WoW and social phobia

[chazus]

It could also be a form of addiction. If you play wow, you start to feel anxious and it manifests as social anxiety, because you're missing your 'fix'.

[Saybel]

I have social anxiety, and WoW helps, because it forces me to interact with people rather than be solitary, and talking to people improves my confidence with having conversations (because I know what to talk about more).

I can hold conversations much better because I'm used to constantly doing so in wow. I still feel extremely anxious and paranoid in public places though.

[Rajadog20]

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?

I have the same exact issues. For the past couple years, I have experienced head tremors and neck stiffness for along with very slight nervousness around people. I have noticed that my head tremors get worse the more time I spend on the computer and away from people. Last year, I did nothing basically nothing but play video games for my week long spring break, and I found when I went back to school, my neck issues and anxiety were worse than ever, making it hard to socialize around people.

I also found that after not playing video games for the week following, my nervousness and anxiety were much less, and I had no problem being around people. Again, I played video games quite a bit on the weekend and found that I was much more nervous on monday than I was on friday.

I also noticed that if I do not dwell on being nervous, I am not nervous. And if I don't think about my neck getting stiff, I don't have any issues. Although if I do think about it, it will only get worse.

Basically, if I spend more time around people, less time on the computer, and less time thinking about it, I don't have any issues.

[Noctredors]

I have the same exact issues. For the past couple years, I have experienced head tremors and neck stiffness for along with very slight nervousness around people. I have noticed that my head tremors get worse the more time I spend on the computer and away from people. Last year, I did nothing basically nothing but play video games for my week long spring break, and I found when I went back to school, my neck issues and anxiety were worse than ever, making it hard to socialize around people.

I also found that after not playing video games for the week following, my nervousness and anxiety were much less, and I had no problem being around people. Again, I played video games quite a bit on the weekend and found that I was much more nervous on monday than I was on friday.

I also noticed that if I do not dwell on being nervous, I am not nervous. And if I don't think about my neck getting stiff, I don't have any issues. Although if I do think about it, it will only get worse.

Basically, if I spend more time around people, less time on the computer, and less time thinking about it, I don't have any issues.

Great to see that I'm not the only one. Everything you just said, is exactly what happens to me. I could socialize with people for a week just fine without any problems, but if i play WoW for a few hours over the weekend or something, my problem returns.

Last week, i was at work. I started to get a bunch of head shaking, tremors. After i got back from work, i had terrible neck pains... Very stiff neck. People even asked me if i was alright, some people seemed to notice. I just make up excuses and say that i have neck pains because of the way i slept on my pillow.

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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.

When did i ever say anything about suing Blizzard, lol? I'm also glad to have finally found my disorder, agoraphobia. I have been looking everywhere, now i can finally talk to a doctor or something. Thanks everyone.

[Deleted]

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

No it's not...it's just your personality. Learn to live with it or turn into those depressive drug monkeys who can't accept themselves.

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It could also be a form of addiction. If you play wow, you start to feel anxious and it manifests as social anxiety, because you're missing your 'fix'.

People who can't get over an addiction that doesn't affects their bodies should just take a cold shower and pick up a hobby. It doesn't take much effort to get rid of mental addictions.

[IRunSoFarAway]

Do you have the problems only after you've played WoW? Because I think it's more of a being alone and on the computer for an extended period of time kind of thing, more than anything else.

If you cut it out of your life and your problems were gone, why not just stop for good? If you think whatever you're doing is having a negative effect and causing these problems for you, just...stop doing it.

Try not being so "connected" in general.

[Sal the Shieldhog]

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.

You'd be surprised to know how many people do that (the acting thing). Did it through most of middle school and all through high school, to the point where my sister (1 year younger than me) noticed and expressed to my parents that Public-Me and Home-Me were two very different people. I still am (I like to think there's a reason I won the award for the Drama Club 4 years running ).

To OP: It likely has nothing to do with WoW. A lot of stuff like that is all in the head - now that you've "connected" your social anxiety with WoW, that's all you'll be able to connect it with until someone tells you otherwise. Likely, it was already there in some form, big or small. You just didn't notice it until WoW.

I myself have it. I combat it by becoming someone I'm not when I'm in public. Others cope with things in various different ways. THe only one who can change you is you.

[Grummgug]

I remember when I was a kid I used to be afraid to "perform" at a public urinal. Socially anxious. Finally I thought to myself "this is stupid. I need to get over this. I'll just pretend I'm a god-king whizzing with confidence while everyone ELSE is anxious and scared hahahaha!!!" Worked.

[Celista]

It sounds to me like you have some social anxiety. Having a job/hobby/etc where you are around a lot of people (like you mentioned) can actually help to alleviate those symptoms.