First off Happy 4th to those of you in the United States!
As someone who grudgingly watches some Asmongold YouTube videos I was made aware that a legendary WoW player that goes by the name of reckful had taken his own life. Through my brief research, apparently he was dealing with some depression as well as some individual(s) trolling him telling him to kill himself. I’m alarmed, as well as ashamed to know as someone who is also apart of this community who believe “dark humor” or being edgy is something cool and funny.
I’m a clinical social worker by profession and I’ll tell you that suicide is real, and depression is not something to joke about. I have seen countless of adults to adolescents admit themselves in my emergency room for suicidal ideation (thoughts of suicide). Some, don’t make it and succeed in taking their own life. I’ve realized more than ever that Wow does consist of many players who suffer from a range of psychiatric disorders. Some seek solace through playing Wow but whatever their reasons are, they still cannot escape the reality of toxicity in society because even through gaming, there is a level of toxicity even in the Wow community.
Because of anonymity, there are many players who can exacerbates a person’s mental condition by being rude and callous. Although I retain faith in humanity, I’m still aware of how cold reality can be when a bunch of random and anonymous human beings can come together and without any filter, can cause damage to a person’s mind. I once had a friend suffering from clinical depression as well as Gender Dysphoria who used WoW to get away from reality.
But this individual not actively seeking therapy became toxic herself due to the level of depression she suffered. Although I left the door open many times, this individual became the very evil she encountered during her suffering.
Regardless where you stand in the discussion on free speech, nobody should be trolling anyone especially someone who could be potentially a high risk suicidal individual. Although we may not know who is suffering mentally, we need to check ourselves when telling someone to “kill themselves.” Imagine if someone you loved was silently suffering from depression how would you feel if someone encouraged their degenerate mental state? I hope in the future as a community we can do better.
If you, or anyone else is having thoughts of suicide please call National Suicide Prevention Hotline 1-800-273-8255
do what i did…listen to the ultimate warrior, steve harvey(i think thats how ya spell it). and remember, everyone has somebody that depends on them to keep breathing to make their days better. ya wana die? wait a while itle happen…
i have suffered with anxiety, depression, alcoholism and…well, it dont matter what else…for YEARS…and then recent events in my life made me think bout it about every 30 seconds for two months.
yeah i encourage people to call that number, i also encourage them to get out there and let the world know who you are, why you are.
fight. be a soldier man …kick this world right in the nads, and leave behind a legacy when its your right time to go to the ground
You need to remember the kind of people who are attracted to video games and online discussions to toxic levels, there’s far too many people who have low self esteem, hate and try to avoid “real life” and want to live in the delusion that they are big tough guys on the internet who dont get offended like le snowflakes while also desperately clinging to any form of ingame achievement as a way to feel like they have some self worth.
Unless you treat those people, the hate and toxicity will continue, and the only way to achieve that is mandatory therapy for everyone on the planet.
i think you should consider talking to a therapist ralph. this is a thread about suicide, and youre labelling and describing others negatively for really no reason.
No man, it’s not a joke. I had two friends kill themselves just in high school. I almost did it myself in my early 30’s, but I went in the hospital and (very slowly) got better. I’m heavily medicated and although I’ve been disabled for 10 years I’m finally starting to get out and live a normal life (and plan on trying to return to work in the next year or less).
10 years ago I thought my life was over, my best female friend spurned me and I lost it, but I’m in a good relationship now and really life is just beginning. I think of all the things those two kids I knew might have accomplished, they hadn’t even hit a point in their life where they could make informed decisions about their futures. Always a sad thing to hear.
If anyone reading is thinking about it, just think about this. You will leave people behind, and they will mourn your loss for the rest of their lives. Don’t do it, get help. It’s there if you want it.
Edit: Also, the cascade effect. My girlfriend knew a guy who killed himself, then his girlfriend killed herself, then her dad killed himself. If first dude had thought about that, maybe he’d have reconsidered.
I focus on solving problems by following them to their root, trying to solve a surface problem with a silly limitation or regulation that wont truly fix anything because that unhealthy behavior will find another way to seep through the new limitations.
It is like seeing a corruption root spread through concrete and your solution is to add more concrete on top of it instead of unrooting the source of it.
Agreed. I had a student, who just 2 or 3 years after he graduated high school, I saw his face in the obituaries of the local community newspaper. It was written in Tamil so I wasn’t exactly sure what the section was until my principal explained it to me. The young man had killed himself in his garage. Who knows what happened between the end of high school and mid-university, but it just illustrates that these sort of tragedies often happen in the shadows, but in many cases, there are signals for others to catch onto. It still bothers me to this day. We need to be kind and keep an eye on each other.
There’s nothing wrong with people asking for help, even if it’s indirectly. Our society is so stalwart about this idea of “rugged individualism” that it forgets that none of us would be alive without community.
You focus on trolling because some random though X player/build were better than you/yours and you went on a spree of saying how everyone is bad irl for no reason lmao.
You really should go after a therapist this has clearly disturbed you and the root is far from the random dude.
Not sure you, or anyone else is really qualified to say who should, or should not see a therapist. Let’s focus on the discussion rather than biting each other.
Seems weird to say that right behind an event that could easily point to the opposite, but I think the trolls like that are being pushed into the shadows more and more.
It wasn’t too long ago that a certain three letter acronym was a very big part of internet lexicon, and now I can’t imagine even seeing it anymore. Unfortunately, it seems like a major part of human behavior to focus on the negative regardless how little there might actually be of it.
I mean it is always laughable when people talk about skill and performance in a low skill based game like WoW or more games that are designed to be won and thanks to the illusion of difficulty they help low self esteem people live in a pleasant delusion, which is something that clearly ticked you off based on your reaction. I know cuz many Gamers TM act and think like that which is awfully boring and predictable and sad, and what I said still stands, only simple minded people try to solve problems by only thinking of an immediate solution to a surface level problem instead of fixing the root cause.
But hey, feel free to tell yourself whatever you wish about me, I know my skill level and I am very happy with it : 3
Coupled with the anonymity of the internet makes for a dangerous mix of abusive behavior towards other people they don’t think are “on their level” or even people that make a mistake in a game they don’t think they would have made themselves.
I’ve been trying to call attention to this sort of behavior for years, but this toxic people will also group up on you and try to drown you out if they don’t like your message.
We need more people to stand up against this sort of abusive behavior, shine a light on these trolls and drive them back into their holes again.
What happened to Reckful is a sad reminder of this.
The person that, unfortunaly, did commit suicide was regarded as very skilled by the community and made a lot of money from that particularly skill set and obviously from beign a very communicative person.
As do many others to this day.
It is even more laughable believing you can, or should, tell people what they should appreciate or regard as enjoyable, skilled or whatever. Objectively speaking, trying to qualitative that is pointless.
I am free to tell whatever i want about anyone public actiosn and opinions tbh and so are others.
And your statement just proves you really need to see a therapist, it is not healthy to delegate what people should think, know, love etc because random dude said your playstyle sucks on random content lol.
At the end of the day you are literally what you accuse people of. Which is wierd.
