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Wired: Video Game Anxiety Is Real. Here's How to Manage It

M1chl

Currently Gif and Meme Champion
What the fuck?

How have we reached as a society a point in which people need psychological support from playing fucking videogames?

It’s fucking easy: shutdown that pc/console and go get wasted.
I would go as far to say, that that's the main issue here. Games should not give you the feeling that you should go to drink.
 

Soulja

Member
I get this when playing the weekend league in fifa.. But that's only because it makes me angry as fuck and I'm worried I'm going to headbutt my monitor and sling my xbox out of the window. 😗
 

Bitmap Frogs

Mr. Community
I would go as far to say, that that's the main issue here. Games should not give you the feeling that you should go to drink.

Substitute it with go party with your friends.

The point is besides a minority that makes a living playing games, for the rest of us it’s just a leisure activity and if it falls to entertain/relax just go do something else.
 

Daymos

Member
The stress and anxiety video games create is there to make them fun.. its supposed to be 'just like real life' only without any consequences. I have a problem with acknowledging peoples problems no matter how stupid they are and then telling them if they pay money for drugs or therapy or whatever that their problems will go away. I'm sure some people hate me for saying that, but I'm entitled to my internet opinion too.. and I have to listen to you bitch and complain endlessly, so here's my statement.

Obviously I'm from an older generation though where once your food/shelter/paycheck needs are met the rest of it ultimately doesn't matter. I have teenagers, if life is good and there is nothing wrong they will create something wrong out of thin air just to have something to whine about.

Shit like this teaches them to do that for attention. In terms of parenting them I'm shut down completely whenever I try to do the 'tough love' thing, yet if my teen causes any issues out in the world the parents will be the first to blame.
 
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Zeroing

Banned
I play more relaxing games if I’m playing something and I stay away from online competitive multiplayer games
I agree, I do not play games to get more stressed or anxious. I play games to relax. Once thing games taught me when I was younger is, "it is ok to fail, you learn from the experience and you will get better if you keep trying"

it is a good lesson for the real life.
 

Soodanim

Member
Anxiety over games to me is like hang gliding when you're afraid of heights.

They're both optional, and I can't get past that to take anything in the article seriously. When you have complete control over something yet still choose to do it, I have no sympathy for you. If the anxiety isn't limited to games, then this isn't an article about game anxiety.

Peace Out Reaction GIF
 
I usually just take a break after I die 10-15 times and I start getting really pissed. Not that big a deal.

One of these days I'll make it past World 1-1 in Super Mario Bros. One day...
 
It's from Wired, what would you expect from a coastal tankie hipster site? These people have no idea how anyone who makes less than $100k a year lives beyond the strawmen they set up in their clickbait articles about toxic masculinity.
 

EverydayBeast

thinks Halo Infinite is a new graphical benchmark
Angry Office GIF

When you lose a call of duty Match

Look anxiety, anxious feelings tells me gamers are feeling something from these games. Go back and fight Ganon in any Zelda game, you won’t want to put your controller down and will have a “good” kinda anxiety.
 

Bo_Hazem

Banned
French Yes GIF by Groundhog Day


I just gotta take breaks is all.

I have breaks between singleplayer game releases as I rarely play MP games in the last few years, but for good games let's say like Control UE I spend around 6-12 hours or much more during holidays in one session (the longest was 51 hours in MGSV), with minor breaks for essentials. It's been my habit since probably Atari 2600 or Nintendo Family Computer (NES) as young as 3-5yo. Games are the perfect anxiety and stress relief to me.

Last time I seriously played was few days after finishing Control UE for about 7 weeks. Now I can't play anything, I get bored fast from what's available so I do other things like gaffing, youtube, netflix, and being a husband and father I guess. :lollipop_tears_of_joy: The pandemic doesn't give me much of a choice to go out as we are having lockdowns between 8pm-5am now and police storming in when you are hanging out with your friends in and out of the city.:lollipop_grinning_sweat:
 
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This is why I sometimes just play games on easy. I just want to enjoy a good story, don't need to hate myself after not beating a boss 25 times.
 
I take a lot of breaks when playing a game. A game session lasting more than an hour will cause me to get quite irritable. So I'll step away and doing something else. Spend some time with the wife. Yardwork. Watch some TV. Leave the house. Just get away. I love this hobby, but I don't want it to make me someone I don't want to be. Neither does the wife.

I've also found that staring at a screen for a long time can negatively impact my sleep. So along with limiting screen time, I have gaming glasses that filter out blue light. This has made a significant difference in my overall well-being. Highly recommend looking into this for any gamer who is having problems sleeping.
I can totally get behind this. I enjoy games more when I play them in short bursts.
 

jaysius

Banned
"Desperately trying to relax" is the worst way to go about relaxing, much like desperately seeking happiness or desperately looking for a relationship.

BRB while I desperately meditate.


It’s probably the fault of the people who are too lost in the living outside their means “you always need the newest toys no matter what” society that too many people fall into.

People get too caught up in it and don‘t realize that happiness has never changed since the dawn of time, it’s just perceptions and societally perceived needs/wants.

To relax and be happy all you need is to be realistic about what happiness truly is and to value simple things that are within, if you think material goods will bring you happiness then your mindset is wrong, you‘ll never catch that carrot.
 
"Desperately trying to relax" is the worst way to go about relaxing, much like desperately seeking happiness or desperately looking for a relationship.

BRB while I desperately meditate.
It’s probably the fault of the people who are too lost in the living outside their means “you always need the newest toys no matter what” society that too many people fall into.

People get too caught up in it and don‘t realize that happiness has never changed since the dawn of time, it’s just perceptions and societally perceived needs/wants.

To relax and be happy all you need is to be realistic about what happiness truly is and to value simple things that are within, if you think material goods will bring you happiness then your mindset is wrong, you‘ll never catch that carrot.
Im no doctor, but I'll prescribe a good edible and some good music for this illness :messenger_tears_of_joy:
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Man in my opinion people just need to learn how to TURN shit off sometimes. Like disconnect from social media and stop looking at your phone 5 million times a day, guarantee that'll lower the 'anxiety levels' of some. Wifes a director at a mental health hospital and you'd be surprised how many people from all walks of life come in suffering from anxiety because of the fear of just taking a break. Folks will literally get admitted to her hospital and their family takes their phones/electronics from them as a means to unplug sometimes. Its wild

If only people knew how much good a brisk walk outside with no interference can do for you. I say this as a Software Engineer whose job is to be plugged in 24/7 and I still make sure I take time to just get away from the world and give myself some time.
 
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How have we reached as a society a point in which people need psychological support from playing fucking videogames?
We have reached a point as a society where journos are actively harming us mentally and physically just by their poor advice. We need psychological support from these mouth breathers.
I would go as far to say, that that's the main issue here. Games should not give you the feeling that you should go to drink.
The problem with games, which this terrible article fails to address, is that it promotes a sedentary lifestyle, as well as a number of bad habits which can have an impact on your physical wellbeing. Physical wellbeing impacts mental wellbeing. For instance, looking at a screen. It is bad for your eyes to stare at a screen all day. It is not normal for humans for most of our existence to live that way, usually we are out and about, using our eyes, stretching those muscles, etc. Moving our eyes around, moving our neck around is important to our health. Stiffness in the neck can result in headaches. Simply looking away or taking a 5 minute break from time to time can help immensely.

Just as well, here is another tip: TAKE A SITTING BREAK EVERY HOUR. By which I mean take a break from sitting. Stand up. Get the blood flowing to your legs. Walk around. Maybe touch your toes. Get a glass of water. Pee. Then back to the game. If people simply just sit themselves down for hours and hours at a time, without any physical relief, they are actively harming their bodies. The media promotes marathon streamers, which is a very harmful thing to do, and very little is ever said about easy things you can do to maintain proper health while gaming. A sedentary lifestyle is very harmful to the circulatory system in particular. If you are feeling pins and needles, maybe it's not because you are too "into the game" or whatever, but that you haven't stood up in 3 hours.

This article actually suggest watching other people play games! Lol. The problem is a lot of these people live their whole lives behind a screen as if they are not human. You cannot have mental health without physical health and visa versa.
 
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Kids now at school COMPETING over who had more “views” and “subscribers” even on a small scale.

Kelly has 1000 followers and is a queen. Sally has 3 and she’s a nerd and outcast.
The southpark episode nailed it. Cartman the stock guy with the toys talking about Kyle's popularity going down the drain for being facebook friends with a loser and people need to unfriend Kyle or they will be losers too.
 
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