{"id":2811,"date":"2021-02-03T21:58:25","date_gmt":"2021-02-03T21:58:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thenextweb.com\/?p=1337464"},"modified":"2021-02-03T21:58:25","modified_gmt":"2021-02-03T21:58:25","slug":"how-playing-the-hardest-games-i-could-find-helped-me-take-back-my-mental-health","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/?p=2811","title":{"rendered":"How playing the hardest games I could find helped me take back my mental health"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Disclaimer: nothing in this article should be constituted as mental health advice. This is anecdotal evidence from a technology journalist. <\/i><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been a gamer since the early 1980s. I cut my teeth on Tempest <\/i>and <\/span>Donkey Kong<\/i> in the local arcade. Gaming is my solace. <\/span><\/p>\n

When big things happen in my life or in the world, and I need to wrap my head around them, my go-to coping mechanism is to play a game until I can think clearly and focus. This is how I\u2019ve always blown off mental steam<\/i> (for lack of a better way to put it). <\/span><\/p>\n

But something happened in 2020 that changed everything: video games stopped working for me. The pandemic hit, the protests happened, and my mother passed away without a funeral. My mental health absolutely tanked before Thanksgiving.<\/p>\n

When I tried to play my favorite games such as <\/span>Modern Warfare<\/i> and <\/span>Red Dead Redemption II,<\/i> I\u2019d end up zoning out after a few minutes. More often than not, I\u2019d load up a game on my big screen and sit at the menu for an hour while I doomscrolled Twitter on my phone. <\/span><\/p>\n

It might not seem like a big deal, but to me this was the mental-health equivalent of losing my gym membership.<\/p>\n

Luckily I\u2019d manged to really get into \u201cLA By Night,\u201d by then. For those unfamiliar, it\u2019s a TV show featuring a cast of actors streaming their tabletop roleplaying session of Vampire: The Masquerade.<\/p>\n

While researching the IP and the people behind it I learned Paradox Interactive, a company known for its strategy video games, was in charge of the property.<\/p>\n

Ah yes, <\/i>I remember thinking, <\/span>the Paradox games<\/i>. <\/span>Hearts of Iron 4, Stellaris, Europa Universalis 4, and Crusader Kings III. <\/i>I remembered those titles well. Over the years I\u2019ve installed them or their predecessors and made it halfway through their tutorials a dozen times before noping out and uninstalling them.<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s not that they\u2019re bad or <\/span>too<\/i> <\/span>hard<\/i>. The problem is that they seem like they\u2019re going to be a lot of fun, and people really seem to like them, but one glance at the UI and it\u2019s clear I don\u2019t have the time or mental bandwidth to get into them right now.<\/span> I\u2019ll do it later, when I\u2019m not stressed out. <\/i><\/p>\n

<\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

But, I really needed a win to end the year. So I decided to download them again. And then I tried something radical: I sat still for an hour and paid attention. <\/span><\/p>\n

[Read: How to get over the intimidation factor and start loving hardcore strategy games<\/a>]<\/i><\/p>\n

Now I\u2019m hooked on <\/span>Crusader Kings III<\/i> and <\/span>Surviving The Aftermath, <\/i>working my way through <\/span>Hearts of Iron 4 <\/i>and <\/span>Europa Universalis 4<\/i>, and looking forward to the next grand strategy or management challenge. I\u2019m also feeling less stressed, less anxious, and more focused. The question is: Why?<\/span><\/p>\n