12 steps of wow recovery

I think there are two types of people in this world; addicts and non-addicts. For addicts, you can get addicted to just about anything. For me, my drug of choice is WoW. Here is a twelve step program from the Wiki. This twelve step program originally started from Alcoholics Anonymous.

These are the original Twelve Steps as published by Alcoholics Anonymous:^[11]

1. We admitted we were powerless over WoW—that our lives had become unmanageable.

What is unmanageable? It means (to me) that your life has been put on hold, relationships and health jeopardized. We are powerless over people, places, and things. That includes the people who play and the game itself. We can't control if others want to spend their lives playing the game, and not participate in the game of life.

2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.

Once you realize you have no power over anything but yourself, you realize that if you are going to break the addiction it's up to you. If you believe in a higher power, fine. I don't, not really. I believe in myself though, and I believe I can stop destructive behavior through shear force of will.

3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.

To me, this means that I'm tired of answering to the game. Want to do something in real life? Consult with the guild,make sure it doesn't conflict, or let down the raid team down.

4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.

I think this means recognizing that I have an addictive personality, and with the recognition seeking to do a better job safeguarding myself, so I don't get into something too deep.

5. Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.

I think this means apologizing to the family members and friends who you let down, while being addicted to WoW. That, plus a plan of action to rectify the wrongs.

6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.

I don't believe higher powers have the capacity of modification. I believe this power must come from you . Regardless, the knowledge that you are an addict is a powerful recognition.

7. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.

Maybe this means destroying the game and the media (CD/DVD)? I think if you are a serious addict the only way to give it up is to give up your broadband access or your computer. Not sure if most addicts are ready or need this step. I plan to taper off, i'm not sure it can be done. But i'm going to give it a shot.

8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.

Pretty self-explainatory.

9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.

Pretty self-explainatory.

10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.

I think this means that your road to recovery is never complete and you could relapse at any time.

11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His Will for us and the power to carry that out.

I'm not sure what this means to an atheist. I think focusing on constructive things builds your will-power and self-esteem. So maybe that is the message here.

13. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to WoW addicts and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

You gotta preach it IMO. Its so easy to log in, discover twenty things you 'need' to do, then you're emeshed all over again. You can't blame the company (blizzard) as i've seen many do, its like blaming alcohol manufacturers for alcoholism.