I developed a pretty bad anxiety disorder while serving in the military and it usually only affects things like driving, financial issues, social situations, and well… work. I started playing vanilla SF4 (first real fighting game) while I was on anti-anxiety medication, but due to some rather… personal side effects I have begun weening myself off of my medicine.
Now, trying to play the game a month later, with no anxiety medicine, I seriously can’t do it. I will win a couple of matches, lose a couple, but then I’ll come about and lose one that I know I shouldn’t have lost, and it’ll just frustrate me endlessly and make me so nervous, and my PP spirals down. I went from 3200 PP to 800 PP in several hours, just trying to get myself to calm down and focus and I can’t fucking do it.
However, when I play people I know in real life, or I play Endless Battle lobbies, that is pretty cool. Playing the same person (or people) over and over again really helps me maintain my cool. But I cannot play a string of matches against random people, and it’s really hurting my ability to get better at the game.
Maybe I should just go back on my medicine, but I don’t want to be sleepy all the time, and I don’t want to get bored with intimate situations either.
That’s my rant, but I was really hoping that someone else would have been in a situation similar to this, and could offer me some advice.
What were the side effects of the medication if you don’t mind sharing. I deal with an anxiety disorder without meds. But yeah nervousness and fear of losing points causes many people to play worse not just people with anxiety problems.
Zoloft made me incredibly drowsy. Citalopram (Celexa) made me a little bit drowsy, but I had no sex drive. When you’re living with your girlfriend, it can cause a lot of relationship problems.
Also, I’m not worried about losing points. I don’t care about my score. Otherwise I wouldn’t have continued playing until I lost such a large amount of PP.
I think its because you feel that something rests on your wins and losses. You say Endless and sparring with your mates is fine yes? Why is that? is it because nothing is on the line, If you lose you can always come back and have another go?
In ranked however maybe you feel something is on the line maybe its pp or maybe its just your pride? You place expectations on yourself and get angry with yourself when you lose and can’t go back for another go, that PP is gone, that random player is gone, and then you start to beat yourself up over it.
If you feel like that may be the case at all the only way that you can get over it is to realise that whatever you’re beating yourself up over doesn’t actually matter. If you lose PP, so what? If you got randomed out so what? You live you learn and you get better!
Try maining Dan for a bit going into matches with a severe handicap and get comfortable with losing and just not caring, normalise losing, expect it when you go into a match (hey but you can still win with Dan and you should try to) then move back to a character you’d like to main once the sting of losing has gone!
Why not just do like most people do, stick to endless? I mean, most people stick to it because endless usually is less random people doing random stuff or w/e to win, because they don’t want to lose their points. But if you suffer from anxiety and stuff while playing, I don’t really see any reason at all to play ranked. The points mean nothing, and there’s not really any reason to beat yourself up by playing ranked, if you are having more fun/relaxing while playing endless.
Just start, if you haven’t already, to add people you play and have good matches with, to friends and just start endless lobbies instead. It’s a lot more fun than just doing random ranked matches, tbh, and gives better practice.
You are correct in pointing out that it is harder to get better while constantly fighting random characters and random players - sometimes you have to have a lot of emotional control to tolerate playing like that. If you want to play some ranked, search for a match and afterwords try and search for the same guy. Almost everyone is willing to run it back at least once or twice - and by that point both players have had a chance to adjust and feel eachother out properly. Ranked will give you lots of opponents at and above your skill level, but you wont have long to practice against each. It’s important IMO to message a few of them and ask them if they’d like an endless battle for just a bit.
Another thing I highly recommend to do for an hour every once in a while, is purposefully dicking around in ranked match just to de-intensify the importance you feel towards points. Just switch your color to pink for a few matches and do stuff like never jump, or run way and block their rushdown the whole time regardless of the life situation. Whatever, either that or seek out rematches vs people who killed you last time - purging points and having fun helps you care less about whats on the line (nothing). Wins/losses shouldn’t matter so long as you can feel yourself getting some good exposure. You gotta be fucking calm and take control of your emotions even if you lose control in the game. If you don’t care about losing points, you can keep an excited, focused, and predatory mindset even when down 90% of your life.
another tip: respect every seemingly-weak player/character as a serious threat at all times, and remember that a single tactic or learned fact can often turn the tides against a previously-dominating opponent.
I am going to be completely honest with you: There is absolutely NO difference from playing Endless with random players and from playing Ranked with random players. Those stupid points on the screen makes people think that if they win, they should rejoice over their point accumulation, and that if they lose, they should beat themselves up over it.
I do not fight people in Ranked Mode with the intention of gaining a certain amount of points. I play because it has a much more varied crowd, and it’s easier to get a game while playing arcade mode.
Now, back to you. If you have an anxiety issue, then I’m sorry to hear that. But you might need to consider changing your viewpoint about Ranked vs Endless. If you feel like in ranked, you HAVE TO WIN because some numbers on the screen encourage/discourage your mood, then the problem is your mindset. If anything, stop playing ranked if you feel the urgency to always have to win. If that doesn’t help, consider this: The points you lose are in a sense being “cashed in” for matchup experience and player knowledge.
I know the feeling. I’ve had an anxiety disorder since I was 13. And I started taking medication for it for about a week when I was 16. I stopped after that because I knew that it wasn’t helping with what was causing my disorder. It basically made me feel empty and emotionless,but not clearing my mind of any worries. Anxiety disorder isn’t some disease. It’s something that your mind tricks itself into doing after a while. It’s just bad programming basically.
After so many moments of intense stress,your mind shuts down and forgets how to handle such situations. So much of that makes your mind do only one thing…panic.
When you play with friends,you’re fine because you’re comfortable with them. You’re not alone when it comes to getting better at the game. You know that there’s nothing to worry about. But,when it comes to other people,I think you probably feel stressed for several reasons,which there are so many,but the one thing you need to keep in mind is that online doesn’t matter. It is indeed stressful from time to time,but it’s making friends and learning that matters. Not how many times you’ve won or lost.
I eventually overcame my anxiety disorder because I realized that the things that stressed me out were all in my head. Worrying made me unable to accomplish anything. You must fight worriness,do breathing patterns to slow your heart rate,throw down the gauntlet when you panicing and tell yourself that you won’t let that hot,sick,worrying control what you want to accomplish. And fighting games is a great way to help you do that.
Yeah, I have anxiety issues (Social Anxiety), but I don’t know why it affects me when I’m playing someone random online, which isn’t in a social situation. I guess it’s because I feel as though I need to prove that I’m not a garbage player–then when I end up playing like shit, I just get worse and generate tons of dumb crap in my mind. I don’t even play Ranked anymore, just Endless. It’s weird. I grew up in Arcades and now I have anxiety issues playing random people online. I don’t understand it.
The real problem is you playing ranked matches. I’m actually more afraid of vadual players more than experienced ones. Why? Cause they don’t know what they’re doing and mash out everything. Its almost impossible to try and mind game someone when they don’t know what they’re doing.
I think you’re more afraid of losing points so thats the main issue. I would suggest playing endless if you want to get better if your only option is online. If you know people in your area, play with them and ditch online all together.
