A Card Game Addiction

Addiction & Recovery Loved Ones of Addicted Individuals
1

This is going to sound very lame, but I really need to know if anyone has any useful advice or has been through this before.

My boyfriend is addicted to a card game called MAGIC: THE GATHERING.

It started because he wanted to have something in common with my father and brother, and now it takes up all his time. My father seriously refers to it as "paper crack." I thought it was a joke at first, but it turns out he was right.

My boyfriend spends half of his free time researching cards on the computer. He has over $500 worth of cards and buys them from all kinds of websites. The other half of his time is him staring at his cards trying to figure out the best deck to put together, then testing them against my siblings and father.

By the way, he plays so much and so thoroughly that my brother is selling his $1000 worth of cards because my boyfriend made the game "not fun anymore."

He works 2 part-times jobs and will spend anywhere from 4-5 hours a day focused on the game in some way. Since he moved out of my house, he probably spends even more time playing now.

He owes at least $2000 on his truck loan, for which he has no insurance at the moment because of his horrible driving record.

He has no health insurance because he can't pay for it.

He can't go to college because he has to pay for it out of pocket and can't afford it.

Oh, and his dad (who he now lives with) is a raging alcoholic who hasn't provided his own son with health insurance because it would be too expensive and dropped him from his driving insurance for the same reason. All so he can buy two six packs every night and get wasted.

PS - he also pays rent to his dad.

2

I thought I was the only one who refered to this game as crack. My boyfriend has not been playing with paper cards as much, but he's online with it every single day.

This is very frustrating for me because we don't do anything together anymore. It is all he does and talks about. He doesn't even notice the look on my face when he starts talking about it... that I'd rather shoot myself in the foot than listen to him talk about a bunch of worthless cards.

When he gets home from work... right to the computer. He stays up til about midnight drafting (or playing or looking at cards).

I'm at a loss here... I have no idea what to do? I tried asking him to leave, and he won't leave. I've gone as far as talking my daughter and going somewhere else, and he still won't leave. He won't admit that he has a problem... he always asks me "what do you want me to do?" so he can appease me and later throw it in my face.

But..... I have no idea what to do, other than complain about it which makes us both miserable in the end.