How to save a loved one from game addiction | Matthias Dewilde | TEDxAntwerp

4 things to help a loved one 1. Show genuine interest 2. Create screen free moments 3. Help them make progress in life outside of gaming 4. Set an example how to create a beautiful fulfilling life

I'm someone who grew up really addicted to video games, and now I'm trying to pick up the pieces. The hardest thing about stepping away from gaming is, as you said, they are really awesome. They are pieces of art, created by artists. But, I can't tolerate them because they are too disruptive in my life and I'm not a kid anymore. Yet, I feel a sense of pain when I think about all the amazing stories and experiences in games I've yet to play. I really feel a pain, as if parting ways with a really close friend. So I'm trying to figure out how to fit games into my life without destroying it. You seem to professionally help people like me, so you must have learned a lot about this problem. I hope you share your knowledge online, in more depth and detail. Most of the information online about this problem are not tested in practice enough. We need more people like you.

This is my 20 yr old son, addicted to the point he isn’t working or doing anything, doesn’t leave the house, doesn’t know what he wants to do, currently seeking outside help, hard stuff. I want to add that he is introverted, above average IQ and we suspected on the spectrum and highly creative. Let’s also add a pandemic in 2020 that interrupted junior and senior year.

I was addicted to gaming but today i finally called it quits ive been 23 hrs sober from gaming i smashed my game disk and said bye bye games im proud of myself for stopping

My husband is addicted to gaming and I suffer silently… just had a fight tonight… as I don’t bring it up alot because it causes him to victimize himself and tell me I’m the bad person… I can’t do this anymore.

Excellent talk. He is a great speaker - concise and incisive. I felt hauntingly like he was describing my own life and persona. Anything can be addictive, and the underlying process is universal. I have been addicted to substances and also to video games and the thoughts and feelings were indistinguishable between the two. I hope this talk gives people some succour.

Thank you so much. So much suffering caused to the person and everyone in the person's life. I will circulate this video in the hope that it makes its way to the people who really need this.

When my partner comes home from work, he spends most of his time playing Toon Blast on his phone. We don't talk or do anything anymore. He comes home. I make dinner, we eat, and we go to bed. I love him but I’m thinking of getting a divorce.

that just happened to me. I took me about a minute of no internet to start doing something productive instead of procrastinating.

Brilliant. Thank you.

Very accurate depiction of my struggle

Games really destroy lives and relationship

Totally agree 👍🏻

Great talk 👍👍👍

Power goes out proceeds to grab the board games.

I do agree with the approach. I am wondering tho, because sometimes smoking a cigarette does not work, as soon enough you will do it fulltime again. Isn’t going cold turkey the better method?

I was a good student and did everything properly until i knew abt a game called krunker...i rlly wanted to play it more and more and it gave me more happiness because u get to buy skins relics and lots of things,....this game used to come in my dream and also distracted my mind...im right now 11 yrs old i thought to take a decision to stop playin that game but it rlly hard as its......its was rlly easy for me to get used and addicted to the game but its rlly hard to get out of that game.......so i started askin few questions....for whom im playin this game ? but my minds gave a common reason that to make me happy but then i thought what will happen if i stop playin this game krunker so then i controlled myself and stopped playin krunker it was rlly hard but u need just controll a little and u will get out of addiction,..................trust me

Trying to get my S.O. to see that OSRS has completely taken him out of our relationship. Always waiting on a raid to finish, always spending my time alone, always wishing I could have a real conversation that didn’t have anything to do with people we’ll never meet and these cloaks and swords that he’ll never touch irl. Nothing feels genuine anymore when he’s thinking about the next time he can get on Runescape… Also the fact that it’s now playable on the phone? Falls asleep with it on his chest while it’s still playing... I’ll take any advice, thank you

I don't know any better. Been playing since 4 years old. My parents were into gaming alot so i was into it aswell. i grew up staring at a screen while the reality around me kept on going. Even when my whole family came over for a birthday party i wasn't interacting with anyone and when they interacted with me it was in this looked down upon way that made me angry with them and ignore them even more. i almost failed school because i didn't care about my life back then. My situation got worse and worse but still i was just playing games while starving and unemployed. i tried to work but that meant i only had like 4 hours a day to play games if i ignored all of my surroundings. At work i was anxious everyday untill it got unbareable and had to stop. i'm 33 years old now put away in this small apartment and i can't just start a new game in life. i can't go back all i can do is go forward and guess what i'll be doing. Gaming to escape reality because i can't fix reality anymore.

I addicted to a particular game called pimd.. I can't keep me from checking it in every 10 minutes when I'm home .. if someone hire my tutors in that game my heartbeat increases my hands began to shake until they stop it.. I can't keep my mind from thinking about it... I really want to stop this addiction 🤧