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Over the past year (started in october 2006) i have been playing a MMORPG video game on the computer called World of Warcraft. It started with me just playing a few hours a week and i would only play to relax with a friend. This was about the same time i started phasing out of golf. I think most of you older members remember how i used to post upwards of 20 times in a day when i was active on this forum but that came to a halt after i got into this game. It took over my life and i started playing more and more and eventually started playing up to 6 hours in one day (on school days) and even 12 hours a day on weekends. At the end of last schoolyear i was barely playing any golf at all and i had Warcraft taken away from me for a quarter of school due to the horrible grades and exesiveness i was playing. Over the summer of 2007 i reached the level cap in the game and started doing what is called "raiding" where you get together a group of 10-25 people and go into an instance or portal and fight for one cause, to come out on top. At this point in Warcraft, you start to realize how addicted you are becoming. It is a sickness that penetrated into my brain and body and i started to gain weight, and lose my personality. The reason that i became so addicted to the game in the first place, however, was to get away from my parents. They started fighting when i was young and recently divorced in january 2007 and Warcraft was a great way to escape and adventure with online friends, yet it sucked the life out of me. I recently got the game taken away from me again due to 1 failing grade and the rest Cs in my classes at school. I am just asking you guys to help me out here and give me a few tips on how to break away from this terrible game and disease that has torn my life apart stealing time away from me and making me lose my social life altogether. Thanks. (its good to make a post after a while)

Hm...go to the range and hit some! Trust me, you'll most likely fall in love all over again. Also I might suggest throwing away the game and any reminders. You have to wipe your mind completely blank to start fresh.

well, when my mom first took away the game she really took it away. Finding a way to log on to the game, delete all my maxed out characters, and break the discs was hard on me but i bought the game right back and loaded it on and continued during the summer... Wrong choice

Definitely a wrong choice. I guess this would be kind of hard but you just have to leave it all behind. Go for a run, play some sports you like, go to the range. Just stay away from the game. Totally leave it.

The thing that makes it supertough to leave though, is gaining the maturity to just leave because of all of the friendships you make and the people that count on you in the game and then you just walk away on them, i guess thats just the way it goes =\

You've made the first huge step, acknowledging there is a problem. From here on out it should get easier. Seek out help from your school counselor if need be, they'll keep things confidential. (My son is/was a game addict too) Good luck!

im also looking for help from someone who has quit this game already for tips on how to just break away from it

titleistman66: I was sorry to find out about your troubles. Judging from your post, I don't think you are a hopeless case at all though! You realize what happened, why it happened, what it is doing to you, and that it is time to change. As such you are a prime candidate for full recovery!

I too would recommend you get back into golf (though not obsessively). It is equally 'interesting' as the computer game, but at least there is some physical activity involved. Start swinging away, get some fresh air, do some exercise to get back into shape, walk the course. If you are up for it go running once in while. Exercise is not just good for your body, it is great for you mind as well. It will make it quite a bit easier to deal with what life throws you: Start looking around you: Sedentary people do not tend to be the happiest folks around!!

I haven't posted in some time, and your post was at the very top of the forums when I came back on. I admire you for coming into this forum and acknowledging your problem. Let me try to give you some advice (though I'm a novice - my son is only 2) - I am an attorney and I worked pretty hard through high school, college, and then law school on academics.

I can tell you without any hesitation whatsoever that sitting behind a computer screen and playing that (or any other) computer game is nothing but a complete waste of any potential that you have. If you love the game, then I encourage you to use your passion to some constructive end. One of my good friends is the number two guy at Valve Software (the makers of HalfLife & Team Fortress). He was into that kind of thing as a kid, and he figured out how to deconstruct the games, build better user interfaces, and now he's one of the "hottest commodities" in the software design business. He took his passion for computer games and used it to create a career that pays him handsomely (a couple of years ago he finally got his first "real" bonus in the 7 figure range).

When you're a kid, it is difficult for you to see that the choices that you're making are going to shape your entire life. The good news is you're not snorting cocaine or shooting up heroin. The bad news is you've hooked into an addiction that is sucking you dry. You're abandoning the things in your life that matter (your schools, your parents, and probably your friends). You need to focus on your school work, on "real" (that is, real life) friends, and your physical self.

You're lucky that you have golf. There is no other game or sport out there that allows the kind of personal introspection and self-appraisal that this great game does. Go out on the links by yourself, play, and think about life -- where you're headed, what you want to do with your life, and what kind of personal actions you can take to get where you want to go.

At the end of the day, being the biggest, baddest Warcraft player isn't going to gain you anything in life. The sooner you actually realize that (and it sounds like you have) the better off you'll be. Part of being grown up is taking personal responsibility for the choices you make and the actions that define you as a man. You recognize that this addiction that you have is tearing you down, so take that knowledge and run with it.

My wife is a child psychologist and I hear stories from her every day of kids who are acting out in one way or another because of the strife that they face (usually divorce is the culprit). I encourage you to think seriously about how your parents' breakup is affecting you as a person and actually have a sit-down talk with your parents (one at a time) about how your self-destructive habits might be rooted in their divorce. Sometimes (and this is the saddest thing about divorce) the parents act more like children than their kids do. My guess is that your parents, unbeknownst to you, are blaming each other for your problems. Talk to your parents -- show them your post here for starters, and ask them to help you through this difficult time in your life. I know that it is hard for any kid to actually discuss their feelings and tell their parents what's going on in their heads, but you'll be much better off if you really try to do that.

I admire you for posting here. Good luck and keep us posted.

wow, very well put golfzinnut. I will definetely take your advice and some if it has already been accomplished just using my own will. I have already talked ot my parents individually about how i feel about their divorce (when they started towards the breakup and fighting started i was in 7th grade so i have been tormented for a while, as well as attempting a suicide) but i am way past my problems with them. I also have lately learned to manage my time with the game and try to put real life in the front seat and keep the game in the trunk, for when i have nothing to do at night. I have a girlfriend as of recently and were doing well so it does not seem that my case is that bad, according to the criteria that some other cases mgith be that your wife tells you about. Thanks man

You’ve learned a valuable lesson early in life. The game served as an escape from reality for you and provided an environment where you could feel successful and a sense of belonging. Unfortunately, escaping reality is the cause of many problems that people experience. Drugs, alcohol, and gambling are all escapes from reality. Unfortunately, reality isn’t all that great for a lot of people or else there wouldn’t be a need to escape it. What you have to figure out is how to make reality great. You already mentioned that your grades are slipping in school. School is like anything else; it isn’t much fun when you’re not doing well. You get pressure from teachers, parents, and you put pressure on yourself. School then becomes another part of reality you want to escape. The way to fix it is by doing well in school. School is fun when you’re making straight A’s (I promise it really is). When you make straight A’s you can see that your effort is paying off and you get the same feeling of success that you get from the game except it’s real and will benefit you.

Apply this to all aspects of life. If you’re not happy with something fix it. You mentioned that you’ve regressed physically. I have never met a teenager that doesn’t feel self conscious about their appearance and would guess that you were referring to your appearance more so than physical well being. If that is so then fix it. Make looking your best a priority. Dress your best at all times in public and get in shape. Get up 30 minutes early so you can work out before school. Soon you’ll start to feel great about your appearance (that feeling of success again) rather than self conscious about it. The attitude of fixing problems rather than escaping from them is the key to being successful in life and truly enjoying it. Once you get a handle on the important things like grades then you can add golf. You'll also find that golf will be a lot more fun then because your mind won't be preoccupied with all of the negative things going on. I just hate that it took so long for me to figure this out for myself?

Just remember that your parents' divorce is exactly that - their divorce. It has nothing to do with you. Your problems are collateral damage.

If you can't think of a way to channel your passion for Warcraft into something constructive, you need to just put it behind you. Chalk it up as a bad thing and let it go.

Part of growing up (as I remember it) is making bad choices in life and recognizing them as bad choices. Your first post in the thread I think demonstrates that you recognize your addiction to this game as a bad thing. I think writing what you wrote was a very "grown up" thing to do.

You know, I was a pretty good kid growing up. I made great grades and played sports and had some really close friends. I learned pretty early on that my parents and teachers cut me a lot more slack (letting me do the stuff that I wanted to do) when they saw that I was working hard on the important stuff. You're only a couple of months into the school year, so focus on your school work for a while. Pulling up your grades is going to help you in the long run, and your parents won't lean on you so hard if they see that you're trying. Trust me on this-- it is much better when you graduate from high school to have options, and nothing is going to give you more options than having good grades.

And I hate to sound like "an old guy" (I'm 37), but when you find you have nothing to do at night, leave the computer off and read a book. Read those books that help define "teenage thinking" (The Catcher in the Rye, Zen & the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Dune, This Side of Paradise, A Separate Peace, To Kill a Mockingbird). It'll change your outlook on everything.

And I was serious about the "play golf" thing. I can remember driving to the golf course as a 16-year-old, putting a tape in the Walkman (way before the days of the iPod) and walking 18-holes by myself with the music blaringthorugh my headphones.

Good luck.

I couldn't agree more with golfzinnut about the reading. However, I would recommend more non fiction (In Search of Happiness and Good Government; Guns, Germs, and Steel; A Concise Economic History of the World). These books are great not because of what they have to say, but because they give you an overview of history and philosophy. With that you gain a new perspective from which to view our current world, and our current world is absolutely fascinating whether you realize it or not.

I also understand how tough life can be as teenager. I went through the same stuff as a kid. I can now (age 35) say in all honesty that when adults say "it only gets tougher as you get older" they are lying!

Form personal experience, I recommend that you try a session with a professional (psychologist or social worker) at least once. My 18yo daughter is still seeing a professional (because she wants to) after her parents divorced 6 years ago; she has our full support. The entire family had individual and group sessions during and after the divorce; It made it a lot easier for everyone involved.

I'm a mother to a 17 year old son. Everyone here has offered great advise. Now I'm not sure how old you are, but if you're anything like my kid then I understand the changes you, and your body are going through. Hormones can be a pain in the butt. Your parents situation certainly isn't helping. Talking to anyone that will listen, friends..not the computer ones...real friends will ease some of the conflicts that you have running around in your brain. Start by setting some small goals for yourself.. Maybe playing golf three times a week with buddies from school. Go on a bike ride, or if you happen to have a dog, how about going for a run with him maybe twice a week. Think small things, nothing big...just something to get you outside and away from that computer game.

Now I put a sentence in your post in bold. The reason is if you are feeling this depressed enough to think about suicide and attempt it, I feel it's time to get some professional help. Whether it be a Therapist or a counselor, you need to talk to someone. Hang in there, life sometimes can be ugly. Be thankful for what you do have...not what you don't. You're in my thoughts.