I rewatched The Reichenbach Fall again (I think so far this is the closest I've managed to get to watching this episode without breaks - I still made a few small ones, I seem to be unable to watch it without any at all) and I can't get over how much sense Jim makes to me now.

It's all been there before! His motivations had been explained, but for some reason I needed to read someone else's thoughts to get it. I don't understand how I could have been so blind to the things that have been explained on the show.
Was it because it was only Sherlock's guess that Jim plays the game to be distracted? And how dare I not taking a guess from Sherlock seriously?! Sure, guesses can be wrong, but Sherlock's have the tendency to be correct more often then those made by other people.
Jim even said it himself, how important the distraction was for him. He is just as self-destructive as Sherlock (used to be). Yet for some reason I didn't see this in Jim. Did I not trust him to tell the truth about this? Did I think it wasn't that severe? Why?