Introduction

[Brilliant and Loving Life]

Hello I'm a 25 year old male. I'm unemployed and I've never been able to hold a steady job for more than a few months.
My formal education was haphazard and I am mostly self educated since leaving highschool at 15. I was in an accelerated learning program but I left it early to go to a local public high school where I became bored and experimented with substance abuse, violence and sex.
I would just leave the school and not attend classes out of boredom.

I removed myself from that destructive environment and isolated myself completely from other people. Removing myself removed the problems.
Since then my follow through with normal life has been stifled by my obsession with playing online games and the resulting disorders.

I enjoy writing, philosophy and I'm coming to terms with having been obsessed with playing online games every waking moment for over a decade and the impact that will have on my future.

I currently live in a sharehouse with two other people in Australia.

 

[David Baxter PhD]

Hi, Brilliant...

When you say "I'm coming to terms with having been obsessed by playing online games", what does that mean? You're accepting it as "sane and normal"? Or you're at a point where you wnt to change it?

 

[Brilliant and Loving Life]

Hi David.

It's a wonderful thing you are doing for all us here. You are a very special person.

Recently I am at a point where I am no longer tied to the games but I am left with an enourmous void in my life and no direction. I've tried filling it with relationships, exercise and resuming work. So far I had some success in a relationship, which just ended. I am now back in a pit of depression where I am looking back to gaming as a solution to fill my time.

 

[David Baxter PhD]

Thank you, Brilliant.

To me it sounds like what is really missing in your life is a sense of direction. Where is it you are going, or where is it you want to be going? Where would you like to be in 5 years and what would you like to be doing then? How do you see yourself and your life then?

 

[Brilliant and Loving Life]

I'd like to be successful in my own business, have a stable relationship and a nice group of supportive and relatively normal friends.
I'm having trouble seeing point A from Z. It's overwhelming where to begin. Especially socially. When I really think about it I should probably pursue education, it just seems too far away for me to achieve.

 

[David Baxter PhD]

I'm having trouble seeing point A from Z.

Understood. But the solution is to break it down -- aim not at the eventual goal (e.h., starting your own business) but at something that gets you closer or moves you toward that goal (e.g., deciding what type of business or learning something new that will help you decide or acquiring some knowledge or experience that will be useful in running your specific business or any business in general)...

Big leaps often seem (and often are) impossible but small steps are not.

 

[Brilliant and Loving Life]

I will have a go at specifically setting some short term goals.
I bought some financial education material a while ago which I've put off reading.
I'll give it a second chance tommorow.
For now I am going to build my self esteem with a nice dinner on the town.

Thanks David.

 

[David Baxter PhD]

Good idea: "a nice dinner on the town" can be quite therapeutic -- those are my plans for tonight too )