How to Kick your World of Warcraft Addiction

Anyone who has played it knows how addicting World of Warcraft can be. It offers such easy gratification, it makes you a part of a community and offers you that sweet escape from the ups and downs of life. For many of us, the call of WoW is too great. We know we'd like to be doing other things but we can't break away.

Instructions

1. Use the Parental Control function. Many people don't know this, but WoW comes with a function that allows you to limit the hours you can play it. Go to the community page (www.worldofwarcraft.com) and log in using your account name and password. Go to Parental Control and set some hours for yourself. Try allowing yourself only night or weekend time. Starting slow is a good idea. Don't try to kill all your time in one stroke. Take small steps and just cut your play time by a couple hours a week.

2. Clean your space. Is your gaming area littered with World of Warcraft paraphernalia? Collect everything that is WoW-related and put it in a box. No need to destroy it, just put it in a box and stick the box somewhere out of the way. Closets, garages and under the bed work well. This will help take your mind off WoW.

3. Play something else. Were there games you liked playing before WoW that aren't WoW related? Go back to an older game you used to like and give it a little time. You probably won't have as much fun as you do on WoW, but it will remind you of what life was like before WoW.

4. Take up a hobby if you don't already have one. Do you like to draw? Paint? Dance? Sing? There are plenty of things to do in this life besides gaming. Give something new a try. Most hobbies are relatively inexpensive and can be immensely rewarding. You just need to be willing to put forth a little effort.

5. Talk to some old friends. Were there people you used to hang out with before you got hooked on WoW? Have you been speaking to them less? Get back in touch with them. Even phone calls work. Apologize if things didn't end well and ask if they'd mind getting back in touch.

6. Go cold turkey. This is the hardest way to kick any addiction, but it can work. Uninstall World of Warcraft, get rid of your discs and get rid of anything WoW-related you've got lying around. This is almost guaranteed to be painful, but if you've tried everything else and failed, this is the last resort.

7. Find support. Do you know anyone else who was/is addicted to WoW? Get in touch with them. Speaking to a friend about common struggles can help tremendously.