Do the people first. Get numbers, get a group chat that lives somewhere other than the game, and propose one standing time you'll all still speak. Then uninstall, and put enough steps between you and the reinstall that it takes an hour rather than ninety seconds. The uninstall on its own has never held. You already know that.
You've uninstalled before
People say it out loud all the time. "I've uninstalled like 100 times by now and I keep relapsing." "I constantly uninstall and reinstall Steam and games. I've tried using blockers and it doesn't stop me." Rage uninstall at 3am, reinstall on Saturday, same again inside a week.
That loop isn't a character flaw. It's what happens when a decision gets made at the worst possible moment and the reversal takes one click.
The uninstall gets made by the version of you who just lost four games, hasn't eaten since two, and can't stand the sight of the screen. That version isn't planning. It's slamming a door. And nothing has actually changed: the account still exists, the password is still saved, the friends are still in there, and the download is 40 minutes away.
So the promise evaporates the moment the mood does. Usually by Thursday. The two things to change are the ones nobody addresses at 3am. The people, and the number of steps.
The friends are a real reason
If the guild is where you talk to people every night, quitting the game is quitting a social life. That's a big thing, whatever anyone tells you. Half the reinstalls happen on a Friday night when the flat is silent.
So move the relationships out before you move yourself out.
- **Get contact details for the four or five you actually care about.** Not the whole roster. Do it while you're still playing, because "can I get your number" is easy inside the game and awkward from outside it.
- **Start the group chat yourself, and give it a reason to exist.** A chat with no purpose dies in a fortnight. Give it one: a football thread, a film night, a Tuesday call.
- **Say the thing once, plainly.** "I'm stopping playing, it's got out of hand for me. I still want to talk to you lot." No apology tour, no explaining the theory. People take it better than you expect, and [saying it to the people you play with has its own piece](/guides/gaming/telling-the-people-you-play-with).
- **Book the first thing within a week.** A call, a meetup, anything with a date on it. The gap between quitting and the first non-game contact is where the loneliness does its work.
- **Add one thing that isn't them.** A five-a-side, a class, your brother. If every connection you have runs through one game, the game has an enormous hold over you.
And be honest about the arithmetic. Some of those friendships won't survive it. A few were held together by the shared activity, and without it there's a warm feeling and nothing to say. That's a genuine loss, worth grieving for a bit, and it isn't proof they were fake. Shared activity is how most adult friendship works, which is why you need a new one rather than good intentions.
Make the reinstall take an hour
You can't make a reinstall impossible. You can make it slow, and slow is usually enough to get the urge past its peak. Stack the layers you can live with.
| Layer | What it costs you to undo | Where it leaks | |---|---|---| | Uninstall the game | Two minutes | Everything is still on the account | | Uninstall the launcher and sign out everywhere | Ten minutes plus a login | You still know the password | | Randomise the password and hand it to a person | An hour, plus a call you'd have to explain | Only as good as their nerve | | Ask the publisher to disable or delete the account | Days, sometimes permanent | You can start a new account | | Remove saved payment methods and balances | Real friction on anything paid | Free-to-play is untouched | | Move the hardware out, or lend the console | A conversation you'd have to have | Phone and browser games |
The one that does the most is the one people skip: a password you genuinely do not have. Everything else you can undo alone, quietly, at 3am. That's the hour you're trying to survive.
Now the honest part about blockers. We looked for a trial showing that a consumer blocking app reduces gaming, and couldn't find one. Users say the same thing constantly, in their own words: the blocker doesn't stop them.
What does have causal evidence is heavier. A randomised study blocked mobile internet at the network level on participants' phones for two weeks and found "the intervention improved mental health, subjective well-being, and objectively measured ability to sustain attention; 91% of participants improved on at least one of these outcomes". Blocking the access route, for a fixed period, rather than asking nicely.
Friction buys you time. It does not build a wall. Anyone selling you the wall is selling.
When you reinstall anyway
You probably will, at least once. Plan for it now, while you're calm, because the plan you make afterwards gets made in shame and won't be any good.
A reinstall is information. It tells you which layer was too thin and what hour you're vulnerable in. Write down two things when it happens: the time, and what you were feeling twenty minutes before. Rapid quit and relapse cycles usually have one trigger under them, and it's rarely the game. Loneliness on a Friday. Sunday dread. A row.
Then change one layer, not all of them. If the password was in your browser, that's the layer. [Losing a whole day to it is recoverable](/guides/gaming/you-played-for-nine-hours-what-now), and the recovery is about the next day rather than the lost one.
Reinstalling also doesn't mean you have gaming disorder. The WHO's threshold is impaired control with real harm, "normally have been evident for at least 12 months", and it "affects only a small proportion of people who engage in digital- or video-gaming activities". If the loop has run for a year and the layers keep failing, that's the point to get help rather than a better blocker. The NHS runs a National Centre for Gaming Disorders for people in England aged 13 and over, and it accepts self-referrals. [Here's what exists in the UK](/guides/gaming/where-to-get-help-for-gaming-disorder).
Some people keep the friction, the danger hours, and the person holding the password in one place, which is what [Renovyn's Shield](/shield) does. A friction layer with someone in the loop. It isn't treatment.
Common questions
**How do I beat the urge to reinstall?** Don't try to beat it flat. Make the reinstall take an hour by putting the password out of your own hands, and let the urge run down while you're stuck at step one. Note the time and the feeling that came before it, because urges cluster in specific hours and moods.
**I keep uninstalling and reinstalling. What am I doing wrong?** Nothing, except relying on a decision made at your worst moment. Rage uninstalling changes the disk and leaves the account, the password, the launcher and the friendships where they were. Change one of those four before the next attempt.
**Will I lose my friends if I quit the game?** Some of them, honestly. The ones held together only by the shared activity tend to fade, and the ones you move to a phone number and a standing Tuesday call usually don't. Moving them before you quit makes a large difference.
**Do blocking apps stop you gaming?** We couldn't find an efficacy trial for a consumer gaming blocker, and people who use them say plainly that they get around them. The evidence that exists is for blocking access at a level you don't control. Treat a blocker as a delay.
Sources
- [Blocking mobile internet on smartphones improves sustained attention, mental health, and subjective well-being](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39967678/). The two week network-level block, and that 91% of participants improved on at least one outcome.
- [WHO, Gaming disorder frequently asked questions](https://www.who.int/standards/classifications/frequently-asked-questions/gaming-disorder). The 12 month duration requirement, and the small proportion of people who play who are affected.
- [CNWL, National Centre for Gaming Disorders](https://www.cnwl.nhs.uk/national-centre-gaming-disorders). The NHS route for people in England aged 13 and over, and that it accepts self-referrals.
