I remember when dealing with depression an felt like I didn't have control of my thoughts at times. Doctor told me to "do what you liked to do before it was this way, even if you don't like doing it now".
For me that was video games. So I played final fantasy and other games a great deal and found that the issues I was thinking of often did start to fade over time.
I don't know if it was the fact that the task required my attention so much or a sort of zen experience I could get with the game ... or just time passing, but it felt like it worked.
The only downside I felt was how not "in the world" I was at that time. Not really socializing much and etc in favor of drowning myself in video games.
Ultimately I think it helped me cope, but I also was aware that it was a very alluring sort of way of life to work, school, escape into video games, and nothing else.
Seems to me it's retraining the network that it is sufficiently far from the source of the trauma which can't happen until experiences fill in -- not to be confused with just time passing; experiences are the unit of time in the mind
I have the same experience. I was locked at home playing games, gaining weight and loosing friends.
So I stopped playing games and started to live again. First I was not in the shape to meet people a lot. It was too exhausting to concentrate on them. So I started running and exercising regularly. It helped me cope with uncontrolled mind. Tiring myself physically really improved my mood and sleep. After half the year I felt so fit that it also boosted my self confidence. This also helped me to look attractive for other people. I stoped looking like nerd wasting time with games, but I started to look like fit guy full of energy ready for anything.
Computer games felt the same as medication. It did not help me to recover but it just helped me not feel shit about myself and kept me at the same place.
I did this after a traumatic brain injury, and ended up playing too much video games, neglecting other aspects of my health.
Can't say that overall it was a net positive experience, although it did get my mind off the trauma and the traumatic memory and it did help moderately with depression (I am not depressed now, about a year later)
> Ultimately I think it helped me cope, but I also was aware that it was a very alluring sort of way of life to work, school, escape into video games, and nothing else.
Ah yes, that's generally the conclusion I came to as well. I'm scaling it down as of this moment, personally.
I haven't really been able to play it since, although I think that has been more about the evolution of the series turning into a more ... teen drama as far as maturity goes.
It was never drama free, lots of personal stories and reflections, but it felt like those topics were somewhat more balanced against a larger story / mature / etc. After a while everything seemed to get more immature / sappy / etc.
For me that was video games. So I played final fantasy and other games a great deal and found that the issues I was thinking of often did start to fade over time.
I don't know if it was the fact that the task required my attention so much or a sort of zen experience I could get with the game ... or just time passing, but it felt like it worked.
The only downside I felt was how not "in the world" I was at that time. Not really socializing much and etc in favor of drowning myself in video games.
Ultimately I think it helped me cope, but I also was aware that it was a very alluring sort of way of life to work, school, escape into video games, and nothing else.