As I get older I increasingly see more and more people getting depressed. The stress of life is too much.
What I've also seen is the "adult" pleasures, drinking in particular, taking hold of people more as they become depressed, as the stress takes them more.
As we grow up we are told to act more like an adult. Less childish blah blah etc. So we forgot, or have it drilled out of us anyway.
The last few years though, I've found myself drawn more to the childish things. I find them more comforting, a bit of a security blanket, the quite place.
Instead of drinking myself into a stupor, waking up next day wishing I haven't and vowing never to do it again, and ultimately failing... I find it far more pleasurable to spend hours playing a game, Zelda is one of these games. Pokémon is the other.
The high I get from this is completely produced by the body, any addiction is created by the mind and the body's own system, there is no external chemical being added. I don't have the problem I found when drinking of needing more, and if the clock hits midnight I can put it down (unless it's a really important part!).
It's anti-social, so what? Only because I'm stuck in the UK. I have asked people before if they want to play games. What's there reaction? "Let's go to the pub instead" (paraphrasing many a person). I'm stuck in a crowd of people where sitting around drinking yourself into unconsciousness is more social than spending the day playing games.
Playing games like theses at my age is seen like some sort of disease here. "Playing Pokémon, what are you 12?" is a typical reaction. Zelda is a bit easier, given the type of game it is.
So yeah, sometimes, I do think my sub-concious isn't entirely as old as my body, sometimes as young as 12, and that's not a bad thing. It lets me have fun in the ways I used to and it's keeping the depression away.
So thank you Nintendo, keep making them, I will keep buying them. You are keeping me sane.
What I've also seen is the "adult" pleasures, drinking in particular, taking hold of people more as they become depressed, as the stress takes them more.
As we grow up we are told to act more like an adult. Less childish blah blah etc. So we forgot, or have it drilled out of us anyway.
The last few years though, I've found myself drawn more to the childish things. I find them more comforting, a bit of a security blanket, the quite place.
Instead of drinking myself into a stupor, waking up next day wishing I haven't and vowing never to do it again, and ultimately failing... I find it far more pleasurable to spend hours playing a game, Zelda is one of these games. Pokémon is the other.
The high I get from this is completely produced by the body, any addiction is created by the mind and the body's own system, there is no external chemical being added. I don't have the problem I found when drinking of needing more, and if the clock hits midnight I can put it down (unless it's a really important part!).
It's anti-social, so what? Only because I'm stuck in the UK. I have asked people before if they want to play games. What's there reaction? "Let's go to the pub instead" (paraphrasing many a person). I'm stuck in a crowd of people where sitting around drinking yourself into unconsciousness is more social than spending the day playing games.
Playing games like theses at my age is seen like some sort of disease here. "Playing Pokémon, what are you 12?" is a typical reaction. Zelda is a bit easier, given the type of game it is.
So yeah, sometimes, I do think my sub-concious isn't entirely as old as my body, sometimes as young as 12, and that's not a bad thing. It lets me have fun in the ways I used to and it's keeping the depression away.
So thank you Nintendo, keep making them, I will keep buying them. You are keeping me sane.
Isn`t it funny how our childhoods are seemingly destined to take a tragic turn?
ReplyDeleteOften the case becomes that we either get a tough start on life,or it becomes very easy but with almost nothing new happening frequent enough (and so ends up becoming over-the-edge boring).
And for what?!
If you were "lucky" and got the easy cards,you`ll soon wake up to a brutal reality check (unless if your genetic predecessors spent years building up a ridicoulous amount of cash and you inherited enough for a life time). If you instead learned the hard way of life,you know that your first decade of difficulties are all just the beginning of a continuation.
I can still remember how my schooldays were: In the beginning it was all just fun,but over time that fun began to cool down. Then said repetitiveness of my school life came to slowly replace my enjoyment completely with boredom.
Boredom of how little that actually happened in my life,boredom over years being like a perpetuum mobile,that it seemingly wasn`t going to change,and that I was powerless to do anything about it. The absence of acceptance and understanding didn`t help much either.
While I can`t relate to the feeling of a perpetual sadness, I once had a low self-image (though that`s been fixed now). But the feeling of hopelessness is something I can understand, and combined with a great loss of motivation built up over many years, I sometimes wonder if I even have a future. The rest of the time I`m trying hard to stay focused on how to proceed.