Mental Health and The Sims - How has it helped you?

@Scobre, hello, I am sorry to hear what you have been through, particularly that the public have not always been understanding.

It is incredibly frustrating that some people seem to think you have to 'look disabled' to use certain facilities. My sister has autism and severe learning/ communication difficulties, she is very active and requires 2 carers to access the community. I have lost count of the number of times people have questioned the need to use a disabled parking space for her (it is for safety reasons) or given her carers or my parents funny looks because they are parking there and (to the public) are seemingly getting out with a 'normal' looking young lady.
My parents once made a badge for her as a child to communicate to the public why she behaves the way she does (she is mostly non-verbal but makes a lot of loud noises) because at one point they got fed up of getting odd looks from the public.

I hope, in future, society will become more understanding as more awareness of invisible disabilities grows.

It is nice to see that the Sims has helped so many people through difficult times. I find it is very good for cheering you up when you're feeling down.

Ever since I got my new laptop, I've been a bit more relaxed, and I've been taking in the view of some of the neighbourhoods. However, I have moments of sadness. I honestly don't cope with everyone in the house. The constant news reports have not been helpful. Social media is also making me feel depressed. Volunteering for three of my local charity shops got me out of the house, as did helping out at the animal sanctuary. I don't mind being alone in the house, but as it stands, I live with my parents. I love them, but they get on my nerves sometimes.

In my life, I've always been in a position where I have very little freedom or control over anything in my life. When I was little, it was being forced to go to school with other kids who I couldn't relate to and hated me even though I never even messed with them, my brother and my father both ditching me at critical points in my life, and a mother who was becoming increasingly protective and overbearing as she began to worry about the bullying situation and the quality of the schools I was in. In adolescence, it was the home schooling, the fact that I rarely ever got to interact with other kids my age outside of the structured setting of a pre-college program...and still not being able to properly relate to anyone (my mom didn't join one of those home school support groups, she just went it alone), struggling and failing to get a first job, and my Asperger's diagnosis (which was absolutely freaking devastating, and I still haven't completely healed from the blow). As an adult, it's been even more constant failure at trying to find work (yes, even following the insane and confusing amount of advice about navigating the job hunting process), the absolute disaster that was my first try at college (I got attacked for no reason by one of my suite mates, which traumatized me so bad I could barely mentally function for a good year after that), and being trapped living at home with my parents because of my constant failures at trying to find work. (Yes, my life is a dumpster fire. Roll your eyes or shake your head, just don't try and lecture me with "Oh, you have more control than you think," because it's a load of garbage. I've exercised all of the control that I could over every situation, worked hard all my freaking life, the only thing in my way is other people and their hang-ups, prejudices, and selfishness. Hard work, effort, brains, and talent don't get you anywhere if other people don't either help you do what you're trying to do or get out of your way and let you do what needs to be done.)

When I play a Sims game, I finally have the control. I make the rules. I control the world. I determine failure or success without needing the support or approval of other people who are older, or richer, or more popular than I am. I'm the queen. I. Am. God. I do what I want, and no one can get in my way. No one can hurt me. No one can abandon me. No one can hold me back. No one can judge me as defective or weak or weird or unworthy. It's my world and these sims are living in it, and I can make their lives as happy or hard as I like. I can give them a million bucks in starting money, build them an awesome mansion, and let them just hang out all day being a bunch of bums. I can make them start out with no money, living out of a tent or a shack, and slowly build themselves up with hard work and determination to live a comfortable and happy life. There, my ASD doesn't matter. My age doesn't matter. My gender doesn't matter. Only my will matters. It's a relaxing outlet in a life where I'm constantly being blocked and dragged around and pushed around and beaten down and ignored and rejected by this horrendous society that I've been forced to have to try and live in, a society that gives me a headache every day with how stupid and cruel and ignorant and selfish and childish and shallow and cliquish and broken it all is...especially now. Everything I've known about American society for my whole life has been laid so bare by this coronavirus crisis that even the rosiest tinted glasses in the world can't filter out all the filth and scum now...and yet the people in charge are still acting like infantile fools instead of FINALLY BEING GROWN-UPS FOR THE FIRST TIME IN THEIR MISERABLE LITTLE LIVES!!!

...But, when I play, I can forget about the foolishness. I can forget about the cruelty. I can forget about the childishness and the cliquishness and the greed and the selfishness and the shallowness and the apathy and all of that other stuff that makes my brain melt with rage and despair. I can relax, take control, and actually control the world instead of just futilely struggling to make things for myself and others better and happier while a gang of arsonists sprays everything with gasoline and flamethrowers.

...And, breathe...

"ChuChuExpress;c-17440477" wrote:
Ever since I got my new laptop, I've been a bit more relaxed, and I've been taking in the view of some of the neighbourhoods. However, I have moments of sadness. I honestly don't cope with everyone in the house. The constant news reports have not been helpful. Social media is also making me feel depressed. Volunteering for three of my local charity shops got me out of the house, as did helping out at the animal sanctuary. I don't mind being alone in the house, but as it stands, I live with my parents. I love them, but they get on my nerves sometimes.

Yeah I have noticed got to limit time with the news and social media. I live with my parents too so I understand. I just play games like Just Dance to get my cardio going which is helping. Having a compromised immune system I am unable to work in the public, so been hard coping with that. It does help using the Libby App while playing games, so I can listen to library books while playing games. Also watching corny shows and movies like Hallmark or Island living shows also helps. My pets have been helping me a lot too. I would highly recommend watching Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist because it is such a feel good show and does such an amazing job at inclusion for everyone.

@Scobre.
Today, I listened to Heart UK, both the Heart Wiltshire and Heart London stations. It seems that music and The Sims is helping me to cope. As is ACNH.

"ChuChuExpress;c-17441572" wrote:
@Scobre.
Today, I listened to Heart UK, both the Heart Wiltshire and Heart London stations. It seems that music and The Sims is helping me to cope. As is ACNH.

Awesome. Yeah music and ACNH is helping me too and audio books. I love the Libby App. I haven't been this happy about a game in awhile and so cool to have something to bond all my Twitch friends with. I am really enjoying how the game has been inspiring Sims builds and character creations too. Playing Minecraft in addition to Sims has helped too.

I am newly discovered as Asperger without mental disabilities and without High IQ, I am born this way but nobody knew this except a couple of day ago because "women are harder to detect" . The sims 2 helped me to develop a new hobby the Home Design and the sims 3 helps me to beat the boredom and to be away from my anxiety. For years I wasn't under treatment so when I played my world I was safe from my pain, no crisis, no overemotional, no cries , all the sims game calmed me down for a moment.

Now that I am under treatment I just continue because it's my routine now ahaha. I just added the sims 4 and I play it for fun when the sims 3 is crashy to pain the town red.

I didn't think I would ever reply on this thread. Well, just because of privacy and all that. However, during this pandemic it's good and bad I have all my old games to turn to for whatever reasons. We are locked down 'til June. I'm high risk so staying at home is not new to me, however, this seems like eternity. It's not that I'm not staying involved and or not praying for those who are sick or turning to faith to get me through this, but I'm glad I have all my old files to structure, clean out, rework and rebuild and or redo things I wanted to do for a very long time. Bascially these game and their files and abiltiy to create cc or use these games as a creative outlet helps take away some major stress. Glad I have them when I start feeling stressed out to the point I have to turn off the news and stop worrying about if someone I know gets sick and or if I would. It's a stress reliever and always has been. People might think people bury themselevs in games, I don't see it that way, I see it as letting my mind rest from the stress and worry. When I was younger when I was stressed I did busy work, such as a lot of things that needed to be done. However, I no longer physically able to do 'busy' work so this is my way of busy work, to releive my stress and has for years helped me not think about my limitations or remain frustrated with my physical limitations. Now, it's a lot of busy work I'm doing in my files and things to keep and ditch and clean out etc. My pc probably is glad it is getting cleaned out and my games are probably glad I'm cleaning them up.

As long as you limit yourself. Otherwise, I think you could get addicted and slip from reality. Especially, if you start to think your Sims are living a better life than, yourself. I know I personally typically play ( or mostly) build in Sims World during the cold season and I know I won't be going out as much. Also, as alternative to just watching a movie or sketching, I guess. I just hope most Simmers are not playing in order to evade their real life issues that may need to deal with.

To be honest it’s been interesting reading these posts. I come at this from a different angle. I work in mental health with many different mental health illnesses so I use sims as a way to escape and de-stress from my job it’s my only effective outlet that I find helps.