Ok so my sister is 23 years of age. She turns 24 in March. For the past 2 years she has been playing a game called World of Warcraft. Before this game was introduced to her, she was fairly skinny and had a social life and a good paying job. As she began to get more and more drawn into this game, she began to gain weight, she lost her boyfriend and her friends didn't speak to her as much anymore.

Anyways, we moved away about 5 months ago to a small town up north. Well, up here there is very little jobs so my sister didn't even bother to look for one.
Instead she just sits in her room all day and all night playing World of Warcraft. She has gotten extreamly fat, and it's kind of gross. I know that sounds mean but she used to be pretty but she isn't anymore. She doesn't go to bed until 5AM and doesn't wake up until 3PM. And when she does wake up all she does is play her game. She only comes down to eat and go to the washroom.

She refuses to go outside and go for walks with us and she refuses to quit playing this game. She has no friends and she had to go on unemployment because she has no job.

Something needs to be done and well, I'm thinking intervention! What do you guys think?

Yeah, that might help.. she obviously has an addiction to it. It won't work though, if she doesn't think of it as a problem. Maybe you should send her to a support group. So many people love that game, I'm sure they have one by now. Take away the computer if you have to. You can always suggest she play one hour less each week, check on her to make sure she does so, till finally she's only going on once a day for an hour.

Yes well if we try to tell her what to do, she will freak because
a) its her computer she bought it
b) Shes 23 she can do what she wants.

But I am thinking that if my mom tells her that she either slow down on the playing, or gets her own place to live, that might help.

SHe never used to play it this much but it just gets worse and worse and worse. I think that telling her to cut back by one hour is a good idea. Also I should call the internet company and see if there is a way to get them to cut the internet at a certain time each night so that she is practically forced to stop playing.

*Reads th story* Wow... Talk about being hooked. Your sister definitely needs some psychological aid, I have no doubt of that. But I don't think I have the right to tell you what to do, because, as I must confess, there have been times that I got close to being like that. If it weren't for my mum, I coulda been just like your sister. Wait... It looks like she doesn't think it's good for her to take heed of your thoughts on this matter. So, it could be a good idea to get help from someone whom she'd could simply not afford to disrespect. This doesn't look like a problem you can cope with alone (But why would you open up this thread in the first place if it were?).

Haha exactly.
My mom has tried to talk to her and we can sometimes coax her out of the house but it is rare.
She can barely even get up to go to the ONE class that she has down at the resource center.
I think what we need is someone with a lot of authority to talk to her and convince her that it really is unhealthy for her to be doing this to herself.

Maybe your mom should start making her pay rent for the room, food, electricity, and internet that she is using since she is 23 and (I'm assuming out of college). She really needs to get out into the 'adult' world and at this point I think tough love would work the best. It'll force her to realize that there are other things more important than WoW, like eating.

Worst she could do is through a tantrum and move out, where she'll still have to provide for herself.

She needs a serious intervention, as of now.
She's probably escaping reality through that game and it's not healthy to do that.

Originally Posted by Pretty Handsome Awkward

She needs a serious intervention, as of now.
She's probably escaping reality through that game and it's not healthy to do that.

My mom says that that is exaclty what she is doing.
Ever since her boyfriend dumped her she uses the game to get away from everything.
Its very unhealthy and she needs to see that

My guess is that the game isn't causing this problem. She is simply using WoW in order to escape from the real problem.

She lost her boyfriend, which likely led to some low self-esteem. Perhaps she focused on this so much that her friends no longer wanted to be around the little ray of sunshine, and she preferred to stay inside and be alone for a while. (I know that when I broke up with my boyfriend, it was weeks before I felt like going out again.) She may have turned to Warcraft as a way of passing the time until she felt better. Now, she has no way of getting back out into the world. She has no one to lean on, no reason to try to improve herself, and at a loss of how to regain her former life.

Just start inviting her out - That could be all it takes. Push her to give her friends a call, or to go out with you and your friends. Even just go to the movies the two of you once in a while. I'm sure she'll appreciate it. Take little steps to get her involved again.

If you have some basic electronics knowledge, it would be easy to set up a randomly-timed fault in the phone line, that you could link in from the TNI box on the side of the house outside. Set it for a random disconnect, about two seconds, every hour. People on the phone would barely notice, if they even happened to be on, but it would cut internet connections.

My brother and dad play that game.. I used to play it with my ex, but not now.

I introduced my ex to that game, since it was a bit of a long distance relationship and the game would help close that distance, but I regreted it severely. I'm convinced that if she wasn't addicted to that game then our relationship wouldn't have had as much problems as it did..

Have a good talk to her. Tell her you're worried that she's gaining weight and making herself horrible.. Is warcraft free? If it isnt, take away the disk and tell your sister that she has to pay you money everynight to get it back?

Your sister needs seriously help, search on the internet and see if there's those helplines.. (: :)

>_> I'm 27... I often stay up until 4am or 8am or even noon and then don't wake up until 11am, 4pm, or "whenever". I spend all this time on the computer poking websites/forums, drawing, and chatting with my friends who live in Australia. I do have a job, though. >_>;

There may be an alternate reason for your sister gaining weight all of a sudden, too. I was about 125-ish before I went on a certain form of birth control. Went up to 160-ish over the span of six months. As soon as I went off it, I quickly lost that weight. I'm back to my natural weight now.

Knerd's comment is probably the best one. WoW is not the problem. It's her attempt to escape the real problem.

One of my closest "real world" friends almost left her husband over his WoW addiction. She finally had to sit him down and explain how much it was upsetting her. And he admitted that in the game he felt like "someone". He wasn't happy in his regular life because of work stress. They agreed to close out his WoW account and keep him away from the Internet for a few months. And things are better between them. (It also helps that he got a better job.)

And, yes. Please do keep inviting her to do things. If you make an effort, she'll likely respond to it. I doubt she's happy about her weight gain. She's certainly noticed it. It may be one of the reasons she's sticking to the game - because she's so upset over her weight gain she thinks she's 'hideous' and may think that no one likes her anymore. Particularly if one of the things she was praised for the most before was how pretty she was. If she's not hearing that now, it may throw her into a personal identity crisis which she escapes through WoW.

You do need to talk to her. You need to make an effort to spend time with her. Even use WoW as a way to reach her, if you can. Say, "I'll go on a raid with you this weekend if you go see a movie with me." or go to the beach or whatever you two used to do for fun.

Much luck.

Strange thing is...

people don't really understand that WoW is an addiction.

It's like crack, and some people think its fun, but overall it's TOO fun.

I dunno, lightswitch raves.... I've had an account at WoW before. Maybe it doesn't feed into my own personal 'this makes me addicted' niche thing, but I didn't play for more than a year or so. I've been more addicted to Rune Factory. XD; And it's just a bit too expensive to play WoW for as little time as I make for MMORPGs.

On the other hand... My best local friend and his boyfriend met via WoW and take it very seriously - to the point when I come into work with him and he's making lists of who will do what job in a raid. Actually - LOL - the other day he did the math for about an hour trying to figure out which piece of equipment to buy. But I wouldn't call him addicted either. He's just very OCD. His sister is like that too. She made lists for Animal Crossing and when she could find certain fish and bugs in her town.

My point (rambling though it is) is that you can get addicted to anything, not just MMORPGs. And what may look like an addiction to one person might just be a fun hobby for the person people claim is "addicted". It all depends on their attitude on whether or not they are 'addicted'.

Do they shun their friends and family?
Is their health suffering?
If they have a job, is that suffering?
Are they cutting out doing things that used to make them happy?

Those are scary signs. And anyone displaying those signs should be talked to and monitored. But intervening in their life isn't always necessary.

• I don't see how people can get so addicted to WOW. ALL my friends play it and I feel semi odd for being the only one who found it kind of boring. I'll have to agree with Knerd though, I don't think WOW itself is the problem.
  
  Also, Komitadjie's idea is really good xD. I'd do it.

It is an addiction. Heck, I am addicted to the internet, but I am not THAT addicted!

She does need and intervention, but do not expect her to go quietly. Addictions of this kind of measure are going to be ugly to try to break.

Originally Posted by Knerd

My guess is that the game isn't causing this problem. She is simply using WoW in order to escape from the real problem.

She lost her boyfriend, which likely led to some low self-esteem. Perhaps she focused on this so much that her friends no longer wanted to be around the little ray of sunshine, and she preferred to stay inside and be alone for a while. (I know that when I broke up with my boyfriend, it was weeks before I felt like going out again.) She may have turned to Warcraft as a way of passing the time until she felt better. Now, she has no way of getting back out into the world. She has no one to lean on, no reason to try to improve herself, and at a loss of how to regain her former life.

Just start inviting her out - That could be all it takes. Push her to give her friends a call, or to go out with you and your friends. Even just go to the movies the two of you once in a while. I'm sure she'll appreciate it. Take little steps to get her involved again.

because we live in such a small town, no one here is her age. All of her friends are back home.
This town doesnt have a movie theater or a mall or anything so we couldnt do any of that because neither of us drive and we dont have a car. It's good advice, but it's something that can't be done in our situation

Originally Posted by Carmen

Have a good talk to her. Tell her you're worried that she's gaining weight and making herself horrible.. Is warcraft free? If it isnt, take away the disk and tell your sister that she has to pay you money everynight to get it back?

Your sister needs seriously help, search on the internet and see if there's those helplines.. (: :)

No it is not free. You have to go out to walmart and buy a new disk everytime your old one runs out of money and airtime. But I wouldnt be able to just take the disk away from her because she has it so thatt she can play without using the disk. If this town was bigger I would make her come to tthe mall with me and things like that, but all we have is a gas station and a grocerie store :\

Wouldn't this be in Life Issues?

>.< You're making me feel guilty - I go online right after school... but that's because I'm not allowed out of the house anyways (parents aren't home) and so I don't become crazy, I need to find people besides my little sister (who says I go on and on and on and on - so she doesn't like listening to me talk) to hang out with and forums online are definitely the place!

I also agree that the reason I love playing MMORPGs is because it makes me feel like "someone". I don't have any courage in real life, and I'm basically a nobody, but in the game, a lot of people see that I'm strong and a 'somebody' >.<


Well, if I'm sorta an example, my little sister tells it to me straight that I'm online too much. It doesn't do much though since I'm annoyed with her and ignore her anyways. Do you have a better relation (than my lil sis and I) with your sister? If so, tell it to her straight that you're worried.

Why not try inviting her to do fun events that forces her away from the computer? Go to the beach, amusement park, or hang out at the mall. I know you said it is a small town and you can't drive - so ask your parents to drive and see if you guys can all cooperate to get your sister back! err... I doubt she'll like hearing it from an authority. It would probably just anger her.

I hope your sister finds out soon there's more to life than WoW - the sooner the better so she can turn back into the sister you remembered.

Hopefully she will snap out of the addiction.
Maybe once she realizes what she lost,she will come to her senses and stop living in a fantasy world.
She needs to grow up. @[email protected]

Aha, I think we all know of addictions.
I'm addicted to this site and Gaia.
When you think of it, it's almost the same as any other computer game. XD

Originally Posted by Knerd

My guess is that the game isn't causing this problem. She is simply using WoW in order to escape from the real problem.

I think this is true; in my opinion, games don't cause the problem, but are an escape route.

My sister was constantly overplaying FF XI, but there were other things in her life that had been going wrong before that: she dropped out of high school, had a surgery that caused her to gain some weight, stuff like that. Nothing we did really snapped her out of playing the games because--well, it's a similar situation to your sister: her computer and she was overage. She had moved out a few times already, but then she'd move back in.

Eventually, though, she seemed to got a good, steady job and that seemed to snap her out of her funk. She moved out and it seems like this time it's for good, and though I know she still plays video games, it's also not nearly as much as it was before. I think she'd doing fine.

Not sure how to help, though, if there really is nothing to do in your town. It kind of seems like it might really be best to have mom kick her butt out or make her pay rent so she has to go out and get a job, at least.