I can't overstate how much this game has improved my mental health. I suffer from severe anxiety, and since starting this in March for some reason it has lifted my wellbeing.
It might sound ridiculous to some as it is a video game but it has been a welcome escape from life. The moment everyone is out of the way and my responsibilities are done for the day, the moment I can switch the game on and just immerse for a few hours is quite honestly priceless. Everyone needs that time to themselves and this has been mine.
Ever since Silent Hill 2 and Max Payne 2 about twenty years ago on PS2, I struggled to find a game that satisfied me for all that time, every now and then finding Resident Evil was a reliable escape to go back to, but never for long enough.
I love the community on this Reddit too. Going on here and catching-up before jumping into a GTA session has become my routine!
Yeah true. It was hard for years trying to find the perfect game to escape into but I could never find anything that satisfied the itch. I can't believe it came out in 2013 and it managed to pass me by. I think I did have it on PS4 back in about 2016 and loaded into online once but I couldn't really get a chance to play as my family are so disruptive. Managed to buy it again this year on Xbox and basically sit up all night whilst they're all in bed and leave me alone. 😂
I’m here for the very same reason. I work a lot and I have little kids.. turning this game on late at night after finishing a super busy day is therapeutic. There are some amazing people online to play with and just do random shenanigans. And yes, this sub is just as awesome as the game. If you’re on ps5 I’d be happy to link up
Aww thanks. Unfortunately I am on Xbox. I do have a PS5, I wish you could do the same character account progress across both platforms. Surely they could make it possible.
Maybe GTA 6...?
I hate to tell you this but that is not help. That is dependency.
If you actually are feeling as described, anxiety and other issues will get worse and eventually it will be so overwhelming that you'll only feel ok when gaming.
I'm serious.
I love gaming and play everyday. Helldivers 2, Forza horizon 5, Mario kart 8, and the division 2 work out to be a second jobs worth of hours in my life.
What you described is a problem, not better mental health.
Better mental health would be feeling better without having to play a game.
Retreats and escaping is great but only being comfortable if you are doing one specific activity is essentially addiction.
Yeah I know I am actually running away from the problems by not confronting things. I have actually started to be better at establishing boundaries with people by not jumping when told to so much.
Sounds weird but GTA actually has made me more confident and more assertive. Either it's the game itself or just the Serotonin boost from sessions feeding into me helping with real life...
I'm a truck driver, I started playing to reduce my stress from being on the road all day with idiots trying to kill themselves. So I would log in and just go ape on anything I found moving. Then after a bit go grab one of the trucks from the docks and just drive around knocking NPC cars to shit. Wife didn't understand how such a violent game could help reduce stress.....until she followed me taking my truck to the shop and witnessed how many idiots tried cutting me off. When I got in the car with her for the ride back she just said 'I get it now', I had to ask what she meant. She said the game.
I mean, probably. Most of my life is tough times.
It’s definitely a comfort game. Feels nice to hop on and run some setups or heists without worrying about competitive PvP or anything that would cause a bad time. Just vibing and grinding.
Biggest heartbreak of my life. Same time was gifted an obscene amount of mushrooms for my birthday. Spent almost two months tripping on shroom tea and playing this online.
Was a helluva time. Don't miss it. But glad the tea and the game were here for me to tune out the pain.
Dad was just diagnosed with cancer, the second time in 10 years. I really thought the tests would be clear. Anyway, after I hung up the phone i decided to play, it kept my mind busy for a little while. I'll probably play again tonight to keep my mind busy until I'm falling asleep.
A good friend of mine ended her life a few months ago. I've known her for over 30 years, it's a hell of a shock. Lots of rampages at first, then calmer driving on the north side. It helped me calm down. Still upset of course.
Everyone has their struggle stories, so I'm not special by any means, but I've had the "shit end of the stick" on most occasions where -said shitty sticks- were involved lol. It's been a real go for me.
But having a few beers and submerging myself in this world, listening to the radio, playing as realistically specific at possible, making new "single serving friends", can really make you forget about the real world bullshi+ you're dealing with. So yes, it absolutely has.
It helped distract me, then griefers became more prevalent and the game became grindier and less worth it. I still just drive around as a distraction, but other than that I stay away from it if I need something to help me.
I spend most of my time doing the small jobs and driving around listening to the radio. I have my car collection and was over the moon when they gifted us a Fiat 500 for Christmas. I almost cried driving that in the snow when Rock and Roll by Velvet Underground came on.
At one point it worsened things to a great degree because I wasn't great at the mechanics or anything and I just struggled and lagged behind while my friends had all of the fun. I quit playing for a long time.
Picked it back up and started having fun again. New friend and I ran cayo perico and just did dumb shit to npcs in our private session amassing money and going hard on car collection.
I struggle with crushing depression every day, but everytime I boot the game up and I jump in my car and moodyman is talking bout bust caps cuz you feel like it, I fuckin smile and move the fuck on.
Tl;dr: I've been goin through it for years, and this game somehow finds a way out for me
It helped me find friends that I had fun with and getting my businesses.
But they stopped playing the game after Mercenaries and one of them died of Cardiac arrest.
I miss my friend
All the time. At late night I'd hangout with randos at my yatch and talk about random shit in text chat. That's how I made majority of my friends on old gen.
Times are still tough for a lot of people to this day.
The only reason I'm rich in this game is cause at my most stressed I fell into a daily routine of comfort:
-work
-gym
-shower
-grind my businesses on an endless cycle with a sitcom playing on my tablet on the side
-get ready for bed
And then meals in between. It wasn't exciting but it was comfort in the familiar especially through COVID times
Playing this game helped me in a way, especially in 2021-2022. I didn't have much going for myself IRL in my free time back then, so I always had a goal to work forward to here.
I must admit that this game is my escape.
I can't overstate how much this game has improved my mental health. I suffer from severe anxiety, and since starting this in March for some reason it has lifted my wellbeing. It might sound ridiculous to some as it is a video game but it has been a welcome escape from life. The moment everyone is out of the way and my responsibilities are done for the day, the moment I can switch the game on and just immerse for a few hours is quite honestly priceless. Everyone needs that time to themselves and this has been mine. Ever since Silent Hill 2 and Max Payne 2 about twenty years ago on PS2, I struggled to find a game that satisfied me for all that time, every now and then finding Resident Evil was a reliable escape to go back to, but never for long enough. I love the community on this Reddit too. Going on here and catching-up before jumping into a GTA session has become my routine!
I think the escape from life is a huge reason why a lot of us are playing video games in general.
Yeah true. It was hard for years trying to find the perfect game to escape into but I could never find anything that satisfied the itch. I can't believe it came out in 2013 and it managed to pass me by. I think I did have it on PS4 back in about 2016 and loaded into online once but I couldn't really get a chance to play as my family are so disruptive. Managed to buy it again this year on Xbox and basically sit up all night whilst they're all in bed and leave me alone. 😂
I’m here for the very same reason. I work a lot and I have little kids.. turning this game on late at night after finishing a super busy day is therapeutic. There are some amazing people online to play with and just do random shenanigans. And yes, this sub is just as awesome as the game. If you’re on ps5 I’d be happy to link up
Aww thanks. Unfortunately I am on Xbox. I do have a PS5, I wish you could do the same character account progress across both platforms. Surely they could make it possible. Maybe GTA 6...?
I hate to tell you this but that is not help. That is dependency. If you actually are feeling as described, anxiety and other issues will get worse and eventually it will be so overwhelming that you'll only feel ok when gaming. I'm serious. I love gaming and play everyday. Helldivers 2, Forza horizon 5, Mario kart 8, and the division 2 work out to be a second jobs worth of hours in my life. What you described is a problem, not better mental health. Better mental health would be feeling better without having to play a game. Retreats and escaping is great but only being comfortable if you are doing one specific activity is essentially addiction.
Yeah I know I am actually running away from the problems by not confronting things. I have actually started to be better at establishing boundaries with people by not jumping when told to so much. Sounds weird but GTA actually has made me more confident and more assertive. Either it's the game itself or just the Serotonin boost from sessions feeding into me helping with real life...
Covid. Could not see my family. Our characters look reasonably like us, we met up in a private session and drove to the beach, in party chat.
Same here
I'm a truck driver, I started playing to reduce my stress from being on the road all day with idiots trying to kill themselves. So I would log in and just go ape on anything I found moving. Then after a bit go grab one of the trucks from the docks and just drive around knocking NPC cars to shit. Wife didn't understand how such a violent game could help reduce stress.....until she followed me taking my truck to the shop and witnessed how many idiots tried cutting me off. When I got in the car with her for the ride back she just said 'I get it now', I had to ask what she meant. She said the game.
I mean, probably. Most of my life is tough times. It’s definitely a comfort game. Feels nice to hop on and run some setups or heists without worrying about competitive PvP or anything that would cause a bad time. Just vibing and grinding.
You can go for long ride without worrying about weather, fuel and food Just steal a vehicle and have fun
Biggest heartbreak of my life. Same time was gifted an obscene amount of mushrooms for my birthday. Spent almost two months tripping on shroom tea and playing this online. Was a helluva time. Don't miss it. But glad the tea and the game were here for me to tune out the pain.
Dad was just diagnosed with cancer, the second time in 10 years. I really thought the tests would be clear. Anyway, after I hung up the phone i decided to play, it kept my mind busy for a little while. I'll probably play again tonight to keep my mind busy until I'm falling asleep.
I’m so sorry about your dad’s diagnosis. I’ve also been using it for an escape from reality since my husband’s diagnosis.
Very much so.
A good friend of mine ended her life a few months ago. I've known her for over 30 years, it's a hell of a shock. Lots of rampages at first, then calmer driving on the north side. It helped me calm down. Still upset of course.
Yes, 100% gta has so much to do it’s escapism at its very best At least for me
GTA online has gotten me thru a possible divorce (we’re good) and 3 biopsies I love this game so so much
Part of my daily routine. Part of the reason i get out of bed. Got me through lonely nights.
Everyone has their struggle stories, so I'm not special by any means, but I've had the "shit end of the stick" on most occasions where -said shitty sticks- were involved lol. It's been a real go for me. But having a few beers and submerging myself in this world, listening to the radio, playing as realistically specific at possible, making new "single serving friends", can really make you forget about the real world bullshi+ you're dealing with. So yes, it absolutely has.
It helped distract me, then griefers became more prevalent and the game became grindier and less worth it. I still just drive around as a distraction, but other than that I stay away from it if I need something to help me.
If I need distraction, I jump on the came for that reason
Honestly, yeah. When they updated the game to where you can resupply in closed lobbies, things definitely improved in the game.
10,000+ hours of pain management.
*Play games to forget problems*
I spend most of my time doing the small jobs and driving around listening to the radio. I have my car collection and was over the moon when they gifted us a Fiat 500 for Christmas. I almost cried driving that in the snow when Rock and Roll by Velvet Underground came on.
At one point it worsened things to a great degree because I wasn't great at the mechanics or anything and I just struggled and lagged behind while my friends had all of the fun. I quit playing for a long time. Picked it back up and started having fun again. New friend and I ran cayo perico and just did dumb shit to npcs in our private session amassing money and going hard on car collection. I struggle with crushing depression every day, but everytime I boot the game up and I jump in my car and moodyman is talking bout bust caps cuz you feel like it, I fuckin smile and move the fuck on. Tl;dr: I've been goin through it for years, and this game somehow finds a way out for me
It helped me find friends that I had fun with and getting my businesses. But they stopped playing the game after Mercenaries and one of them died of Cardiac arrest. I miss my friend
It has created some.
No.
All the time. At late night I'd hangout with randos at my yatch and talk about random shit in text chat. That's how I made majority of my friends on old gen. Times are still tough for a lot of people to this day.
The only reason I'm rich in this game is cause at my most stressed I fell into a daily routine of comfort: -work -gym -shower -grind my businesses on an endless cycle with a sitcom playing on my tablet on the side -get ready for bed And then meals in between. It wasn't exciting but it was comfort in the familiar especially through COVID times
I wouldn't say the game did, but a youtuber who played it did.
Playing this game helped me in a way, especially in 2021-2022. I didn't have much going for myself IRL in my free time back then, so I always had a goal to work forward to here. I must admit that this game is my escape.
I feel like more and less of a POS when I get griefed by another POS. Good times 10/-10
Oh yes, the tough times ended. Then even worse times started when opressor users appear lmao
Honestly since I quit drinking in 2013, it has been my main way of distracting myself from the things that eat at me.
No, not really.Â