Waning Addictions

So, I've had something very strange happen to me over the last week and half since the Guatemala vacation. I've felt one of my addictions waning.

Porn and masturbation? I wish. That would make my life so much better. Like I always say, I don't have a problem with masturbation... it works every time. :P

The addiction of which I speak is my video game addiction. The game in particular is World of Warcraft (WoW). I've been a junky-esque player for a year and a half now. I have spent far, far, far too much time behind my keyboard at night battling monsters and saving damsels in distress. It's been fun. Indeed it has. I was a big Dungeons and Dragons nerd growing up, so I found the transition into online fantasy gaming to be quite easy.

In the past, I would spend at least an hour or five every night playing. My excuse was that I didn't watch tv anymore - which was mostly true. I tivo Heroes, Pushing Daisies, The Office, My Name is Earl, and Scrubs. That is a grand total of 3.5 hours per week, minus commercials since it's on tivo. I watch those and rarely do I watch anything else. I never turn on the tv just to surf channels. So, as I saw it, I was just replacing my habits of tv channel surfing with a different one. And at least in this one I was exercising my brain in solving problems, building strategies, etc.

Well, we went to Guatemala for a week and a half, and when I got back I felt somewhat detoxed from WoW. It wasn't like other times when I was away from the game for a few days, and got the shakes like a heroin addict. I got back online on Sunday night for one of the large group activities (I normally participate in "Raids" on Sundays and Tuesdays), and it was okay. It wasn't super fun. It wasn't a bad time, but it wasn't a great time either. I did the same on Tuesday night. I felt the same afterwards. During the rest of the week I didn't play very much. I found myself very occupied with a lot of other things and just didn't have the time to play. Saturday rolled around, I played for a couple of hours in the afternoon. It was fun, but not great. Sunday evening came along, I raided again, and I really didn't enjoy myself at all.

Yesterday I didn't play. Today is Tuesday, and I didn't play. I didn't feel like it. I had no desire to turn on my computer when I got home from work. Instead, I ran a few errands that I've needed to get done and I wrote a couple of blog posts. I don't feel the big pull to turn on the game tonight.

I wonder if I will stay this way. It's still a fun game. I still like it. But, I think maybe I'm finally coming to the point where my brain has decided to regulate it's propensity for addiction, and is allowing me to comfortably cut back on the amount of time I spend playing it so that I can get other, more important tasks in my life completed. I hope so.

Now, if only my brain would do this for my other addictions...