Severe Chess Addiction

I think we should really stop throwing around the word addiction. Addiction is quite serious. This is more of a case of self control issues or obsessive behaviour. Don't get me wrong, I am not judging as I have been obsessed with things and have lacked the skill of self control as well. Don't think of it as an addiction and you need '''special" help. You have a choice and you are going with the choice of quick gratification instead of making the hard choice of delaying the gratification. Just my observation. 

The word addiction doesn’t apply to people playing 2 or 3 hours blitz everyday. It refers to people playing basically blitz during all free time, often forgetting to sleep or to eat, not having social contacts, even losing the job or the girlfriend or wife because the game.

I work with people addicted to online games (not chess, though), and the stories they tell are really terrifying. However, I know how non chess players perceive me as addicted to chess because I spend some minutes after lunch analysing Daily Games at my smartphone.  A colleague of mine spoke about addiction when referring to some of my students playing chess over the board during 2 or 3 hours. This is of course ridiculous, as most of the patients in the clinic spend several hours watching tv in the evening, which is considererd as normal (it IS normal, as it is to spend some hours engaged in an intellectual activity like chess).

I googled “chess addiction” and got adds for chess sites. My wife laughs when I say that there are chess addicts worse than me.

I think KeSoto's post said it all(at the beginning of the thread)....I highly doubt you have a true addiction.More-so an obsession! I am kinda' obsessed with the game and I do have other interests,like family,guitar,sports,working out(because I'm fighting off old age...Ha).

The operative words here are  BALANCE and DISCIPLINE!

You can do it!! Good luck.

Btw, a good girlfriend should almost always take precedence.

u know u are addicted when u type "chess" into the porn search engines

HA!HA!

Blitz is addicting bcoz it's cheap, easy to access, and it gives you high after a win. Your problem is not Blitz Chess it is on discipline. I went through a lot myself but discipline gives you freedom, you can actually read a good book, play longer time controls and limit your exposure to Chess gradually each day by let's say cut your exposure by 15 mins a day until you addiction wanes. GodBless!

There is same situation with me

seek a 12-move mate organization

I think obsessed is a more accurate word and there are worst things to be obsessed over. I wouldn't say you have an addiction because that would bring on painful physical withdrawal if you stopped playing for a day. You just happen to really enjoy chess!

Hi, is this blitz chess anonymous? *sits down*

I am beginning to become addicted, odd how it works

I would agree that addiction doesn’t really describe compulsive online chess. There’s no chemical dependency taken place. But, I can relate to a lot of the posts of people who are having trouble controlling their playing. I especially can relate to the downward spiral phenomenon. I can keep it under control if I feel good about my rating, but once my rating starts dropping I will quit everything else in my life to play and lose more games until I’m half crazy. Lately, we have had a child and, at the same time, my internet connection got much slower, So now between taking care of the baby and dropped/slow connections, I am going into spirals all the time! I certainly care about our new child more than I care about an online game, so why can’t I quit??? I probably delete then reload the app every other day now. Just a thought, do ratings on chess.com go up and down faster than they do in the ‘real’ chess world? Like, if you’ve played 10,000 games and you lose a few in a tournament, doesn’t your rating only drop a little bit, as opposed to the huge drops on chess.com?

you do realize that it is the chemicals you secrete that compel you to play, hence the spiral you describe.

playing secretes the chemical and the chemical compels you to play. i guess the best analogy is gambling which is clearly an addiction.

True. It’s a lot like gambling, because you keep trying to win back your ‘rating points’ like a gambler trying to get back the money they lost. It’s ‘addictive’, but I always feel like there has to be a line between addictions to drugs and alcohol, that involve an external chemical, and things like online games.

yup, i see what you mean. as far as addictions or compulsive behaviour goes, chess has to be less harmful than most. frankly i can live with it.

True. And the way I got hooked on this makes me glad I never tried meth.

who knows, you may have been a world champion at meth, probably not worth the risk mind.

Congratulations, you have been quoted in the Boston Globe!

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/12/11/opinion/checkmate-beth-harmon/

too bad the poor dudes not online to witness his ascension. 

But it looks like he's gotten over his addiction, lol