Good points. Switching to less addictive substances may work, I believe it is called replacement therapy. Some advocate cold turkey approach in contrast. I don't know which one is best, for me neither one worked so far ) I think building a fulfilling life is a key, if one manages to have fun from productive activities, addictions will loose appeal automatically. The problem is inducing productive activities with fun, I have yet to find a solution. Well, literature definitely deserves learning despite the fact (or maybe especially because of the fact) that some genres are an addictive waste of time.
Well, if someone reads an entertainment book (more precise term I hope) for 15 minutes before going to sleep, that's not a problem. Still, this is a bad sign. Maybe it would be better to go over things done today and plan for tomorrow instead? I bet someone living a fulfilling life would gladly reminiscent on one's day and look forward to tomorrow instead of going into some virtual reality. Take Harry Potter for example. The main idea of such books is to get you hooked and draw you in. There were no fiction books that I got anything useful from.
Well, drugs and alcohol was just an example of things, that also relieve stress but are not good for you in the long run. As for fiction, by fiction literature I mean something that you read for pure pleasure in contrast to technical, scientific, historical etc. Games stimulate your brain too, and they relieve stress. A game is in fact an interactive book.
@Catherine17 Games relieve stress too, but so does alcohol and drugs. I think fiction books work similar to games. They create virtual reality which is fun and rewarding. The problem is that they end at some point but the life has to go on. Well, that's opinion on my own experience. Before turning to games I used to read a lot of fiction, now I see that I did it for the same reason.
@Catherine17 thanks for sharing, now I remember that I did not play for quite some time after relocating to another country. But I kept on reading fiction books in the evenings, so I was not totally off the hook of virtual reality. Funny that you mention you started playing again while facing a lot of problems. One would think you would instead spend all the time to solve the problems at hand. That I can relate too.
I believe there are people who are lucky enough to have active, vibrant and social lives, they just don't start playing games or try games and don't bother to get into them (you must be quite bored for quite some time to get into the most of the games) But there are not many such people, and even they eventually face problems. Health declines, social circles break (which are often supported by alcohol and drugs anyway), they get children and boring jobs and they end up just with the rest of us. Before computer game revolution people entertained themselves with gambling, alcohol and the really lucky ones, who found it in their hearts to believe, with religion (unfortunately that's not me). Now we know that computer games do not lead anywhere also. What are the options left for us? I have read through some introductions and journals and I honestly don't see that people found anything even remotely interesting to replace games. That's sad. Life should have more meaning. Mate, sorry for rambling and I wish you good luck on your path, I really do hope there is a light at the end of the tunnel and hope one day to get there myself.
Wow, you managed to stay out of games for so long before relapsing. How did you do it? Great title, btw.