Title
My Eyes Deceive, I can’t play that game at all
I’m an AF veteran (Operations Iraqi Freedom, Enduring Freedom, Southern Watch) and my main issues with ptsd are anxiety, hyper vigilance and panic disorder. For me these issues are physical rather than mental; my body is always a breath away from being at 150%. I’ve noticed that it kinda keeps me from playing new games. Especially with combat games, i really only play new installments of franchises I’m already familiar with. I never just jump into action anymore and I always need a cigarette after a firefight even though I didn’t smoke when I was in the military lol
First thank you for your service. I sympathize with you for having PTSD but it feels wrong for me to say Im sorry like Im somehow Insulting you (ive never been in or seen combat, the most realistic account of it Ive read is “With the Old Breed”). I will say if you havent picked it up yet check out stardew valley. Very relaxing slow paced game helped me get out of bad mental states Ive been in though nothing compared to you. Again thank you for your service.
I couldn’t second this enough. As a 2x OIF 19D army veteran most intense game are tough for me unless it’s something silly like zombies but I’ve played a large amount of stardew in the spare time I have. My wife is not a fan because I have an addictive personality anyway but my little daughter loves it. She actually doesn’t even want to play she likes watching me. Highly recommend.
I have PTSD from intimate partner violence and being stabbed (separate incidents). Doki Doki Literature Club distressed me a lot. Even Baldur’s Gate 3 can be tricky for me because of Astarion’s characterisation if you allow him to do a certain thing in Act 3, then Astarion becomes too triggering for me, if I’m romancing him.
I had a long stretch of suicidal depression, and when I said I was planning to stream Doki Doki Literature Club, all my friends and fans told me absolutely not. I still haven’t played it, and what I’ve heard about it means I probably never will.
Yeah, if only I were that wise! I have tendency to ignore trigger warnings or assume that it won’t be so bad that I can handle it. Honestly Doki Doki messed with me a bit because suicidal ideation is a significant feature of my PTSD.
I’m a medically retired U.S. Marine with severe PTSD, and I get asked this question a lot regarding “realistic” shooters and games depicting war, especially scenes of brutality.
But the answer is no. My triggers are quite specific, generic things like gunfire and explosions and injured people singing the song of suffering don’t bother me. I would need to see or hear things very very closely resembling the things I still have nightmares about now, more than 20 years later.
Just being out and about or especially in crowds, my own hypervigilance and intrusive memories are more likely to trigger panic attacks or derealization than any scene in any video game or movie or anything.
I’ve used some of the more realistic games to help me get over my triggers concerning explosions. Getting mortared and rocketed in Iraq at least daily for a year works a number on your mental well being.
Things like games or movies don’t do it because I expect it. Sudden, unexpected loud noises in the real world will do it though. Once I was at my dad’s place and he started cooking, but he turned on the wrong burner on the stove - the burner he turned on actually has a glass serving bowl on it. After a while it started to hiss and I realized what was happening, and I tried to quickly reach the stove and turn it off, but the bowl suddenly shattered into a thousand little pieces. Basically exploded. That did it. I had an episode on the spot.
I was abused by my father mentally/sexually/physically from the ages of 6-17. I start to have severe anxiety/panic attacks, these symptoms last a few hours.
Two decades later, I still have issues with games, films, and television shows that contain physical violence. Anything with realistic violence or sequences. It has a greater impact on me in video games because I control the action. I’ve used breathing and speech techniques to help reduce my symptoms over the last few years, and I have a pill that will calm it down fairly quickly if necessary.
On the top of my head…
- Heavy Rain
- The Last of Us 1 & Part 2
- Manhunt series
- Mortal Kombat series
- Bulletstorm
- Hotline Miami series
- Doom series old and new
- Gears of War series
- Condemned series
- Dishonored series
- Detroit: Become Human
- God of War original trilogy
Can you play red dead redemption two