Addiction?

Hey there,

I know there's a slim chance of any of you here being a psychologist or behavioral specialist, but I've been wanting to consult someone for a while.

Things you should know: I have friends, I go out pretty often, and I'm a full time student.

I would say I'm a pretty normal guy, I'm fairly social and like to hang out and do fun stuff. However, I've noticed a tendency in the past years, where whenever any type of school break comes (spring break, christmas, summer, etc) I always kind of pick up on some video game (usually call of duty, or Runescape) and I can't stop playing it. I don't know if it's something psychological or some sort of addiction needing tendency. I can't quite describe it.

So, for example, during the semester I barely play video games, I usually just do my work, get good grades, hang out, and that's that. All semester long. But as soon as I'm on vacation, I literally alienate myself from my friends, usually don't answer my phone, don't go out, and just play, play, play. It's not something I plan, usually I'm just bored one day and turn on the xbox or login to runescape and after a few hours, I'm just hooked and MUST play to meet some sort of objective. I'm always looking for an objective to meet. And if I do go out, all I can think about is coming home to play, otherwise I feel as I'm wasting xp and could be bettering my skills.

Now, one would say, well, you're just kind of addicted to video games. But I think it's more than that, because if it's during the semester that I play, I can just play 1-2 hours and just get bored and get back to living life normally. It's as if school keeps me in check, snaps me out of it, and I can go back to being a normal guy.

I hadn't played runescape for about 4 years up until about 1-2 months ago when I was bored and just logged in. Since then, I've gone out to hang out maybe once, don't talk to my friends often, and feel the need to play, play, play and get xp.

However, I just started school again and it's as if i'm snapping out of it again. I'm starting to get bored of it, wanting to go out a bit more, and just focus on my grades.

Maybe this doesn't make sense, but my theory is that I have some sort of need to ALWAYS be working towards something. Prior to this 'episode' of severe RS addiction, I was a gym freak basically. I went to the gym every day for about 3 years, LOVED it, always working towards getting stronger and whatnot, and JUST LIKE THAT, I logged in into runescape and my addiction shifted from excercising to runescape and I haven't been back since. School is kind of the same, but different. I'm in college now, and although I don't REALLY enjoy it as playing video games, I'm always working towards an A. I'm in my third year now (economics & finance) with a 4.00 gpa (not bragging), and It's kind of like an obsession too. It's as if I NEED to get all A's to get the satisfactory feeling that I so much crave, be it school, runescape, gym, anything.

Has anyone ever heard of something like this? I don't mind me obsessing over grades in college since, honestly, that's not so bad. It's just the other things that get me, don't know why I'm like this.

 

you could just have a addictive personality bud. is it the same with other things at all?
drugs, sex, cigs?