I read the original post too fast, or with my old person eyes and thought I saw six thousand versus six hundred.

Six hundred is NOT a lot of money to spend on a computer.

I hope you're not looking for a technical, artificial, or external solution to your problem. As others have said, find other activities, be they women, outside activities, enriching activities like book reading or chess playing, etc.

And then there's also "cold turkey", which is to quit. Even to the limit of disabling your ability to be able to play games.

A lot of this is behavior self-modification. Just like you do when you quit smoking, lose weight, or try to curb a behavior which you do not desire to continue doing.

I'm offering the advice to try these things by your self first versus seeking counseling, support groups, or looking for a prescription or other technical solution. Why? Because I'm assuming "normal", you say you're not a heavy gamer, but just can't control your compulsion at playing a lot, the few games you do play. Hence, try doing something/anything else.

If this turns into some destructive situation where you cause major disruptions to your life and lives of others close to you, due to this gaming compulsion, then OK you have a more complex problem. However if it is the same as "You watch far, far too much TV", then just "cut it out".

What would you spend the money and time on if you weren't gaming? Just do that instead and you won't have the time and money for gaming. OK, overly simplistic but there you go .
I did read somewhere that there is some evidence to suggest that gaming (and we're talking FPSs not [just?] puzzles) may help with mental acuity and problems solving so it's possibly not an entirely bad thing as long a you look after your body too.
So, unless you're going to replace gaming with drink and/or drugs and/or watching TV then it may not be worth it. Which comes back to what I said above. Perhaps next time you're looking to buy an expensive PC pay for that trip you always wanted to go on or whatever then buy a cheaper PC?

Have some kids!

I'm old and cranky and I've been through some dark times.

I also used to be a smoker, so I know a bit about being out of control of my own behavior. Indeed, I'm still addicted, but it's to nicotine gum, so at least I'm not sucking crap into my lungs.

If OP thinks that his gaming is a problem, then it's a problem. I also suspect that, if OP thought he could go cold turkey, he would have done so.

I don't have an answer for OP, but, at the risk of seeming like the grumpy old man that I am, I don't think flippancy is the answer.

Since OP has not stated exactly what sort of problem(s) gaming has created for him, and some people (myself included) think gaming under control and with discretion as to the kind of games is positive, I can't help but wonder if OP is not actually convinced he has a gaming problem (and maybe he doesn't, we haven't been truly informed) and it is perhaps someone in his life that thinks he has a problem and possibly has even issued some sort of ultimatum. Sometimes this is valid and sometimes it is not but we just don't have enough information to know. It would be good if we got some further input from OP.

Edit: Yup...just checked and not one response after the thread opener.

Hi Frankbell. OK, I'll acknowledge, but also embellish.

Yes, my most recent post about having kids was truly flippant in origin.

However, when I think in detail about it, my personal perspectives are in fact a bit more cruel.

I'm thinking "Grow Up!" I offered a lot of simplicity about addiction in an earlier post. I've witnessed addiction in life; alcohol and drugs; and seen deaths result from them. I'm not saying that this isn't a truly serious issue for the OP. But I do question how "life serious" it really is. I mean, if they stand to lose a wife, or girlfriend, or friends, or family because of this, and they're at the nearest point of loss risk, and realizing it. Gee whiz, the "cut that bleep out!" advice is probably a very good suggestion. I'm certain that the wife/girlfriend/friends/family members are thinking EXACTLY that.

Unfortunately a lot of this really now is for others versus just the OP, because I largely agree with Enorbet in that the OP shot their round and now they're mute.

As far as marrying and having kids. THAT made me grow up several times. I married in my early 20s. We had a kid immediately. I had to get a living situation and provide for the family immediately. So I did. I don't suggest someone have a kid if they don't have the conscience to raise that child though. I was the type who had enough of a conscience to grow up and realize that I could no longer be some college recent graduate who went out partying or wasting time on abstractions in life similar to what I'd seen those family members who died did, and thus left their families in increasingly worser situations, which actually (unfortunately) got better when they finally passed away.

The other part is just general growing up. I said "several times". Because just having a child and caring for a baby is one thing. Dealing with a growing toddler, teaching them, dealing with their interactions with a non-ideal world, teaching them to drive, to work at school and a career, and become an adult, are all learning experiences.

In short, I was smart enough to realize that I did not wish to be thought of as having died and made things better for my widow and kids by finally exiting the world. Anyways, that's sort of what that all has to do with addiction. My life experiences, unfortunately have been tainted by witnessing the effects that it has on the others. Sure, I've witnessed the effects it had on the addict, and those effects were the worst possible. But over years, literally years, no matter how close someone is, yes, you are standing face to face with your relative, yelling at their intoxicated face that they are killing their self, ruining other lives in the process, and that all you want to do is literally yank whatever the cause for all of this is entirely out of their psyche, soul, body, whatever. And they still do it and get worse. You feel horrible, feeing relieved that they're finally dead.

Frankbell: I'm the youngest of 6. My parents relatives all had 5 or more kids each. They all were born in the teens and 20's, nearly a hundred years ago. Surprisingly, I'm only 50, so while I'm technically of an age, it is merely a number. If I were 30 years older at 80, I think I'd still be saying that. Please don't call yourself a cranky old man. The only time I'll accept that stigmata is when I'm sitting in the box seats at Fenway Park and the Boston Red Sox start Clay Buchholz yet one more time, LIKE THEY DID LAST NIGHT!!!! So yes, I'll be a cranky old man, yelling into the dugout at the manager and screaming back at the owner's box. Just that if I was 10 or 20 years younger, I'd be throwing items as well, and then be escorted out of the park. Disclaimer: While I was technically out of the house last night, I was nowhere near the park, and my actions were limited to swearing when I received texts and harshly pressing the buttons on my remote to cancel the recording and delete it.

@OP and any addicts. LEARN from my witnessed/life experiences. You want your son or brother to think about your departed life in the ways I'm describing, then just keep going. Not that I think you care. And realize that I can tell I contain addictive tendencies in my family. I'm not going to tell sob or enlightening stories, I did stuff the hard way and made my choices. The floor is yours. Make your choice.

When I started school, simply uninstalled them all. Sadly for my nephews I never got back in, PS3 is for them and BD-RE.

Now, how to quit all other "frivolous" media?

Maybe switch to games that END, so that you can play them to completion and then take a break?

I would say just go into console gaming, but the truth is I am not very impressed by today's consoles anyways. I almost *ALMOST* decided to buy a PS4 for Final Fantasy VII, but all the changes that are going to be made, plus its not one full game, so download each episode.....nah, screw it.

Still I don't pc game that much, even though it is mostly console emulation (because I don't have anymore consoles unfortunately) - nothing really caught my eye recently though. I don't care about WoW, or Call of Duty, or anything thats out right now, it just doesn't interest me.

Women, Cars, Bikes, Bicycles meaning find something else that's interesting.

I play Counter Strike online sometimes but I kinda suck at it (Im ok w/ bots) I certainly don't have an "addiction". Also play a lot of skyrim, fallout, and Grand theft auto. All good here

Mabe something like: http://lifehacker.com/5854272/the-be...-app-for-linux

I will preface what follows by saying that I don't know OP other than by what he has posted here at LQ. I have no idea what OP's days are like or what his gaming habits are. All I know is that OP felt that his gaming was out of control and asked for help.

What follows is therefore necessarily a general statement.

It has been my experience that persons who ask for help about a behavioral issue, especially if they do so in a public forum such as this one, have reached a point at which they no longer feel able to deal with that issue on their own. With all due respect, telling someone who asks for help to just "grow up" is not likely to be helpful. If the person asking for help was able to just "grow up" on his or her own, he or she wouldn't be asking for help.

"Just grow up" may be valid in terms of ethical philosophy and individual responsibility, but it's not necessarily productive in psychological terms.

When you tell your kids to grow up, do they?

Mine didn't, at least not because I told them to. (They've turned out pretty well. I hope to some extent it's because of what I and their mothers showed them, but I doubt seriously it's because I told them to, because I never uttered those words to them.) (Yes, I said mothers. My family is blended.)

I will add that I have known addicts of various sorts. I have had alcoholic friends who hid bottles in places that I didn't even know were places and who pretended to be seeking help even as they found more secret places. I know that this is no simple issue.

Yet I must say that, if I asked someone how to quit smoking cigarettes and was told to "just grow up," I'd still be smoking cigarettes.

And, speaking from the point-of-view of someone who actually has spent time on a telephone "suicide hotline," (successfully ...) "talking someone down off of a bridge," I can quite-honestly say that ...

... "it is precisely at that point that you realize that you 'have a problem' (as you see it ...) that you can begin to intelligently dispose yourself of it ...

... i-f(!) you, at the very same time, realize that you are not The First Human Being On Planet Earth™ to have done so.

"Welcome aboard. Let me first get you a warm towel and a warmer cup of coffee. 'Trust me, you are not the first.' Now, how can we help you?"

You are now securely on the deck of a stable ship-at-sea, well below that bridge that you once thought "was 'inevitably' The End Of Your Life." A warm stateroom awaits you, then "a shower and a shave, then breakfast accompanied by coffee." Tomorrow afternoon, "our mission on your behalf having duly been accomplished," we warmly invite you to discuss: your ... your now-actual ... future."

Great post, sundialsvcs. I think you have struck upon a key element of suicide - isolation. Perhaps this is why so many occur in teenagers. I know of no other time in life when so many individuals subscribe to the notion that how it is today, is how it must be forever and being "out" of the crowd is a death sentence.

As trite and cliche as it may be I am very fond of the movie "The Castaway" wherein Tom Hanks' character realizes that with every new moment, something new comes our way, and often a deliverance we don't even dare imagine can present itself, if we just allow ourselves to embrace and utilize it. Life implies options. Death is simply "end of story" with the profound difference that the stories of those you love and hate continue and they must deal with your demise.

A Palette cleanser -