Withdrawal

So. It has been close to a month since I started my break from World of Warcraft. The fact that this game has been a part of my life so long, I logically assumed that there would be a void. Lately I've been filling this deep well with exercise, reading, and LSAT practice, while suffering slight existential crises. So. I did what any intrepid explorer of the twenty-first-century would do--I searched Google. Now, apparently my mind over the years has taken "The Twelve Steps of Addiction" and "The Five Stages of Loss and Grief" and combined them to form some grotesque amorphous bastard mass of a program my unconscious has taken upon itself to title "The Ten Stages of Bad", beginning with elimination of the problem, magic inbetween, and eventual resolution. I consider myself to be a person of theories, moral and otherwise. As my saxophone teacher once said, "Do as I say, not as I do." It is then perhaps even more unfortunate, for me, that my template for addiction resolution looks the way it does. Over the past day or so, I've developed several partially educated guesses on what this magic may be.

One: Epiphany of a way to rearrange one's life to replace said addiction.
On the whole improbable, since rehabilitation renders some basic mental processes useless. Having exalted mental ruminations apart from total insanity are most likely out of the question.

Two: God.
Well. I am wholly unreligious and I'd probably burn in hell if I believed in it, but everyone needs something to have faith in. In concurrence with Shepard Book, faith is not about believing in God, but believing in something, anything.

Three: Moderation
This seems to be my favorite of the three so far. Practicing self-control and limiting intake, reorganizing priorities. This unfortunately probably only works in cases where there hasn't been a chemical dependence to whatever you may be addicted to, but you can argue there is a psychological dependence on non-chemical addictions.

Well realizing the problem is always the outset of the battle, but as a person of theories, I can safely say it is not nearly half the battle. Insight requires action and vice versa.

Four: Anything that works
I know. I'm brilliant.

Comments

[dima]

"The Ten Stages of Bad" is a title that sounds like it could well be a best-selling self-help book, with the added twist of dealing with gaming additions.

"Do as I say and not as I do" seems to be really popular among teachers/professors/mentors/etc. Every time they say it, you get ever so slightly more convinced that they're full of shit. Of course, that could just be attributed to a lack of faith...

And if you're running out of ideas, a trip to Boston would be a possible void-filling activity :)

[dima]

And on the subject of trips, we should ski in France and/or Switzerland at the end of next semester, since I'll already be there.