Everything In Moderation (Avoiding the Addiction and How to Break It)
By Lily
Hello there. I've recently stumbled upon your site (not sure how, really), and I have to say hats off to you! It's excellent that you're
helping people break the chains of their addiction. It's a wonderful thing to provide people with needed tools to break a horrible internet
addiction, so I decided to throw in my two cents. While I play Neopets, I am not addicted. And I believe Neopets can be
a great place, if you learn how to draw boundaries. I'm a 19-year-old girl who lives in a small apartment in the city. Up until about a
month ago, I'd never had a pet in real life. For the past 2 years, Neopets has provided mild entertainment and a virtual pet to replace
the one I could never have. It's a wonderful outlet, especially for a busy college student who needs some down-time at the end of a hectic
day. I've never been addicted to Neopets, nor will I ever be. Here are my secrets for not getting addicted in the first place. Later, I'll
give pointers on quitting if you're already ensnared.
- Limit your time. If you know that you have 3 hours of homework each evening, and you have 6 hours of time to do that three hours, figure
out a time schedule. Play Neo for an hour or so. Watch some TV, talk on the phone, and still have enough time to do your work and check it
twice!
- DON'T set goals for yourself on Neopets. The point of any goal is to work as hard as you can to achieve the said desired thing/result. If
you want to lose weight, you spend a lot of time exercising, and you think about it near constantly, right? Same concept. If you want that
plushie paint brush, you're going to work as hard and as long as it takes to get it. Setting goals is setting yourself up to spend more
time than you should on Neopets.
-Be diverse. Come on. Neopets can't be the only thing you enjoy doing! Play baseball. Train your dog to do obstacles. Volunteer. Go for a
walk. Photograph stuff. Make up really bad songs with your friends and laugh about it. Those are the kind of things you are going to remember
when you're old. Not the imaginary pixels on a virtual site. If you have other hobbies, Neopets can't consume your time.
- Learn from others' mistakes. You've seen it. Rich players, famous ones, crying out on the boards about how they lost everything being
frozen. Don't let yourself get attached to something imaginary. You cannot touch a neopet. Avatars do not really represent you, nor do
they mean diddly in the real world. You cannot hold an item. They are two-dimensional pixels, and they aren't worth interfering in your
normal life for.
Breaking the Addiction
-Humble yourself. A big part of addiction is the feeling of pleasure that some form of success gives you. Heroin addicts keep shooting up
because it makes them feel good. Kleptomaniacs keep stealing because it makes them feel good. Children keep screaming when you tell them to
stop, because the attention makes them feel good. You keep playing Neopets because making Neopoints, having a lot of avatars or whatever
it is that you do well makes you feel good. It gives you a false sense of power. So, if you're serious about quitting or at least breaking
the addiction once and for all, donate all your Neopoints and items to the money tree. Give away your fancy pets to people you know. In
effect, you're stripping yourself back down to basics. Now you're back to where you started, with nothing. Don't earn it back, either. That
defeats the purpose.
- Take control of your life. If you're spending an abnormal amount of time on Neopets (enough so that it significantly takes up portions of
your life), most likely, there's something you're hiding from. Whether it's problems with a family member, social anxiety, low self-esteem or
anything else, you need to identify what is making you turn to Neopets for your validation and purpose. Once you can make peace with that,
you can break your addiction because it no longer is needed to mask your problems.
- Have hobbies. I cannot stress this enough. You need to have something to do other than Neopets to break your addiction. Play with
your real dog. Find another computer game to play. Read a good book. Get a job. Volunteer at a homeless shelter. Take up sewing. Learn how
to ride a horse. Enter spelling bees. Whatever interests you besides Neopets and the internet. You need something to matter more to you
than Neopets, just like an alcoholic need something more important than alcohol to make them quit. If you don't have something you want
more than Neopets, then you have no reason to quit, so find something.
- Make a list of all the reasons to quit, on paper. And don't crumple up the list once you're done reading it. Put it somewhere where you can see it and have it as a reminder of why you're doing this.
- Make a pro/con list. If you are reading this, you probably are thinking about quitting. If that is the case, you will most likely
find that the cons outweigh the pros, furthering your determination to quit.
If you're like me (and few are), you can play Neopets without ever being addicted. Why don't I quit then, you ask? I find a lot of the
games very stimulating, especially the word games. That's all. I like playing the games, and occasionally the challenge of feeding
kadoaties. If you can play and not get addicted, then happy gaming to you! But if you know you're a person with the general tendency to
become addicted to things, the best thing is to stop right now. Well, that's my article. Hope it helped you, or at least kept you
entertained for five minutes. Have a good day, and remember: nothing is ever a good thing in excess.
Lily (expediency)
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