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Pokemon GO good or bad for mental health? Help!


Zuangzi

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Hello guys!

I deleted all my games for the first time yesterday, because it sucks my life and soul out of me.

But I did not delete Pokemon Go game, where in order to progress you have to go out of your house and travel where you can catch Pokemon in real places.

I thought to myself that this game sets me out to the real world, outside, I am not merely pushing buttons just by sitting, I am somehow living it. The achievements are bound to how much I travel actually. That means I never play at home anymore, just outside walking and so on.

What is your experience as a gaming quitter? What advice can you give me? Should I abandon this game or use it to be happy when the game quitting side effects are seen?

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Pretty sure anyone on this forum (including myself) would tell you not to play it at all. 

Going back to the vomit isn't going to do any good for you. 

While the game does get you to move around and get out of your home, the 'Gotta catch em all' aspect is what will spiral into addiction. 

Better to suffer through the pain of the first couple weeks going cold turkey and be free of it for the rest of your life than to continue remaining an addicted slave to any kind of game. 

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I think it makes more sense to tackle the societal aspects, rather than to ask the question "Pokemon GO good or bad for mental health?". I don't argue "walking and gaming" is a better combination than "sitting and gaming". But wouldn't it be better to just go outside to be outside? Notice the people walking about, cycling, talking... all of them the same yet different? Be in the nature for the nature, not for the game in the phone?

I'm not a fan of using the phone in public in general. It's why I've never needed mobile data; every other place I go to nowadays has a Wi-Fi if I need it anyway. Multitasking doesn't work. We can't be somewhere/do something on 100% while responding to messages every two minutes. Does having mobile data make you money? If it doesn't, why do you "need" it?

My job as a teacher is literally to be there for the students for 60/90 minutes to help them improve their English. I can afford to browse/take a break if I have online classes and I assign them some grammar exercise for 10 minutes to work on, but other than that, I have to focus and pay attention. Students are also much more likely to be distracted if it's "just" online lessons and they have to be ready to solve problems for their subordinates/bosses/customers, so some of them don't even have the luxury (one would take for granted) to just focus on English for an hour.

Manson wrote a great article about attention here, so go check it out: https://markmanson.net/attention

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On 6/9/2021 at 10:51 AM, Zuangzi said:

Hello guys!

I deleted all my games for the first time yesterday, because it sucks my life and soul out of me.

But I did not delete Pokemon Go game, where in order to progress you have to go out of your house and travel where you can catch Pokemon in real places.

I thought to myself that this game sets me out to the real world, outside, I am not merely pushing buttons just by sitting, I am somehow living it. The achievements are bound to how much I travel actually. That means I never play at home anymore, just outside walking and so on.

What is your experience as a gaming quitter? What advice can you give me? Should I abandon this game or use it to be happy when the game quitting side effects are seen?

I think you need to find something else to do in outside like volunteer people come together and cleaning parks or riding bicycle etc

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  • 1 month later...

Does anyone else play the game to try tide off mental health issues?

I went from a diagnosis of Bipolar to Emotional Unstable Personality Disorder, and I take pride in the fact Pokemon Go has not only given me some kind of purpose, but it’s also helped me make some friends for life.

I love travelling to the events and meeting other players mainly for the distraction, and I think that’s why I enjoy go fest so much.

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On 8/12/2021 at 4:45 AM, DeannaEmard said:

I went from a diagnosis of Bipolar to Emotional Unstable Personality Disorder, and I take pride in the fact Pokemon Go has not only given me some kind of purpose, but it’s also helped me make some friends for life.

I have never played Pokemon Go, and I have not been officially diagnosed for either of the disorders you listed. However, I feel that I can possibly relate to having a sense of purpose through gaming:

  • Soon after quitting gaming--particularly those games with fairly small player bases--I imagined being asked to return "to help the community." You might see how this can be a detrimental way of thinking.
  • When younger, prior to gaming, I saw how some users would consistently contribute to online communities. I thought I had to have an "internet job."

I think what I'm trying to say is that, while some people might believe they have discovered their purpose unintentionally, it would seem better for most to actively seek it out. For those with addictions, passively going about finding their purpose might result it being "chosen for them" by their addiction.

On 8/12/2021 at 4:45 AM, DeannaEmard said:

I love travelling to the events and meeting other players mainly for the distraction, and I think that’s why I enjoy go fest so much.

I suppose a perfectionist might say that, ideally, a person shouldn't actively distract themselves, or have distractions in their life. I am aware of other view points involving taking breaks and engaging in self-care. Even so, others might advise you to make sure that you're not making a habit of doing so to avoid problems.

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I tried Pokemon Go when I was trying to get big into running as a substitution for gaming. I found that while it was fun initially, it kept "taking me out of the moment" and I felt that I wasn't focused on the exercise, and it would distort my performance as I would stop to spin or adjust my route to one that went past gyms. I even got one of those goTCHA armbands that would spin for you so I could stay "focused", but ultimately found that didn't make it feel better. So i just moved on from it.

 

To answer your question about mental health, because video games are escapism, yes people use them to deal with mental health. But, if will not make it better; at best you will "remain the same" with it all, as you are not focusing on the issues and how to deal/overcome them.

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17 hours ago, Resonant_Shell said:

I think what I'm trying to say is that, while some people might believe they have discovered their purpose unintentionally, it would seem better for most to actively seek it out. For those with addictions, passively going about finding their purpose might result it being "chosen for them" by their addiction.

Well written! That's pretty much how I felt some three years ago. My purpose was gaming and my X and it blew up in my face spectacularly.

Related to that, I don't think there's a single "purpose" one has. I do a lot of different things today to get my "purpose". I actually find it easier to dispense with activities that do not work for me now that I have more activities to do.

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