Escapism and Addiction

I've been spending the last week or so playing Mass Effect 2 on my PC.  It's a lot of fun, and it helps me relax.  It helps me escape from the mundane tasks of everyday life, but how much is too much though?  When I was younger, video games were my life, my escape from the world.  It helped me push aside and suppress the pain and loneliness I felt at school.  Video games were my chance to escape from the real world and pretend to be something different, something better.  I became addicted to it.  With only a couple of clicks, I could become anything I want.  I could be a Jedi knight slaughtering the Sith.  I could be a fighter pilot that can destroy an entire air force or I could be a space marine that will save the galaxy.  Anything I wanted to be, I could be.  These were merely distractions.  My addiction to video games helped me delay facing the problems I have in reality, and because of it, I'm underdeveloped emotionally, psychologically and socially.  Since the whole Valentine's day blues and thinking about Dr. Hu, I've been looking towards my games to escape.  I'm not going to do that anymore.  I realize now that games will merely distract and waste my money.  It's time to stop living a fake life and deal my real life's problems.

Note to self:  Stop playing games, don't waste money on games, deal with reality.