Beating my PMO addiction with gaming.

In my case gaming made it worse. All the ups and downs are hard to control and ended in a circle gaming - porn gaming and so on.

 

I think it can work. When you are staying away from PMO the brain craves dopamine that it used to get from PMO but no longer does. And gaming is a very good way how to get constant dopamine hits, because games are literary engineered to keep your attention and give you small and consistent dopamine hits so you keep playing. And it's fine because it is not as destructive and addictive as PMO is. It can still be addictive in it's own way, but not as damaging addiction as porn though.

When I was first starting my reboot I used gaming a lot as a distraction and it worked great for me. Then once I felt I no longer needed it for that purpose I had no problems stopping gaming so much. Now I just game in moderation for fun.

The problem with this though might be that you might use gaming as a crutch and distraction to reboot, but then once you stop gaming you might end up relapsing again. So while gaming can be good distraction from PMO that helps you get through that initial period of the reboot—so your brain has time to reset and heal, and the bad PMO habits has time to fade—you need to also build other healthy habits and coping mechanisms during that time that you can switch to when it's time to stop relying on gaming.

 

You are potentially swapping one addiction for another and essentially ignoring the core reason for your PMO addiction.

 

This. You can still do video gaming, just don't make it the only thing you do. Do other healthy habits along with gaming (as long as that's moderated).

 

Short term, anything that can distract you from PMO is a good thing, but in the long run, it is unsustainable to rely on distractions alone. I use a lot of distraction tactics my self to acquire some sobriety time, it feels like the most natural solution since i have been dealing with my emotions by addictive behaviors. At least, try to have some variation, like walks, gym, movies, meditation, hobbies etc (besides gaming).

 

For me it's like a "cross addiction", not sure if this really exists. I cannot quit the one without the other. When I'm gaming I feel intense urges to watch porn. This stems from a time in my early 20ies were I binged on alternating between porn and gaming for +12 hours per day.

 

I would say both yes and no. I'm a gamer as well but some games has made me MO because of the sexual content they can include.

The last trigger for me to MO while playing a game was when I played Cyberpunk 2077. If you haven't played it or has, it's a cutscene when Alt Cunningham and Johnny Silverhand has sex after one of Johnny's concerts which includes much nudity in that particular scene. I didn't MOing because I thought their sex scene was hot as fuck, I did it because it gave me flashback of porn I had watched during my years of watching porn regularly, which was very annoying and the urges in me went sky high and I had to crank one out.

So, just because it might seem as a good distraction, it can also give you triggers to PMO or MO.

 

Replacing one addiction with another, way to go pal

 

Take it easy ok. Here and there but nothing else besides that. Also low dopamine games like puzzle or something