Vent about my Addiction

[Marcus Von Drac]

Well, here's the thing, I just feel a need to vent and get this off my chest.

As you will probably have guessed by the thread title, this is about a little addiction problem I have developed. More specifically, I believe I am addicted to the internet. Even MORE specifically, I believe I may well be an Otaku. For those who don't wish to read that, what this means is that I am obsessed, and I mean seriously obsessed, with Anime.

I find myself online from pretty much the moment I get in from uni, til anywhere between 1 and 4 in the morning, watching anime online. Now, I used to watch it reasonably, a few series which sent out 1 episode a week. But recently, I have watched/ am watching a total of 39 different anime's, which amounts to a total of 1622 episodes. Now, considering each episode is roughly 24 minutes long, that amounts to roughly 27 days. That's just shy of 4 solid weeks spent sat in front of my computer watching japanese cartoons.

I don't mean to sound needy, but this is worrying me, really worrying me. I feel like I'm letting my life slip away, and am alredy well on my way to becoming a complete social recluse. To give an example, I've been at uni for around 3 weeks now. Including freshers week, where the whole idea is to go out and get drunk, I've been on a night out 3 times, and round to my neighbours once. That's it. I know virtually nobody, and once the days finished, I will run back to my room and sit in front of the computer.

I don't even know if this is the right place to post this (don't even know if there is a right place to post this) but I wanted to get it off my chest, and just see if anyone here has any good advice on ways of stopping this habit before I become completely anti-social, or if you're willing to say here, you've had/have the same problem, and know a way of dealing with it.

Sorry for taking up your time.

 

[Nikos]

No need to apologise, if getting it out there helps, then do it. It does seem a bit excessive, and the longer you leave socialising in a new place, the harder it'll get as people tend to get cliquey. Maybe if you try scaling it down slowly, saying one night this week your not going to watch any anime at all that day and do something else. Apart from anime, focus on something else you like once in a while. Or failing that try and find some other anime fanatics at uni! Best of luck

 

[TMS]

The ball is in your court about this, Marcus. You've decided that this is a problem, and the power to solve it is noone but yours. Try your damndest to balance what you do with your free time and push yourself to give socialising a couple more shots.

I hope that this doesn't come off as harsh, but I really don't know any other way to tackle things like this. You have the power!

 

[Disciple of Nagash]

Hey Marcus,

Course this is the place to speak about, as always we look after our members.

Firstly, yes from my point of view you do have a problem. That amount of time in front of the PC watching anime is far too much. The fact that this is done at a time when you are suppose to be exploring a new place, meeting new people highlights in further.

In the long run you will not be doing yourself any good, and futher more ,the longer you do this for the worse it can get. This is because it will become more and more difficult to go back into society as this becomes more and more the "norm" for you.

As MS said, the ball is in your court. I really do hope you do something about it. It may be the fact you need to assign yourself limits and stick to them. I would really encourage to try and find a group or club to join that will give you interaction with others. Even a warhammer group!

The other thing I would try and think about, is this a sign of any underlying anxieties. Was you nervous about going to uni, nervous about meeting new people? Could you have tried dealing with this by going into a "comfort zone", instead of trying to overcome the issues instead?

These are all things you need to consider. I really hope you manage to work it out and get past this

 

[Marcus Von Drac]

Huh, thanks guys. Nice to know I'm not just freaking you all out.

And don't fret it MS, what you said isn't harsh , it's true.

And DoN, I'm honestly not sure. I may have been nervous about the whole moving to uni and meeting new people but I never seem to feel nervous, so if I was it was all subconcious thinking. As to your suggestion, I have joined up to to a couple of clubs, and I know one of them (the pokemon club, can you believe) is holding a meeting next wednesday. So hopefully I'll turn up to that and meet some people, and maybe, since it's pokemon, there may be a few there who can sympathise with me. Guess it's just a matter of waiting and seeing now.

 

[Grish]

Yeah that's exactly what I was going to suggest. Join a couple clubs that share your interest. There's nothing wrong with Anime (although personally I have really tried to get into it by watching the top rated anime's and they weren't on the same level as a good movie) but there is something wrong with sitting in front of a computer and watching tons of hours of it.