Addicted to my Computer

>>18386172
bump

Get up and do something else. Start with little things. Wash the dishes, dance like an idiot, meet a friend. I also spend a lot of time in my computer but its getting really boring.

>>18386238
It's really hard for me to get motivation to do anything else when I'm on the computer and my ritual really fucks me up when I muster the willpower to do something else but get hungry and thus get compelled to go back to the computer to eat.

What do you do mostly in the computer?
Gaming?
Youtube?
Movies/series?

>>18386382
Gaming, 4chan and youtube, sometimes porn.

>>18386384
What kind of youtube videos?

You must have a passion. Something you would love to be able to do. Or you must at least have seen someone you would like to be like.

Start little by little doing something that guides you to learn that thing you want, or reach that goal.

Im curious.
Who would you like to be?

Throw your computer away and lock yourself in a room with everything you need for a week. Think about life and what do you want to do. Then get out and go for it.

I've more or less got the same problem, I had the day off from work unexpectedly and did absolutely jack shit with it. At least when I work I can make up excuses like "Oh, you're tired you deserve to just chill out for a while." but even then I spend like 6-⅞ hours on the thing before I go to sleep.

I have other things that I want to do, that would actually be productive, like write and draw, but I guess fucking around on the internet is more stimulating and thus I'm drawn like a magnet to it. You said you started doing this when you were young, and so did I, so we might just be fucked in so far as how our brains are configured to seek easy distractions. The internet is such a pivotal tool in today's world that you can't really just drop it without sacrificing quality of life either.

Fuck, maybe I should look for a parental control program or something similar and set it so my computer can only get on the internet for a collective 3-4 hours per day, and when it asks for a master password, close my eyes and put in something random so I can't unlock it. It sounds extreme, but I'm wasting my life here.

>>18386394
>>What kind of youtube videos?
People talking - video game playthroughs, podcasts, comedy stuff, music etc. Just distractions.
>You must have a passion.
Not really, I was the only one in my physics class who didn't have an answer to "What do you want to do with your degree?". At 16 I planned on committing suicide by 18 but my dad convinced me not to. Now that I'm 22 I'm stuck with the habits, rituals and lack of ambitions of someone who lived like he was going to die soon.
>Something you would love to be able to do.
I'd be okay with just living normally if I could get rid of this addiction that makes everything else seem boring in comparison.
>Who would you like to be?
A male version of a friend I used to know two semesters ago. She had so many traits and qualities that I admired and wish I had. She made me genuinely happy to be around another person and seemed to actually care about her own life and the lives of people around her.

>>18386395
Is there a way to turn your phone into...a phone?

If I could disable everything but the call/text functionalities I might actually do this, aside from going outside to attend class.

>>18386406
I agree with the entire sentiment of your post, it feels like I'm trapped.

.bump

>How do I stop this addiction?
Only you can stop it.

It's called self-control. It's not easy to go cold turkey, I know. But each day, cut your computer time by a little bit. Continue going until you reach the amount of computer time you want.

OP I will actually suggest to you therapy. Addiction therapy. The first step is admitting you have a problem, but none of us here are psychologists trained in the difficulties of addiction.

You're stuck, you don't know what to do, and feel unable to win. This is an important time in your life where you can /Turn it around/. Go see a shrink, turn it around, and tell your new friends about your battle, and subsequent victory with addiction, and get laid.

>>18386697
No therapy money.

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I would suggest you to read a book called "The power of habit". It helped me a lot when I was in the same situation.
For me the thing to do was to see what made me go to the pc, was it boredom, need for social interaction or what?
Habits pretty much control over 70% or more behaviour easily and that's the main reason I sat in front of my pc every day after closing my apartment room after the school day.
There's always the trigger-action-reward pattern, and you need to realize what your reward is that you are looking for. For some it might me escapism, for others it may be relaxation.
If you want to get rid of habits, it needs to happen SLOWLY or else you will exhaust yourself really easily and you'll find gratisfaction from your old habits, because it's the easiest way to get the reward you are striving for.
What I did was that when I came home, I replaced using my computer with an episode or two of some series in the living room. That way I replaced the action in the "trigger-action-reward". And when succeeding, it felt really good. Even though I had replaced my PC time with another time waster, it was marginally better and still a different thing to do.
What I did next was that I figured out the first things I did on my PC. It is usually a habitual pattern you have grown during the time and for me it was to open Steam, vo-ip, a browser and sometimes put on some music too. In that situation, I made an effort to break that pattern by removing the shortcuts all together. That way, when ever I booted my pc and I started doing the ritual, I always realized it didn't work anymore and it reminded me why I had done it in the first place.

I would like to tell more about the trigger-action-reward pattern and how realizing it helped me, but I'm out of space soon.

Buy the book or torrent it and read it with phone or eReader (which I can really recommend getting), since it might help you like it did help me.

Just ask more if you need to, since I really want to help you.

>>18386172
All addictions are about being selfish.

Get out there and really try and help others in a selfless way. i.e. don't expect anything in return, do it because its the right thing to do.

You will be surprised how fast you will stop dwelling on your "addiction" once you do.

>>18387772
Thank you so much for your post and for recommending that book. I've been listening to an audio book version of it and it's opened my eyes to a lot of what might be causing the way I act on a daily basis. I think with this book and your advice I might be able to change my life around.