This Is Not Easy Difficulty
I want you to succeed on your first try, and the secret to your success will be in how closely you can follow and understand this protocol.
The difficulty is entirely front-loaded
The hardest moment is Day 1. The hardest stretch is the first 3 days. The hardest phase is the first week. Past that point it gets measurably easier. Not easy — easier. This is not motivational language. This is biology.
The 3-Day Peak
Clinical research consistently shows that withdrawal symptoms from gaming dependency peak at around 72 hours — 3 days in. During this window you can expect low energy, irritability, difficulty concentrating, restlessness, headaches, and in some cases dreams about gaming. This is your brain adjusting to the absence of a stimulus it has become dependent on. It is uncomfortable. It is normal. Every single person who goes through a reset experiences this. You are not uniquely broken — you are going through a predictable, well-documented process.
Hell Week — Days 1 to 7
The first week is the hardest stretch of the entire program. Your dopamine receptors are recalibrating. Your brain is looking for the stimulus it expects and not finding it. Boredom will feel unbearable. Restlessness will feel physical. This is temporary. The discomfort has a ceiling and you are approaching it.
By the end of Month 1, most people find the cravings have become manageable and the new routines are beginning to feel natural. By Month 3, the reset is largely complete. Real-world activities feel genuinely rewarding again. The gap between where gaming left you and where you could be starts to close in ways you can actually see.
On Relapse
If you relapse during Hell Week — or at any point — it does not mean you have failed. It means you have attempted the level and not cleared it yet.
Think about every difficult boss fight you have faced
You died. You loaded back in. You tried again with more information about what beat you last time. Recovery works exactly the same way. Every attempt — including the ones that end in relapse — teaches you something about your triggers, your weak points, and what you need to do differently next time. The attempt count does not matter. The decision to keep trying does.
Relapsing has to beat you every time. You only have to win once.
Get through Day 3. Get through Week 1. The rest of the program builds on a foundation that gets progressively more stable. The hardest part of what you are about to do is also the earliest part. You are closer to the other side than it feels right now.
Before you take any practical action, tell the people in your life what you are doing and why. You do not need to do this alone.
This means being honest — with a partner, a close friend, a family member, a housemate, a colleague. Anyone who shares your life in a meaningful way. You do not need to tell everyone. You need to tell the right people.
You may feel ashamed at admitting this is a problem for you, or uncomfortable acknowledging the extent of your gaming to the people in your life. That feeling is understandable — but try to reframe it. You are not confessing a weakness. You are making a conscious decision to take the hard choice, the brave choice, to improve your life. That deserves to be felt as pride, not shame. The people who matter will see it that way too.
What to ask of them
Why this step comes first
Isolation is one of the primary conditions that gaming addiction thrives in. The act of telling someone — out loud, directly — makes the reset real. It creates accountability before any practical steps have been taken. And it means that when the hard moments come, you are not white-knuckling it alone.
You do not need to have it all figured out before you have this conversation. You just need to be honest about what is happening and what you are trying to do. That is enough to start.
If you have no one — or are not ready to tell anyone
That is okay. If you do not have anyone you feel comfortable telling, or are not ready to have that conversation yet — contact Dylan directly at attentionreset.com.au. A tiered level of coaching and accountability support is available, and that support can be the first person in your corner while you figure out the rest. Book a free call →
This is the first practical action. Before anything else — before you move hardware, before you leave communities — you are removing software access. Every game. Every platform. Every launcher.
There are two ways to do this. Choose the one you can commit to. If you can commit to Option 1, do it. It is the better outcome.
Option 1 — Full Delete
Permanently delete your accounts. Steam, Xbox, PlayStation, Epic, everything. This is the all-in option. The Leeroy Jenkins. No going back, no recovery, no temptation. Step-by-step deletion guides →
Option 2 — The Trusted Keeper
Choose a trusted person — not your romantic partner, they are too accessible. They change your password, take over the account email, and update all recovery information. You are locked out by design. Step-by-step lockout guide ↓
How to transfer account control to your Trusted Keeper
Complete these steps together with your Trusted Keeper present. Do not do them alone.
Change the account email address
Go to account settings for each platform and change the primary email to one your Trusted Keeper controls. They should create a new dedicated email specifically for this purpose if needed.
Change the password
Your Trusted Keeper sets a new password that you do not see, do not know, and do not write down. They generate it, they type it, they save it. You look away.
Update all account recovery options
Every recovery option — backup email, phone number, security questions, authenticator app — must be updated to information only your Trusted Keeper controls. Remove every back door.
Enable two-factor authentication on their email
Your Trusted Keeper should enable 2FA on the email account they are using. This prevents any avenue where you could recover the account.
Log out of all devices and sessions
Most platforms have a "log out of all other sessions" option in security settings. Use it. Any session still active on your devices is a back door.
Confirm you cannot access the account
Test it. Try to log in. Try to recover the password. If any pathway still works — close it. You are done when every avenue is genuinely inaccessible to you.
Do not memorise anything during this process
Look away when your Trusted Keeper types the password. Do not ask what the new email address is. Do not watch them set security questions. The value of this step is in genuine ignorance — not willpower.
What to uninstall
Software access is gone. Now the hardware has to go. Every gaming-specific physical device needs to leave your immediate environment. Not your city — your home.
Gaming-only devices
Consoles, handheld gaming devices, gaming-specific peripherals, controllers, headsets, steering wheels. Box all of it up. Every cable. Every accessory.
Store it — as far away as possible
A friend's house, a family member's garage, your workplace, a storage unit, your attic. Ideally place your equipment in the care of someone who understands what you are doing and will not return it to you until you have completed the protocol. The more inconvenient the retrieval, the better.
Give it away
Give it to a family member, a friend, a charity, or a school. Permanently removing the equipment from your possession by gifting it is a legitimate and highly effective option. The equipment is gone. The decision is made. There is nothing left to retrieve.
Destroy it — if it would help
Destruction is a legitimate option. If you believe smashing or permanently disabling the equipment would be cathartic and reinforce your commitment — do it. It is not required. But it is permitted, and for some people it is exactly what the moment calls for.
On selling equipment
You may think that selling your equipment makes financial sense — and it does. But your only priority at this time is to limit your physical access. Do not attempt to sell your equipment during this period. If you have placed your equipment in someone else's care, they can sell it on your behalf. Your sole focus right now is getting through the reset.
Do not store it in your home
A box in your wardrobe is not storage — it is temptation. The equipment needs to leave the building. During Hell Week especially, the knowledge that it is physically accessible is enough to undo everything else you have done.
Mixed-use devices — PCs and laptops
Computers used for work or study require a different approach. You have two options — choose the one that fits your situation.
Treat it like a gaming device — store it as far away as possible
If you can function professionally without your PC or laptop during Hell Week and the first few weeks of your recovery, treat it exactly as any other gaming device. Box it up, hand it to your Trusted Keeper or store it somewhere genuinely inconvenient. The inconvenience is temporary. The benefit is substantial.
Place administrative controls to limit game installation
If you genuinely cannot function without your PC, restrict your ability to install gaming software. Recommended tools: Cold Turkey Blocker, Freedom, FocusMe. Alternatively, have your Trusted Keeper create an administrator account on your PC with a password only they know, and demote your account to a standard user. This works on both Windows and Mac and is a temporary measure for the first few weeks of your protocol.
Smartphones
Block mobile gaming access at the device level. Have your Trusted Keeper set these restrictions using a PIN you do not know.
This step is harder than it sounds. For many people, gaming is not just a habit — it is a community. A social identity. Leaving it means saying goodbye to people and places that have genuinely felt like home. That is a real loss and it deserves to be acknowledged.
Do it anyway.
Leave your gaming communities — formally
Every clan, guild, Discord server, online group, or gaming community you are part of — you are leaving. Write a single goodbye message, send it to each community, and do not respond to replies. Tell them you are stepping away for your own mental health. Then close the tab.
If you hold an admin or leadership role
Assign it to someone else, communicate the transfer briefly, and drop tools. You are allowed to leave. Your mental health matters more than the continuity of someone else's Discord server. You are saving yourself and that matters more than anything else.
Gaming-only friendships
Some of the people you game with are friends in the truest sense of the word. Some are acquaintances who feel like friends because of shared time. This step will reveal which is which. If a gaming friend reaches out through other channels, tell them you value the relationship but that it can no longer involve gaming in any form. The friendships that are real will survive that conversation.
Block gaming-related websites
Once you have removed yourself from gaming communities, block gaming websites, forums, wikis, patch notes, esports coverage, and streaming platforms used primarily for gaming content. The communities are gone — now remove the infrastructure that would pull you back toward them.
Avoid gaming media and social media
Unfollow, mute, or block all gaming content on social media. YouTube channels, TikTok creators, subreddits, Twitter accounts — all of it. During Hell Week and beyond, every piece of gaming content is a trigger. Remove the exposure entirely. This is not permanent — it is protocol.
You have done the hard preparatory work. Your access is limited, your devices are stored, your communities are behind you. Now comes the part nobody can do for you — getting through the first seven days.
The goal of Hell Week is simple: do not be alone and idle at home. The aim is to be the opposite — busy, social, and outside of your home.
Fill every hour — deliberately
Idle time at home is your primary enemy this week. Boredom is not just uncomfortable — it is a direct pathway back to gaming. Fill your calendar. Every waking hour should have something in it. It does not need to be glamorous. It needs to exist.
The ideal scenario — leave entirely
If you can physically remove yourself from your home environment for this week, do it. Book a trip or a holiday — even a cheap one, even locally. Stay with family. Visit a friend in another suburb or city. Your home is full of environmental cues that trigger the urge to game. Removing yourself from that environment removes a significant portion of the psychological pull.
If you cannot leave — fill the calendar completely
Work and study are your anchors. Build around them with physical activity — the priority. Exercise produces natural dopamine and directly addresses the neurochemical void left by gaming. Gym, running, swimming, team sport, martial arts, cycling — anything that moves your body every day. Add social sports, meetup groups, family time, friends' events. Go and see a movie every night if you have to. Say yes to everything. The goal is to be out of the house and stimulated by something real.
On physical activity
This is not optional. Exercise is the single most evidence-supported natural intervention for dopamine regulation during withdrawal. It does not need to be intense — just walking counts. But it needs to happen every day of Hell Week, ideally in the morning to set the neurochemical tone for the rest of the day.
The underlying principle
You are not trying to have the best week of your life. You are trying to survive it. Every hour that passes is an hour your brain is recalibrating. By Day 3 the worst of the withdrawal peaks. By Day 7 the worst of Hell Week is behind you. Keep moving. Keep showing up. Keep your calendar full.
Three months from now, this week will be something you are proud of for the rest of your life. The week you chose yourself. The week you did the hardest thing. And it will be the week that made the best weeks of your life possible.
The Protocol Gets You to Day 8.
Coaching Gets You to the Life You Want.
The RESET Protocol is designed to get you through Hell Week. What comes after — building the habits, identity, and purpose that replace gaming for good — is where 1-on-1 coaching makes the difference.
Want a copy of this protocol to keep? Download the free PDF →
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