'Birdwatching saved me from my gaming addiction'

'Birdwatching saved me from my gaming addiction'4 days agoShareSaveAdd as preferred on GoogleSimon ThakeYorkshireBBC/Simon ThakeEdward Bartlett used to play computer games 20 hours a day - now he goes birdwatching insteadWhen things were at their worst Edward Bartlett was playing computer games twenty hours a day, sometimes only pausing to eat and sleep."I was addicted to video games," the 28-year-old said."I lived with friends, but for two years I never really saw them in real life them. We talked through a gaming microphone."Now the University of Sheffield zoology student has swapped his gaming headset for a pair of binoculars as he's embraced a new passion - birdwatching.Bartlett, who'd previously struggled with mental health difficulties, including depression, said gaming had initially provided an "escape" from his studies but had slowly overtaken his life."When you're playing games you're not thinking about reality and how things might be going in real life, so that's what sucked me in," he explained."It was the first thing I did when I woke up and I played all day until I was too exhausted to carry on."I didn't even realise I was addicted, but the moment the screen went away, there's this rush, sort of, feelings like, I really wish I'd get back to that game and then I'd think about things that I needed to do, like uni work and it would feel so overwhelming, like a crushing weight."[So] I'd play a game, and it would calm me down, because I wouldn't be thinking about it anymore, which didn't solve the problem at all".BBC/Simon ThakeSheffield Birdwatching Society has grown from 10 members in 2025 to over 50 in 2026.Bartlett, from Kent, said anti-depressants and counselling helped with particularly difficult bouts of anxiety and depression, but it was a chance experience on a recent holiday to Wales that helped turn things around."...