looking at games as the problem and start looking at their own brain. It's AMAZING how much of what we do that we want to change is simply a manifestation of your brain not being balanced correctly. Your brain WILL get what it needs, and it's not going to come out and tell you what it needs - it's just going to DO something about it, like give you an overwhelming urge to game until you give in and put your brain into it's happy place.

Books I'd HIGHLY recommend on related topics:

- Your Brain at Work (David Rock)
- Why We Sleep (Matthew Walker)
- Habits of a Happy Brain (Loretta Breuning)

If you have ADHD, or think you do, I'd also highly recommend:

- Driven to Distraction (Edward Hallowell and John Ratey)

If you have a drinking problem:

- Alcohol Explained (William Porter)

There are others but I know these off the top of my head.

I'll forever be a "brain" advocate. Those with working brains and balanced lives and healthy outlets will never understand just how debilitating it can be do be the victim of your own mind, which is made even worse when you don't have the "language" needed to define your problem. It's very hard to solve a problem you don't understand and I believe the books above do an EXCELLENT job of helping you understand and define what MIGHT be the issue.
 
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Saad Khan

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Games are an escape.

They are the path of least resistance for your mind to either flee from something, or to obtain something it's missing.

I've been a gamer my entire life and I can honestly say that when life is good - I play very little. When life is shit - I play too much.

When work/life is overwhelming and I get anxious and stressed and feel out of control, games provide me with a universe I can control in a risk-free environment that makes me feel good. I escape life and obtain control. I replace a lack of victory and satisfaction in life with an overwhelming amount of victory and satisfaction in games.

All this is to say - deleting games doesn't fix the problem. The problem is your need to escape and/or your need for victory/control.

It's a brain thing, not a game thing.

If it wasn't games it would be alcohol or drugs or eating or sex or driving or a hobby or whatever else.

The smartest folks funnel that energy intro productive places - exercise, reading, journaling, meditation, helping others, mentorship, producing content, etc...

This is one of those areas of life where I think people should stop looking at games as the problem and start looking at their own brain. It's AMAZING how much of what we do that we want to change is simply a manifestation of your brain not being balanced correctly. Your brain WILL get what it needs, and it's not going to come out and tell you what it needs - it's just going to DO something about it, like give you an overwhelming urge to game until you give in and put your brain into it's happy place.

Books I'd HIGHLY recommend on related topics:

- Your Brain at Work (David Rock)
- Why We Sleep (Matthew Walker)
- Habits of a Happy Brain (Loretta Breuning)

If you have ADHD, or think you do, I'd also highly recommend:

- Driven to Distraction (Edward Hallowell and John Ratey)

If you have a drinking problem:

- Alcohol Explained (William Porter)

There are others but I know these off the top of my head.

I'll forever be a "brain" advocate. Those with working brains and balanced lives and healthy outlets will never understand just how debilitating it can be do be the victim of your own mind, which is made even worse when you don't have the "language" needed to define your problem. It's very hard to solve a problem you don't understand and I believe the books above do an EXCELLENT job of helping you understand and define what MIGHT be the issue.
Wow, that's a whole new insight into gaming. Never thought this way
 

LightHouse

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Games are an escape.

They are the path of least resistance for your mind to either flee from something, or to obtain something it's missing.

I've been a gamer my entire life and I can honestly say that when life is good - I play very little. When life is shit - I play too much.

When work/life is overwhelming and I get anxious and stressed and feel out of control, games provide me with a universe I can control in a risk-free environment that makes me feel good. I escape life and obtain control. I replace a lack of victory and satisfaction in life with an overwhelming amount of victory and satisfaction in games.

All this is to say - deleting games doesn't fix the problem. The problem is your need to escape and/or your need for victory/control.

It's a brain thing, not a game thing.

If it wasn't games it would be alcohol or drugs or eating or sex or driving or a hobby or whatever else.

The smartest folks funnel that energy intro productive places - exercise, reading, journaling, meditation, helping others, mentorship, producing content, etc...

This is one of those areas of life where I think people should stop looking at games as the problem and start looking at their own brain. It's AMAZING how much of what we do that we want to change is simply a manifestation of your brain not being balanced correctly. Your brain WILL get what it needs, and it's not going to come out and tell you what it needs - it's just going to DO something about it, like give you an overwhelming urge to game until you give in and put your brain into it's happy place.

Books I'd HIGHLY recommend on related topics:

- Your Brain at Work (David Rock)
- Why We Sleep (Matthew Walker)
- Habits of a Happy Brain (Loretta Breuning)

If you have ADHD, or think you do, I'd also highly recommend:

- Driven to Distraction (Edward Hallowell and John Ratey)

If you have a drinking problem:

- Alcohol Explained (William Porter)

There are others but I know these off the top of my head.

I'll forever be a "brain" advocate. Those with working brains and balanced lives and healthy outlets will never understand just how debilitating it can be do be the victim of your own mind, which is made even worse when you don't have the "language" needed to define your problem. It's very hard to solve a problem you don't understand and I believe the books above do an EXCELLENT job of helping you understand and define what MIGHT be the issue.

I love getting on here and seeing you replied Jason, You are right on the money here.

To address the other side of things, getting rid of the addiction source(the game).

If you remove something from your life that is compelling to you or a source of any sort of neuro-chemicals wether it be positive or negative, you create a vacuum. This vacuum will seek to get filled in any way possible. It's not just an open hole, its a literal vacuum where that previous desire was. What fits in their perfectly? the old addiction. This is why people often "fall off the wagon" because they didn't plan properly to replace or fill that vacuum with a more compelling alternative. It will get filled with something one way or another, most commonly the old and familiar addiction.

The best way to combat this is to know ahead of time what your more compelling replacement it. In this case, what are you filling your time with and focusing on. If you have compelling or novel work in front of you that you are excited to do, you can move away from the addiction, if you leave it to chance, you will more likely than not, lose that battle.

The other significant factor is your environment. If you play CSGo, do you watch YouTube, follow news, have friends, plans to play the game or anything surrounding it? If so, you decrease your chances of moving away from the thing. (think alcoholic working at a bar) Fixing or swaping these will also aid in helping you move away from the addiction.

The most important part.... Being ready and making a decision that you are going to move away from it. In your OP, you said you didn't want to..... that's fine. Don't get rid of it then (you may have now but posting this also for future readers) DO make sure, in this case, that your expectations and standards of yourself are adjusted accordingly. If you expect yourself to be a proficient person in work or life, but the reality is you are wasting it with whatever crutch you have, it'll be a recipe for unhappiness that will only lead you further down the rabbit hole of checking out of life with distractions. That alone is the "slippery slope" that keeps people stuck for years.

When you are ready... make that strong, committed decision. Make sure it's part of your identity not a fake statement to yourself.
Figure out what your new alternative is that you are going to drive towards in place of the old thing you are moving away from.
Finally, make sure you shift or change things in your environment to better help you be successful in shifting your focus daily to stay on track.
 

Tom H.

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Obviously addiction is bad, but I don't think all games are bad, specifically, I like skill-based, competitive games. I see playing CSGO as an entirely different thing from playing something like an MMORPG. Basically some games, like CS, are pretty close to sports, while other games are just fantasy and consumption.

I mostly play chess, and every time I try playing other games, they are fun for a few hours, but after a couple weeks of playing a few hours, I basically lose interest because my in-game progress is completely meaningless. At least with chess, I'm not making progressing some in-game character, I am progressing in my skill at the game, and as pointless as that is too, I think it's a valid way to have fun and relax when used appropriately.

There is one video game that's been able to rival chess in my life: Rocket League. Just like chess and CSGO, it's all about skill - there is no character, no story, and not even some in-game system to learn about, it's just you, a physics engine, an other players.

So basically, I like competitive games. I agree they won't make you happy, but for a couple hours a week when I'm done with work and the baby is asleep and I'd just be watching TV anyway, I find competition a lot of fun.

It's like saying soccer or basketball is a waste of time... it is, but there's a place in life for competitive games.
 
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Update: I quit Counter-Strike but I recently started playing again.

24 hours in the last 2 weeks. Not too bad?

I can't believe I used to average 90-100 hours every 2 weeks on that game.

Nowadays I play when a friend invites me.

Solution?

Set my steam status to "invisible." No more distractions now.
 

Saad Khan

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I see playing CSGO as an entirely different thing from playing something like an MMORPG
MMORPG's are dangerous. They hook you into the story and when you wake up next day, 2 years of your life are gone. Just like that. *snaps fingers*

In summary, too many games are not healthy
 

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