Toxicity in Video Games | Dr.K Explains
Summary
TLDRThe video script delves into the issue of emotional suppression among gamers, particularly men, who often excel at repressing their feelings. This leads to alexithymia, an inability to recognize one's own emotions, causing a buildup of unacknowledged emotions that can eventually impact their lives. The speaker shares personal experiences of using gaming as an escape from feelings of failure, creating a vicious cycle of escapism and emotional avoidance. The narrative highlights the illusion of emotional control among gamers and the overwhelming consequences when suppressed emotions resurface.
Takeaways
- 🎮 Gaming can lead to emotional suppression as the brain adapts to the constant stimulation and becomes adept at shutting off emotional responses.
- 🧠 The term 'Alexithymia' is introduced, which refers to the inability to recognize one's own internal emotional state, a condition that some gamers may experience.
- 💭 Gamers may not be aware of their subsurface emotions due to the suppression caused by gaming, leading to a disconnect between their emotional reality and their perceived feelings of happiness and health.
- 🔄 The illusion of emotional control can be misleading, as gamers may feel in control but are actually suppressing emotions, leading to a buildup of unprocessed feelings.
- 😢 The suppression of emotions can lead to a cycle of escapism, where gaming is used as a means to avoid dealing with negative feelings, exacerbating the problem.
- 🔄 An example is given of a personal struggle with feelings of failure, using gaming as an escape, which in turn leads to deeper feelings of failure and a vicious cycle.
- 🌪️ The emotional pile, or the accumulation of suppressed emotions, can eventually lead to overwhelming moments of emotional release, often during times of rest or quiet reflection.
- 🛌 For some, these overwhelming emotions can occur at night when the mind is allowed to wander, leading to feelings of hopelessness, shame, and guilt.
- 💤 To cope with these intense emotions, some gamers may game until exhaustion, using physical and mental fatigue as a means to avoid confronting their emotions.
- 🤔 The script suggests that a deeper understanding and management of emotions is necessary for gamers who find themselves in this cycle, implying the need for emotional awareness and healthier coping mechanisms.
Q & A
What is the main issue discussed in the script related to gamers?
-The script discusses the issue of toxicity in gaming, particularly how gamers, especially men, often suppress their emotions due to the nature of gaming which can lead to a condition called alexithymia.
What is alexithymia and how does it relate to gaming?
-Alexithymia is the inability to recognize one's internal emotional state. In the context of gaming, it refers to gamers not being aware of their own emotions due to parts of their brain suppressing them, often as a result of excessive gaming.
Why do gamers feel like they are in control of their emotions?
-Gamers feel in control of their emotions because they can suppress them, allowing them to remain calm in situations where others might show strong emotional reactions, such as watching a sad movie.
How does the suppression of emotions in gamers lead to a problem?
-The suppression of emotions leads to a buildup of unprocessed feelings inside the gamers. This emotional buildup can eventually surface and negatively impact their lives, creating a cycle of emotional avoidance and reliance on gaming.
What is the term used to describe the illusion that gamers have about their emotional state?
-The term used is 'lexicon', which in this context refers to the illusion that gamers are not experiencing negative emotions due to their ability to suppress them.
How does the speaker describe their personal experience with gaming and emotional suppression?
-The speaker describes feeling like a failure and using gaming as a means to escape these feelings. Over time, this led to a vicious cycle where the more they felt like a failure, the more they turned to gaming, which in turn made them feel more stuck and failed.
What is the vicious cycle that the speaker describes in their personal experience?
-The vicious cycle involves feeling like a failure, using gaming as an escape, and then feeling more like a failure as a result of the time spent gaming and the lack of progress in life, leading to more gaming.
Why do gamers turn to video games to manage their emotions?
-Gamers turn to video games to manage their emotions because gaming leads to escapism, allowing them to avoid dealing with their emotional buildup and the feelings of failure or disappointment.
What moments are particularly challenging for gamers in terms of dealing with their suppressed emotions?
-Moments when gamers are not actively gaming, such as when going to bed at night, can be challenging as their minds start to wander and they confront their suppressed emotions, leading to overwhelming feelings of hopelessness, shame, and guilt.
How does the speaker describe the emotional impact of gaming until exhaustion?
-The speaker describes gaming until exhaustion as a way to avoid confronting suppressed emotions, as the mental exhaustion allows them to pass out and avoid the overwhelming feelings that would otherwise surface when they are not gaming.
Outlines
🎮 Gaming and Emotional Suppression
This paragraph discusses the impact of gaming on emotional health, particularly among men. It highlights how gaming can lead to 'Alexithymia', a condition where individuals struggle to recognize and understand their own emotions. The speaker explains that gaming suppresses emotional circuitry, causing players to feel emotionally numb. This suppression can lead to a buildup of unacknowledged emotions that eventually surface and affect their lives. The speaker uses personal anecdotes to illustrate how gaming can create a cycle of emotional avoidance and escalating feelings of failure.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Toxicity
💡Emotional Suppression
💡Alexithymia
💡Emotional Circuitry
💡Gamers
💡Escapism
💡Vicious Cycle
💡Failure
💡Hopelessness
💡Mental Exhaustion
💡Emotional Pile
Highlights
Gamers often struggle with toxicity and suppressing emotions, which can lead to 'alexithymia' - the inability to recognize one's internal emotional state.
Games can shut off a player's emotional circuitry, causing emotions to be suppressed rather than processed.
Many gamers are unaware of their subsurface emotions due to the emotional suppression caused by gaming.
Gamers may feel a false sense of emotional control, as they can suppress their emotions in various situations.
The emotional suppression from gaming can lead to a buildup of unprocessed emotions inside the gamer.
Gamers may feel stuck in a vicious cycle of using gaming as an escape from their mounting emotional issues.
The speaker shares a personal experience of feeling like a failure and using gaming as a means to escape and avoid dealing with those feelings.
As the speaker's feelings of failure grew, so did their reliance on gaming to escape those emotions.
Gaming can lead to escapism, preventing gamers from learning how to properly manage and process their emotions.
The emotional buildup can sometimes become overwhelming, especially during moments of quiet reflection like when going to bed.
The speaker describes feeling an intolerable sense of hopelessness, shame, and guilt when not gaming to distract from these emotions.
Gamers may game excessively until mentally exhausted to avoid confronting their emotions when trying to sleep.
The transcript highlights the complex relationship between gaming, emotional suppression, and the potential negative impacts on a gamer's emotional well-being.
The discussion suggests that addressing emotional suppression and learning to manage emotions is crucial for gamers to break free from the cycle of escapism.
The importance of recognizing and understanding one's emotional state is emphasized to avoid the development of alexithymia.
The transcript serves as a call to action for gamers to become more aware of their emotional health and the potential consequences of excessive gaming.
Transcripts
let's talk a little bit about toxicity
so one of the things that Gamers
struggle with is that their brains are
so used to like the more you play games
and Men especially
um are are really good at this we're
really good at suppressing our emotions
and games actually shut off our
emotional circuitry and so what happens
is games Gamers become something called
Alexa thymic so Alexa thymia is the
inability to recognize your internal
emotional state
and so what happens is a lot of Gamers
actually are their emotions rolling
around inside of them but they're not
aware of them because they're parts of
their brain that are kind of suppressing
them all the time so let's say that like
you know I get into a fight with my
parents and then I turn on a video game
and then like all those emotions just
get shut off
and so a lot of times what happens with
um
Gamers is that they feel like everything
is fine they feel like oh yeah they're
happy and they're healthy and they enjoy
gaming but what actually happens is they
have a lot of subsurface emotions that
they're not even aware of and that's
what Alexa thyme is and then what
happens is those those emotions kind of
Bobble to the surface and start to
impact their life so what what ends up
happening is when they're lexicon
because Gamers get this illusion that
they're not actually experiencing
negative emotions and a lot of Gamers
that I talk to I'll ask them like you
know you know what's your relationship
with your emotions I mean I won't ask
that because that's a weird question
like I don't know how even I would
answer that but the more I ask them
about essentially the relationship to
their emotions what they come back with
is that oh I'm in control of my emotions
and so when we talk about that like the
funny thing about Gamers is that they
they feel like they're in control of
their emotions and by control of their
emotions what that means is that they
can watch like let's say a sad movie and
like everyone else around them is crying
but they're not crying
um and so they're also like able to be
in uncomfortable situations and like be
kind of essentially like a blank slate
and so if we really think about it what
that means is that a lot of Gamers it's
not that they're in control of their
emotions like Vulcans
um what that really means is that
they're just they they just know how to
suppress their emotions
and as those emotions get suppressed
it's kind of like this this emotional
like pile is like building and building
and building inside you and I'll give
you guys kind of an example for my
personal life like I remember feeling
like a failure right so I would wake up
every day I would skip class
I would like game until I was exhausted
and I'd like pass out at four in the
morning and every day that went by I'd
feel more and more like a failure and
the only way that I could get I could
tolerate those feelings was by escaping
through gaming
and then I kind of
I kind of like I kind of got stuck
because
um what would happen is like every day
that goes by I'm not moving forward in
life and I'm actually failing in life
more and more and more and more and the
only way that I could so like day one
let's say I feel like a failure of five
out of ten in day two it's six out of
ten because now I've up for two
days day three is seven out of ten and
so I'm digging myself deeper and deeper
and deeper and the more and more failure
I feel inside me the more I have to turn
to video games to like make that feeling
of failure go away
and so the more I turn to video games
the less for I mean the more stuck I get
and so it's this vicious cycle and so
Gamers kind of get into this and so the
only way that they learn how to manage
their emotions because gaming leads to
escapism
is through playing video games and so
they have this gigantic pile of emotion
that's building up and I remember for me
sometimes like there's some moments and
if you guys really pay attention to your
lives maybe you can find out like when
are these moments but for me there were
some moments that the emotions would
just come flooding back and be like
completely overwhelming and for me that
was when I was going to bed at night
right so I like finish gaming and if I
got into bed and like my mind would
start to wander it would start to think
about how I was screwing up my life and
I would feel such an overwhelming sense
of hopelessness shame and guilt that it
was like intolerable so what I had to do
was game so much until I got so mentally
exhausted that when I hit the sack I
would just pass out
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