What To Do If You Relapse And Start Gaming Again
Summary
TLDRIn 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
- đŸ 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.
- đ Cam believes that relapses aren't necessarily bad and can be a learning experience to quit video games for good.
- đ 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.
- đ€ He suggests that understanding the reasons behind a relapse can be crucial in preventing future occurrences.
- đź 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.
- đ Cam recommends tracking the number of days without gaming to create a 'high score' that motivates one to avoid relapsing.
- đ 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.
- đĄ Relapses are not signs of failure but opportunities to learn and improve strategies for quitting gaming.
- đ Cam offers a document called '60-plus hobby ideas' to help people find new activities to replace gaming.
- đ He also mentions a guide called 'Respawn' which contains his best advice and strategies for quitting video games.
- đ An upcoming 'Game Quitters Challenge' is teased as a 30-day challenge to transform one's life, akin to an ultimate video game.
- đ 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
đź 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.
đ 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.
Mindmap
Keywords
đĄRelapse
đĄCold Turkey
đĄIntentional
đĄStress and Anxiety
đĄEscape
đĄReward
đĄHigh Score
đĄBoredom
đĄConsistency
đĄPassion
đĄGame Quitters Challenge
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
5.0 / 5 (0 votes)