Addicted to watching movies

During my college days, I watched 2 movies every night. I usually started watching at 9 PM and ended at midnight. During the holidays, I used to watch 5 to 6 movies per day. I could not stop with just one movie. I think, I watched more than 5000 movies till now. The only way I could control my addiction was to lock myself up in a place, where there is neither a TV nor a computer with internet access. I used this technique to prepare for the final exams. This pretty much explains how I got addicted to movies.

Now, I am married and I have two kids. I still addicted to movies. I usually watch movies in the night after the kids go to bed. I watch 2 to 3 movies on most of the nights on Fridays and Saturdays. I sleep around 4 AM in the night and get up late around 10 AM in the morning. I watch another 2 movies in the day time. It is very obvious that I am spending most of my free time in watching movies. My elder son is imitating my behavior by watching cartoons or playing online games. He is slowly getting addicted as well.

I watch movies to escape from the reality and to ignore the stressful aspects of my life. The day-to-day life is too slow and too boring for me. Whereas the life in the movies is fast and exciting. I know that it is a secondhand experience and that it is not real. However, when I am fully lost in the world of movies, the real world seems to disappear. After watching few movies, I feel ashamed about wasting my precious time. But, the next day, I watch few more movies again. My problems temporarily disappear, but my stress levels increase due to the very little time left to solve important issues. I am not able to spend quality time with my family and friends. I am clearly aware of my stupidity, but I could not break this bad habit till now.

Today, I have decided not to watch any movie for the next 90 days .i.e. till 14-07-2019. I will be implementing some of the ideas presented in TED talks on behavioral change and addiction. In my subsequent posts, I will write about my progress. If any of you faced similar addiction and have successfully overcome it, please share your valuable insights.

Welcome to the forum BC,

I hope you were successful in you 90 days of no movies. I too watch a lot of movies, but never reached the part of addiction. It seems like you use the movies for excitement and stimulation in your life. If you find that movies are being too time consuming and are affecting other areas of your life, perhaps you will need to find something else that can fill in that excitement. I find exercise is a good way to keep things exciting and is also good for your health.

I hope you can update us on how you are doing!