Hello dear Splinterlanders.
Due to today's downtime of ranked battles I decided to blog about an issue prevalent in all of gaming that not only affects your performance in games, but also your entire lives. Mental health.
1. What is mental health?
Mental health includes psychological, social and emotional well-being and therefore affects our thoughts, feelings actions and choices. Going by that definition you might already see where this is going. Mental health is not just the absence of mental illness, as many might think, it is a major contributing factor to your overall quality of life. If you have bad mental health, you will feel miserable, and make poor decisions. Mental health can therefore be considered a major part of your personality, and as with physical health, it can be influenced by your decisions directly.
2. Why is mental health important for a Splinterlands player?
First you have to understand, that mental health is an important part of every human's life and therefore every person on earth should have some knowledge about this topic, but Splinterlands players should be especially aware of their mental well-being for multiple reasons. First of, you need to realize that, for most humans, competitive environments of any sort, lead to an enormous amount of stress, fuelled by dopamine and adrenalin hits that are meant to drive you to win the competition you are engaged in. The higher the stakes are and the more you want to win, the more stress will be perceived and the more exhausted will the task leave you. Now, Splinterlands is not only a purely competetive game as you have no choice but to play against other humans, but it also has pretty high stakes. Each victory provides you with DEC, the loot boxes may provide you with cash, the feeling of winning will make you happy. And as a player, you want this. You want the money, you want the glory, you want that juicy Legendary drop from your daily chest. This is normal, but you have to consider what this does to your brain and body. Many players are under a huge amount of stress when playing, get angry at the game, rage, tilt and engage in other unhealthy activities that might be hurtful not just to their in game performance, but also for their real life.
Just try to consider other people who live in your household, the wife who hears her 30-year-old husband screaming at the computer, the child who witnesses Mom's mental breakdown because Mylor wrecked her Melee pick. It is bad for your life to get into a state of mind that leaves you with less pleasure than before when playing a game of any sorts, and Splinterlands is a game that can easily get you there.
3. What can I do to improve my mental health?
If you have found yourself in the above situation at times and are having difficulties getting back to a healthy mindset, I want to give you some advice on what you can do, both game related and in general.
As for game related advice:
- You should maybe rethink your rental and reward strategy. I, for example, am a rather new player that rented my way up to silver 2 because I was doing well before and thought i might as well get another reward chest while I was playing. Then I had bad luck. The chests gave me common cards at best and my battle rewards just managed to make me break even with my rental costs. I felt like I was being forced to play a game I was starting to hate and I almost pulled out my investment at a loss and quit. Then I decided to give the game another shot but dropped down a league where the rental cost was a lot cheaper. It is true, I earn less per win now and get only two chests per day, but I feel SO much better because this pressure is gone. And if you struggle with high rentals, dropping down a league or two might be very worth it to make you feel better.
- Accept your bad luck. It happens! You play silver league but face opponents with perfect meta gold cards? you will lose. And it might happen multiple times in a row. This is the nature of RNG and you have to come to terms with that. We all know the feeling of "Just one more match" but sometimes it is better to take a step back. Take a short break and the world might look very different an hour or two later. RNG does not care about you, you are the only person that cares about you. Take that in and let it sink.
In addition to these two tips there are some very general things i want to tell you as well if you happen to struggle with mental health issues. - Try to get some regular exercise in. Even if it is just walking through your neighbourhood, not only will your body thank you, but your mind will as well. Don't believe me? Go outside for 30 minutes and tell yourself that you feel worse than before. It will likely not be the case.
- Reconsider your diet. We are what we eat is true. If you eat healthy food, you will have a healthy mindset. Our body relies on our food intake as a means to build new cells. If you feed yourself junk, you will become junk. As harsh as it sounds, this is the stone-cold truth.
- Get enough sleep. Now, people need different amounts of sleep. I need about 7 hours to be able to work efficiently but can run on 5 if i must. You might need 8 or more. Listen to your body and provide it with what it needs. Remember no matter if you win or lose in a game, you only have one single body and if you ruin it, you will have to bear the consequences for the rest of your life.
- Set goals and priorities. If you provide yourself with achievable small-scale goals, you will create your own dopamine injections. Whether it is game related, like "Play three matches while not raging" or real life goals like "Today i will hoover the bedroom“ as they will help you a lot.
What can i do if i need help?
If you really think you can't get through this alone, you have already taken the first step to getting better, which is accepting that you have a problem. If you are thinking about harming yourself or attempting suicide, tell someone who can help right away or dial 911 in an emergency. You also can call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline (Lifeline) at 1‑800‑273‑TALK (8255), or text the Crisis Text Line (text HELLO to 741741). Both services are free and available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. All calls are confidential. If your issue isn't quite that severe, you should contact your doctor and confide in a person you trust. Talking might be the cure for your problems and there are many people out there that care about you specifically. Reach out to them!
Alrighty dearies, That is all i wanted to get off my chest today as i truly care about this community. thank you for reading up to here and keep up keeping up!