Games get kinda old and they don't solve the big problems in individual's life. Just a temporary escape at best. I still muster up the will to play some old Call of Duty these days. I remember playing Prototype games sometime after a COVID-19 pandemic started and some Halo: Combat Evolved at a bit later point. Oh, I played Amnesia: The Dark Descent when COVID-19 was almost over and got infected with Delta or whatever the heck it was, was home for the entire week and half, the longest period off work ever since I got employed!

It sucks, games were one of the very few things I could genuinely enjoy in life, they just don't work like they used to anymore. So what else is there? Alcohol and drinking oneself to death? I know there are people out there who drink deliberately to shorten their lives. Doesn't strike me as the optimal way to go.

Chicken Noodle Soup and Baloney Sandwiches.
Calms your Nerves and Helps you Sleep Better too.

Therapy and talking to understanding people helps!

Probably not terribly related, but FWIW here's my experience...

I've always been very private, kept mostly to myself, didn't talk much with
people I don't know well etc. My friends sometimes referred to me as "the
Vulcan" (StarTrek reference) - because I'm much more interested in logically
figuring everything out on my own... Definately not a "social butterfly"..

In trying to recover from a major thing that happened to me a few years back,
I'm now finding that it helps me a LOT to talk with others, telling my story,
connecting etc. seems to really help "learning to accept the new me".

My wife is the exact opposite, very social, very emotional, and had much
more anxiety about what happened than I (I was "out of it" for months, she
lived it every day - she has gone the therapy route and it's working very
well for her. She's even been able to finally come to grips with some bad
things that happened in her childhood.

Dave Dunfield - https://dunfield.themindfactory.com

Take your meds and walk away from the computer is my first thought. Isn't this too far off topic? This dribble is okay, but discussing key gens isn't or archive.org URLs? What's next? Participation awards? I would like an affirmative hug, please.

DaveDDS wrote on 2024-10-29, 01:39:

Therapy and talking to understanding people helps! […]
Show full quote

Therapy and talking to understanding people helps!

Probably not terribly related, but FWIW here's my experience...

I've always been very private, kept mostly to myself, didn't talk much with
people I don't know well etc.

That's me, except I apparently don't talk enough to those I know, not that I really know anyone outside of family and that there's much to talk about.

Holidays are coming. Not a good time for those dealing with traumas, depression, loneliness. Guess we'll get through it somehow.

UCyborg wrote on 2024-10-28, 21:22:

Games get kinda old and they don't solve the big problems in individual's life. Just a temporary escape at best. I still muster up the will to play some old Call of Duty these days. I remember playing Prototype games sometime after a COVID-19 pandemic started and some Halo: Combat Evolved at a bit later point. Oh, I played Amnesia: The Dark Descent when COVID-19 was almost over and got infected with Delta or whatever the heck it was, was home for the entire week and half, the longest period off work ever since I got employed!

It sucks, games were one of the very few things I could genuinely enjoy in life, they just don't work like they used to anymore. So what else is there? Alcohol and drinking oneself to death? I know there are people out there who drink deliberately to shorten their lives. Doesn't strike me as the optimal way to go.

It's hard to find your way in life. I seem well now in my 40's, but my history is insane, in some ways. Weird dysfunctional family and childhood of abuse, decade-long periods of loneliness and depression, seclusion, lack of family, friends, a loner at work both personally and professionally, resulting in being a permanent outcast from society in most ways.

Ironically - and this is no help, because you can't eat the meal before preparing it, as they say - but the long journey is usually towards realising that who you are is perfectly OK and capable of working towards your own satisfaction in all kinds of ways big and small.

A smaller point, and a controversial one. But I do wonder if spending one's gaming time mainly in simulating hellscapes where every other human is a mortal enemy, and shooting other people with guns is your primary objective, is necessarily helpful in terms of calibrating one's mentals towards general empathy for and interaction with other human beings. In much the same way, I used to spend a lot of my depressed time listening to all kinds of metal music, which is full of misanthropic lyrics and contempt for the ways of humanity. I still love that music, but in more moderation, simply because I recognise that listening to People=Shit for 4 hours per day wasn't necessarily helping me be a happy part of my own species. That wasn't the musics fault, but it doesn't change the reality of cause and effect.

I agree it's hard. And things don't start to make more sense with age.

About the controversial point, I think it could work that way for some individuals.

I guess I don't deal with mental health stuff very well. I've been getting some kind of seasonal depression for the past few years. It starts in the fall and usually ends around Thanksgiving, but it hung around longer this year.

Most of it is that I feel isolated, even though I live in a dense urban area. There's something about this town that attracts the worst kinds of people (most people deny it, but some agree with me - sometimes I wonder if it makes me look bad), and there isn't much to do. There's a tiny artificial beach, some sports stuff (I suck at sports), and the world's most pathetic artificial ski hill. I have to drive at least 30 minutes to do anything else.

I also have no social skills, so I just make everyone mad when I try to talk. That's why I'm alone.

https://quotefancy.com/media/wallpaper/1600x9 … -to-be-well.jpg

Loneliness, and feeling angst towards society/other people, is a fairly natural combination. Somewhat of a 'vicious cycle', even. Challenging to break out of, if your day is spent constantly ruminating in the notion that your loneliness is justified or even *forced* by the outside world.

Somehow you have to be able to talk to people to get anywhere socially. I never know what to say. I knew someone with whom it was easier, but we drifted apart.

UCyborg wrote on 2025-01-04, 22:20:

Somehow you have to be able to talk to people to get anywhere socially. I never know what to say. I knew someone with whom it was easier, but we drifted apart.

I feel the same way. There might have been more than one person who I could talk to easily, but there's one who I remember the most. I haven't seen her since 2011. She really calmed me down at a rough time in my life, and I think she had a positive effect on me (along with being attractive).

My loneliness and work (or at least seeing how stressed one of my coworkers is - I feel like I should do something to help) make me want to improve my social skills.

A buttload of people's mental health issues are, in my opinion derivative of physical conditions.

Not all. Obviously.

But it wouldn't surprise me at all if a thorough blood test showed low levels of hormones and other markers - especially the absolutely critical Lego brick that is vitamin d.

Low d =low t, poor healing poor immune response, poor mood, inability to concentrate, and a whole bunch of other things. It's the 2x4 of human body parts.

Fortunately, once a diagnosis is confirmed, all of the above can be resolved in under 3 months.
I've done it. From 16/whatevers/whatever (20is seriously low) to 120+.

Everything improved.
Everything.

Even without a diagnosis, theres no down side of an hour or so walk in the sun a couple times a week.