Addicted to DOTA? Want to quit? Here’s how I did it.

Can you actually quit a game you are addicted to?

DOTA 2, If not Defense of the Ancient is a MOBA game developed by Valve which offers extensive and unlimited PVP gameplay for free. Although it’s complicated it has not stopped many players from embracing it and I was one of them. I started it in December 4 years ago and it was way beyond what I expected. I was overwhelmed by everything it had to offer and in 2 or 3 months I was addicted to it. I spent at least 4 or 5 hours playing it with my friends and this is time that otherwise I would’ve used on something else. As the addiction grows the time I spent playing grew as well.

They say it’s hard to quit something when you have sacrificed most of your time to it. What made it harder is the promise of earning something from it. Be it money, fame, or friends there’s always something on horizons that calls you out to reach them.

Don’t get me wrong, some people reach those. People get rich off of it but to me, it was not the case. I was an average player and with time your reflexes decline and you eventually give up on trying.

Does it stop there? According to my life, it doesn’t. I have realized that I will never reach the caliber of those who are at the top but still I couldn’t stop playing it. This time I was playing it because I couldn’t quit it. No matter what I did I keep coming back to it. There was no time or place for it. I even took it with me to work. When you make friends around DOTA and if they only exist in that realm you have no choice but to go back. Not because you miss the game but you miss the company it brings you. That’s far more addictive than the game itself.

So, how was I able to quit something so addictive?

The answer is pretty simple. It was so simple that you will assume it’s a joke.

I was playing one day with a friend of mine and the game was stressing me out. As it kept hurting my brain a sudden thought came to my mind, “why am I doing this to myself?”. Then It came to me, most of my stress is generated thanks to the game itself. The joy of winning becomes so empty when you stop playing. Like it never happened. You can be on a winning streak of 5 or 10 games but away from the game, It means nothing. You will go back to a life where a game has consumed 10 or 15 hours of your life with nothing to show for in return.

Now you may wonder, what if you have won something?

Maybe a little. To that I say, what did it cost? If you divide your winnings by the time you have consumed, was it worth it? If the answer to that is yes, then by all means do your thing. You may have a future in it. But if the answer is No, you got to think about the time you invested, and if you were to invest in something else what could’ve happened. What if you used it to learn something that can be used to earn money? What if you learned a life skill that helps you with the betterment of your life? Don’t let something temporary consume your entire life.

But what if I’m only using it as a getaway from stress?

You and I both know that’s a lie we try to sell ourselves on. The stress we get from the game itself is nothing if compared to the stress we already have. There are better ways to get rid of it. Have a good bath, eat some good comfort food, read a book and let your imagination wander. You can do thousands of things to get rid of that stress and adding more stress to it is never a solution.

If we turn back a little bit to the point how was I able to quit this, I managed to replace it with something productive. In this case, it was allocating more time for self-improvement. I talked to a friend of mine and asked him to teach me programming, something I never took an interest in before because I thought it was insanely difficult and time-consuming. Although these were somewhat true when I was getting into learning it became a very interesting thing to learn. I didn’t stop from it, I also pick up my hobbies that I stopped and left off where the addiction began. I started to write again. In a way, the quitting I did was almost resetting me to a previous version I was faintly familiar with. And it paid dividends.

I wasn’t able to quit spontaneously. As the first step, I minimized the time I engaged in gaming. Being in a permanent job did wonders to me, but occupying yourself in any form of work that requires you to allocate a certain amount of time would help too. After I was able to reduce the daily time allocated I started to skip days where I used to game. I would intentionally do something that will keep me focused instead of gaming. And then eventually the time I spent gaming stopped. I then kept it that way for an entire year at first.

And then a relapse started due to being lockdown Inside my house due to a global pandemic. I was back to gaming and this time it didn’t feel like I was getting drawn into it like before. Even though the game and the circumstances stayed the same, the previous mental wall I have placed was still standing somewhat strong. I was able to fight the urge of spending an entire day gaming. At most I was playing 2 hours of my time but after few months the drive I had earlier to play the game again died and with it the addiction I had for the entirety of 3 years.

This seems like something hard to execute but if you are willing to quit because you feel like you’re addicted to it, don’t be afraid to take that step. The Sooner you decide, The better it would be.

Life waits for no one. Why should you?