To preface, this post isn’t a bash on gaming. I’ve been gaming since I was 3 years old on the NES. It was (and still is) a part of my life. That said, while I turned out ok in the end, I would play games every free moment I had. I’ve spent thousands of hours in World of Warcraft during the TBC-WotLK era. My pattern would be school-home-eat while playing wow-sleep thinking of wow-repeat. My whole social circle formed around WoW and LoL/dota2 later. I would often listen to music while playing. Of course, we grew up and we became distant over time. I more or less ended up with barely any friends.
I don’t play games much nowadays because it’s simply better for my own mental health. I still play but with a lot more moderation - occasionally booting my PS2 or playing a run or two of Binding of Isaac. Most of my free time goes towards creative hobbies.
15 years later, whenever I hear music from that time, I get jittery and think about the fun I had in wow. I’ve fallen into that trap. Private servers galore, I used to play in them back then too, they’ve gotten even better since then. I start playing, ditch all my other hobbies, go out only for work, and in the end not have fun at all, and spiral into depression. The itch barely gets scratched. This cycle has been repeating over and over. I don’t want it to happen again and I just got the jitters again.
I don’t want to stop listening to music I like just because monkey brain associates it with WoW.
Sorry to hear about this mate. As someone else mentioned, perhaps it’s the type of game you play? I enjoy gaming and can moderate fine. However, recently started playing Overwatch (hey another Blizzard game) and noticed I got addicted. Couldn’t stop playing, thought about it a lot, etc. Reminded me of being addicted to alcohol or other drugs.
I quit playing OW2, and the urges to play started to get easier, and I enjoy gaming again.
This is exactly what I’m doing right now. I play a game that I can play for 2 hours daily max and it’s fine, I can do without it easily. I also fell into the OW2 trap and I became unbearable to the people around me.
I feel like I didn’t word myself properly because I haven’t played WoW or any of the “problematic” games for 6 months now. I managed to keep myself occupied with cross stitching and books. It’s when I see footage/hear music that I get these feelings of wanting to play again.
Exactly this. I became grumpy and angry, couldn’t stop “because I just have to win once” and felt like an addict. It’s a very similar feeling to alcohol which I quit 5 years ago.
Take care. Good on you for managing it with other hobbies!