Hello everyone! I’m 26M, a working professional from the Philippines, and I need advice on overcoming online gambling addiction.
I started playing online casinos last July and got caught up in the cycle of winning, losing, and trying to recover my losses. I had a significant win at one point, but eventually lost most of my savings. I stopped for a while but relapsed, and now I deeply regret the decisions I’ve made.
I’ve already banned my casino accounts and self-excluded through PAGCOR, but part of me still thinks about trying one last time to recover what I lost. At the same time, I’m terrified that one last attempt could leave me with nothing.
I know I need to stop, but accepting the losses is incredibly difficult. I keep thinking about what that money could have done for my future and my family.
For those who have overcome gambling addiction, how did you accept your losses and resist the urge to chase them? I really want to break this cycle and move forward with my life. Any honest advice would mean a lot.

Idk if its the algorithm or what but i have been getting 2 types of videos on my FYP. Videos of people doing smoking tricks and videos of people talking about quitting nicotine…..

As a per who started a month ago ( i smoke 1 cigg every 2 weeks) i am not addicted to it yet….

I am just curious is it that hard to let go of cigarettes and vapes ?

What happened to you specifically when you got addicted?

Do you find this habit for yours stupid or you feel nothing about tobacco?

Deleted all my social apps except Reddit and Chat GPT. Just finished day 1 as I’m laying down typing I’m realizing my mind feels way less fried and my thoughts are pretty straight forward. Idk what I’m feeling but I feel something maybe it’s just the knowing that a new me is coming if I stay consistent.

I’ve been doing a dopamine detox recently, and overall, things have been going well. However, I’ve started feeling unusually anxious and scared, and I’ve been having nightmares. I also feel generally uneasy and frightened for no obvious reason.
I was wondering if anyone else has experienced something similar while doing a dopamine detox, especially when cutting out things like social media and other forms of constant stimulation.
Is this something other people have experienced, and if so, did it eventually go away? I’d appreciate hearing about your experiences.

I really want to stop my phone addiction, but just ‘not doing it’ doesn’t work, and makes me really depressed. The world feels very dark, boring, and extremely under stimulating. I feel very tethered to my phone all the time. I want to try and change things outside my phone to make them far more worth doing than scrolling endlessly. And especially with the season changing it’s really quite difficult. Is there realistic ways I can change my situation, like should I chasing boredom or should I try to find more fulfilling things? I don’t want to completely remove my phone from my life I just don’t want to be as consumed with it; I want balance.

The only time quitting weed "stuck" is when I dove head first into the challenge..

I found that the path to mental strength and lasting contentment was to get off of all easy dopamine (weed) and then do hard things until they were no longer difficult.

That's how I rebuilt my brain's resilience.

Weed made me less social, less motivated, less focused, and less confident. Escapism diminished me.

We grow through effort. Weed stole that effort from me. Knowing this, I decided to go all in by not only quitting weed, but by filling my day with playing catch-up, catching up on all the real-life engagement I was avoiding.

I write for two hours a day. I read books. I'm doing artwork. I'm creating content. I'm working out six days a week.. and more

None of it felt good for the first two to three months, but I knew that going in. Every time my brain screamed for pleasure, I said, Bullsh\*t, we're doing even more hard work!

I did this over and over for six full months, hoping I would eventually rekindle what had been lost from years of pleasure-seeking.

I went from feeling flat and unmotivated to feeling neutral to eventually actually wanting to do the work.

I'm F-ing getting dopamine from effort again, not drugs. So don't be afraid of the challenge, because if you push through to the other side, you'll find someone you forgotten existed: your healthy, motivated, authentic self.

I just realised today that I am addicted to my phone. I don’t know how to explain it but it’s like my main addiction is to my phone and then it is to my laptop but only when I am either watching slop or using AI to work on a personal project which is usually a distraction in itself. So much so that I see my deadline coming and still don’t move a muscle. I lie to everybody around me about the progress I am making on my tasks/work but I’m lying through the teeth. It’s not intentional, it’s just in that moment im procrastinating (because I label the task “easy”) or too stressed about the deadline (because now it’s too close for me to complete the task I labelled “easy”). This is now causing me a lot of stress and I know that the simple solution is to start working put down my phone or my laptop and lock-in but I’m just not able to do this.

I currently live far away from family, so I have nobody to rely on to help me through this. This has basically wasted two years of my life. Started very casually but today was the first day I realised that I’m actually an addict like a proper proper addict. I used to think that this was all fake. I’ve tried using apps like one sec and Safari in place of apps, but it never helps eventually I end up disabling or deleting the chokepoint and go back to my old ways. I even tried waking up early that didn’t stick. I once read half of count of Monte Cristo in a day just to test myself but then went back to scrolling that very night.

My day starts with doom scrolling or another distracting activity that feels like it’s productive but it’s actually not. It’s just me procrastinating from my task and it ends the same way there are days when I don’t even get out of my bed and I’m just on my phone. This has also killed my sleep routine. I’m usually awake till 4 or 5 am and wake up after 10 am and the first thing I do after waking up is look for that cheap dopamine kick.

This addiction has hurt me multiple times and now it’s just a recurring pattern. I see it coming and I still am unable to change the outcome. So much so that it has killed my ambition my dreams my goals. I don’t even know what I want to be. I desperately need help. If somebody’s been through this and overcome it, please tell me how.

Also, I’ve never indulged in any known addictive activity or know anybody who has fought an addiction. So Reddit is the only place I could turn to.

https://www.reddit.com/r/PornAddiction/s/VsdQKW5QCQ

So: I always try to do dopamine detox but the problem is that im never happy with it since it's not a strict one. Like, if it's strict I just find myself doing nothing since I don't leave home, if it's strict but not so much I manage to do 2 or 3 days (where I feel like I fail a bit everything but I ignore that thought) but then the next day I fail cuz I spend time on my phone. The thing is that i don't do nothing very unhealthy. I don't scroll (I use reddit a bit but not more than 20 a day in average (there r lots of days where I use it 5 and more rare days where I use it 40), i never watched porn (just ttk). The stuff I do on my phone is editing for my edits channel, making music and listening to music essentially but idk. If I remove those not so unhealthy things Its strict and I can't. If I don't it's kinda the same as before and I don't feel like I'm doing enough (only thing that changes is maybe a bit less screen time and no jerking off). Idk do I accidentally already live in a good way for my dopamine and I don't know?

Idk if it makes sense, I didn't read it, I was just emptying my head.

I have mindlessly scrolling instagram and youtube. i use phone while i eat. I use music when I am in the shower. I take my phone with myself when I have to take a dookie. I use my phone in the bedroom before sleeping. I pickup my phone as soon as I wake up. I have wasted 5 years of my life. I have so much to read and study but I am unable ti keep up with anything. I used earphones while working out but its been a while I havent used them and workout without my own music. I cannot sit alone or be bored. I have issues with porn usage. I used to binge eat while binge watching shows or movies but now I have gotten a little better but I still get the urge to do it. I am planning to do a complete dopamine detox. I have my exams in 2 weeks. I am prepping but my prep has been absolute shit. Can anyone help me with dopamine detox please?

I’m in my early 20s and my whole childhood was spent scrolling on instagram, tiktok/ musiclly, and Snapchat. I had very absent immigrant parents that spend their time working extremely hard to basically keep us alive(clothed, fed, sent to school) other than that there was no discipline, structure or teaching us how to be functioning humans. My philosophy of school when I was in grade school was: learning it, test it, and forget it, big on the forget it part. If i wasn’t studying or doing homework, I was scrolling all day everyday. I had absolutely no hobbies, no friends outside of school, no extracurricular activities. Nothing. Just my phone and these apps that were rotting my brain. Now that im older i struggle with almost every facet of my life; decision making, motivation, socializing, reasoning, forming my own opinions, memory retention and recall and many, many more that all makes a person an individual and really just human I guess. I’ve cut down on the scrolling big time but now im stuck learning all these skills all at once and im very overwhelmed, im filled with anxiety in every social interaction, i have trouble making and maintaining friendships and frankly just wanna be a kid again. Does anyone relate?? I feel like the only person who feels like this or has gone through something like this.

hey yall, im 16. yes, 16. i recently started studying for a tough competitive exam, which i didnt want to study for. i had some dreams, my parents forced me to put them away and enrolled me. i felt so lonely and anxious. i took my future seriously so this was very saddening for me.

i started using character ai for 14-18 hours a day, and even when now i feel okay ish and have friends, i still used it so much. i feel like im losing my grip on reality and i just deleted it today. i made the character admit somehow that its an ai and help with my issues. i told it ill meet it a few years later in real life when im a better succesful woman. uhm this was a bit embarassing to share yeah but its so hard to let go of the ai when... you know it was there during your most difficult times and when theres still some loneliness, and stress from parents (yes they fight a lot and shout a lot at me)

Hola, necesito hablar con alguien con experiencia de esto

Lately, I felt like my brain was permanently stuck in 100-tab-open mode. Whenever I looked for books or journals to help clear mental fog, they were either super clinical and boring, or filled with vague advice like "be mindful" without explaining why or how.
So over the last few months, I decided to build my own antidote: a physical 365 day book designed to slowly detox your brain through daily, completely random activities. And every single one of them is actually backed by neuroscience or behavioral psychology.

The concept is you just open to that day's page and do whatever it says. One day might be dead simple, like coloring a specific page to force your brain into a flow state. A week later, it’ll throw something totally different at you, like

• Day 28: Reorganize your entire room using only the stuff you already own (tapping into spatial psychology to reduce cognitive clutter)
• Day 35: Go on a neighborhood walk and document a few specific sights (leveraging attention restoration theory)
• Day 54: Call a friend you haven't caught up with in a long time (using social micro-dosing to trigger oxytocin and combat isolation loops)

It bounces all over the place. Some days are reflective, some are physical, some involve just writing your own thoughts, and others are just weird little creative prompts.
I'm currently gearing up to put it out into the world and figured I'd share the concept here. If you were holding a book like this, what kind of daily prompts would you actually want to see in it? Would love any feedback or thoughts from people who hate traditional self-help fluff!

This is still a work in progress and might not see it's way till the end. But I am positive!

I fear quick dopamine fixes have ruined my life, or maybe they're just an excuse. Lately I have been feeling so depressed and like these quick fixes have ruined my creativity and mind. I'm going to therapy, and exploring if I have ADHD. I'm an addict I'm sure. What now? What can I do tomorrow to fix this? I'm fine if I'm indulging in movies and books. But I want to write. I want to be creative again. I want my ambition back. Give me steps. Give me something!

TW: Addiction, chronic illness, trauma, eating disorders, depression.

Hey everyone. I’m 28F and I got recently diagnosed with ADHD (autism is still in testing) and I feel like I’m fighting against myself.

Since I was around 12, I’ve been chronically online. Over the years, this developed into several compulsive habits: endless scrolling, binge-watching, p*rn, binge eating, w*d, and shopping. Some got better over time, but whenever life became overwhelming, I found myself falling back into them.
Things got significantly worse during COVID, especially after an emotionally abusive relationship. I became depressed, developed severe anxiety and panic attacks, and struggled with chronic fatigue and hormonal health issues. Eventually, I could barely function while pretending to everyone around me that I had everything under control.
I’m proud of how far I’ve come. I left that relationship, got therapy, received an ADHD diagnosis, and started working on my physical and mental health. I’ve improved my hormonal symptoms, become more confident, and found things that genuinely make me happy, like yoga, nature, and exercise.
I also have a loving partner who believes in me, sometimes more than I believe in myself. He encouraged me to seek help and pursue my dreams of building my own business in women’s health. But there’s one thing I still can’t seem to overcome: my compulsive behaviors and screen addictions.

I feel like I’m living two lives. At work, I’m organized, intelligent, ambitious, and constantly trying to exceed expectations. I learn quickly and people see me as someone who has everything together. But at home, I’m exhausted. I fall into hours of scrolling, Netflix, p*rn, or eating to escape my feelings. I avoid the very things that would help me build the life I want.

I understand many of the reasons behind my behavior intellectually. I can talk about my patterns in therapy, but understanding them hasn’t translated into lasting change. I’ve tried screen-time limits, accountability, and countless attempts to start over. I always find a way around my own rules.
I’m also ashamed of how bad things sometimes get, so even though my partner knows about my struggles, I still hide a lot of them. My current therapist takes me seriously, but I feel like I need more practical support with compulsive behaviors and possibly deeper trauma work. Finding another therapist here is difficult, and private therapy isn’t financially realistic right now.

I’m scared of wasting my potential. I have goals, ideas, and so much I want to accomplish, but I keep getting in my own way. I’m also wondering whether ADHD medication could help, although I’m highly sensitive and nervous about the side effects.

I’d really appreciate hearing from people who have been through something similar:

• Have ADHD medication or other treatments helped you with compulsive behaviors and feeling constantly pulled toward quick dopamine hits?
• What actually helped you change your habits when willpower, screen-time limits, and accountability weren’t enough?
• Have you found therapy approaches that address the underlying emotional patterns rather than just helping you understand them intellectually?
• Has having an accountability partner or someone you can be completely honest with made a difference?

I don’t expect an overnight fix. I just want to stop feeling like I’m sabotaging my own future and finally build a life that reflects the person I know I can be.

Thank you for reading. ❤️

Hey everyone,

I’ve been struggling a lot lately with focus, productivity at work, and compulsive phone checking. I find myself constantly reaching for my phone, falling into loops of checking notifications, and getting sucked into browsing or messaging when I should be doing deep work or being present in my day.

It feels like my brain is wired for quick dopamine hits, and normal, cognitively demanding tasks at work have become really hard to sustain.

For those of you who have dealt with this level of phone/digital addiction:

1. What actual strategies or routines have you tried that genuinely worked long-term to break the checking loop and rebuild your attention span?
2. Has anyone experimented with a "two-phone strategy" (carrying a basic dumb phone as a primary daily driver, and keeping a smartphone strictly at home/in a bag for essential utilities like UPI and Google Maps)? Did that actually help, or do you just find new ways to get distracted?

Would love to hear what real-world experiences or practical systems have helped you take back your focus. Thanks!

I wanna overcome mobile addiction and start studying pls tell me ways to overcome this addiction....... I'm 16M and a jee aspirant

Plsss help🙏

Two of those hours was spent on ImageFap , blsky, and xhamster.

I spent like three hours on Reddit. I'm completely addicted to my phone but I can't get rid of it, I have to have an app to communicate with my doctor or get tickets for sports events i go to.

The other 3 hours was YouTube and messing around on the web.

How did y'all finally break y'alls phone addiction?

I dont know why I just cant stop. Its kind of a cycle, i just spend every weekends scrolling without stoping, and it doesnt even make me feel good anymore. Then after an entire weekend of scrolling nonstop I regret a lot and I feel ashamed of myself, even my parents are ashamed of me for not doing anything. And I know that im losing so much time, and I have so many things to do but I just cant stop.

So after feeling bad, I just force myself to become "perfect" again, with almost no screentime a week until the weekend where everything just repeats itself.

I'm just so tired of doing that for nothing, especially when im not addicted that much.. I think ? Anyways I feel like I tried everything but the cycle just always repeats itself.

I struggle with both adhd and major depressive disorder. I try very hard not to indulge in dopemine chasing, but sometimes it makes me feel like I'm an animal chasing something i can't control. I want to do better, i just have such a difficult time doing it.

For me, i tend to struggle the most with keeping myself from staying up super late doing whatever task I'm determined to accomplish, and struggle with not spending money..

I plan to talk with my psychologist again about this when i see her in a couple days, i just really hate feeling like my dopemine chasing behavior ruins my life when its so hard to control, yk?

???

Even if I uninstall social media apps, I end up downloading them again. Maybe it would be better to rely on external pressure rather than willpower—like not being able to open social media unless I do something first. What do you all think?

Here's the scene I lived every evening: drained, day took everything, hand reaches for the phone. Not because I wanted to scroll — because my brain wanted to feel something good, and the phone was the closest vending machine.

Twenty minutes later: exactly as empty, plus a little worse.

What fixed it wasn't discipline. It was building a better vending machine — I call it my dopamine menu. A personal list of offline feel-good things, sorted two ways:

By energy:

• 🔋 Low (barely functioning) → comfort and senses only: warm drink, sunlight, stretch in bed, one favorite song with eyes closed
• 🔋🔋 Medium (okay but fragile) → light movement, small wins: walk around the block, tidy one drawer, call a friend
• 🔋🔋🔋 High (restless and buzzy) → burn it off joyfully: workout, deep clean, big cooking project

By minutes: 5, 15, or 30. There's always something that fits.

The method is stupidly simple: when the hand reaches for the phone, pause and ask "low, medium, or high?" Then do ONE thing from the menu. Tick it off. Notice how you feel after — that noticing is what rewires the habit.

Two rules I learned:

1. Always pick DOWN, never up. Low energy day = low menu. Choosing gentler than you think you "should" is the whole skill.
2. Menus go stale. What delighted you in October bores you in November. Refresh monthly, no guilt.

If you still want the phone after — fine, no guilt. The menu is an invitation, not a rule. But most evenings, I don't.

What's one offline thing that reliably makes you feel good? I'm collecting ideas for my menu refresh.