How to quit SL as graceful as possible?

[Mollymews]

depends on what we mean by leave

there is being on leave, taking a break, by not logging in for a while. A while can be days, weeks, months or years

the other leaving is to delete our account. This is something to not do lightly when we have a lot of identity investment in our named account. Katt Dragoone in your case

can we bring ourselves to let it go, for Katt Dragoone to leave SL, for reals ?

for reals is dressing our avatar in a starter outfit, emptying our profile, our friends list, leaving every group, and deleting our entire inventory. Then deleting our account 

when we can't do this then we haven't left, not really. We are just taking a break, we are on leave

 

[Talligurl]

I get it, some days I log on and it just makes me miserable and I question why am I doing this. But other times I love it. I do wonder though if the miserable became the norm, would I actually be able to walk away. I am reminded of a former forum regular who came to the point of realization that SL was doing him more emotional harm than good, and did walk away. 

[LittleMe Jewell]

4 hours ago, Talligurl said:

I get it, some days I log on and it just makes me miserable and I question why am I doing this. But other times I love it.

For me, change the words "log on" to "wake up" and the above could also be said for RL.  However, with SL, you can actually check-out for a bit, without doing permanent damage to yourself or others. Thus, I don't worry too much about cutting my SL back to practically nothing for a while, every now and then.

[Pixie Kobichenko]

Just don’t log in.  I’ve done that a few times in my 10 years.  Longest away was six months.  I do not advocate deleting your account. That cost money to reverse if you change your mind at some point.

After 10 years my friends list has only eight names on it.  All but two of those individuals has my real life Facebook. I am blessed with those close friendships over this past decade that transcends SL. Those two that are not on my Facebook Know that they can get a hold of me through Skype if I take a break.

 

[Amina Sopwith]

14 hours ago, Pixie Kobichenko said:

Just don’t log in.

Yes, that's what I did.

I've always been interested by people who create rituals for leaving (I know some of the things listed on this thread have been in jest, but I also know some people have created serious ceremonies around leaving, and there's that same seriousness in the OP). Perhaps it's different if you know people that you still want to stay in contact with and need to tell them. In my case, the relationship had gone full RL and the others with whom I wanted to stay in contact had my email address etc, so there was no reason at all I couldn't just....stop logging in.

[Pixie Kobichenko]

35 minutes ago, Amina Sopwith said:

Yes, that's what I did.

I've always been interested by people who create rituals for leaving (I know some of the things listed on this thread have been in jest, but I also know some people have created serious ceremonies around leaving, and there's that same seriousness in the OP). Perhaps it's different if you know people that you still want to stay in contact with and need to tell them. In my case, the relationship had gone full RL and the others with whom I wanted to stay in contact had my email address etc, so there was no reason at all I couldn't just....stop logging in.

The biggest ceremony I’ve ever had well the only, was “the passing of the gold”.  haha.  Which Probably wasn’t more than 2000 lindens  at any one time.   The only thing I’ve ever done was to make sure and pick up any Gacha items I might’ve had out so that I wouldn’t lose them before or if I did come back.

[Kitteh Whiskers]

What I did, was shift my mind into something else. I ended up making new friends and got myself a beautiful little family that shows me nothing but love and support. I feel so very lucky to have them since what I felt I had before was nothing but painful and draining. I'm still dealing with it but my thoughts have shifted so much I'm not so stressed anymore. I do try to log in less tho lol. This place is too addicting. 

[kali Wylder]

Everyone before me has already offered much better suggestions for how to stop, but  I think you really know how to stop already. Wanting to do it gracefully, suggests that you are looking for approval or permission or something along those lines. You are the only one who knows whether or not you should quit SL.  You don't need our permission or approval and there is no committee watching to see if you are leaving gracefully or not(except @Ceka Cianci might want to compare photos). Just

[FairreLilette]

6 hours ago, Katt Dragoone said:

What I did, was shift my mind into something else. I ended up making new friends and got myself a beautiful little family that shows me nothing but love and support. I feel so very lucky to have them since what I felt I had before was nothing but painful and draining. I'm still dealing with it but my thoughts have shifted so much I'm not so stressed anymore. I do try to log in less tho lol. This place is too addicting. 

I wish I knew what to say and that I understand what you are going through but I don't.

I just know you mentioned stress and now you've mentioned addiction.

It may not always be wise to make a big and drastic change in your life when you are feeling stressed, sad, anxious...whatever it may be.  I've simply read to not make any drastic changes when having over-whelming emotions because change can add to the stress so I'd say don't delete your account.  It sounds like it might be better to ween off slowly until you have other "things" taking the place of SL which sounds kind of like what you are doing.   

Edited February 4, 2020 by FairreLilette

[Sprout Evergarden]

if you want to quit there is the option of selecting "change password" rolling your head on the keyboard  copy pasting the output to the confirm line and clicking OK no sl problem if you cant log in

[Lyric Demina]

On 1/13/2020 at 10:50 PM, Katt Dragoone said:

Lately I find myself extremely stressed out when login in and I feel I've lost most joy in the 'game'. As a long time resident, it's hard to just quit. I get used to login in and doing whatever it is I do so it's become a pretty bad habit 🤣 Should I just pull the plug? Rip the bandaid in one go? Throw my pc out the window? What do you think?

 

What I think is the idea of being stressed-out, coupled with the idea of losing the joy, coupled again with the idea of “doing whatever it is you do” when in-world all combine to form a very confused and sad place to be in, emotionally.  So, doing *something* differently is bound to change that.

The question is, really, is it SL that’s the problem, and therefore you should walk away from it. Or is SL the thing that used to be keeping your life together but lately has lost some of that glue... in which case doing something differently is, again, bound to change that but maybe it isn’t an act of leaving that’s required. 
 

If it were me I would be really missing that joyful feeling.  So that’s what I would address.  And I’d make a list of things that bring me joy and ways I can be a joy-bringer.  Stress and monotony tend to evaporate in the presence of joy. 
What did you used to love to do in SL when there was joy?  When did it stop?  Why did it stop?

[Conifer Dada]

I know this is easier to suggest to someone else than to do for yourself, but here is my suggestion.  Set a weekly limit to the number of hours you spend in SL or even a weekly timetable.  If that includes one or two days when you don't log in to SL at all, so much the better.  If you feel you need a longer break now, take one, before starting your new time-limited regime.  While it's easy to relapse, keeping to your own self-imposed discipline feels rewarding in itself. 

If you really want to leave SL gracefully, after considering the above, then the best way to do it is just not log in.  No need to delete your account, you might want it again one day!

[Reese Wicken]

Thankfully, I don't have many friends (or any at all.) On SL, The regular people I talk to in the sims I lurk in wouldn't miss me much (I don't think)...    When I plan to finally quit sl,  I'd just uninstall and quietly leave...  That way no one talks me out of it,  I'll probably lurk in the forms and keep up on the blogs if it's a break.

[Madelaine McMasters]

2 minutes ago, Lavaliere said:

That way no one talks me out of it...

Don't gooooooooo!!!!!

[Reese Wicken]

Just now, Madelaine McMasters said:

Don't gooooooooo!!!!!

Lol, I'm not leaving or going on break anytime soon... Well.. I might until they release the features I'm looking forward to returning.