When I did this quitting thing from MMOs and FOMO inducing gachas that you describe, I suddenly

• got a non-dead-end job
• got a girlfriend
• got a promotion
• travelled around Europe
• girlfriend died
• travelled around Europe some more
• got another girlfriend
• ended up in Canada
• got married
• got kids
• stuck in dead-end job again without promotion for the past five years

I still think it was worth it to quit though. My mind just gets stimuli from the seemingly simplest things, like looking at a beautiful tree on the roadside, brutalist architecture, interesting conversations that I focus on instead of my mind wandering onto the next mount or raid boss I will have to tackle.

And when it comes to gaming, if I want to satisfy my itch for twitch and a bit of adrenaline, roguelites scratch it the best, without the long term commitment to playing them for days or even hours.

But what works best to keep sanity is exercise, and with riding a road bike at least twice a day I can combine elevated heart rate with zoning out and Zen for stress relief really well. It’s simply meditative.

I think of the twelve years I’ve spent playing MMOs fondly, lots of memories were made. But I would never do it again. And it has nothing to do with self-control, and willpower to not start it again, although quitting cold turkey definitely required both. But it had everything to do with the realization that it’s a trap that’s a poor substitute for real life, even if real life has dealt you shitty cards.

I can spot the hazy, reality-disconnected look of addicts from a mile away. The self-deluding statements when the topic somehow gets brought up. And I can do nothing but feel a bit sad for them, and hope that somewhere, someone manages to gently nudge them on a path that helps them escape from this trap.