I don’t want others to be responsible for my mental well being. Or the game owners/changes. . It’s not their job in game and irl. Adoration “friend collectors” & forgetting people are real just seems to be the social media. I didn’t grow up with it, but many of you did and it’s a normal part of life.
I don’t expect the game to change for me and whatever ailments I work around. And people will say things on the forum that do hit the red button, but I’m still learning to recognize them as red flags instead and to wait & stop before replying. to be clear, I don’t expect anyone to change who they are or how they reply for my benefit. I don’t think anyone who has any mental or physical issues. Most realize this is a personal issue and just deal with it.
The game is played by all sorts and I don’t care that playing a DH or hunter seems like the easiest to anyone else. When I want I play a more challenging alt. My decision to rarely do high-end content is both to spare me and others.
Feelings: Who doesn’t have a some sort of opinion or personal trigger?
Whether in a game or forum everyone will have a bad day and that thick shell becomes wafer thin. Do you always step away when you should?
I notice a few players that answer within the first 5 to 10 posts for maximum attention, never with their own opinion, and usually to hammer at the flaws in op. Never get drawn in - it is it’s own form of trolling. Be careful there.
So, how do you protect yourself without making others responsible for your own emotional stability?
I have used WoW to give my life stability for 17 years.
No matter what happened in my life, I knew for a fact that I could always go back and experience my favorite moments in WoW, pull out my mounts and enjoy the fruits of my labor, and log in to feel secure and “at home.”
None of that is true anymore. Garrosh no longer delivers my favorite line in the game. Mounts have been renamed, and skimpiness has been covered up. When I log in, I only feel threatened, like everything I’ve invested my time, effort, and money into is now endangered.
My mental health is not good right now, and each time old game assets are altered, it gets worse.
You have no choice but to accept it, because you can’t change other people. You utilize many methods of acceptance including the block, mute, and ignore features.
I get a squishy feeling in my stomach. I opened up here once about my experience(s) after lawsuit in one of those long threads. I shared, people were supportive and a few weeks later I deleted it. It was important in the moment, not for posterity.
This is just a pendulum swing. Pretty bad, but… honestly after initial gut reactions I don’t care. I’ve said my peace a few times on game, game changes, and lawsuit. That’s enough.
I can’t control others (I like to tell myself over and over - lol) of course I get hurt, of course I’ve relived some horrible events in my life - but they weren’t the worst horror I’ve endured.
I mean do you think sometimes your words hurt others. We all like to think we’re good people and it’s easy to forget that we are just as capable of inflicting pain on someone else without ever knowing it.
I don’t think of myself as a good person or a bad person. “Good” and “bad” are just subjective oversimplifications. I get what you’re saying, but for my mental health, the best outlook has been to acknowledge that I am an altruistic animal. I want to help, I want to give, I want to make things right for other people, I want to save the world, I want to teach… but when people anger me, I have no qualms flipping the switch and trying my hardest to absolutely destroy them. It’s part of my natural duality, and to deny any part of that is to deny a vital part of myself.
Do I hurt others sometimes? Absolutely. But for each action, there is an opposite and equal reaction. If no one acts aggressively towards me, I never respond with aggression. I, therefore, hold myself blameless. I don’t need to shoulder the guilt of being hurtful to others because my malice is a response to malice.
I think this is a good way for most people to look at things, because feeling guilty for being human is counter-productive and, in my experience, such thoughts cultivate unrealistic expectations that can worsen mental health if they are not met.
I try to do the first. The second sometimes you don’t think of them as random. There’s a few people here I’ll never know irl but nevertheless I’m fond of
I have learned from my own experiences that I and only I am responsible for my own mental stability. I recognize flaws, reflect, and try to course correct… but we are all human and make mistakes and I’ve made plenty that I also push myself to own up to and genuinely apologize to said friend or someone that I may have hurt [or when having a few, might blurt something out outta character].
I guess I’ve always been able to separate myself from people who post on the forums or in game from real life. I use the game as an outlet to destress in a healthy way. It gives me a moment or two to escape the realities and difficulties of life, and quite honestly those realities and difficulties are the only ones that matter. This game won’t make me money, this game won’t make me real friends… ie the ones that get refrigerator rights in my home.
Well, that’s certainly something to ponder… I’m not sure. I flip a switch sometimes and lose patience…maybe there’s something to be said for not trying to fix oneself all the time
I went to therapy for over a year and reached the point where my therapist became convinced I had antisocial personality disorder and that I may be a danger to myself and others, so I promptly stopped going.
I think sometimes people in game don’t understand that the entirety of the WoW mmorpg experience is what draws players that aren’t for the lone experience just because they don’t do high-end content. I like being with other players around. Sometimes just teaming up by osmosis to take things down or help out. Idk - I have fun with that.
