The Psychological Effect of DbD

That can be said about anything though.

mental health is more complicated that telling someone to not allow a game to affect it.

I have witnessed what depression can do to a person on several different instances, and in my younger years I just thought they were weak.

It's hard to understand when some says they feel so alone and empty even though they are surrounded with friends and family and have a good life.

Someone I knew, had what I thought was a great life. Wife and kids and very successful. Very well put together in person. Turns out he was suffering from depression. The family kept it hush hush, but it seems that he shot himself in the head with a shotgun.

We see it with famous people who have everything in the world. They feel such an emptiness and it consumes them and they commit suicide.

I still do it here and there because i'm human and i still make mistakes..."suck it up, "get over it", "you're being too emotional", "it's not that big of a deal" and so on.

I try to be more conscious of mental health issues.

I fully understand that some people have issues, problems that run so deep that they are vulnerable to ill-effects from things that do not bother the majority at all. Mental health issues are not much different, in this way, than other types of health issues. Consider all the people with a dangerous allergy to peanuts. A single peanut, or even traces of them in other foods or the air of a restaurant, can kill them. I feel sympathy for them, and understand that they must be vigilant and avoid a thing which is toxic for them. To the rest of us, it is just food. Do you see where I'm going with this?

I addressed this before and the OP found my direct, pragmatic approach to be toxic. Why am I not surprised? Many people have an allergy to the truth. From the start, I advised that if a mental health expert told the OP that the game could be bad for him/her, then perhaps following the advice of that expert would be a good idea. I don't have a therapist. I don't have a peanut allergy. Do you see where I'm going with that? In my many years, I've listened to people state things almost exactly like that of the OP. While I'm sure some of them had the best of intentions, most of them did not. Such statements come with ulterior motives (too many for me to relate).

I could talk about how this line of thinking has been applied to Rock and roll, science, religion, politics, and so on but that would belabor the point. I'm going to narrow the focus to games and diversions. In the late 70s tabletop war gaming (toy soldiers) was transformed by a few enterprising souls into a new type of game. Mass battles with toy soldiers split off into small units which in turn evolved into role-playing games, going hand in hand with the popular rise and exposure of The Lord of the Rings in the United States. I'm talking, of course, about Dungeons & Dragons. If you were to combine all the essays and professional papers of the experts saying how role-playing games are dangerous for your mental health, you would have a hefty phone book. It turns out, that like anything else, role-playing is safe and fun for the vast majority of people, no matter how many things you massacre in the imaginary world. It is the people who already have a problem that should avoid it.

Sticking with the Lord of the Rings lesson, I think that games and diversions are like Lothlorien, the only problems you will find there are those you bring with you. This is also well-stated with the old saying, "where ever you go, there you are." I'm not trying to be toxic. I'm not trying to grandstand. I'm saying that people with problems should seek professional help, and follow the advice of their doctors. However, people who have problems should remember that these are THEIR problems, not ours. Dead by Daylight is a game, and an innocuous one at that. Blaming games for our problems, is not unlike the foolishness of blaming other people for our losses inside the game. Do you see where I'm coming from there? It is passing the buck. It is looking for a scapegoat. When I lose a game, "I" lost a game. If I have a issue in my real life, "I" have an issue in my real life. I take steps to deal with it.

What I'm going to suggest is that talking about mental health issues, which are serious, belongs in the Off Topic area. This is just my opinion. If people want to blame Dead by Daylight for their mental issues, well I suppose that makes it on topic here, but I think that does a disservice to the person stating it, the seriousness of the topic of mental issues, and is inviting people (like me) to point out (also with the best intentions) that most of us are NOT allergic to peanut butter.

Videogames are like any vice or hobby. They're not the root cause but do enable the behavior. It could be like painting, or it could be like alcohol. You're not suddenly a violent monster because you have had a few too many. That's all you at your core. You're the monster.

So yeah, playing killer won't make you a murderer. And survivor won't make you Bear Grylls. They're far too black and white. Doesn't explore the full spectrum of misanthropy. Although players will try to wring that out with their out of game interactions.

I try not to take it personally anymore. Constant screaming has given me a headache that doesn't go away anymore.