AC and mental health issues.

[mayor-of-ivyvale]

I can't even begin to describe how much I struggle constantly with bipolar type II. It makes my life a living nightmare day in and day out. But honestly, after discovering Animal Crossing, it's helped me cope so much. It's truly a blessing to me.

Everyone enjoys the games because they're relaxing and they have cute characters and you can be creative and such, but it goes much farther than that for me. It heals my issues every time I play. It's more than a game to me; it's therapy.

I'm sure there's plenty of you here with mental illness that can relate!

 

[Blueskyy]

I'm not diagnosed with anything. I just legitimately get tired of people after a whole day of work lol. I can relate in the sense that it can be a getaway.

 

[Beardo]

It helps with my depression and anxiety when it gets really bad

 

[HopeForHyrule]

It helps with my depression and anxiety when it gets really bad

This.

These games have helped me cope with my depression so much, and it's gotten to the point where they are my most-played games. So thank you, Nintendo, for giving me the cheapest therapy and medication ever.

 

[tae]

it helps with my anxiety. i know lots of people think it's an incredibly boring game, but it's so relaxing and easy to get addicted. i love it. i just have to worry about my town and what i wanna create with it, not life stress or anything alike.

 

[mayor-of-ivyvale]

This.

These games have helped me cope with my depression so much, and it's gotten to the point where they are my most-played games. So thank you, Nintendo, for giving me the cheapest therapy and medication ever.

100% agreed. This time last year I was obsessed with Pokemon X and it was a good way to escape, but no other game has helped like animal crossing has. <3 Nintendo

 

[Athelwyn]

I love that AC can help so many people! When I was clinically depressed, AC had not yet come out, though I'm sure it would have helped. Later, when I was going through a divorce, Population: Growing on the GameCube truly helped me through all that. It was the only escape I had at the time, and I love it that much more for it.

 

[nerdatheart9490]

Depression and anxiety over here. ACNL helps me more than my meds do. Unfortunately, I play it in order to avoid real world problems. As a result I'm constantly getting yelled at for forgetting to do chores, and I fell behind of my school work. I need to get back to the point where I did this during my free time for fun.

 

[Becca617]

it helps with my anxiety. i know lots of people think it's an incredibly boring game, but it's so relaxing and easy to get addicted. i love it. i just have to worry about my town and what i wanna create with it, not life stress or anything alike.

Exactly this. Animal Crossing helps me relax and get rid of the negative thoughts in my head too, it's like a paradise.

 

[mayor-of-ivyvale]

I forgot to mention the music helps a lot too! Not only the hourly music but the K.K. Slider music as well. I have a whole collection of music boxes in my house's basement with my favorites. When I'm feeling overwhelmed emotionally I just go and listen to them until I'm calm.

 

[Spooky.]

I made a thread about pretty much this a couple weeks ago. I play to help ease my anxiety and depression, and it's also become quite a cure for my loneliness, as my villagers are so sweet they've become like friends. This game really does work wonders to help me cope.

 

[LegallyBlondie]

I get a lot of anxiety from work and when I play animal crossing it helps me stop thinking about real life for just enough time to take a breath. :/

I don't even really play that much, I just cycle. The the monotonous task of save and quitting, checking my campsite for villagers, inviting the cute ones, getting them to move out and selling / giving them away strangely makes me feel like I can actually control something for once. It's weird. It really does help me and I don't know why doing something as tedious as cycling does this to me, but yeah.

 

[Red Cat]

Depression and anxiety over here. ACNL helps me more than my meds do. Unfortunately, I play it in order to avoid real world problems. As a result I'm constantly getting yelled at for forgetting to do chores, and I fell behind of my school work. I need to get back to the point where I did this during my free time for fun.

Yeah, I thought something along these lines when I saw this thread. I have anxiety issues and I like playing ACNL, but I wouldn't say that playing ACNL a lot is a good way to cope with anxiety / depression. To me, it is a kind of a way of avoiding the problem. I am currently seeing a therapist which I find more helpful than playing ACNL, and to be honest, one of the signs of me overcoming my anxiety disorder would be if I play this game a lot less than I currently do. Meticulously working to improve my town is a good way to escape from the negative thoughts which swirl around in my mind, but I would be devoting my time to more real-world hobbies if I didn't get so nervous around other people. All of that being said, there is nothing wrong with playing the game just to have fun when you want to have fun. I just don't think it should be seen as a substitute for therapy or medication or other methods which help people overcome their mental health issues.

 

[Spooky.]

Yeah, I thought something along these lines when I saw this thread. I have anxiety issues and I like playing ACNL, but I wouldn't say that playing ACNL a lot is a good way to cope with anxiety / depression. To me, it is a kind of a way of avoiding the problem. I am currently seeing a therapist which I find more helpful than playing ACNL, and to be honest, one of the signs of me overcoming my anxiety disorder would be if I play this game a lot less than I currently do. Meticulously working to improve my town is a good way to escape from the negative thoughts which swirl around in my mind, but I would be devoting my time to more real-world hobbies if I didn't get so nervous around other people. All of that being said, there is nothing wrong with playing the game just to have fun when you want to have fun. I just don't think it should be seen as a substitute for therapy or medication or other methods which help people overcome their mental health issues.

I just recently got back on medication for my depression, but my anxiety is going untreated right now. I have issues with many doctors and therapists not taking my health insurance so it's hard to find someone who can help me. Playing Animal Crossing as much as I do does kind of mask everything, but for now it's really all I've got that keeps me calm and makes me happy. It also keeps me from over-thinking in my down time, since I'm more focused on landscaping and talking to my villagers and doing errands. It's temporary, but for now I rely on it quite a bit.

 

[radioloves]

I like this game a lot, I play it to pass time and enjoy the wonderful game. Yes I can see how this is very helpful for many people, it also helps me too just to stay calm and leave the busy world aside, although sometimes I feel like there's probably something wrong with me, but at the same time I feel normal so I can't really say I have a mental illness since I'm not diagnosed.. But, I think for those with hardships, this game is not a bad way to help cope with it and it seems like a good alternative instead of medications and other ways since some of them don't really help much..

 

[PastelPrincess]

As a diagnosed schizophrenic and type 1 bipolar I can agree that AC has helped me so much. Seeing the smiling faces of always kind villagers has helped me to cope and live throughout my days. Even though I don't have a family to go home to after work and school, I at least have this dumb gay unicorn named Julian and his boyfriend Colton telling me everything is going to be alright.

 

[gameboy]

Yeah, it really helps! I've known a lot of people who also found the game helpful when dealing with their mental illnesses/trauma. There's a sense of stability to the game. No matter what's going on in your life, you know your town will be there. Some people might find it repetitive but I find the repetitiveness soothing. There's still enough to do that it's interesting and fun but you can do everything at your own pace. Uchi villagers mention sticking tape on carpet and lifting it which is a coping technique. Also there's no real inherent stress related to the game. Sure the mortgage can be daunting but they're not asking you constantly to pay it off. Plus they made Resetti optional in NL which was probably the biggest source of anxiety for the people I've talked to. Like you said, the music is really calming. I found that if I listen to the music before midterms/finals or any other nerve-wrecking situation, I feel more relaxed.

 

[mayor-of-ivyvale]

As a diagnosed schizophrenic and type 1 bipolar I can agree that AC has helped me so much. Seeing the smiling faces of always kind villagers has helped me to cope and live throughout my days. Even though I don't have a family to go home to after work and school, I at least have this dumb gay unicorn named Julian and his boyfriend Colton telling me everything is going to be alright.

Ahaha I love this! Julian is just wonderful all the way around and out of all my current villagers I think he helps me feel better more than anyone else.

Also by any chance are you on geodon for your bipolar? I've just recently been properly diagnosed (all my doctors and I myself thought it was just depression for years) and I got the impression that geodon is the main bipolar medicine.

- - - Post Merge - - -

Yeah, it really helps! I've known a lot of people who also found the game helpful when dealing with their mental illnesses/trauma. There's a sense of stability to the game. No matter what's going on in your life, you know your town will be there. Some people might find it repetitive but I find the repetitiveness soothing. There's still enough to do that it's interesting and fun but you can do everything at your own pace. Uchi villagers mention sticking tape on carpet and lifting it which is a coping technique. Also there's no real inherent stress related to the game. Sure the mortgage can be daunting but they're not asking you constantly to pay it off. Plus they made Resetti optional in NL which was probably the biggest source of anxiety for the people I've talked to. Like you said, the music is really calming. I found that if I listen to the music before midterms/finals or any other nerve-wrecking situation, I feel more relaxed.

Definitely! I think that's why I got into time traveling; the repetitive nature of quitting, starting up again, and changing the time then quitting, starting up again and changing the time over and over each time I play really helps anxiety. So in a way, cheating has helped too lol.

 

[Dinosaurz]

I actually get depressed with animal crossing cause my dreamies move out

 

[Greggy]

I've had depression, anxiety, and paranoia for years now. When I play Animal Crossing, I think that it's a great game, but it stresses me over the fact that I have to check if my dear villagers left me and if my town is looking any better. I don't like it if I became good friends with a villager, they're the first ones to say that they're going to leave me over the other villagers I've ignored. It's like my attempts in bringing them close to me ends up in vain.

There are still heartwarming moments I had in the game. Animal Crossing made me care over cute fictional anthropomorphic animals made of pixels and I got a bit emotionally-attached over some of my villagers. Okay, I admit that Animal Crossing isn't curing me with my depression, but some memories I had with my different villagers lightens up my mood. Even in an awkward situation where I stepped on a villager's birthday party, they still accept my humble gifts of picked flowers around the town and display them proudly in their room even for a short while, or when I had a frustrating family get-together I checked my ACNL game then Doc barged into my house yelling "Honey, I'm home!" and leaving a vase of flowers at me, or simply seeing Rolf and Willow celebrating their birthday parties together. I can't believe my villagers cared about me more than the people I know. Yet, like what I've said, it's stressful that I have to keep on checking my game because I worry that something might go wrong when I skipped for a week. This game always leaves a bittersweet taste in my mouth.