I do this. As humans, we have needs for certain things, like nutrients and status (usually through achievement). I used to play a lot of World of Warcraft, until eventually I realized that

video games : need for achievement :: McDonalds : need for calories

In the same way advertisers use Photoshop to create women so beautiful they couldn't actually exist, and the same way the fast food industry creates foods so calorie-dense they couldn't actually exist, video games have created a source of achievement that provides achievement so reliably it couldn't actually exist. There's a word for this phenomenon, but it eludes me presently.

"Pica" is a new word to me, but is exactly what I realized was going on for me. When the urge to play video games, or solve a Rubik's cube for the millionth time, is strongest, I have learned that that's a reliable indicator that what I actually need to do is study, do laundry, cook a meal, etc.

This is because video games have divorced the feeling of achievement from actual life progress. I used to wake up and play video games all day, then feel good, shut off the video game, and look around and realize I hadn't cleaned the apartment or studied for professional exams. Unlike pica, this is an actual feedback loop - these situations grow worse when I ignore them, and the worse they got the more I tried to fight off the feeling of "not achieving" with video games - ignoring them.

Eventually, I realized the food metaphor myself and wrote notes to myself like, "Achievement without progress is like eating a Twinkie instead of a balanced meal." This helped a lot.