WoW and social phobia

[Noctredors]

I don't know if this is the right place to post this. But i have been playing WoW for 3 years now. About 1 year into my time playing WoW, i started noticing something. I developed some sort of social phobia. I wasn't afraid of people, it was something different. When i was around a large amount of people, i started to become very anxious. I started to get very worked up, almost afraid, to the point in which i started to twitch. It wasn't really a twitch, it was my head just moving left to right, or up and down, something that i couldn't control. Or my head shaking. And when i wasn't around people, or when i was at home, this problem stopped. It only happened when i was out in public.

I kept playing WoW despite these problems, i didn't blame these problems on WoW, i thought it was something else. Then one day i decided to stop playing WoW for a month. Then all of the sudden the problems that i had stopped... I could go out in public again just fine without a problem. I was happy, i tried to stay away from WoW as much as i could. I got a job as a cashier. Being a cashier requires you to be around a LOT of people. But i did just fine, and i didn't have these problems during the job. Then one day i decided to play WoW again, then i started to have these problems again... It was horrible, it effected my job.

So, what do you think? Has anyone else had these problems, or is it just me?

[Xtrm]

It's called social anxiety disorder. I've had it for a very long time, take medication for it, but it doesn't really work. It's just a psychological disorder.

[TheBlinks]

Sounds like you've got something going on thats more than just WoW-related. I would go see a psychiatrist. If you're a student your school probably has a free shrink you can set up an appointment with.

[ReleaseDay]

Doubt its wow related. Stop doing drugs.

[Deleted]

Try to have sex with at least 7 girls in very small room. It should break your fear of crowds.


Infracted.

[Noctredors]

Doubt its wow related. Stop doing drugs.

Never touched a single drug in my life. It's wow related and i know that for a fact.

[Deleted]

It's wow related and i know that for a fact.

No you don't.

[Hathrin]

How long do you spend playing WoW everyday? Do you play late into the night? Does it affect the amount of sleep you get/the amount of time you spend out of your house?

It's a possibility that you may have social anxiety. However, I'm no doctor so take that with a grain of salt. My social anxiety is at its worst when I haven't been getting enough sleep or if I've been cooped up in the house for too long, which (for me) is sometimes WoW related, so take that into consideration if you haven't already. Other than that, all I can recommend is either consult a psychiatrist or stop playing WoW altogether.

[Noctredors]

How long do you spend playing WoW everyday? Do you play late into the night? Does it affect the amount of sleep you get/the amount of time you spend out of your house?

It's a possibility that you may have social anxiety. However, I'm no doctor so take that with a grain of salt. My social anxiety is at its worst when I haven't been getting enough sleep or if I've been cooped up in the house for too long, which (for me) is sometimes WoW related, so take that into consideration if you haven't already. Other than that, all I can recommend is either consult a psychiatrist or stop playing WoW altogether.

WoW does not effect the time that i spend outside of home. When i want to hang out with friends, i hang out with them. When i have to work, i work. I started to notice my social anxiety a year after the first time i started to play WoW. Back in Cata, and early MoP I probably played 5-7 hours a day, no joke. I decided to quit for a few months, as i said in my original post. I noticed that my social anxiety pretty much vanished after i quit playing, it was gone. Then i decided to start playing again when patch 5.4 came out, i started to get social anxiety again. Then after that, i quit playing WoW again, my social anxiety was gone.

Then in the past 2 weeks i decided to resubscribe again, and now my social anxiety has returned. This time it's worst. I noticed it when i was at work. I decided to quit WoW for good now. My anxiety is slowly going away, again. It takes time. I don't plan to return to WoW until WoD. Even if i did see a doctor, the only answer I'm going to get is "Stop playing WoW"... Which is what i plan on doing.

[Rucati]

It's wow related and i know that for a fact.

Then what's the problem? Don't play WoW, problem solved.

If you want to know if other people have this happen to them, no, they don't. Because there's no disorder that causes you to be afraid of crowds *only* while you have an active WoW account. That's completely ridiculous.

[Noctredors]

Then what's the problem? Don't play WoW, problem solved.

If you want to know if other people have this happen to them, no, they don't. Because there's no disorder that causes you to be afraid of crowds *only* while you have an active WoW account. That's completely ridiculous.

If you have an active account and don't play the game, then that's a different story. If you have an active account, and play the game for hours a day, then of course a disorder is possible. And no, it's not ridiculous.

[YouAreAllWrong]

It's called Agoraphobia. It can be developed if you isolate yourself too much, and we all know that WoW is one of the best way of doing that. Just try not to play everyday or just don't play at all.

[manybadgers]

It's called social anxiety disorder. I've had it for a very long time, take medication for it, but it doesn't really work. It's just a psychological disorder.

That's what my therapist convinced me of, that it's all in the head. I counter my social anxiety by always thinking that I'm awesome and the best but then I start walking weird >< it sucks to walk in public. I appear to be full of myself when I'm in public but in reality I'm just wearing a mask to be able to go outside. Not sure why I shared this but I hope it helped someone.

[Saffa]

Never touched a single drug in my life. It's wow related and i know that for a fact.

Sounds as if you are seeking justification for sueing them. I am sociaphobic, and it predates WoW by many decades. It even predates the Internet as it started in about 1970.

[Deleted]

For me it's the opposite. I'm feeling really comfortable in crowds. There are so many people, why would they notice me? They're probably just thinking their own thoughts. So no anxiety at all. But I really don't like being alone in a room with only 1 or few people I don't know (and don't care to know). Especially if they start talking about something trivial. Then I can get pretty stressed and want to get out of there as fast as possible.

[Yig]

Never touched a single drug in my life. It's wow related and i know that for a fact.

No you don't. Correlation is not causation, that IS A FACT. If you ever want to have any hope of understanding your personality and psychological disorders, you need to be able to understand basic logic and critical thinking, or you will fall victim to the all too common human boundaries and glitches we know as confirmation bias and fallacy.

WOW being involved is a symptom of something at best.

- - - Updated - - -

And yes, agoraphobia can be provoked by isolation, which will manifest in public areas, hence the term agora which was in Roman times the public square. In something almost paradoxical, this can manifest in a virtual public square, and being seen and judged by people you can't see in a game can cause the same thinking process and the same conditioning.

And it's based around panic and anxiety disorders.

Which while your thinking can have a massive effect on the disorder, it's not in your head. You have a malfunctioning fight or flight response in your brain. Basically the part of your brain telling you that you're in danger from a predator or life threatening situation which causes a spike in your adrenaline/epinephrine which causes you to be short of breath, your heart rate to increase, and you feel like you want to puke and freak out generally is going off for no reason at all or from a mistaken correlation your brain has been conditioned for. Your thinking can easily feed into this and increase the effects.

[Deleted]

WoW mostly gets you 'hard to talk' to new people, like bit shy, but it depends, I never felt strange around people or social phobic, and I played for 10 years, maybe that's the reason? It's like part of my life to play WoW

[Yig]

WoW mostly gets you 'hard to talk' to new people, like bit shy, but it depends, I never felt strange around people or social phobic, and I played for 10 years, maybe that's the reason? It's like part of my life to play WoW

Think of it this way perhaps. WOW won't take a neurotypical person and do anything to them. It can provoke or inhibit preexisting conditions or conditions you are prone to.

[Dispersedshadow]

hence the term agora which was in Roman times the public square

An agora was the public square in ancient Greek city-states. The Roman equivalent was a forum.

Rest of the post was spot-on, though.

[Didacticus Syntacticus]

Never touched a single drug in my life. It's wow related and i know that for a fact.

WoW won't cause social anxiety disorder. It's unrelated to your new symptoms.

Benzodiazepines are extremely effective for relief of acute anxiety symptoms, and if you're not the type to get hooked on depressants, a prescription for Klonopin or Valium might be all you ever need.

Options for long-term treatment are SSRIs (somewhat effective) and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (very effective).