"Level 40! Pokemon Go saved and ruined my life. My journey."

#PokemonGO: Greeting Travelers first post on reddit and first time linking a imgur. I Tried submitting before it went through with the images but no text. Please let me know if it goes through ok this time and you can see all the 16 images ok with the text. fingers crossed http://ift.tt/2gBp4eR things first I would like to say a huge thank you to all of you here at the Silph Road for this amazing community with the nest atlas and infinite helpful posts for tips and tricks throughout the day. Lets start from the beginning Pokemon Go released early July and I am a die hard Pokemon fan, I have played all of the games to date and I knew in my heart I had to give it a go. It was like nothing I had ever played before. It took me a while to get into it, I had never played Ingress before so I had never had the opportunity to experience an augmented reality game.As I started to play the more I realized it was something I really enjoyed and was extremely passionate about. At this time I was a full time streamer on Twitch but I was limited to what games I could and couldn't stream because I couldn't afford a full streaming setup. I also have a small room with little space to accommodate and my Dad was going in for surgery at this time in fear he may never be able to walk again due to a football accident. I could only stream games directly through the PS4 share option. I tried to acquire the equipment necessary to stream PoGo and couldn't which ultimately made me frustrated because I knew it was something I was extremely passionate about and it broke my heart to know that I couldn't. I really wanted to share my experience with my Twitch community. http://ift.tt/2gOhY9F July 18th i finished a stream and it was 30 degrees in my room. It was too hot and I knew I had to take a break for a few days to let the heat settle down(in the end it turned out to be alot longer) During those days me and my girlfriend were newbies playing PoGo straight shotting every pokeball and learning the ropes of the game. This was the peak of Pokemon Go it was awesome to see the town lit up with lures and I met so many of my old friends. When my Dad went into hospital I went to visit him everyday he means the world to me, he helped me in the past during my time of need and I will always be there for him aswell. My girlfriend on the other thought otherwise, she said I was spending too much time with him than her. It got really heated and I had no choice but to end our relationship. I had been with her since 2006. I then became heartbroken and really depressed. I shut myself off from pretty much everyone and had broken my daily streaming routine(I haven't streamed in four months) and when I break my routine I find it really hard to start back up again. PoGo became my distraction from everything that had transpired.When I wasn't visiting my Dad I was playing PoGo. I would go out to my local towns and cities and managed to acquire 139 for my Pokedex from them. I needed a Venasaur, Charizard and Dugtrio. With a little web searching I found you all here on the Silph Road, used the nest atlas traveled around to multiple nests and completed the Pokedex. Once I completed my Pokedex(in my opinion) there are alot more to do in the game like gym battling leveling up your pokemon to max etc and I did exactly that. I took the gyms around where I live, my four Dragonites have been in there for months and can still be powered up to max(please find images attached above) even with the new gym update nobody plays in the area where I live due to there only been one pokestop hence the reason I travel to my local town to play. At this point I had a solid team.People were sending me messages "Dan are you ok? Whens the next stream?" I was so traumatized about everything that had transpired I continued to be transfixed playing PoGo as an escape and distraction. I continued to grind for endless hours a day and was level 36. Then the Halloween event came around and I went hard 6 plus hours sometimes 10 hours a day. I hatched a Dratini, Lapras and various others and managed to max out all my pokemon during the event. I physically exhausted myself and my body was broken but I knew I had to keep going because Pokemon max out at level 38.The weather over here in England started to become really cold and wet but I continued to play for hours dispite these conditions. I reached level 38 but kept going PoGo is an addiction Niantic know this and it isn't easy to break. The weather continued to get worse and my family were getting really worried and concerned about my health with me playing outside in these conditions for endless hours and ultimately I ended up in hospital. Please play in moderation's don't make the same mistake I did the game will still be there tomorrow.Once I was out and feeling a little better despite knowing playing in these conditions for extensive amounts of time were having an impact on my body I continued to play and reached level 39. At this point I was physically exhausted and worn down and as you can see from my 30,000 pokemon catches medal the game was becoming very tedious and repetitive.I honestly thought I can't go on any longer. Then I wake up one morning and see the announcement for the double XP event. It was a blessing and gift from the Pokemon Go Gods, I saw this as a light at the end of the tunnel and I knew what I had to do. I went hard all day Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and today Sunday I hit level 40. Afterwards we went out for a meal and it felt strange to not have to say "hold on a second while I catch these Pokemon at this cluster spawn." It feels like a huge burden has finally been lifted and I am finally free. I have achieved all my overall aims and objectives for the game. But now I see the possibility that Gen 2 Pokemon may release on December 7th which I am happy and upset about at the time I would love to catch Gen 2 Pokemon on a beautiful summers day but I honestly don't know if I can continue to play in these weather conditions because my body is physically exhausted and worn down. What do you recommend? Regardless Thank you all again here at the Silph Road I couldn't have done it without you all and thank you for sticking with me by reading this post all the way to the end. via /r/TheSilphRoad http://ift.tt/2gNPQnc