Can't I play games during the dopamine receptor recovery period?

In my experience, it's not so much about how you're escaping as that you're escaping in the first place. Porn, drugs, alcohol, fantasy, overeating, video games - they all have different aspects, but they all can be ways of saying "I'm going to use this to feel differently".

I was definitely using gaming as an escape and to avoid doing the things I really needed to to grow. The good news is that after a few months of true recovery, I can game some from a healthy place and don't need it for emotional regulation. Good luck on your journey friend!

 

Seems like most gaming and other media today work diligently to put stuff in there pushing you to lust. Lusting causes you to want more of what you shouldn't have. And therefore makes it all the more difficult not to relapse.

 

It seems like humans have the ability to go from one addiction to the next fairly easily and make it's just fine, but what is the last addiction after most if not all of them have been overcome? Society wants our dreams and desires to keep us grounded to this world in one way or another, which prevents us from looking over the edge. Not a glimpse of what can be is visible because, after we have abstained from porn, we try to abstain from something that wastes our time just as much. The cycle of human failure has led us all to this point.

 

What is a dopamine receptor? Why is it involved in porn?

 

I personally find gaming does hinder recovery with stimulation addiction. The less I play, the more peaceful I feel. It depends on what you play though, I guess I'd only play competitive games which would only ramp up my stress levels.

 

I doubt (and hope not) that games like Animal Crossing interfere with your reboot lol, so my answer would be, as others pointed out: it depends which games.

 

It all depends, as others have stated, on the type of content you're consuming in these games. If you're wasting hours upon hours grinding out something, you may not have as many P-related urges, but you're not doing anything to get better. You're simply swapping out one hyperstimuli (though games are not generally considered as harmful as P) for another. Have a sit down with yourself and think about the 'why.' If you're cranking out hours raising your stress levels on something like League of Legends (which also contains many particularly suggestive themes), then you may consider taking a break. But if you're just doing an hour or two of say, Animal Crossing? DOOM? Not a lot of harm in that, and in my personal case I played a fair bit of the Division in my first few weeks while I listened to audio books.

There's no truly concrete answer, because our brains are all plastic and each person has a different brain. For the most part, if you feel like gaming may be slowing your recovery (IE, you know and you wanted to spend that time doing something different like studying or exercising) then consider halving the time you spend or finding a new activity to replace it. I highly recommend against 'cold turkeying' so much at once. You will drain your finite willpower reserve incredibly fast. It's best to take these changes slowly, and one day / step at a time.

I'd also like to point out that dopamine is not your enemy here. It never was. It's simply a facet of our brain. You want to look for more healthier outlets for it, not necessarily halt it altogether. Part of the reason we 'reboot' is to resensitize those receptors in the first place so we can derive pleasure out of normal life again. It's so you can play an hour and feel satisfied, go out and about and feel good, and overall experience better quality of personal life. Trying to eliminate dopamine altogether isn't possible - but it's not a healthy goal. You're still human, after all!

Highly recommend 'Your Brain on Porn' by Gary Wilson, as stated above, as well as 'The Brain that Changes Itself.' There's also an incredible book on Willpower called 'The Willpower Instinct' that I highly, highly encourage especially if you're dealing with this and several other negative habits over time. It'll frame things very well in terms of what's going on in your head, and how you can avoid pitfalls later on.

 

I agree that we who have addictive brains seem to easily move from one addiction to another, but the common theme is that they are, for the most part, addictions of self destruction. I'm beginning to think that's not by chance, there's a reason for that theme, but is it as simple as "we don't like ourselves"? I don't think I have self loathing, but I admit I'm definitely broken. Fixing one thing seems to lower the fence on a different problem.
What is over the edge, what can't we see?

 

Short answer, no. Video games do not do nearly as much damage as PMO.

Slightly longer answer is that PMO utilizes the strongest natural surge of dopamine that our bodies experience, O as well as sexual arousal, and then allows you to abuse it. Video games is just a slow trickle of dopamine. They can be harmful because they are designed to be pleasurable and even addictive, but the dopamine they release is more so from the effort and progress/reward cycles our mind has. Pleasurable, but its not like PMO.


As an aside, I've heard it said from a voice that I respect that, in regards to recovering from PMO addiction, it can be good to not try to cut out to much too soon. By that I mean that you shouldn't try to quite PMO cold turkey, while also quitting gaming cold turkey, and junk food, and etc... Then your mind is completely starved in a complete life makeover, and that makes it way more likely for you to get tired of it and give into the urges. It's not impossible, it just doesn't work for most people. Generally it's better to try and cut PMO, and replace it with some good habits. After you start to progress(longer streaks) you can try cutting back on another bad habit, like video games or junk food.

I feel like this method works better because, so long as you are consistent enough at you new good habits, it gives your brain a chance to adapt to them, and then in turn it starts to give you some dopamine. Then you can progressively turn to the good things rather than the other easy stuff when you are wanting to feel good.

 

I gamed a lot when I quit pmo. Like 8+ hours a day. It kept me sane and busy. Now that I’m partially recovered I can hardly play more than an hour at a time. It just gets boring