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Playing video games can help to reduce stress and anxiety, and improve mood

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Re: Playing video games can help to reduce stress and anxiety, and improve mood

#141

Post by rixed »

HervalFreire wrote: post #132
r3trohack3r wrote: post #44

I thought this was going to be an article about optimism ("geeking out" as in getting excited about things). I acknowledge that I'm responding to the headline and not the meat of the article. I've recently (past ~5 years) stopped viewing the world pessimistically. I don't believe it's because I'm blindly optimistic, but because I didn't have the perspective to understand our ancestor's problems and how good of a life…

There was a science experiment where they took pessimists and optimists and had them rate themselves from one to ten in terms of looks. Then they had another external group of people rate them based off of the same 1 to 10 scale to get an unbiased baseline. Turns out pessimists had a more accurate and realistic rating around how good they looked. While optimists had ratings that were wildly overblown. There are other…

Let's see if there is anything of value in between those two extreme viewpoints...

Reality is cruel and often sad, and for our own sake our brain tricks us into believing it's all pink, making us optimistic, delusional and stupid.

On the other hand, contemplating all the time just how cruel and vain everything is left us depressed and unmotivated and eventually makes life useless and worthless.

Well, then maybe we could aim for the middle, aknowledge that our brain has a tendency to paint everything either pink or black, but that with some little effort it's not so hard to recognize these trends when they happen and navigate in between, and be realistically satisfied that we can actually achieve to do that and be happy without delusion?

Re: Playing video games can help to reduce stress and anxiety, and improve mood

#142

Post by notfed »

codespin wrote: post #128
sacnoradhq wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Try writing or coding for fun. Caffeine, while increasing focus, ups anxiety and cardio load. Exercise (HIIT) I find is better at increasing focus and decreasing anxiety.

Replacing even a small amount of your gaming time with consistent exercise goes so far. Once you realize that you can actually achieve anything you set your mind to just by making a routine you will find yourself wanting to shift the time and effort going into games into real world success.

This and the parent comment come off as patronizing and missing the point.

Grandparent was giving an anecdote about how video games work for them, not asking for alternative advice.

Re: Playing video games can help to reduce stress and anxiety, and improve mood

#144

Post by 12345hn6789 »

sacnoradhq wrote: post #90
rye-neat wrote: post #69

I'm nearing 40 and in the past few years I've tried to focus more on "real world" activities (I've never lacked them, I just felt like gaming had less value). I've done well with this by spending time with my interests/pastimes; however, my work lately has been less stimulating. As a result, something has been missing. Long story short, I realized I wasn't getting into a "flow-state" often enough and guess where you…

Try writing or coding for fun. Caffeine, while increasing focus, ups anxiety and cardio load. Exercise (HIIT) I find is better at increasing focus and decreasing anxiety.

Why are you assuming the parent comment does not exercise? Or want to consume caffeine? Certainly those are worse long term than a 15 minute video game session.

Re: Playing video games can help to reduce stress and anxiety, and improve mood

#145

Post by celdon25 »

xwdv wrote: post #108
celdon25 wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Too much anxiety there from the fact that they now require you to run kernel-mode spyware (EAC). Haven’t logged in since.

Just get a dedicated gaming rig that is only for gaming. I have one machine for browsing and general productivity which is more locked down, and another purely for games. And a third for all the illegal stuff.

um, ok. I'm reminded there was a second reason I don't log in.

Re: Playing video games can help to reduce stress and anxiety, and improve mood

#146

Post by Loocid »

908B64B197 wrote: post #88
pathartl wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are a few people in my circle that are overburdened by conspiracy theories to the point where they think that humans are corrupt and everyone is out to get them. It's exhausting to live like that. My goal is to be my 13 yr old self's hero. Do cool stuff, be in a good relationship, and fix things that bother me to the best of my ability.

Remember how, just a few months ago, one could get banned from Social media for suggesting Covid-19 originated in a lab? "Fact Checkers" were hard at work silencing that content and attributing it to "conspiracy theorists". Now the lab leak hypothesis is mainstream, with experts supporting investigating the labs in Wuhan and bringing in evidence that the disease indeed originated in a Chinese lab. Sometimes, it seems…

Do you also remember COVID is a hoax, the vaccine is killing people for population control, 5G causes COVID, ivermectin is the real cure etc? The sheer volume is what is exhausting.

Re: Playing video games can help to reduce stress and anxiety, and improve mood

#147

Post by VectorLock »

gowld wrote: post #36
VectorLock wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>General anaesthesia and the idea you are actually awake but forget. This freaked me out as well. Wouldn't I know in the moment? Do we actually experience something if we don't encode memories for it?

> Do we actually experience something if we don't encode memories for it? It's not "don't encode memories"; it's "lose conscious memory". Your body still scars from cuts when you are unconscious. Your brain likely does too.

>Your brain likely does too.

How does your brain "scar" from this? I wouldn't say that the experiences are at all traumatic.

Re: Playing video games can help to reduce stress and anxiety, and improve mood

#148

Post by jasfi »

eigenvalue wrote: post #112

I think the issue here is one of timescale and trading off short-term versus long-term joy/fulfillment. Playing games is often fun in the moment, and can certainly have a positive social component and can be challenging and build skills and in general be a way to blow off steam and decompress after a long day of work, similar to how many people watch TV. But I have basically stopped playing games totally for the past…

Games do indeed take up a huge amount of time. If I'm stressed I'll take Ashwagandha.

Re: Playing video games can help to reduce stress and anxiety, and improve mood

#149

Post by mewpmewp2 »

HervalFreire wrote: post #132
r3trohack3r wrote: post #44

I thought this was going to be an article about optimism ("geeking out" as in getting excited about things). I acknowledge that I'm responding to the headline and not the meat of the article. I've recently (past ~5 years) stopped viewing the world pessimistically. I don't believe it's because I'm blindly optimistic, but because I didn't have the perspective to understand our ancestor's problems and how good of a life…

There was a science experiment where they took pessimists and optimists and had them rate themselves from one to ten in terms of looks. Then they had another external group of people rate them based off of the same 1 to 10 scale to get an unbiased baseline. Turns out pessimists had a more accurate and realistic rating around how good they looked. While optimists had ratings that were wildly overblown. There are other…

I disagree with a lot of what you are saying. Firstly I wouldn't label myself any way, neither pessimist or optimist.

But you can be amazed at what has happened throughout the whole history and what humans have built, and be optimistic and excited about the future, and that we can handle the problems thrown at us and be completely realistic at the same time.

And even if there was some way to accurately judge whether optimists or pessimists view the World more accurately, it doesn't mean you can't still view the world accurately and be an optimist at the same time.

It might just be that optimists on average are more likely to view things in a better light than they are, but it doesn't apply to every single optimist.

There is truth, but also even bad truth like a problem coming your way you can treat it as an exciting challenge or a nuisance.

Re: Playing video games can help to reduce stress and anxiety, and improve mood

#150

Post by mewpmewp2 »

zokier wrote: post #61
r3trohack3r wrote: post #44

I thought this was going to be an article about optimism ("geeking out" as in getting excited about things). I acknowledge that I'm responding to the headline and not the meat of the article. I've recently (past ~5 years) stopped viewing the world pessimistically. I don't believe it's because I'm blindly optimistic, but because I didn't have the perspective to understand our ancestor's problems and how good of a life…

> Whenever I get a brief feeling of "this is bad," I remind myself that humans have conquered far worse than whatever "this" is It's a nice sentiment, but I see no reason to think it is true. While I'd agree that in many ways life is nicer and easier, the problems that we do have now are even more complex and difficult than ever.

Sure, there are huge challenges facing us as a civilization, but we are not alone in terms of solving those. Individually people on average I believe are better off now compared to any time previous in history.

Of course some people have terrible lives still, some people die at birth, but we are living in a truly astonishing era with endless possibilities in my view.

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