Anxiety and voice chat

Competitive Discussion
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Hello, I’m a girl ps4 player and I often play mercy. (But I don’t consider myself a mercy main) I really want to join voice chat in comp, especially now with the new group update, but I get bad anxiety because I’m worried someone might make fun of me for being a girl playing mercy or make fun of my voice or mic or something. I know it’s stupid but I’m wondering what to do.

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I play on PS4 too.

Well, now that LFG is available to you, you now have the power to decide whom you wish to play with before being in that awkward position where someone may be rude in a match. We all know what happens then; because you’re forced to either abandon voice chat entirely, leave (hopefully not) or simply deal with it in the manner you see fit.

I’d recommend forming a group yourself and tailoring it to what you’d like to see from your team. If there’s any red flags as the group is forming, remove the players as needed. This way, they’ll know you’re female in chat and that you like to play Mercy or perhaps Support in general. You can establish some sense of rapport before you enter a game. It won’t be a random matchmaker putting you in a game with potential immature morons.

If there’s no desire to use the LFG, I would just suggest to try not being anxious about what people say or do. We cannot control that. Play the best you can and be as positive as you can. Mute/Avoid those who ruin your experience.

Lastly, remember that self-worth comes from within. You need not worry about what other people think of you. If they aren’t respectful, get rid of them. That’s all I can say.

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Imagine you’re standing on the high board at the pool. Do pools even have diving boards anymore? Anyway, imagine you’re about to jump into water far, far below. Jump. It’ll be good or it’ll be bad, but either way you already jumped.

If it’s bad, mute and report everyone that made it bad.

Ever since the endorsement and LFG systems came out, I’ve seen a lot less toxicity though. I don’t know what the combo is on PS4 but you should be able to hide the chat box - check your settings.

Game on and ignore the haters!

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You just gotta ease into these things. For awhile I had the same sort of problem, but it had to do with Lucio instead of voice chat. For the longest time I wouldn’t play any other hero in comp because I thought we would lose if I messed up. So I eased into it. I would play some tanks here and there, try another support, play DPS every once in awhile, and eventually I wasn’t so scared to play someone else. I mostly suggest just trying to do normal stuff in Quickplay, join voice-chat, treat it like comp, maybe find a team to play with through some social media or through the LFG, and eventually you should feel more comfortable about it. Plus, generally, people will focus on the fact youre playing Mercy, and will be happy about it, than they’ll focus on the fact that you’re a girl.

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Saying just dont be anxious to someone with anxiety problems is the worst advice. I would just mute the people who make you uncomforatable and friend the people that you mesh well with.

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I usually join voicechat and then type something like “noisy background- will listen but can’t talk”

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In my general experience the worst thing you can do for yourself and your team is not talk. The easiest way around this I found was to say hi in team voice before the round even starts. Yes people might make fun of you, but just mute them and continue on, maybe even report them AFTER the game is over as blizz wont even look at it if you havent finished the game yet.

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PS4 is toxic by nature, nothing you can honestly do about that. i wish you the best of luck. if you dont believe me, notice how PS4 is the only platform that comes up in toxicity videos on youtube

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Don’t say anything, join if you must but don’t say anything.

It sounds mean, dumb and stupid, but that’s the best way to not get people poke fun of you. Feel free to mute or leave VC if they start to be toxic.

I never join VC anyways and I can still play the game, so joining VC isn’t a must (Its a great tool, but if it becomes detrimental to your performance its better to just turn it off.).

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I’m going to be real with you. At some point someone is going to make fun of you for being a girl even if you’re not playing Mercy. Unfortunately people exist in this world that will do such a thing.

But

You can just mute them. Yes it’s going to be annoying, yes it’s not going to make you feel good, but you need to accept that there are people in this world ignorant enough that they think making fun of someone is okay and just ignore them. They are sad people and don’t deserve the satisfaction of keeping you from an aspect of the game.

You should also realize that a majority of people will not care and will be appreciative of your participation. My duo partner is a woman, and we very rarely run into malicious sexism in voice chat. When we do, we just mute, report, and move on. The “benign” sexism such as ‘OMG GRIL??!?!?’ comments are more common but still infrequent; I think these are more a byproduct of awkwardness than malice, but they’re still annoying and get a mute.

So I’d encourage you to give participating in voice chat a try. You don’t have to be super talkative and lead your team to glory on day 1, but every now and then try to call something you see out that may be helpful to the team. Also, give it a try with the new LFG feature. I’ve been very surprised at how positive and cooperative people are in it.

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just do it

anxiety is a problem that occurs prior to you doing it. having clinical anxiety or just “butterflies” is a normal part of engaging in a new activity. You simply need to do it and over time you will become less and less anxious about it.

Now if you actually do it and your anxiety turns to panic attacks then you have a real question to ask… how do I get around my panic attacks.

However, anxiety is just you being nervous about doing it and that is normal since it is new. doing it is literally the answer to anxiety

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Just do it. You can’t live life worrying about what other people think of you.

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Hi i play on PS4 and I’m a girl too also mostly play mercy in comp, i also have anxiety and rarely join voice chat but I’m going to start this season no matter what. if you ever want to play together add me :grin:

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Definitely agree with people recommending the LFG feature. You can basically screen your teammates before getting into a match. When you get the inevitable mouth breathing neck beard who can’t believe a woman has thumbs too and can play the game just as well as the more endowed gender, kick them out of the group and keep it moving.

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dont care about it, accept it, or learn to insult them back. otherwise good luck