How Gaming Affects Your Brain (Andrew Huberman)

Im quitting all gaming and internet use. I want my motivation for life back!

Gaming addiction is real. I got caught up in it because it help me escape reality and problems, but before I new it, I stoped working out, cleaning the house, being social and all I wanted to do is play. I finally realized I had a real problem when nothing else seemed interesting to me anymore. So by stopping my mind was forced to seek out dopamine in other places and made me start being more productive.

This is crazy. There is no way i feel better gaming than after sex.

Ive also done coke back in my 20s and you cannot compare the 2.

This is bullshit.

Its real videogames fucks real life once ur addicted

If you play video games 16 hours/day...

Of course you too much.. destroyed your life..

For me 90 minutes a day its fine.

I just miseed a call because of gaming. Not an important one but could have been. Get your priorities straight. And if someone close to you is calling - drop whichever game you're grinding on - the call may be important. Also, if whatever you're playing is strong enough to stop you from picking that call, maybe that thing is poison. Remembered that the beckoning light in the depths may be a carnivore baiting you to eat you.

umm video games are exactly like drugs or alcohol... they are not better nor worse....but if anything id say they are more destructive cuz u think i dont have a substance abuse or addiction poblem, i just have a fun healthy hobby....but video games are not a fun healthy hobby in my opinion. they are inherently unhealthy unlike or more than movies or tv..

Can anyone tell me is shooting games really that bad maybe thats whats causing my lack of thinking and work performance is rubbish my learning is very slow been gaming for 30 years

For my brothers and sisters do not try these games
League of legends
World of warcraft
Dota 2

These are most addictive games that you cant quite at any cost
I tried 10 years to quite league of legends
It got from 24/7 to 3 hours a day
And now 0 hours a day
But it got me 10 years to do it
Its worse than drug its the most dopamine producer in the whole gaming history
Never ever go to try league of legends even for one match

The first time I ever loved a game it was Dungeons of Daggorath. Yes Im that old now and its hard for me to believe that I have had this problem for as long as I did (have). My worst year I somehow logged 2000 hours gaming while also having a full time job. I felt like death each morning forcing myself out of bed and to work through shear willpower and about 5 energy drinks a day. Sadly I passed this habit onto my sons. Except energy drinks they never got onto those prob cause i never had them in the house. My kids were my motivating factor in quitting as I wanted to demonstrate to them that I quit. I stumble now and then. For example I played about 200 hours of wow classic during covid, 20 hours of diablo4, and 6.5 hours of Starfield.

Ive quit weed as well and quitting gaming was way harder. For about the first 3 weeks I would just be sitting on my couch for example, and out of nowhere I would get this very real feeling that black ooze was leaking out of my brain and I would get a strong urge to fall asleep. Then I would just allow myself to slump over and would have a five minute nap. I still remember the first time I fell after that. My son was playing Magic the Gathering Online and asked me to play it with him. I figured this is just a simple game how could this be a probkem so I did. At the first click I felt what I can only describe as pure pleasure coursing through my body. I played that game for about two weeks till I had a day off and started playing it when my kids left for school. I was still playing it when they came home. Once again I explained to them that I am an addict and that they are too, and that they will also have to quit one day.

The solution that works for me is cold turkey. Ive tried just playing Saturday evenings ect and I fail.

I am happier now. That year of 2000 hours was the worst. My entire world was just grey. There was no joy.

Ok boomer

Video game is better than shits in nowaday societies. People are clubbing, drinking alcohol and hanging out all day doing trash things. I'd rather just play video games at home 😂 i meet a lot of people online and met them real life, because of video game i found my best friends and we have business here in southeast asia 😅

I don’t believe that gaming gives more dopamine then sex. It’s simple. Everyone generally loves sex but many don’t enjoy gaming, whatsoever and even myself having loved many games over the years but none have off anything like the crazy amount of dopamine, I’d get during sex.

I loved gaming as a kid but wasn’t incredibly addicted but I did get addicted to destiny for 15 months straight, many hours a day. I see my weakness was weekly events with special loot and I stay away from those types of games and apart from that, I’m quite the opposite. I have to force myself to play my games and sometimes go a week plus without. I stupidly bought way too many ps4/5 games mainly ps4. Like 45 physical and 100’s digital. Ps plus/extra/premium/ ps store sales and hardly played any of them and for a few years now, I have that horrible thought of all the money I’ve literally wasted and try to force myself to play . Part of me thinks I should just sell most of my games for pennies and start buying the odd game and actually play it. I always got caught up in stupid hype for a game and not end up playing or liking it.

Gaming, chronic masturbation, and sedentary lifestyle all need to stop in order for most people to feel a difference.

Could you please put links of articls below the post

I fell out of video games pretty early (at the end of highschool around n64 era) but i dabbled very lightly in some PC gaming but never took it seriously. I got heavy into board games around 2012. I like the face-to-face social aspect of boardgame/tabletop-gaming. Now when i try a video game i feel like the stimulation is so extreme. I usually compare it to having coffee with 3 creams/3 sugars then switching to black for years.. then when you go back to the 3creams/sugars it feels like overload.

Sex on cocaine is more addicting then gaming

I understood that becoming a man or being a man is not about having that defined jaw line, or those big muscles and six pack, or having a really manly face. Nor is it about looking badass, having a big beard, or being an asshole to girls. None of that.

Being a man is about learning self control. It’s about knowing restraint, and being in absolute control of oneself. For the man that controls the beast within him has achieved the highest state of existence.

Say the website address "slower and concisely" I couldn't understand you each time you said it. 😂

I don't get that "people get super excited to play video games" part. Like - its a game - how excited you can be? I play Lies of P right now - and its great , love it. But excitement is not the word I would use. It's not the same feeling I get when I have sex or travel. Its great , but no more exciting than watching a good movie or reading a book.

what episode of the podcast is this from?

Gaming is perfect in moderation. I would say I’m a hardcore gamer. Have so the systems and a pc. But I get everything done before I play. 4 foster kids and full time job. Great friend circle, in touch and close with family.

He’s right……I beat doom eternal on nightmare mode it was one of the best days of my life

Dont smoke, dont drink, dont drugs, dont play video games, dont watch porn...and in the end of your life you realize that you lose a lot of pleasure only to live few year more and have little more healthy life.

The arguments in this video have more holes in them than a piece of Swiss cheese, really. There are SO MANY variables none of these people are taking into account...

Like, for example, diet! Or the kind of childhood/upbringing each one has had!

I mean, they claim with absolute certainty ("it's simply how the brain works") that doing something extremely pleasurable for a long time will 100% always (1) make you like it less and less with the pass of time, to the point where you'll end up not liking it anymore (the "novelty" argument), and (2) that it will make you lose interest in all (or many) other, less intensely pleasurable things (the "dopamine exhaustion" argument). Both arguments are SO NOT TRUE, that I don't even know where to begin.

Firstly: I know many people who have played through and beaten THE SAME, VERY SHORT GAME more than a HUNDRED times, and they are STILL playing it, and LOVE to do so. And I know people who have been eating the same exact thing for decades, and STILL love eating it. Where is the "novelty" of it after having done it a hundred times, and besically memorised every single aspect of it? This is clear evidence that point (1) is not true at all.

Secondly: None of these people I mentioned are depressed, or have lost interest in other, less intensely pleasurable things in life (like work, and their other passions). This completely disproves point (2).

Then, people would see a kid spending his entire life in his room and overdramatically think that the poor boy "fell into the clutches of the horrible monster that is gaming". They are immediately convinced that gaming is the problem. They don't even consider the possiblity of it being THE OTHER WAY AROUND. What if gaming is NOT the problem, but the TEMPORAL SOLUTION the kid has found? What if his reality is so horrible and stressful to him, that he prefers to play games? Yes, I think that, in most cases, games are a SOLUTION, or at least a COPING MECHANISM. It helps way more than it hurts. Most of the times, when someone gets hooked by gaming to these extreme levels, it's because they are TRYING TO COPE with the real, underlying problem. Just consider this: when people are deeply depressed and end up commiting suicide it's PRECISELY because they feel it's THEIR ONLY WAY OUT of their misery. If that person finds an escape in gaming (or other activities), he or she might end up not commiting suicide.

Then, as far as I know, depression is a condition that has to do with dopamine and the will to live and do things, right? Well, then how do these puritans explain the fact that there are multiple testimonies of people HEALING from depression by playing a very hard game, like Dark Souls?

On top of all of the above, why is it that nobody sees the crystal-clear contradiction in their argument? If what these people are saying were true, how would they explain the fact that we are even able to have MULTIPLE, equally-intense interests and passions? It couldn't be possible under their hypothesis. Because, as soon as we found something that gave us a huge boost in dopamine, we'd automatically get hooked to it and lose interest in anything else. C'mon, this is so absurd.

Reasons for starting gaming?

Our grand kids are addicted. And their parents do not care. They prefer handheld devices to grandparents. If we try to lure them away it takes extraordinary measures. We give up. They are lost for lack of a better word. It’s sad. We see the writing on the wall. It will be way too late when they realize it.

Why do people say gaming is wasted time?
Fucking haters
Playing soccer gives you dopamine, movies give you dopamine, chess gives you dopamine, sex gives you dopamine.
Are you gonna stop having sex? Are you gonna stop enjoying your life and do stuff that is fun and relaxing, never watch a movie again? Anyone paying you to watch a movie? Will you go pro watching a movie? Might happen if you love a video game so much, become good and meet people in the community.
Smart asses and haters go fuck yourself everyone who is saying "quitting video games changed my life" maybe you had an actual problem and all you did whole day was play for 16 hours instead of a few hours

Is it fine playing casual story based games for 1-2 hours per day while hitting the gym and studying?

You wrote sex wrong mate…😒🧐

I'm almost 60. I remember when it was cool to have PONG. My friend had it. He had CABLE too!! I played outdoors a lot without these luxuries.

Maybe being at risk for addiction is a blessing in disguise in a way. Let's say you game obsessively for a few months but then stop cold turkey and never go back to it again. I find that situation preferable to investing an hour or two a day for years which in the end means much more time down the drain

That's exactly my problem, I play video games for the past 20 years and I am so used to this that I find everything else boring.
Then I stop video games because I need to fix my life, and the depression comes after 3 weeks or 1 month, it's always the same...

I lost interests to games over time, because i spend more money on games than playing them, become games more collector than a player . I did not had time for that, because i have put education first and played relative small amounts like 2 hr a week. That shows in video mostly apply to people has addiction.

I used World of Warships to stop smoking cigarettes... now the system stays on all the time just incase I need a game.

Where is the original podcast/video of Andrew Huberman? I want to use it for research purposes but I can't seem to find it.

So if you do cocain smoke have sex and play video games all in the same hour your probably gone commit suicide

Use video games for a reason. Don't play brain dead games. Play games that actually make you think. The dopamine talk is interesting but the video games aren't the problem it's the way you approach things that's the problem. Find some type of work that speaks to your soul more than video games and just use video games to learn new things. If you're using video games to escape something then that you should make you feel guilty and you should not leave that guilt unchecked.

I've been playing video games for over 20 years. Idk what the hell everyone is talking about in the comments. They act like video games ruined their lives as if playing video games is similar to living with a heroin addiction. People either have no self-control or they play the same games over and over until they get bored. Everyone experiences boredom from time to time. It's a normal feeling to have 😂

I wake up, play games before work, give my beautiful wife and two pets attention, sweat my ass off for 8 hours lifting heavy freight, come home, clean up the house, watch a show with my wife, and go to bed. On my weekends, I do repairs around the house and play video games when my weekend house tasks are finished. I bought a model house kit and worked every weekend until it was fully built, painted, had lighting installed, and the furniture was placed. The bed for the house didn't come with a blanket on it so my wife crocheted one to complete the project. The entire project (except placing the ridiculous amount of shingles) was satisfying and again, I've been playing video games for over 20 years. Your dopamine levels will be fine as long as you have multiple hobbies to switch to.

Love to see more people quitting games 💯 I’m not addicted or have been but see lots of people being turned into depressive hermits because of it.

I only play artistic videogames, cinematographic videogames,well writen videogames nothing that fortinet no online no bullshit no animalcrossing, es como decir que leer es bueno, y acabas leyendo libros de paty chapoy

is GTA5 a 300% and System Shock 75% games? lol

That makes sense. I always valued Video Games over any realtionship I had. The feeling of challenge and belonging I get from video games, no girl can ever provide that for me.

My Son has just turned 22, he is full blown addicted to video games, computer, does nothing else! What do I need to do to help him. How to address it positively , and not demanding. He needs help.
He does nothing else!

Until you suffer serious injury,back pain or brain disorder,gaming is the only thing you can do for fun.

Short story. I was one of the first generation of kids with a portable game player that was constantly told to put it down and socialize more. I quit gaming and played guitar more I noticed everyone starting to stare at cellphones as those got popular as much as I used to play the games. I quit gaming for a few years and I only started this channel to expiriment with a few ideas during what I could call a career shift for health reasons. I think my aptitude with some games lead me to participate competitively in some interesting career opportunities under stressful deadlines but that's another story.