Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) Support Group
Find support with others who have gone through a traumatic experience. Whether you have chronic or acute PTSD, we are here for you.
As the 4th of July went by, a sensitive and kind member here posted a topic about how fireworks and PTSD interact that led me to some good reflection.
Now it led me to notice that sometimes I have a sensitive response from my PTSD to video games. I really, really don't mean to put video games down, or to put the people who play video games down. I am not for censorship. Video games are now a huge part of our culture, and are creatively blending with the movie industry now. I appreciate all of that. It's just amazing how we're right on the edge of the interactive movie experience! The same movie can have different outcomes for different viewers based on their interaction with it. Cool stuff.
But as a combat veteran, I just can't "play" with stuff that in my head is not playful. I know it's just a game, but aiming a game gun at a guy and blowing him away is too real for me, having seen it and almost been it. I'm down here in South America and revisiting my old battlefields where I survived war for 6 years long ago. It's great, but I passed some kids downtown video gaming today and my PTSD reacted more to that than it has to being back on the streets where my war actually took place.
Video gaming is something I get intellectually, as I explain above, but I'm an outsider to it almost entirely. That's sad to me even as it has caught on huge in popular culture and with generations younger than me. It's not sad in and of itself. It's just that it's one more opportunity for me to hear someone say that I'm just too serious, that I need to lighten up, blah blah. If they only knew. Given what people like us have been through, I think we have an amazing sense of humor just to have a sense of humor at all and be any fun at all.
So everybody has their limits. Anybody else out there have this one?
Now it led me to notice that sometimes I have a sensitive response from my PTSD to video games. I really, really don't mean to put video games down, or to put the people who play video games down. I am not for censorship. Video games are now a huge part of our culture, and are creatively blending with the movie industry now. I appreciate all of that. It's just amazing how we're right on the edge of the interactive movie experience! The same movie can have different outcomes for different viewers based on their interaction with it. Cool stuff.
But as a combat veteran, I just can't "play" with stuff that in my head is not playful. I know it's just a game, but aiming a game gun at a guy and blowing him away is too real for me, having seen it and almost been it. I'm down here in South America and revisiting my old battlefields where I survived war for 6 years long ago. It's great, but I passed some kids downtown video gaming today and my PTSD reacted more to that than it has to being back on the streets where my war actually took place.
Video gaming is something I get intellectually, as I explain above, but I'm an outsider to it almost entirely. That's sad to me even as it has caught on huge in popular culture and with generations younger than me. It's not sad in and of itself. It's just that it's one more opportunity for me to hear someone say that I'm just too serious, that I need to lighten up, blah blah. If they only knew. Given what people like us have been through, I think we have an amazing sense of humor just to have a sense of humor at all and be any fun at all.
So everybody has their limits. Anybody else out there have this one?
BUT.
That whole sect. of the spectrum has a lot of elements that I, to put nicely, do not appreciate. And it is a sect. A corner of the game community, sort of.
I was never into war games. Ive played some shooters every once in a while, but not really the war ones. I dont know shooters in general seem all the same to me, so it takes one that has a lot different qualities to catch me interest.
The part I do not like the most, is the culture around those games. The "bro" type of guys that yell at the scream as gorey obscenities as they can and joke so violently about things that are so ungodly in this world. Things like rape. How disconnected does someone have to be to joke about that?
I think girl gamers get attacked more on that note but thats a different subject.
On a different angle there is a lot of elements to video games that sometimes are taken on responsably and others not so much. There are a lot of elements about playing a game that are different from watching a movie. And that makes it very powerful. You really have to watch how much you are putting a gamer through because unlike a movie you are really immersified in the experience. In the wrong hands they can be really terrifying. (I mean thats also when you start hearing about the whole kids thing - theres a big reason for those ratings..another topic)
I know I took some tangents but. Bottom line is I know the type of games and culture you are talking about, and your reaction is definitely understandable.
i became very anti-games when grand theft auto came out, and a part of the game was beating up and running over prostitutes. why on earth would this be considered fun? how sick is it that the kids who play this think it's in any way alright, or acceptable, or a game???
sick man, sick.
I don't get into the grand theft auto or halo type games because those have a sick sense of reality to me.
I like to play games where there is a clear difference between the "good guy" and the "bad guy". I love to battle evil. I think I use it to vent some of my anger. I can certainly understand why some people would find these games to be triggering though.
I know plenty of people do, and people work with things in different ways. I'm not for telling others what not to play or watch, I just have grown to understand there are plenty of things that the general population seems to find entertaining that I don't.
It was nice to hear, though, how some others felt about the games that get a little too real with the more traumatic activities. I hope as games and movies merge more and more we'll get a broader range of games more of us will enjoy playing to our hearts' content. They are a fun escape when they're, well, fun.
My husband, amongst other ordeals,was tortured in the jails of South Africa for being a white African artist against apartheid.
The heat also triggers him for the whole summer months.
has anybody got that trigger with heat?
I think it's a sin to brainwash kids that killing is a form of entertainment. It's irresponsible to even make them.
I don't like even the physical act of play a skills based game. It's too much adrenaline. I don't like the way playing them makes me feel. I'd much rather watch a movie if I want to 'waste' my time.
And yes, the heat can make me feel all panicky and claustrophobic, moonface.