OCD within gaming

I've spoken about this problem with a couple of family members, but none of them are gamers and don't understand how difficult this problem is. I've been struggling with video game specific OCD (in no other way would I class myself as someone who suffers from the affliction).

To describe it; Whenever any of my game play appears messy in my head, or I die repeatedly in a section, I get major anxiety and it appears that the only way to get rid of this anxiety is to delete my profile and begin everything again. It's at the stage now that in some games, I can't get past the first couple of levels without doing this. It's incredibly frustrating, and unfortunately if I don't figure a way past my problem I will most likely have to stop gaming. The only game I don't appear to have any problems with strangely enough is the Dead Rising series.. I guess there's no way I could possibly begin to make hacking through 100's of zombies appear neat so my brain doesn't even begin to try.

Please refrain from any negative comments, I understand a lot of people would find this problem crazy (I do myself) and I'm looking for positive advice and suggestions. Thanks guys!

You sound like an achievement hunter, perhaps this isn't bad but:

Maybe instead of deleting a profile and starting over you should just take a break instead.

@ryan78134:

I used to have an identical problem when I was a teen. For me, it was when I was playing Max Payne and Grand Theft Auto III. I loved games that focused on story so whenever I died in those games, it would mess with my head because the idea of restarting from a previous save would mess with the idea of a linear, uninterrupted story. In order to fix it, I felt I had to start the game from the very beginning. Sometimes other things would go wrong - the game would crash or glitch for some reason and it would lead to me taking my anger out on family members. So, there was often a lot of yelling and crying in my house.

I'm 28 now and my OCD has 'evolved' a bit since then. I don't suffer from this particular problem anymore but it has manifested itself in other ways - just not with computer games anymore.

I'm currently keeping it under control with Citalopram - which is a prescribed antidepressant. But I've never felt that someone should become dependant on drugs in order to lead a happy life. The best thing you can do is talk to someone. If you can't talk to a family member, talk to a friend or someone you trust. If you feel you need it, you can also talk to a counsellor who will help you form strategies for dealing with your OCD symptoms.

***SHOTS FIRED***

I'm serious though. I think taking a break when things don't go your way in a game helps out.

When I can't get past a level I stop playing and come back later when I have a fresh mind.

The best anyone can ever do with any kind of intrusive mental complexity is try to work around the things that get in their way as best they can, so taking a break might be the answer. There's virtually no possibility of guaranteeing flawless play on your first run through a game, so making peace with that to whatever extent that you can is the only way to really enjoy yourself. Although if you channel that desire to play neatly and perfectly into speed-running, it might prove to be a strength instead of a hindrance.

I had this problem big time in the past. It was so bad that I even deleted my console data and started over. I did it many many times. I eventually got through it though. However, even to this day, dying in games (and "messy" game play) give me anxiety and break immersion immensely. If I die "too many times", I usually just start the game or level over. But I don't do it nearly as frequently as I used to. Believe me, I know how you feel. It's crippling as a gamer. I think all I had to do was just "grow out of it". That, or my brain just got sick of the extreme perfectionism.

As a sufferer of OCD I can tell you that is sound advice.

Just force yourself to play normally. Feel the anxiety but just keep forcing your way through it. Eventually new neural pathways in your brain will form and the anxiety will lessen.

I understand. I had it really bad when I was younger. I eventually grew out of it after I started working out and getting really busy with college and work.

this is good advice.

Can't say it will work for everyone, but personally in my dealings with OCD and anxiety disorders in general, it's what worked. So, for me, I had a thing with organization to the point where the sun was up when I started organizing this stack of papers, then suddenly it's dark out and I'm still doing it, for example. So i just started deliberately dis-ordering things and left them that way just to show myself the world wasn't gonna fall apart if things weren't perfect. After awhile, stopped having the issues. The more you give in, the worse it gets.

@shadowchronicle: Believe me when I say I agree with you. It would probably be best for the original poster to take a break and reassess the situation.

Thanks for all of the advice & support guys, I really appreciate it! I've had a win today. I just started Ratchet & Clank, and decided to push through my anxiety and get on with completing a game. I died 6 times (mixture of combat and falling off things by accident) and despite having anxiety due to this, I managed to go through a whole playthrough without restarting! Small win but a step in the right direction!