this is absolutely great man.
I always did it but never really cared about the background why it does work how it does.
Though you feel your skill dropping after 3 days - 1week break :x
That’s a big assumption that New World still gives me serotonin and dompamine boosts at this point. 
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Cmon, it’s not that bad is it Varu 
This is so true! 
Everyone needs to take a break from gaming evey day. I usually go for a long walk and in summer a hike in the mountains.
It really helps with your mentals!
So stay active between gaming grinds people! 
im glad we dont have enough content to play 7-8 hours a day 
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Not judging, as I’m often guilty of this…but playing 8-16 hours/day for months on end is HORRIBLE for you. The tolls that it plays on people really shows in the toxicity of games where people spend more time in-game than IRL.
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I relay to the OP.
I use to play hard core in ohter games.
I was officer and shot calller.
I pkayed 8-12 hours a day, even more on weekends and holidays.
I got easily irritated, had short fuse and even broke some keyboards, headphones and stuff like that.
Luckily I have very good friends that pointed that out for me and how different my behaviour was compared to just a few years before.
I seeked help and now I have it under control.
Still medicaded though.
So yes! Take the OP very seriously.
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T_T ! but true 
This is an excellent point.
Personally i keep mine in check by not playing on work days. It gives me something to look forward to when all my work is done.
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I love how TheBlackAbbot used other real world examples and not just the game. Fantastic post.
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At last a good post.
I’ve been fighting depression for years and I had come to the point when only music gave me serotonin or dopamine. Music is my no1 hobby, i got an expensive setup, i’m looking for new artists and albums every day.
One month into the game and I no longer feel the urge to listen to music. Which is strange considering it’s my favorite hobby. This weirded me out a little but I realised that it was the game that took music’s place.
I got highly addicted at the first 3 weeks . I didn’t want to sleep, I didn’t want to go to work, I walked my dog less, I ate junk food everyday
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Real Life is a competing MMO. The graphics can be amazing but the MSQ is boring as hell. And the respawn timer seems to be broken. Most NPCs are even dumber than the ones in NW.
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Tanner101 from Orofena needs to read this post, mofo is annoying on the global chat for 22hrs per day man.
I am looking forward to a break over the holiday period tbh.
but the grind never stops
Dave be nicer to me in forts and I’ll go boop tanner >:)
as the topic is “decrease in overall mood”
in other words depression?
let me share some notes:
beware “your” preconceptions of your environment. assumptions at a micro level being scaled to a macro scale.
prioritise “containing” challenges in bitesize smaller steps,
as your preconceptions are partially based on things you think youve learned:
you will have to train yourself to unlearn these things:
that will be confusing and stressfull, but its pretty important to be aware of i guess
…
and yes im coincidently also taking a break, finding myself stuck with ppl with depression…
like alchoholics need to gain a new group of peeps that dont drink,
i need to not be around depressed people, but i cant. so this is how im hoping to manage and reason with it.
In-depth explanation of what happened to me:
more than depressed some crazy levels of anxiety that I thought I was having hyperthiroidism. Then I discovered that competitive playing lowers GABA receptors in the brain with a mechanism called Reward anticipation. Anxiety skyrocketed by farming Gypsium Orbs or doing chest runs. Imagine having a panic attack just because you’re doing dailies.
For other activities not so much. Makes perfect sense. → doing activies with anticipatory rewards create imbalance.
Example: You know, if you do something specific you’ll get the gypsium, but meanwhile you are anxious to get it. This mechanism is quite useful because boost “memory” but wreck havoc in the system. It pushes adrenaline. Lower GABA means uncontrolled levels of adrenaline/serotonine/dopamine. Uncontrolled levels means that also those receptors are not working properly.
So let’s also consider this, I came out from Covid couple of weeks before experiencing this.
I think the illness depleted completely some fundamental vitamin/nutrients first. Why? The damn virus attacked my stomach. Those are useful to create GABA receptors ( B6 for example ). Then I was playing a lot more because I was kinda sick. GABA probably gone to 0. This causes panic attacks in humans and also in animals.
This + that made an absurd combo. I got same symptoms long time ago while playing Path of Exile. The “grindy” games causes this.
Stopped playing the game for a while, fixed diet and took big dose of multivitamin, and started training. All things that increase GABA receptors. Anxiety disappeared very quickly after that. No panic attacks AT ALL. And it’s absurd because I did 1 month of full blown panic attacks from nowhere. Every damn evening. It was HELL.
PS: I did blood exams and I also had vitamin D deficiency on top. I haven’t checked B6 but also that, most likely, was low
For the people that doesn’t know what’s a panic attack, let me explain how much fun it is:
Imagine you’re sit somewhere minding your business, reading something, and at some point you start freak out for no reason. The heartrate goes very high. It feels like someone is pointing a gun at you. You’re sure 1000% that you’re going to die. And it takes 1 hour or so to finish the attack. If you know that you’re having it you can literally cry and laugh at the same time because is ridiculous. The mind is split in 2. The sympatetic nervous system takes control over the body and your conscious mind can’t do anything about it. After the attack you’re completely exausted, and cold.
on another serious note is it so much the game or is so much that people have made new discord friends through the companies they join, and by doing so feel obligated to join in and what not and eventually you almost feel like you have to enter those discords to game. Not trying to make light of it but maybe both go hand i can relate in some fashion
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