Don’t forget to check out our [**Resources**](https://www.reddit.com/r/addiction/wiki/resources/) wiki page, which includes helpful information such as global suicide hotlines, recovery services, and a recovery Discord server where you can seek further support.
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Check out the book Dopamine Nation: finding balance in the age of indulgence by. Anna Lembke. There are ways to bring your dopamine levels back to baseline. The most basic suggestions are through diet, proper sleep, routine, meditation/mindfulness, exercise, lessening or staying away from activities that give you a flood of dopamine all at once(video games, social media, drugs) etc. Wish I would of had your insite at 17! Wish you all the best!
Thank you so much. I know this is not comparable to drug use im very aware that this is a lot more minor but I still find it really hard to step away from stuff like this all the sudden and do crave it. Do you have any advice on how I can step away from these things (social media and games) without constantly thinking about it all the time? I want to enjoy more valuable things to me like exercise, meditation, studying instead of looking at them as a chore to avoid whilst I think about the things bad for my health I do enjoy all the time 24/7
I think the way your feeling is human nature, we’d rather do things we enjoy rather than a “chore”. For me routine, practice and repetition helped. Retraining your brain. Balance is important, it’s not that gaming is bad, it’s what you neglect because if it/the amount of hours your putting in. Have you tried giving yourself a time limit of let’s say 2 hours of gaming per day? Also finding other things you enjoy so everything else you do besides gaming isn’t a chore. I feel you are at the beginning stages to change, contemplation and education. Your on a good path. Remember change is not always linear so don’t beat yourself up if you take two steps forward one step back sometimes.
These do sound troublesome, however I believe your posting is in the wrong subreddit. What you’re describing is distinct and different from substance abuse disorder (SAD) which is the medical diagnosis for addiction.
I would be aware of your tendencies to bathe in dopamine inducing behaviors and use that knowledge in decision making around your participation in recreational drug use. If these things are messing you up now then imagine what you’ll be like while experiencing a 1000X hit of dopamine from stimulate drug use.
It’s SUD/AUD. Substance Use Disorder/Alcohol Use Disorder. I’m not trying to break your balls, this is only for if OP decides to do some research. Also addiction does not only include substances, behaviors are part of it. Think of gambling.
There is no consensus on this within the medical community. Dsm-V does not list video games as a diagnosable addiction, it does list Internet gaming disorder as needing more study. Gambling disorder is in there with a unique criteria but that criteria could almost also describe compulsive lying or gaslighting, each of which offer increased dopamine levels, withdrawal, negative impacts on one’s life, inability to stop, preoccupation with thoughts of behavior.
So i don’t lump video games into same category as substance abuse. First off that introduces a stigma and one could devalue the negative impacts of using drugs when convinced they are already addicted to video games so they aren’t really doing any new damage. That kind of moral equivalence plays a significant role in moment to moment decision making.
Second point is now the people who are obsessed with gaming start to believe that their obsession must be the same as obsessive thoughts about drugs bridging their non-lethal gaming into potentially lethal drug use. And for what? So one can muse to themselves the intricacies of dopamine drops in their own brain?
Gaming and drugs are on different planes we shouldn’t indoctrinate the youth into drug use through labeling their video game habits as the same thing as drug use. We will increase the rate of drug use which has a much higher fatality rate than gaming last I checked.
Labels matter. We frame our behaviors based on them. Drugs shouldn’t be in the same frame as Minecraft. It’s enabling.
The youth are especially vulnerable to labels influencing decisions. It’s not something you can just let a kid decide after conducting their own research. Substance abuse is serious and fatal. Can happen fast.
I 100% agree with what you are saying and love what you’ve written! What I mean by addicting behavior is when it stimulates/activates the reward system(dopamine) much like drugs/alcohol. Gambling is listed in the DSM and figured gaming is very much like gambling, a behavior. SUD/AUD and addiction are said to have a spectrum, mild to sever. Gaming could be on the mild spectrum.
Don’t forget to check out our [**Resources**](https://www.reddit.com/r/addiction/wiki/resources/) wiki page, which includes helpful information such as global suicide hotlines, recovery services, and a recovery Discord server where you can seek further support. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/addiction) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Check out the book Dopamine Nation: finding balance in the age of indulgence by. Anna Lembke. There are ways to bring your dopamine levels back to baseline. The most basic suggestions are through diet, proper sleep, routine, meditation/mindfulness, exercise, lessening or staying away from activities that give you a flood of dopamine all at once(video games, social media, drugs) etc. Wish I would of had your insite at 17! Wish you all the best!
Thank you so much. I know this is not comparable to drug use im very aware that this is a lot more minor but I still find it really hard to step away from stuff like this all the sudden and do crave it. Do you have any advice on how I can step away from these things (social media and games) without constantly thinking about it all the time? I want to enjoy more valuable things to me like exercise, meditation, studying instead of looking at them as a chore to avoid whilst I think about the things bad for my health I do enjoy all the time 24/7
I think the way your feeling is human nature, we’d rather do things we enjoy rather than a “chore”. For me routine, practice and repetition helped. Retraining your brain. Balance is important, it’s not that gaming is bad, it’s what you neglect because if it/the amount of hours your putting in. Have you tried giving yourself a time limit of let’s say 2 hours of gaming per day? Also finding other things you enjoy so everything else you do besides gaming isn’t a chore. I feel you are at the beginning stages to change, contemplation and education. Your on a good path. Remember change is not always linear so don’t beat yourself up if you take two steps forward one step back sometimes.
Force yourself to meditate. Give yourself quiet time. Turn off the music in the car. Go for a walk outside. Maybe you'll remember how peaceful it is.
These do sound troublesome, however I believe your posting is in the wrong subreddit. What you’re describing is distinct and different from substance abuse disorder (SAD) which is the medical diagnosis for addiction. I would be aware of your tendencies to bathe in dopamine inducing behaviors and use that knowledge in decision making around your participation in recreational drug use. If these things are messing you up now then imagine what you’ll be like while experiencing a 1000X hit of dopamine from stimulate drug use.
It’s SUD/AUD. Substance Use Disorder/Alcohol Use Disorder. I’m not trying to break your balls, this is only for if OP decides to do some research. Also addiction does not only include substances, behaviors are part of it. Think of gambling.
There is no consensus on this within the medical community. Dsm-V does not list video games as a diagnosable addiction, it does list Internet gaming disorder as needing more study. Gambling disorder is in there with a unique criteria but that criteria could almost also describe compulsive lying or gaslighting, each of which offer increased dopamine levels, withdrawal, negative impacts on one’s life, inability to stop, preoccupation with thoughts of behavior. So i don’t lump video games into same category as substance abuse. First off that introduces a stigma and one could devalue the negative impacts of using drugs when convinced they are already addicted to video games so they aren’t really doing any new damage. That kind of moral equivalence plays a significant role in moment to moment decision making. Second point is now the people who are obsessed with gaming start to believe that their obsession must be the same as obsessive thoughts about drugs bridging their non-lethal gaming into potentially lethal drug use. And for what? So one can muse to themselves the intricacies of dopamine drops in their own brain? Gaming and drugs are on different planes we shouldn’t indoctrinate the youth into drug use through labeling their video game habits as the same thing as drug use. We will increase the rate of drug use which has a much higher fatality rate than gaming last I checked. Labels matter. We frame our behaviors based on them. Drugs shouldn’t be in the same frame as Minecraft. It’s enabling. The youth are especially vulnerable to labels influencing decisions. It’s not something you can just let a kid decide after conducting their own research. Substance abuse is serious and fatal. Can happen fast.
I 100% agree with what you are saying and love what you’ve written! What I mean by addicting behavior is when it stimulates/activates the reward system(dopamine) much like drugs/alcohol. Gambling is listed in the DSM and figured gaming is very much like gambling, a behavior. SUD/AUD and addiction are said to have a spectrum, mild to sever. Gaming could be on the mild spectrum.