Clash of Clans Addiction

As a gamer I know what it is to be attached to a game. I used to play countless hours… the last game I played was clash of clans for mobile devices. This game is incredibly addictive, it involves creativity, military strategy and even worse… it’s online and everyone is connected. I read many articles about how to quit clash of clans, but hey they are all useless to me, so I found some key points that helped me get the courage and determination to quit it once and for all… I will UPDATE the status of me with this game periodically since I really love this game and it’s not that easy to quit it, so keep on track, let’s face this together.
Recognizing addiction:
First of all, how do you know if you are addicted to a game? In this case, clash of clans. Easy, when:
-You have the game installed in more than 1 device or even thinking in buying another one to get more coins, etc. An example below…

-You sneak off to bathroom to check your village.
-Your whole family refers to it as “that … game”.
-You develop a website dedicated to your clan and the game.
-You get up and check your account, go for a run, check your account, shower, check your account, eat while raiding or reading messages, … Etc.
-When it’s time to go to bed and you want to keep playing the game because something has attached you now, let’s say you are waiting to give some troops to your team mates but the troops won’t be ready until 15 mts.
-You set your alarm on your phone to make sure you don’t miss your shield clock, but you watch it anyway just to make sure.
-You tell everybody that you quit it but you are still playing it in silence.
-You can finally raid a revenge target you’ve been saving for and they spent all their resources.
-You spend hours planning a revenge or a war attack.
Have you ever got this message?

That’s if I’m not wrong about 6 h of playing without logging out. I never got one of those, but in those 6 h you could have been at the gym, learn something new, listen to some music, go walk in the park, look at the sky, flirt with some girls, help your family with something, many things…
These are only a couple of things that I consider for someone to be addicted like I was. Now that we have recognized them, lets kill that addiction once and for all…
Getting rid of that virtual parasite:
OK… so how would you beat alcohol? Let’s say you are addicted to Rom for example… and you say: “I’m going to quit alcohol, no more Rom!!” But a week later you try beer… come on… it’s alcohol, that will remind you the Rom… Let’s go to the target! If you are addicted to clash of clans and you play more games on the phone or play station or Xbox, or what ever, you WILL eventually come back to it. How? I’ll tell you how! First you will have a thought in your mind that will tell you: “Oh… I’ve been doing so great lately, I do my homework, go to the gym, work, I’m great and successful… I wonder how is clash of clans going…? Did they put something new…? or What happened to that clan mate…? or Let me install it for a sec to remind myself how addicted I was, I cured it so I’m fine now, just to check how was the game….” and then… you got into the trap again… DON’T do this, if you quit it, don’t go back even to check how the game is going now days. It’s fine to see it in others’ people phones but don’t download it yourself! Trust me! Everything begins with a small action, then you are already involved AGAIN!
So… said that, this is how I got rid of it.
1- First I want you to take your time to focus, and THINK FOR 2 MINUTES this:

• What have you gained from playing? I know what I gained… I have a lvl9 Town hall almost maxed out and I spent about 50 dollars on the game, I’m REALLY good at attacking with HoLoWiWi, GoWiwi, etc… but let’s think for a sec. that’s not the question… WHAT HAVE YOU GAINED IN REAL LIFE??? Exactly… Nothing, actually you lost money, you lost social skill (yes, even if you think you don’t have, you do, everyone does), you lost TIME, now you are older and have tons of regrets, should I keep going…? Who cares, let’s focus on the present, now you know what you’ve lost, let’s make the present/future worth it. Just recap all of that, make yourself aware of it.

2- Photo-collage. Get an empty notebook with white papers, and then paste some pictures of how you want to see yourself in the future, for example mine are a picture of Greg Plitt, an office with my private business, a good person and hot girlfriend, being able to sleep at night in peace because I did everything I had due to do, and I didn’t postpone it because of laziness or games, a house, and a dog. Those are the things that I want to accomplish, what are your goals?
3- Once you think about the above,  find a hobby (that doesn’t involve technology, please… we are trying to get rid of games, not get involved in something else with the same purpose). Mine was the gym, and hey! I would skip it many times because I would feel lazy from being playing all day, so once you quit the game, focus your mind on the hobby. “Keep the eyes on the price”. If your mind keep coming back to the game, this is what I want you to do… Go outside where the sun is, and breath, look at the sky and how beautiful life is in real life, look at your motivational pictures (let’s say a girl/guy in good shape and you are trying to have a similar body), other thing that you can do is: DON’T think about playing the game, don’t imagine yourself playing it or building stuff, just think in what you would lose again, in what you would gain, and in how miserable you are if you come back to virtual games that won’t give you anything more than instant satisfaction, it’s like alcohol, it wipes your mind until the next morning. I want you to hate yourself for all those times that you quit and came back to the game or you tried but you didn’t even uninstall the games, hate yourself for this and make yourself a better person, prove to no one but yourself that you can do it, and you can be successful in life like anybody else!
Just getting a hobby may not be enough, specially if you have a lot of time. What kept me away (as a secondary effect) from thinking about anything else was counting the calories for my gym diet. I’m trying to gain weight so I have to be constantly on top of the diet. There is no space for games for a busy mind. Let’s put it this way… When you have a girlfriend and she is in love with you, and she is happy, it is impossible for someone to seduce her, as well as a busy person, let’s say a lawyer. On the other hand… a girl with plenty of time and a boyfriend that treats her like whatever will be very easy to seduce, her mind has to much space to think about. The same happens with the games, if your mind is not occupied, then you will think about what you like doing the most and you know you can’t do, in this case games. So just focus your mind and keep it busy. If it’s necessary get an old Nokia so you stay away from a smartphone and get more in contact with people.
4- Cut the wings. If you leave the game fully defended and with all resources protected and everything else, chances are that you are thinking that this may not work and you’ll come back to the game again. These were my thoughts when leaving clash of clans: “Ok, I’m going to uninstall the game but leave everything like that…” why? I tried to quit it 3 times, spending all resources in the game including gems, and then I left the game. Guess what happened? I came back, so the last time I quit it this is what I did:


Make sure you put all your resources outside, about the gems, don’t waste it, or do what ever you want, you don’t care, you are NOT coming back to feel miserable again.
Your journey after removing this game will be the toughest. There is a probability that you’ll see some major events like :

• Your friends beg you to join back.
• They will say you were the best warrior and the clan is incomplete without you.
• Etc…

Don’t fall in these traps.

To successfully end with this virtual stuff, remind that if you want to be better in many aspects of your life, and you leave the games, you cannot search for another addiction that will bring you the same problems, I remember I tried it once and my hobby was downloading movies online . This involves online tech. which eventually MAY leads to games again.
If you fail to quit games today, don’t worry, keep trying and trying, and trying!! Until you get that addiction out of your system! You don’t need that! It doesn’t matter how many times you fail, you’ll achieve it one day! Keep trying! Thomas Edison failed 1000 times until he succeeded, how many people do you know that have tried more than 20 times? Don’t give up, a wonderful life is awaiting for you out of those cables and ships.

 Source: http://elkepon.com/clash-of-clans-addiction/