Playing to help with anxiety?

[Spooky.]

There was another thread on here that was asking how we discovered New Leaf, and I shared my story about how I found it and read some reviews on it. The reviews that caught my attention the most were ones by users talking about how New Leaf helped them deal with things such as anxiety or depression. I've also seen it mentioned around the forums here a few times. Not too often, but a few. While the game itself seemed right up my alley (due to my loving animals and liking games you can customize a lot), the comments about the game helping with anxiety and such really sealed the deal for me.

Since I really don't see this topic mentioned too often around here, I thought I'd make a thread just to see if any of you wanted to open up with your experiences with New Leaf and if the game helps you cope with anxiety, depression, or really any mental illness that troubles you. I know it's something hard to talk about, as it's a sensitive subject for some people, but I thought maybe we could kind of...come together and talk about it.

I'll start with what I've experienced with New Leaf so far - While there are times I do get caught up in the worries of making a perfect town and all, I find that even with those worries, it still serves as a good distraction from the things in real life that are stressing me out and making me nervous. When I'm depressed, talking to my favorite villagers makes me smile. The next thing I know, the night has passed by and my anxieties lessen for a while and I feel less depressed. The game gives me something to really focus on and work to, and by setting up different tasks for myself, it really helps to really get my mind only on that and I think less of my troubles. I really can say that it's done a lot, even if temporarily, to help get me though tough times. It's not a permanent solution to my depression or anxiety, but having my own little world where I'm the mayor to escape to makes me happy.


So for any of you who are struggling with any kind of mental illness, do you find that New Leaf helps you cope a little bit better? If so I'd really love to hear your stories. It's nice not to feel alone.



If this topic is inappropriate or in the wrong forum, I apologize in advance.

 

[Macy]

Wow, that's actually pretty mice if it makes you feel better. I do something in my town that makes me feel better I guess when I'm feeling low. Sometimes if I'm playing and something in life is bothering me, I'll wrote about it on my bulletin board. It's like a diary. But private. I mean, noone is reading it aside from my villagers. I dont remember when or how I started doing it. I just did and I still very much do. I even do it if I'm just feeling contemplative or having second thoughts about recent commitments or decisions in life. So really the bulletin board is actually my journal :/

 

[Kristen]

I'm very very bad at socializing and keeping friendships in real life. I love my ACNL relationships with my villagers because they're kind of like friends I can always virtually talk to without having to feel anxious about talking to real people. Also, my friends always tend to forget my birthday, so when my best friends in-game had a surprise birthday party for me, it was incredibly nice.

 

[Spooky.]

Wow, that's actually pretty mice if it makes you feel better. I do something in my town that makes me feel better I guess when I'm feeling low. Sometimes if I'm playing and something in life is bothering me, I'll wrote about it on my bulletin board. It's like a diary. But private. I mean, noone is reading it aside from my villagers. I dont remember when or how I started doing it. I just did and I still very much do. I even do it if I'm just feeling contemplative or having second thoughts about recent commitments or decisions in life. So really the bulletin board is actually my journal :/

If I give myself some kind of specific task to do that's tedious (but worthwhile) it really helps me forget my problems for a while. I've gone on flower organizing sprees that take a long time, and they take a while to do, but when they're done it looks nicer and cleaner and I feel accomplished. Due to it taking a while, it passes a lot of time I would have otherwise spent focusing on the negative things I'm dealing with in reality. It's a nice distraction from needless anxiety.

 

[DJStarstryker]

Video games in general are that way for me, not just Animal Crossing. When life is too stressful, when I get home I can turn on a video game and be in another world for awhile, a world where my real life troubles don't exist.

 

[Spooky.]

I'm very very bad at socializing and keeping friendships in real life. I love my ACNL relationships with my villagers because they're kind of like friends I can always virtually talk to without having to feel anxious about talking to real people. Also, my friends always tend to forget my birthday, so when my best friends in-game had a surprise birthday party for me, it was incredibly nice.

I really don't have any friends to speak of (except for one or two I talk to on occasion online), so my villagers help me feel less lonely too. When they send you letters with little gifts saying they thought of you it makes me smile.

- - - Post Merge - - -

Video games in general are that way for me, not just Animal Crossing. When life is too stressful, when I get home I can turn on a video game and be in another world for awhile, a world where my real life troubles don't exist.

I've found that Animal Crossing (well, New Leaf, I haven't played any of the other games in the series) distracts me from troubles more than other games do. I can't pinpoint why, exactly, but games like Pokemon or RPGs don't have quite the same effect.

 

[Reineke]

This year for my birthday wish in game I wrote "I wish to be happy." So when my villagers ask me "Hey how's that birthday wish coming along?" I can tell them "Yeah, I did it" or "Not so great" or "Its coming along" and no matter what dialogue option I choose, my villagers' answers are always unrelentingly cheerful. Its a nice little reminder that things are going pretty well in my life, and I always come away from it thinking, "Yeah, I guess I am doing pretty well today."

 

[HHoney]

ACNL can be very helpful for any of us who live life in these fast paced modern times.

If I give myself some kind of specific task to do that's tedious (but worthwhile) it really helps me forget my problems for a while. I've gone on flower organizing sprees that take a long time, and they take a while to do, but when they're done it looks nicer and cleaner and I feel accomplished. Due to it taking a while, it passes a lot of time I would have otherwise spent focusing on the negative things I'm dealing with in reality. It's a nice distraction from needless anxiety.

Flower organizing is very relaxing...but it can feel a little stressful if you start with all flowers in chaos...after that it becomes kinda fun.

 

[Jesibie]

Wow, that's actually pretty mice if it makes you feel better. I do something in my town that makes me feel better I guess when I'm feeling low. Sometimes if I'm playing and something in life is bothering me, I'll wrote about it on my bulletin board. It's like a diary. But private. I mean, noone is reading it aside from my villagers. I dont remember when or how I started doing it. I just did and I still very much do. I even do it if I'm just feeling contemplative or having second thoughts about recent commitments or decisions in life. So really the bulletin board is actually my journal :/

My word. We do something very very similar. I do the exact same thing with letters to my villagers. I write personal yet ambiguous messages to my villagers. When I hit the character limit, I continue what I was writing with another letter to another villager. It's something I just started doing one day. I write a lot IRL in actual notebook too so I guess I figured I'd do the same thing in AC. It's pretty nice for building up that villager friendship level. Plus I got the gold letter badge super quick haha

 

[twisty]

I feel this a lot. ^^ I have depression, and Animal Crossing has helped me cope so much with it. Though I've definitely gotten caught up in the pressure to have a perfect town, it still helps me calm down when things get tough. c:

 

[Spooky.]

This year for my birthday wish in game I wrote "I wish to be happy." So when my villagers ask me "Hey how's that birthday wish coming along?" I can tell them "Yeah, I did it" or "Not so great" or "Its coming along" and no matter what dialogue option I choose, my villagers' answers are always unrelentingly cheerful. Its a nice little reminder that things are going pretty well in my life, and I always come away from it thinking, "Yeah, I guess I am doing pretty well today."

That's so crazy because I wrote the exact same thing on my birthday last year. Whenever a villager asks me how it's going and I say 'not so good' they start cheering me on and it hits me right in the feels. Funny how a little cartoon animal can make you feel more motivated.

 

[Rena.]

AC helps me a lot with anxiety and stress. Shortly before I bought it, I was talking to someone who read about a study done w/ gaming helping a woman with depression. It just made me want to get it more. I find AC so soothing, especially at night listening the calm music, and I like the sounds of the mayor/villagers walking around (ASMR).

- - - Post Merge - - -

Oh, not to mention, it always makes me super happy when every now and then I see my villagers walking around singing happily

 

[Spooky.]

AC helps me a lot with anxiety and stress. Shortly before I bought it, I was talking to someone who read about a study done w/ gaming helping a woman with depression. It just made me want to get it more. I find AC so soothing, especially at night listening the calm music, and I like the sounds of the mayor/villagers walking around (ASMR).

- - - Post Merge - - -

Oh, not to mention, it always makes me super happy when every now and then I see my villagers walking around singing happily

The music at 7pm in the game is so relaxing I actually look forward to it. Some of the really early morning music is nice too but I usually play at night, especially since that's when my anxiety and depression are at their worst.

- - - Post Merge - - -

I feel this a lot. ^^ I have depression, and Animal Crossing has helped me cope so much with it. Though I've definitely gotten caught up in the pressure to have a perfect town, it still helps me calm down when things get tough. c:

In an odd way, I found the pressure to have a perfect town still helped me feel better, as it was still a distraction from real life - and sometimes a time consuming distraction at that. Searching for perfect paths, buying and selling all sorts of landscaping stuff, planting bushes and trees in *just* the right spots, etc. The hard work to get to perfection still helped, oddly enough.

 

[Dorian]

What an amazing thread and such heartfelt stories of how AC helps all of us! As I have always said, once you pick up the game, you become part of the family

 

[mayortash]

AC has generally helped me with my anxiety. I can play and forget about the things that are causing me to be anxious and get frustrated. Usually by the end of a good playing session I feel a lot better.

Sometimes my social anxiety shows up in game though. When I visit I sometimes get bashful and don't like to bother people so I tend to come off as standoffish when really I just don't know what to say or do.

 

[Spooky.]

AC has generally helped me with my anxiety. I can play and forget about the things that are causing me to be anxious and get frustrated. Usually by the end of a good playing session I feel a lot better.

Sometimes my social anxiety shows up in game though. When I visit I sometimes get bashful and don't like to bother people so I tend to come off as standoffish when really I just don't know what to say or do.

Yeah, I get so nervous when I'm doing trades and stuff, like after I've paid and they drop the items and they just stand there...then I'm like...'okay...do I um, end the session or will that seem rude like I'm cutting them off??' I have found that asking people if they want me to end helps a bit. If I go to someone else's town sometimes I've really wanted to look around but I'm always afraid to ask, especially since so many people put 'don't leave the train station' on their posts. I just want to see lots of pretty towns ;~:

 

[Dorian]

I've been re-reading the responses here and your story, Namstar. As an older player *cough* and the mom of a teenager, I can really hear and feel the sadness here. As a psychic empath, I tune into emotions and feelings of others on a very deep and powerful level. And this thread really touches me. I also suffered from depression in my teens, twenties and early thirties. There was always so much to get done, so many people to take care of, impress, not let down, not disappoint. Life moves so fast and it's very unsympathetic. Don't take that sentence as a bad thing. Really all that means is we must seek and find our own joys, our own paths, our own families. We create our own story, our own beauty and the moments in life where everything comes together are the moments that make it worth living. So for everyone just hanging onto the precipice by their fingertips, I've got you. I read all your stories here and I heard you. We all heard you. And that makes us family. I know this kind of deviated away from AC and became a mama bear giving a pep talk to her cubs, but that's what I'm here for today, in this moment. So, LOVE to all you cubs out there

 

[Adaberny]

Yes a lot actually. Most of my childhood has been spent listening to parent arguments and going through the usual school teasing and bullying, when I got the game it provided me an escape into my own little world. And it still is

 

[Spooky.]

I don't want the thread to get deviated too far away from the topic of New Leaf, as I don't want it to get moved, but thank you for the support Dorian. I'm turning 30 in just over 2 weeks, an age where most people tell you that you're too 'old' for video games. Well, I've actually been hearing that for years already. But hey, if being the mayor of an animal town makes me feel better, I'm going to do it. My villagers are like friends, especially because I don't really have any of my own. I'm not going to give them up.

 

[cIementine]

I've found that the animal crossing franchise gives me something to look forward to each day, while also making me feel happy and accomplished.
Since this forum was created with the intention of being animal crossing themed, the game and the forum have brought the two closer together for me and now I don't think I could play/utilise one without the other. the acquaintances and conversations here, while often brief, are valuable and I prefer it to the interaction I have with peers in real life.
However it's also important to face our anxieties and insecurities sooner rather than shielding it with a temporary distraction, too, and not drift too far away from reality.