I have quit ranked/competitive gaming and do only casual gaming whenever I get some interest. Honestly I was happy that I’ve quit gaming as a whole because it was a real addiction. Countless number of times I have uninstalled games only to get so tempted that I would download them again despite them taking 1hr to install.
From that kind of situation to come to this situation where I only play whenever I want to, is a great progress I felt I have made. I have got lots of time on me as expected, but I don’t spend it wisely and infact in more “brain-off” fashion eg scrolling, chatting on discord, youtube etc.
Now I feel whenever I come across anything that needs my brain to be spent upon, I feel so reluctant to do high brain activity. I feel there’s lot more difficulty concentrating and being patient with my task.
Is this because I have quit gaming? (sounds crazy I know) that my brain has become rather less active than usual?
I recently come across a random study on surgeons that game a bit during the week are doing better at their job than the ones who don’t game. Not sure how of it is true but I sure have come across concepts like gaming keeps your brain active and make you perform.
Take this entire assumption as a grain of salt because I haven’t done any huge experiments nor do I have any conclusive evidence but a small hunch that I just came across. I just wanted to know your experiences after you quit gaming.
No great wisdom either, but my main thought about this is that games are designed to keep your dopamine coming (maybe overly nature scientific way of saying: they are exciting, rewarding).
Other activities can do that to, but some are rewarding in a more subtle way or more on a long term. Like, not “ringring yOu fOuNd DIAMOND!!”. So in comparison with games they might not trigger your motivation (dopamin?) as quickly.
On the other hand they are probably better at making you feel more general connectedness, belonging, sense, emotional diversity, etc.
So my advice (wich I struggle alot to follow myself) is: Avoid or limit the other dopamine traps like random scrolling and give yourself and the not-designed- for-dopamine-optimization-world some time, some patient goodwill. This might make that good ol’ world shine bright enough to not get bored all the time.