Anybody else play mmo's to cope with isolation or anxiety?

[Ojos Locos]

I do and I must say its not to bad if you take it for what it is. I find it pushes me to talk to people - which I sure need as I'm very avoidant.

Plus knowing only 3-4 people in Melbourne, playing massively multiplayer online games (MMO's) gives me a few more people to talk to if I so desire. I find it can stop the racing thoughts with me and I can actually relax for a bit. :) I know these games get a lot of bad press, your wasting your life ect, but I actually enjoy it and I do find it helpfull. Just wondered what others thoughts were on the matter and if I was the only one "wasting" time in such a manner.

Oh btw I don't watch a lot of tv I find sometimes it just adds to my anxiety, movies yes the rest of the garbage more than a couple of hours and I sorta want to throw the tv out the window. ( well not literally)

 

[heidi]

If your mind is at peace then I wouldn't think of it as wasted time. I watch and listen to a lot of content with the goal of distraction and it doesn't always work. If you have something that does that for you I think that's good. And if you're feeling connected to people that's good too. Seriously the other day I watched something I can barely admit I watched but it pulled me out of what I was feeling and was therefore not a wasteful thing. I wish I had something that pulled me away from stuff more easily because it doesn't always work.

 

[Anna]

I used to play online games a lot, especially when I was younger. It helped me to relax as well and took my mind off of things.

 

[Tanishq]

I used to play MMO game. Later decided to call it a quit as I found myself uncomfortable with people there and also sort of started getting addicted to it. I did enjoy it, but I think it can be hard to leave such games. Better to be careful.

 

[Barberian]

Short answer: Yes.

Long answer: (OCD characteristics kickin in).

I'm between games right now. I started MMO's with Everquest. I played it for several years, but quit shortly after Everquest II came out. They just seemed to stop any quality expansions after EQ II was put out.

After EQ I started playing WoW. I was a WoW junkie for a long time, but quit several years ago because they keep watering down the game. It used to be hard, now all you have to do is be awake and you level.

After WoW I played EvE online (often refereed to as spreadsheets onlline because it takes a lot of info to play effectively). I had to quit because it was just too stressful for me. Unlike WoW, when you die, you lose your ship with no way to resurrect it. It's just gone forever. A ship could take from a few hours to a few months to get the resources to build. The ships I flew usually took a week or more to gather the resources to build.

Currently I've been playing MechWarrior Online. It's a fast paced game. It has a time limit of 15 min if the win conditions haven't been met. There is little to no risk if you die in game. You get more resources if you win, but don't lose anything if you lose. There are two teams with 8 players per.

Usually I play with several accounts at a time. Playing only one account is way too boring for me. I usually played with around 4 +/- accounts at a time. MechWarrior Online only allows one account per machine it's played on to run at a time.

I'm stuck in my house, in my computer room most of the time. I can go out in public when I need to now most of the time. I used to be housebound due to anxiety. My time out in public is limited. The more I'm out, the higher my anxiety becomes. If I go out more than once every few days, I don't have time to recover. I can go out a few days in a row, but the more I'm out, the longer it takes to recover. Two or three days is usually my max time out before I start to become unstable.

Almost all my contact with people outside my family and psych care is from online gaming. I use voice over internet programs like Teamspeak, Ventrilo or Skype to talk with people in game. It was online gaming and talking with people in game that helped me recover to the point I'm at now. I use(d) the game as a form of in vivo(sp?) therapy.