What To Do If You Relapse And Start Gaming Again

Summary

In this insightful video, Cam from Ubud, Bali discusses the common challenge of relapsing into video gaming after quitting. He shares his personal experience of a significant relapse and identifies four main reasons for such setbacks: boredom, stress or anxiety, feeling good, and using gaming as a reward. Cam suggests learning from relapses and offers a 'game' framework to beat personal high scores in abstaining and quickly getting back on track if a relapse occurs. He encourages viewers to see relapses as learning opportunities rather than failures and provides resources for those ready to quit gaming.

Takeaways

• 🌾 The speaker, Cam, is sharing his experience and advice on dealing with relapses in quitting video games, which he discusses from the rice fields in Ubud, Bali, Indonesia.
• 🔄 Cam believes that relapses aren't necessarily bad and can be a learning experience to quit video games for good.
• 📅 Cam's personal experience includes going cold turkey for 11 months and then relapsing for five months when he moved to a new city, feeling overwhelmed and lonely.
• 🤔 He suggests that understanding the reasons behind a relapse can be crucial in preventing future occurrences.
• 🎮 The four main reasons for relapse, as identified by Cam, are boredom, stress or anxiety, feeling good and forgetting the negative impact of gaming, and using gaming as a reward.
• 📉 Cam recommends tracking the number of days without gaming to create a 'high score' that motivates one to avoid relapsing.
• 🏁 If a relapse occurs, the goal should be to get back on track as quickly as possible, aiming for a 'low score' in the time taken to resume not gaming.
• 💡 Relapses are not signs of failure but opportunities to learn and improve strategies for quitting gaming.
• 📚 Cam offers a document called '60-plus hobby ideas' to help people find new activities to replace gaming.
• 📖 He also mentions a guide called 'Respawn' which contains his best advice and strategies for quitting video games.
• 📅 An upcoming 'Game Quitters Challenge' is teased as a 30-day challenge to transform one's life, akin to an ultimate video game.
• 📍 Cam invites viewers to share their location and to follow him on Twitter for updates.

Q & A

What is the main topic of the video?

The main topic of the video is discussing the issue of relapse in the context of quitting video games and how to deal with it.

What was Cam's initial experience when he quit playing games?

Cam managed to quit playing games cold turkey for 11 months, during which he was intentional about not being at home and worked on improving his social skills.

Why did Cam relapse into playing video games?

Cam relapsed because he moved to a new city and felt overwhelmed due to the lack of social connections, which led him to play video games again as a coping mechanism.

How long did Cam play video games after his relapse?

After relapsing, Cam played video games for 16 hours a day for five months straight.

What did Cam learn from his relapse experience?

Cam learned about the reasons behind his relapse and used this knowledge to write an article on how to quit playing games, which he now shares with his audience.

What are the four main reasons Cam believes people tend to relapse into gaming?

The four main reasons are boredom, stress or anxiety, feeling really good and forgetting the negative impact of gaming, and using gaming as a reward.

What is the framework Cam suggests for dealing with a relapse?

Cam suggests turning the process into a game where the goal is to beat your high score, which involves tracking the number of days without gaming and getting back on track quickly after a relapse.

What is the purpose of the 'high score' in Cam's framework?

The 'high score' serves as a motivational tool to encourage individuals to abstain from gaming for as long as possible and to recover quickly if they do relapse.

What resource does Cam offer to help people find activities to replace gaming?

Cam offers a document called '60-plus hobby ideas' which provides over 60 suggestions for activities that can replace gaming.

What is the name of the guide Cam recommends for quitting video games?

The guide is called 'Respawn' and it contains Cam's best advice and strategies for quitting video games.

What challenge is Cam planning to release in the near future?

Cam is planning to release the 'Game Quitters Challenge', which is a 30-day challenge designed to transform one's life into the ultimate video game.

Outlines

00:00

🎮 Overcoming Video Game Relapse

In this paragraph, Cam shares his personal experience with quitting video games and the subsequent relapse. He emphasizes that relapsing is common and can be a learning opportunity. Cam details his 11-month streak of not playing games, his intentional activities to improve social skills, and the emotional challenges that led to his relapse. He moved to a new city, Victoria, to test his new skills but ended up playing games excessively due to feeling overwhelmed. Despite this setback, Cam is grateful for the insights gained, which he has used to write about quitting games and to inform his teachings.

05:02

📚 Strategies for Avoiding Gaming Relapse

This paragraph delves into the reasons why people may relapse into gaming after quitting. Cam identifies four main causes: boredom, stress or anxiety, feeling good (which can lead to justifying gaming as a reward for progress), and using gaming as a traditional reward mechanism. To combat relapse, Cam suggests turning the process into a game with two 'scores': one for the number of consecutive days without gaming and another for how quickly one can recover from a relapse. He encourages viewers not to view a relapse as a failure but as a chance to learn and improve. Cam also promotes additional resources, such as a document with hobby ideas and a guide called 'Respawn,' to assist in quitting gaming. He announces an upcoming 'Game Quitters Challenge' and invites viewers to engage with him on social media.

Keywords

💡Relapse

Relapse refers to a return to a previous behavior or condition after a period of improvement. In the context of the video, it specifically means returning to playing video games after initially quitting. The video discusses the commonality of relapse and how it can be a learning experience, as the speaker shares their own relapse into gaming after moving to a new city and feeling overwhelmed.

💡Cold Turkey

Cold turkey is a slang term used to describe the abrupt cessation of a habit or addiction without gradually reducing it. The video mentions the speaker's experience of quitting games 'cold turkey' for 11 months, which highlights the difficulty of maintaining such a drastic change without a gradual transition to new habits.

💡Intentional

Being intentional means doing something with a clear purpose or plan. The speaker mentions being intentional about not being at home and improving social skills as part of their initial attempt to quit gaming. This concept is integral to the video's message about setting clear goals and plans to avoid relapse.

💡Stress and Anxiety

Stress and anxiety are emotional states that can be triggered by various life events and can affect behavior. The video identifies these as common triggers for relapse into gaming, as they were for the speaker when they moved to a new city and felt overwhelmed, leading them to return to gaming as a coping mechanism.

💡Escape

Escape refers to the act of getting away from a difficult or unpleasant situation. In the video, gaming is described as an 'escape' for the speaker, which is a common reason why people might relapse into gaming—to avoid dealing with real-life stressors.

💡Reward

A reward is something given in recognition of service, effort, or achievement. The video discusses how gaming can be used as a reward, which can lead to relapse when people are looking for something to celebrate their achievements or milestones.

💡High Score

In gaming, a high score is a record of achievement. The video creatively uses the concept of a 'high score' as a metaphor for setting and achieving personal goals related to quitting gaming, such as tracking the number of days without playing games and quickly getting back on track after a relapse.

💡Boredom

Boredom is a state of being weary or uninterested due to a lack of stimulation. The video identifies boredom as a reason for relapsing into gaming, as it's a common go-to activity for many people when they are not engaged in something else.

💡Consistency

Consistency refers to the quality of being steady or regular. The video emphasizes the importance of being consistent in finding new activities to fill the time previously spent gaming, as a lack of consistency can lead to relapse.

💡Passion

Passion is a strong and barely controllable emotion. In the context of the video, the speaker mentions that gaming was something they were passionate about, which can make it difficult to quit and can lead to relapse when the person feels they are missing out on something they love.

💡Game Quitters Challenge

The Game Quitters Challenge is a 30-day challenge mentioned in the video, designed to help individuals turn their life into 'the ultimate video game' by quitting gaming. It represents a structured approach to overcoming the habit of gaming and is an example of the practical tools the speaker offers to help viewers.

Highlights

Relapse after quitting gaming is common and can be a learning experience.

The speaker quit gaming for 11 months but experienced a relapse due to stress and moving to a new city.

Relapsing can be beneficial as it provides insights into why it occurred and how to prevent it in the future.

Four main reasons for relapse include boredom, stress/anxiety, feeling good, and using gaming as a reward.

When bored, it's crucial to find new activities to replace gaming to maintain consistency.

Stress or anxiety can lead to relapse as gaming is often seen as an escape.

Feeling good can paradoxically lead to relapse as one may justify gaming due to improved mood.

Using gaming as a reward can cause a relapse when seeking to celebrate achievements or milestones.

A framework for dealing with relapse involves setting high scores for consecutive days without gaming and quickly recovering from a relapse.

Tracking the number of days without gaming can be highly motivating.

Relapse doesn't mean failure; it's an opportunity to learn and improve.

The speaker offers a document with over 60 hobby ideas to replace gaming.

A guide called 'Respawn' is available for those ready to quit gaming, containing the speaker's best advice.

An upcoming 'Game Quitters Challenge' is a 30-day program aimed at transforming life into an ultimate video game experience.

The speaker is currently in Bali and invites viewers to share their location and follow on Twitter.

Transcripts

hey what's up guys cam here and today

I'm coming at you from the rice fields

in ubud bali indonesia today's question

is about what to do if you relapse it's

very common when you first quit playing

games to actually have some sort of

relapse experience and i actually don't

believe that that's necessarily a bad

thing there's a lot we can learn from

our relapse experiences they can help us

move forward and actually quit playing

video games for good so today what i

wanted to share with you is first my

experience with relapse then i want to

share the reasons why I believe we

relapse and finally I want to share with

you what you want to do if you do happen

to relapse so first in my experience

when I first quit playing games I

actually managed to go cold turkey for

11 months straight and during that time

I was very intentional with not being in

the house and I was actually out

learning to improve my social skills I

was doing it sober and I was keeping a

journal of the different things I was

learning this actually worked really

well but what happened was in the summer

I started to feel a bit down and I

started to feel a bit more stressed

anxious and a little bit depressed

I thought the solution was for me to

move to a new city and get a change of

scenery and I could also use this as a

challenge to test my new social skills I

had to see if I could move to new city

and to make new friends so I packed

everything I owned into my car and drove

15 hours to Victoria which is on

Vancouver Island in Canada to take on

this challenge but what I didn't know at

the time was that I was actually just

running away from my problems and so

within my first week in Victoria

overwhelmed because I didn't know anyone

I started to play video games again and

I actually played games 16 hours a day

for five months straight but looking

back I'm actually grateful for the

experience because I learned a lot from

why I ended up relapsing cuz I end up

actually using to write my article on

how to quit playing games and a lot of

it is what I'm teaching you guys now

free lapse happens what you want to do

is you want to try and learn from it why

did it happen and how can you use that

new knowledge to your advantage

to ensure that it doesn't happen again

so I actually believe that there are

four main reasons why we tend to relapse

and the first is it

we're simply bored so when you quit

playing games it's really important that

you find new activities and for the

first couple days usually you're good at

doing that but over time maybe you lack

the consistency Gaming has always been

your go-to activity whenever you're

bored so if you're not being intentional

about what you're filling your time with

that you justify playing because it's

something fun so you must actually just

enjoy it so you end up relapsing the

second reason is that you're stressed or

you're anxious now this can happen

because something happened at work or at

school or maybe with your family or your

friends and because gaming has always

been that escape for you and you're

emotional you end up relapsing the third

reason why we tend to relapse is because

we're actually feeling really good and

so what can happen is you've put gaming

and now maybe you're a few days in maybe

you're a week or a month or longer

you're actually feeling really great

this is happening because you aren't

playing games but you kind of forget

that so you justify playing because

gaming didn't actually have that big of

a pull on you it's something you enjoy

it's something you're passionate about

you end up playing and finally the last

reason why we tend to relapse is because

we use it as a reward so whether that's

an award for something we've done like

we got a grade at school or for the fact

that we haven't played games for a

specific period of time traditionally

we've used gaming as a reward to

ourselves and so because we haven't

chosen a new reward we end up going back

to what we know so we end up using

gaming okay so what do you do if you do

happen to relapse now there's a

framework that I really like to use and

it's actually about turning it into a

game and so that game is about beating

your high score and your high score

comes in two different ways the first

way is about how many days in a row were

you able to go without gaming now you

want to create this score to be as big

as possible and to do it you want to

make sure that you're tracking your days

if you're not currently tracking your

days make sure you join us on the

subreddit stop gaming and create your

badge seeing that number grow is highly

motivating and you want to create it as

big as possible because the bigger the

number is unless you want to give it up

just to play a few games and the second

score is about when you do happen to

relapse how quickly are you able to get

yourself back not playing games you

actually want to create the score to be

as low as possible so for me I didn't

play games for 11 months which was great

but then it took me five months after

relapsing to get back on track you want

to create the first number how many

games you haven't played games for be as

big as possible and then if you happen

to relapse you want to get back on track

as quickly as possible playing keep that

score super low so remember

relapse happens and it doesn't

necessarily have to be a bad thing that

doesn't mean that you want to just give

in and allow yourself to relapse but

when you do you don't necessarily need

to feel like a failure or feel the shame

that can come with relapsing okay so if

you're ready to quit gaming but you're

not sure what you would fill your time

with I want you to download my document

called 60-plus hobby ideas you can click

somewhere on the screen or down below

the document will give you 60 plus ideas

for what you could replace gaming with

and people really love this document so

make sure you grab yours and if you're

ready to quit playing video games right

now I want you to grab my guide called

respawn the link is below

respawn has all of my best stuff over

the last four years of answering emails

and comments and questions and the

feedback I've been getting has been

amazing so definitely make sure you grab

your copy and thank you to all of you

who have already grabbed yours in the

next two weeks I'll be releasing the

game quitters challenge which is a

30-day challenge to turn your life into

the ultimate video game so make sure you

look out for that I'm still in Bali

right now give you a picture of the

sights okay so finally I want you to

leave me a comment with where you're

watching this video from and if you

haven't followed me on Twitter yet make

sure you do that as well alright that's

it for me today guys I hope you have a

great week and I'll talk to you guys

soon alright peace

you