WoW addiction and depression

Community General Discussion
43

I’ll share my story.

For me, WoW saved my life.

When I was 22 I became an alcoholic. This was also the time around when I started playing WoW. Things were really bad for me at this point in my life. I started making bad decision after bad decision. Self medicating in ways that weren’t healthy. It got really bad.

I got really depressed after some things that happened to me in my life. When I was depressed, I started staying at home more. Subsequently I started playing WoW more.

Once this happened, I started to get a sense of purpose again. I was able to build my confidence back up through playing WoW by doing dungeons, raids, raid leading, etc.

Since I started playing WoW more and gained this confidence and new sense of self, I was able to get to a point where I started looking at my life decisions and realized that I was heading down a road that I didn’t want to go down anymore. I was done.

WoW literally saved my life at this point in my life. And WoW saved my life more than once.

I hate to admit this out to the public but to me it’s been really huge. I smoked. Yes. I can proudly say that I SMOKED for 15 years of my life.

I pretty recently went through more trauma and I recently again got to a point where I looked at my life and realized I was heading down more roads I didn’t want to go down.

At this point in my life, I decided to quit smoking. For good. For ME.

The one and only thing that I’ve been able to cling onto to help keep me busy. To help keep me going through the withdrawals has been WoW.

For me it’s crazy. WoW saved my life 12 years ago. WoW saved my life again now.

Because of WoW I wouldn’t be where I’m at today. Today I am happier than I’ve been in a really really long time. WoW has been the one thing that has helped keep me up and keep my head on my shoulders just enough to where now I can proudly say I’m finally out of the HELL that I have been in for a very long time.

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44

Much respect. I got drawn back because Dragons. SL burnt me out after the slog of the campaign. My go to grind was the vulpera unlock, and I did what ever it took to unlock them, and after I did i was ok thats it??. Wow is addicting when it has thise moments. Hell try playing on a mountain with some stable wifi or hotspot its a winner for getting in some nature and wow time.

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45

I find that simply cutting something out doesn’t solve things. You have to put something in. Work on your wellness, not just physical but mental and spiritual. Do something that takes the focus off of yourself, find something bigger than yourself to adhere to, something that gives you purpose. This can be as simple as volunteering, or being active in a support group, or whatever. It can be spiritual, if you’re open to that. Cutting out WoW may not be a bad idea, but it might not be enough to truly address the roots of your depression. The gym helps but you might need something you can take with you everywhere. Just my humble opinion. Life is a journey, take it one step at a time, each step with purpose.

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46

If you feel like wow is consuming too much of your time then maybe you should try other games or find real life hobbies that don’t involve this game. It’s always good to step away for a while. If anything this game has taught me after playing for 13+ years is that it will always be here. Might not be what is was when I played back in the days but it’s still wow.

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47

WoW makes me depressed because of how much joy and passion it’s lore & story use to bring, and how far its fallen. :pensive:

Shadowlands ruined, or outright removed my favourite aspects of lore which I use to love so fondly. Instead of feeling joy & wonder, I now feel hollow and hold onto a hopeless anticipation for it to change back or to have various suggestions made implemented to reverse & repair the damage.

I feel my days on WoW are numbered …

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48

I’d say it helps to identify what your strengths are. Things like volunteering isn’t going to be for everyone, and forcing it might end up making the individual feel worse. Usually for gamers, I’d say pick up a new skill like coding, graphic design, or something along those lines. Our types usually have the latent talent for those skills.

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49

It was one example, there are many things one can do to find purpose.

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50

See if you can join a Reddit sub for your local area. I follow mine and there are always people looking to connect, or starting DnD clubs, or just new to the area looking for people to meet. If you explain your situation, as far as you’re comfortable, I’m sure you’ll be surprised how many people are in the same boat.

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51

If you’re dealing with any form of active mental illness. Depression, uncontrolled bipolar disorder, anything, this environment is not where you need to be. It exacerbated the illness. It feeds it. But the food is poisonous. Get out of here and go start working on getting better. I’ve had to do that more times than I can even remember

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52

Hey thanks for sharing! It’s no secret that players breed a toxic and competitive environment through numbers.

My recommendations are:

  1. Be compassionate towards yourself and take it easy, if you find it frustrating and peace is what you want, you don’t need to hold on to what is not serving you. Just like when you decided to lose the weight! How did you succeed with that before? You can do it again!
    Sounds to me like you’re trying to go against the grain, fighting for that joy that the game once brought you. Things have an expiry date unfortunately.

  2. success leaves clues… if you don’t want to join a raiding guild and want to go at it alone it will be harder for you to see much progress as raids are designed to work together, theoretically, but emotions and drama always get in the way. Trust is a big thing too.

  3. Practice gratitude, thank yourself for putting so much work into geeking out in wow, but like others said, it’s ok to take a break. Gym will give you dopamine. Your body will just adapt. But it’s no joke that humans always look for the next lust hit in life (just that wow had a stable 10min cd and life doesn’t hahahaha jk!)

  4. Look at cost vs benefit - I’m not sure but ask yourself… are you making this harder for yourself? There were a few parts that I read felt like there was a lot of resistance with what you were doing and what you really wanted. Like the dopamine hits and the work you were putting in. Rewards vs what you’re willing to do for it (hopefully not stress more than you have to over a game)

  5. Your focus - if you’re bored why not have a nap or get some healthy food and exercise to help u feel better. Even 5-10min walking can help u feel better. And in the scheme of things, how important is wow?

But yeah it’s ok to be a casual social player but if you can’t balance that out with real life, you are definite right to feel unsatisfied. Your mind and body are telling you something. Listen to it :slight_smile:

Once I turn my focus away from games and to eating better and gym and podcasts, I forget about wow

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53

Personally can’t relate but I know a lot of wow players sacrifice their own health for a chance at some pixels.

It really isn’t worth it if it’s affecting your life. Game addiction is a serious problem

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54

baps draeni with newspaper :newspaper_roll:

Bad necro… bad!

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55

1 year later

I don’t know why people are necroing dead threads. This is why we need thread lock timers.

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57

This is my perspective and experience on it as well. Its not really a matter of being addicted to WoW, its addiction to avoidance. WoW, and MMOs in general, are just a very convenient method of avoidance.

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58

It’s because people go through things at different times and find these threads later when they are looking them.

I’m not a forum fiend like you lol

59

what is the issue with this?

Starea added something meaningful to the thread’s conversation so its a perfectly acceptable post.

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60

Keep weights / WO gear where you play WoW. This way, when you walk into the room, you have immediate access to either activity.

Also, when choosing exercise over gaming, not only are you exercising the muscles of your body, you’re also exercising the “muscle” of your psyche: your will. Strengthening will could further benefit you with your eating habits.

More than anything else, will is paramount in enacting positive life changes.

61

i dont usually read long posts but i really hope op found a way to be happy. very proud at his efforts but i am curious if he found other means of enjoyment or games to play. just got 1 post though so i guess we’ll never know.

if u ever read this op, i hope u got the help u needed, found something that made u happy and continued the weight loss journey. its hard but you can do it.

62

Honestly, if it’s relevant or you seek to add something new — or perhaps a recent development has come to fruition or maybe made more possible: There shouldn’t be an issue with necroing the thread. :person_shrugging:

It’s far more sensible than re-making another thread of the same subject, context & discussion – perhaps even name, and then having the same arguments & counter-arguments made all over again … :unamused: I mean heck, I would had rather them Necro the damn High Elf thread than make 50,000 freaking NEW ones every so & so. :joy:

63

I didn’t realize the topic is now about roasting me, necroing is a CoC rule, carry on. I guess everyone wants a piece of the insulting pie. So who’s next?

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