Hello Fellow Fiction lovers. I have a problem. Ever since I was a kid, I was withdrawn from society and took to fiction to live my life. I wanted a happy family when I watched cartoons; then I wanted awesome friends when I watched animes; and Finally I wanted Fantastical romances when I read novels. I feel a sense of achievement that only lasts when I'm reading the novel but disappears as quickly when I finish of get to the boring point , and I end up feeling worse than when I had started. This is because I've wasted too much time and haven't done anything useful. I'm not even a useful community member that writes reviews , gives spoilers , translate ... Which is because I only want to read. I get so absorbed I can't stop. I try to leave reviews and comments , but that is done when I force myself. I believe I'm so engrossed because I always try to block my reality. I don't want to be a loser. So I wait till the last min. and waste time away with fiction. then do the given task ,which doesn't usually go well. But then I tell myself that I'm good because If I had more time then things would be done 100% perfect. So in the future I would be awesome. I also am forced to remain at home as a freelancer bec. I'm helping my father out . so this adds more fuel to the fire. Not everyone is an addict , and I get that. Many people can drink, but not everyone will have a drinking problem. I feel like I'm wasting all my potential by escaping, but I'm afraid to discover I had no potential at all If I don't. Readers, please share your experience with this , and how you got out of it. what works and what doesn't.
Have you thought of starting some project? work on something? Basically when you feel down, learn something new (of course I don't mean not to read novels because one simply doesn't do that) something that will ease that feeling
For me I found a hobby to do other than reading, which is running. I joined the cross country team in my school and made new friends, we suffer together. Basically I found something else I enjoy and try to improve it little by little with other people. I found that when I have even a little bit of motivation and splurge with all I got, I get things done and before I know it I got better at it
I almost always get an "addiction" to everything I do. I easily focus on one singular task for a very long period of time before suddenly getting bored and putting it to the side until I cycle back to it. I'm not sure if this is even remotely applicable, but I think a replacement method usually works pretty well for killing an unwanted addiction. If you can't get over something (reading in particular) just start making up flaws in it until you despise it. "I hate this type of character", "This plot is so transparent", "I'm way better than these people", ect. You can kind of hypnotize yourself into no longer liking this thing. I'm not a doctor though and kind of just suck right now so I don't know how legit this advice is.
I understand where u are coming from. But right now I'm not motivated to do stuff bec. I'm depressed to be working with my father in the family business. in fact my only motivation is to finish the tasks , which I'm constantly escaping by novels. I have things I want to do and learn but they are taking a backseat to depression. because I try to escape depression by Binge reading I end up wasting the day and eventually nothing gets done.
Its a viscous cycle. You feel like you are a loser and have not achieved anything so you retreat into novels, fiction, or some other form of escapism. The more you retreat the less you accomplish and the more ashamed you feel of your real life accomplishments. In my opinion, the easiest way to get out of the cycle is to not give a crap. Strangely enough getting stuff done real life is much easier when you don't care about it as much. And then once you start gaining momentum it only grows from there.
I totally do that. and this does get me to stop when I'm reading a super long novel. like saying. What is gonna happen , ofcourse they'll get together in the end and the mother in law will do this and there may be love rivals and that's all there is to it. been there done that. and then I drop the novel. <<< Only to start another one a day later or smth
Start drawing, playing a musical instrument, start doing something that calms you down. Marvel at your progress Embrace the feeling of success
Huh, I never thought about it in that way. Now that I think about it things really get done smoothly when I take as it is and not over think it. When I give something some importance, it suddenly becomes harder for me to actually do it
Skin care and other products company.. I'm deleting the rest of this post coz I don't want this thread to be too dramatic and want to focus on the main issue