How to overcome financial difficulties?
- Restrict your access to your money if you find it difficult to set financial limits in your game.
- Take the help of a parent or your spouse to manage your finances for a while. You may ask them to manage payments and deposits for you till you regain control over your expenses
- Keep very little money on your person
How to reduce time spent in gaming?
- Fight boredom by finding other hobbies or exciting activities that interest you
- Do volunteer work
- Plan your day ahead to ensure you spend time productively
- Spend time with family and friends. Building a support system prevents excessive gaming behaviour.
How to overcome the habit of excessive gaming?
For yourself
Trying to break a habit that has become an integral part of your life can be quite challenging.
- Before attempting to break the cycle of excessive gaming, ask yourself, “what is the need for change?” The answer will be an important driver for you towards change.
- Next, you must identify the negative consequences of your old habit of excessive gaming. This helps make the need for change even stronger.
- Identify the barriers you will encounter in changing your habit. This will help you handling anticipated roadblocks better.
- Once a change is initiated, don’t forget to reward yourself for the little successes.
- You are essentially changing your lifestyle. Include useful activities that excite you and keep you occupied into your routine. These will help you refocus.
- Setting small and realistic goals to control gaming. This will allow you to keep track of your progress.
- Plan your day ahead, one day at a time. This can help you refocus on your priorities.
- Install app blocking software to help you restrict your playing time. Uninstalling and blocking the app is another great start to creating a change. It will help you manage your urges externally.
For cared ones
If your loved ones is into excessive gaming:
- Let them know that you are there for them and will support them in their endeavours to overcome this. A good support system goes a long way towards helping them overcome their habit of excessive gaming.
- Let them know how their gaming behaviour is affecting you. This will help reducing further conflicts or fights.
- Help them understand how you feel emotionally.
- Encourage them to talk openly about the issues they face.
- Discuss possible solutions with them to overcome their excessive gaming behaviour.
- Try to work with them by creating boundaries and setting limits.
- You may try to help them out financially. However, this is not encouraged as this will not empower the player to overcome their problems. Be assertive when the player requests financial assistance. You can agree to manage their money temporarily to prevent further loss.
Understand that creating a change is a difficult process for the players. Willpower and determination may play a major role in this. However, having a good family and social support system helps prevent further relapses.
If you feel that you are facing emotional problems as a consequence of your loved one’s gaming behaviour, please don’t hesitate to seek help for yourself.
