Serious It Helps To Talk About It

The Wynncraft Forums have been, to me, a great place. Whenever I'm feeling down, I can log on and chat for a while. The people here, I've found, are kind and accepting, and the community has been great to me. So I want to pay it forward.

If you need advice or help with something out there in the real world, and you don't have anyone to talk to, you can reply to this thread, and we'll try to help you however we can. If you've just had a bad day and you want to vent a little, that's fine. If you need a friend, we can chat. If you have a more sensitive issue you want help with and you don't necessarily want people to know who you are, that's fine too. If it's something you don't want the general public to know about, I created a seperate forum account that you can log on to if you want to talk about your problems.
Please do not abuse this account. It was created to help people, not to farm likes or to post random messages. I don't want to shut it down, but if I need to, then I will.
The username is TalkAboutAnon and the password is Let'sTalk.

If you don't have any problems, come by every now and then. This is a thread for inclusion, acceptance, and help, and it would be great if you could help out with people's problems.

UPDATE:
I was contacted by the mod team, and the anonymous account, while I'd not intended it to be my own, was deleted for violating rules about having "sockpuppet" or alternate accounts. I've asked if there's a way we can get a similar account running, but for now, it's gone.

 

Account's now up, sorry for the delay

--Skelly

 

Interesting idea... I actually really like this idea! I'd make sure it doesn't fall into the wrong hands.

 

This is a pretty heartwarming thread... It is really nice to see how the ingame community on Wynn motivated you to make this thread.

Suddenly, in this world of the Internet, we are finally able to talk about things we normally might have trouble to talk about in real life. I think the fact that we become anonymous allows us to express more of those feelings without as much constraint, and now thinking about it, it could be a pretty effective treatment for those suffering from mental health issues, since they are able to freely express their thoughts to someone over the internet, where they may not be able to if it was someone over real life.


Okay, storytime. I am sure it is not quite as big deal as it looks, but it is something I can think of very recently that got me down a little bit, and therefore I must vent.

RN, this year is basically my last year of High School. Soon enough, I will be going to start applying for university and be faced with more real-life commitment stuff. Personally, to me, that is frightening, as I am quite lost with what I want to do! While people say that I am logical and smart in my own ways, which is partly the reason why I am studying basically all Science and Math subjects, I can't help but feel this crushing expectations especially because I never really knew what I wanted to "specialize" in. By that, is that my mind would at times conceive it as, "dedicate my entire life into this one thing" kind of big decisions. Put it that way, a bit of a scary thought.

A couple of few weeks back, I gave a sort of personal speech to my own year level at my school, "Storytime" as I would put it. It was heavily requested before, because I told a pretty funny story last year and everyone loved it. I have always been known to give funny, entertaining presentations at school, which is something I started when I was experimenting with a different approach to class presentations back when I was 15. This time however, I flunked it hard. Maybe it was a combination of expectations, not enough preparation because I was up the whole night stressing to memorize my book study quotes for my English Essay Writing SAC, the moment I got up, I got all nervous, the Asian Accent I had that usually does not come out comes out in front of the mainly Australian teenagers audience, and I had a feeling that my story was too complex, not clear, I felt like no one would probably understood what I said. It did not help that this time, I did not prepare a script or cue cards that I can fall back to if I get super nervous. Yet, still, none of my friends, no, none of ANYONE criticized me, and they said that I did well. But I know for a fact, that I did screw up what I was well known for, and was quite disappointed by it.

And yes, I know that failure is not such a big deal and that everybody screws up at times, but it did hurt. This is one of those failures where it doesn't usually happen, but when it does you wonder if you are truly good at something, or that you felt you "let down" everyone. You start questioning your confidence in it, which I was kind of losing confidence throughout my entire life whenever I question my "funny, semi-energetic & confident persona" to people, or if it is just that I am such a good actor that I can mask myself, the one who is not that confident at all - Just like on the internet?

Fast forward to the holidays, which is now, and has been lasting for two weeks. The first week of the holidays I really just spent at home, play games, finish my homework, go on the forums, etc. I did not have much of a reason to go out, really. Funny thing, where holidays are usually a way to gain some rest, I do sleep a lot, but this holiday felt like I was exhausted all the time. Not only that, I was getting a bit stressed out, because I was supposed to be DMing a game of Dungeons & Dragons with two of my good friends during the holidays, which was Yesterday, mind you. I spent like 16 hours worth of work trying to formulate ideas for the game, yet, I still feel a certain unease within myself, as I had DMed with my siblings a year back, and it went horrible; emphasis on TERRIBLE - I TPKed (Total Party Kill) everyone. My older brother went to a D&D game with his friends after that, and he told me that he could not understand how I made it such a disaster. My younger sister on the other hand, she completely forgot of the session entirely. No matter how I feel, it feels like I am going to screw it up once more, since I don't have the experience of Matthew Mercer, or any of the more experienced DMs out there.

Yesterday, before the session and before they come to my house for the game, I decided to stop what I am doing, and go out for a walk in the nearby park. It is funny, how unfit I become every holiday because of the lack of exercise I do staying at home every day, which might be a reason why I liked school more. Ironically, this was the first time in the holidays where I actually left the house, which probably explains that staying at home did not help with my mental health. During the walk, I had a think about why I have been feeling such a loss of confidence throughout this first term of school, and especially during the holidays. In comparison with my siblings, they always have outings with their friends, going to the city, etc. Me on the other hand, I don't really do that, at most only once per holiday (which lasts two weeks). For that reason, perhaps I feel detached from seeing them, or forgot how to greet, or don't want to let them see the part of me that I always controlled well at school - the laziness, somewhat timid, quiet, not confident. The part of me that I regarded as somewhat shameful.

I am not sure if the walk did help me with the DND session yesterday, but it certainly have helped me discard my thoughts of unease until after the session. After all, I had placed work into planning this, difficulty is much more balanced (avoiding TPKs), it was detailed with interesting quirks, and lasts of all, it is based on something I loved - Wynn. The session starts, and although the beginning was a bit rough as I still had second thoughts on "role-playing" via acting it out, we had a lot of fun. Overall, it was my first ever successful DnD session. What's more, we did not finish it, meaning that I over-prepped for what was actually in my mind a "one-shot" (basically, a DND campaign done in a single session), yet my friends were happy to continue the game another time. We had a lot of laughs, and funny enough, they were both new players to DND, and yet I somehow managed to deliver it fairly well, despite that expectation that I would fail. For that reason, I am glad too!


What I am probably thinking, since it is a bit tough to formulate thoughts into words, is that it really doesn't matter if you think your online persona is better than you are, or if you believe you don't live up to everyone's expectations, because it is still you. It sucks if you do let everyone down, as it makes you want to cover your face in shame and not able to look up ever for weeks, but then you got to shrug it off and return back to being you, your best self. Because both the bad and the good are still you, but you can hide the bad if you want to correct it, and let the good shine more. That seems to be what society is moving towards with job interviews and social media. The perfect people are not perfect, they are just really god damn talented actors, until they become that role. The saying goes, not "fake it till you make it", but "fake it till you become it".

I never really asked for any help from others before, partly because I don't think I am not diagnosed with depression, neither am I diagnosed with any sort of mental health illnesses - and as such, it is fair to say that I have no right to complain about any of these "petty" issues. But this thread does remind us that issues, no matter big or small, it does indeed help to talk about it!

 

One of my friends started DMing recently too. He's not the greatest storyteller, but from watching him, here's one big tip. Start small with your obstacles and combats, especially if you've got new players, and when the party triumphs easily, ramp it up from obstacle to obstacle or combat to combat, and give the players chances to do badass things even if they're on smaller things. Planned to fight one big but ultimately quite doable monster? Fight two instead. Increase the DC to climb that cliff by adding loose rocks. Write a character sheet for an enemy (this doesn't sound like much, but if you're good at building characters with feats and spells and such, you can have powerful single enemies that the party has to work together to fight). Small changes count.

I absolutely agree with you about the mask- you've articulated it better than I've ever been able to. I find that it's possible to have multiple different masks and switching is as easy as talking to different people. I act different around friends, which is different from when I'm alone, which is different from when I'm online, which is different from when I'm here.
When I'm with friends or in a public place, I tend to act like an extrovert- I do my best to make friends and I have a lot more energy. The whole time, especially if I'm making new friends, my brain is screaming at me because it's going to go wrong except it doesn't.
Even online, the SkellySniper here isn't anything like the SkellySniper you'll find on Discord, or Overwatch, or anywhere online (and no that fps game YouTube account isn't me). This persona is for the most part not like me, excepting things like typing habits.


On a seperate note, the idea about online anonymity and feelings is exactly the point here. I've gone through some stuff, and if I'd had somewhere I could be supported without people judging the real me, I think it would have helped me a lot. Just having friends on the forums helped a lot, even if I never told anyone about anything.

 

#WholesomeWynncraftCommunity

 

I have had some problems with abusing my brother in the past but, it hadn't gotten THAT bad be for until some time in to puberty. I'm turning 14 in like a month and I don't want to keep being this psychotic older brother that he will forever fear. And, i'm home schooled N' don't really have time for IRL friends so, I don't get ANY other angles from people outside the family. So, do you give me some suggestions on how I can change my mentality? pls and thx! :)

 

I dig this

 

Sibling are ANNOYING, but they are family regardless and deserve the same appreciation and love that your parents or grandparents get from you. First, identify why you are treating him like you are and what is pushing you to attack him. Is it just because he is annoying at times or is he just a go-to punching bag for you whenever something upsets you? Once you can answer that, try and find an alternative to deal with that emotion rather than taking it out on him. If he's bothering you and annoying you, try and separate yourself from him or even try giving him the attention he needs at that time-- he's bound to go away eventually. If something is frustrating you and you need to get your anger out, go outside and take a walk. Angry walks are always the best walks; rant to yourself, punch a tree, yell at your dogs, any of that will help you cool down.

 

Thank you for the advice, I'll try my best to to what you said and shape my self because of it. thanx! ^-^
(also I know it's been awhile before I saw and replied but I've seen it now so thanx.)

 

This idea is awesome! As a future mental health counselor, I'm considering creating a business in affordable online counseling since not everyone can make the commute. Sometimes talking to someone online can be very beneficial. Just make sure it's the right people.