How I overcame addiction
The road to recovery is a long road, and on that road you will find that all of the twists and turns are helping you get to where you need to go...recovery. It is on this journey that you learn life lessons, you learn what caused it, and more importantly you learn how to overcome it. for me it all started with the faint words, "you can do more...if you want to."
For the longest time in my life I always dreamed that I could do more. I would think of amazing things I would like to do, but never get around to doing them. I struggled with addiction for a long time and even today I still struggle with it. I’m not talking about an addiction to drugs or to alcohol, I am talking about an addiction to procrastination.
My entire life I have struggled with this crippling addiction of procrastination and its weapon of choice has been video games. When I was 10 years old my I owned a copy of Diablo 2 and I had a blast playing it. The problem was that the game was too fun for me and it became an obsession for me to play it. I remember every single night after school going into the basement and playing for hours on end; it got to the point where I would rather play the game than play with my friends.
I was fortunate that my wife gave me an ultimatum a year or two after she met me which was “you pick the game or you pick a life with me.” This stopped me playing that game for good.
See, when you find a strong enough “why” for why you want to stop something you will do whatever it takes to stop it; although, sometimes the addiction has its roots in deep. I am still in the process of overcoming this addition. I have toned it down A LOT since I was a teenager, but it is still there. I no longer play on my Xbox, I have tried to purge myself from the IPad and I am working strong at stopping all computer games.
I have a daughter who will be here soon, within the next few weeks and I need to be a good role model for her. She has reinvigorated my why. I need to be an attentive father to her and I want her to have the best life she can have.
You can do more….
The voices inside my head any time I look at a video game try to pull me in, they say “just play a little, it won’t hurt anyone.” But I need to stay strong. Instead I listen to that small voice which is getting louder say “you can do more Jacob, you can do more!”
The same goes for all of you. If you want to be more you have to do more. You have to do more for yourself and work on yourself day in and day out and not let the voices win. Because if you can ignore them for long enough those small voices inside that want you to do well will get louder and eventually you won’t even hear the negative ones.
This is not going to come easily. It took me years to break free. But here are a few things that helped me overcome this addiction.
1. Think about why you are addicted to what you are addicted to. For me it was because I didn't want to face life how it was. I wanted an escape from the real world and I wanted a place where I felt like I had power.
2. Imagine what your life would be like without it. This can be hard at first, but with practice you will see yourself doing what you want to do.
3. Create a new habit and work on 1 at a time. From this point forward, when you feel the urge to go back to your addiction replace it immediately with something else. For me, it was reading. When I felt the urge to play a video game I distanced myself from it and I picked up a book. This didn't always work, but I'll tell you this much, persistence pays off.
4. It's okay if you backslide, but don't make it a habit. We're all human and habits don't change overnight. When you embark on this journey to better yourself I can almost guarantee a few slip ups (I know I had my fair share). The key is to not let it get you bogged down and if it happens it happens. Realise it, become aware that it happened and move on to get back at it.
As a bonus, I would recommend you find or create a habit tracker. It can be something simple like a weekly planner where you write down your new habit you are creating and put a checkmark off for each time you have done it that week. At the end of the week give yourself a reward, at the end of the month (or 30 days) give yourself a pat on the back and an even greater reward because you have just created a new habit!
Now I am not a doctor, but I found that these four things really helped me overcome my video game addiction. If you feel like you need help I strongly encourage you to seek out professional help.
So for all of you who know you can do more, for those of you who are ready to do more, and for those of you who are trying to break free from the hold of procrastination join me. I am extending my hand to you as a hand of friendship. Together we can do more, we can be more, and we can live the life we deserve to live!
To your success,
Jacob
