hello everyone, i have OCD and it has stretched into my video gaming..let me explain Whenever i play a video game, i have to do EVERYTHING on my own, and i mean everything....if someone is sitting in the room while im playing a game and they say something like "hey man, you need to climb that staircase to get to the next part", i feel as if they have helped me proceed through the game and in which case means i didnt complete the game 100% on my own so i quit....for example, i got half way through the legend of zelda for gamecube and someone in the room pointed out that i was missing a puzzle piece to proceed through the dungeon i was in, and this person was right, i was missing a piece...but i couldn't bring myself to proceed any further through the game because i felt as if the whole reason i was any further in the game was because someone helped me so i stopped playing it..i tried to continue but couldn't enjoy it at all because someone helped me......here's my most recent OCD gaming issue....me and my buddies made world of warcraft characters and we were having a blast, all the way up to level 30 in just a few days...then, i walked away from my keyboard for 2 seconds while my spouse was by the computer..well, someone messaged me on my World of warcraft character and said "hey, here, you can have this"...this person was giving away a free item just for the sake of being nice..well, because i wasn't at the computer, my spouse accepted the trade on my character while i wasn't there...so now my OCD is kicking in and i feel like even though she didn't really HELP my character, shes altered it in some way to make it so my character has no longer been 100% on my own...its crazy i know, and now im not even enjoying playing this character anymore even though i know i should be..i even deleted the item that i got while i was away from my comp because i wasn't the one who accepted the trade...and this still isnt satisfying me....Ive got tons of wow characters now because of these little things. I quit my level 46 hunter because my brother snuck up to the computer and killed 1 bad guy which gave me a very small amount of experience but was enough to make me feel like my hunter was no longer played on my own speed....this is driving me nuts because i just want to play the game but my OCD is so bad that i now have to shut WoW right off if im leaving the room so know one can do anything on my characters...anyone got any advice? i know these things are trivial, but i know its related to my OCD which means the chemicals in my brain have something to do with this, but i mean, its pretty sad when i cant play/enjoy my favorite characters (ones that ive spent tons of time on) because someone accepted a trade while i wasnt at the computer, or killed one enemy and gained a ridiculously small amount of xp while i wasnt controlling the character myself.
i hope someone can tell me something that will help...banner420
See if your insurance (or parents insurance) can cover pscyhotherapy to change your behavior. I doubt theres anything anyone on a forum can tell you that will actually change your OCD behavior.
I suggest you go see a therapist if you think that your OCD behavior is affecting your life negatively. I know you will probably ignore this, but other than that there isn't anything anyone on this forum can tell you that will help the situation.
psychotropic drugs. LEGAL ones, of course, and prescribed by a therapist. if you're story is true, they're is probably help out there if you look for it. that must really suck, and i know you can't help it. so you have two options: 1) get drugs that will chill your ass out or 2) only play games solo and stay off forums regarding your game or the internet in general, actually, become a recluse.
nah, i thought about the drugs but that might help with my tics...not so much for my gaming.....all the perscription drugs and therapy wouldnt make me think that i completed the games on my own....its a tough thing to deal with, esspecially being a gamer....i just want someone to ease my mind thats all, im looking for comfort dealing with something i cant seem to control...
I have found that the best method of treating an OCD is to force the undesired situation upon yourself repeatedly until you grow out of it.
I use to be like this with blankets and pillows. The inside of my pillows had to be flat and without any lumps. My blankets and sheets had to be perfectly straight on the bed and the pattern or lines on the blanket had to be running straight up and down even if they were made to go side to side.
And i actually pinned the sheet corners to the matress because i was terrified they would pop off while i was sleeping.
actually, the responses have helped to a degree man, just being able to openly discuss my issue is helping...my family knows about my OCD but i havent mentioned this gaming issue because i just feel so stupid because its something so trivial. Being able to finally talk about this has already given me some form of closure. Talking to a therapist would just make me uncomfortable, this is actually a great method...because im probably never going to meet anyone on these forums, i feel i can openly talk about anything related to my ocd. Its not like someone is going to see me on the street and be like, "Hey, theres that guy from the gamespot forums that has gaming OCD lol!! " ...see my point?
Hey there, I read this and also suffering from OCD I understood exactly what you were talking about. I even made this account now just purely so I could respond :P (even though it is a year later and you probably wont be notified but hey, anything to give support!) Like you I have noticed such obsessions when playing games that can become way more than just a little annoying. For me it usually ranges from I'm guessing fairly common things such as having to 'explore' the whole map, but often this exploring means going back numerous times to somthing as simple as a standard unimportant object ie table, and looking at it from all sides I can, detailing all the texture. I know the chances of it having something important on it is highly unlikely, (unless its some easter egg thing), I still feel I need to do it or I havn't fully experienced the game. Imagine what playing rpg sandboxs can be like with the urge to experience everything :P I also have had similar, though not as extreme experiences with the whole 'if someone did something that I didn't my character isnt really mine/ i dont deserve to go on etc'. Over time and after much analysing of my situation I have managed to combat it through weight of rational thinking if that makes sense haha. I figure, it's going to be impossible for me to experience every single thing in every single game I play as it would take up my entire life. Even if i tried to it would take unfathomable amount of years to truely do it to the degree my mind would demand. With this reasoning I force myself to stop thinking about the obsession (no easy feat as im sure your awear! it mostly came from just exhaustion of thinking that allowed me to turn this off :P) As for the having to have game progress come 100% from myself, that can be tricker to overcome. at least for me it is. Though this is not the ideal solution, and can sometimes not always be possible, I feel it may be able to help reduce the amount of rerolls you have to do. If someone else does something on my character or profile, to even it out I have to do something better. The simplest example I can think of is say someone else unlocks an achievement on my account, I have to unlock a more difficult one or at least repeat the required conditions of the original. This wont always help me but often it allows me to relax enough to forget about it after a few hours gameplay. Anyways I probably havn't been much help but I figure its always refreshing to know there are others out there with the same things going on as you.
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