Have any of you turned to video games for stress relief?

I used to use them in an attempt to burn up anxiety and to fight depression

I use online games that are challenging but also sedate in pace as a sort of zen meditative practice. My mind can wander a bit but the stressors are not right there hammering at me. I often come up with a solution to something bothering me while playing. I especially like crosswords and logic puuzzles.

Best way I can sort things out and take out my frustrations especially with my disabilities exercising is out and doing tons of yard work is out. So I use video games to escape our world for a little while.

Yes I have turned to video games to relieve my stress. The more stress I am feeling the higher my score.

There is stress relief and then there is escapism, SPC Brian Mason every time someone pulls up to any fun engaging activity (sex, alcohol, video games) they should ask if this is blowing off steam or just avoidance of your present situation?

When I first got Med Boarded and Retired from Air Force, even with a young child, I had to find something to occupy my mind... I am 100% disabled, I had my mind racing and found that MMORPG's allowed some stressors to be relieved... I needed to be doing something. FPS games were too fast paced for my hands to be any good.. (controller made it difficult). RPG's we played on down time in service ( pen and paper type) were a way to still feel a connection and keep those happier times in mind. Sounds weird but, it was something that reminded me of the service since I couldn't do physical activity like I did in service. I played many computer games but eventually they tended to take up Too much of my life... I play a game or two every once in a while but not to the extent I had turned to in the few years after getting out of the Service. I dreamed about having my spine fixed so I could rejoin my Brother's and Sister's on the flight line... it was a sad dream because I would eventually wake up and have to go to my "Escape from Reality" video games... Thankfully no longer, I am too old to go back in the service to continue what I had hoped would be my career. But, I still have a few games to occupy my mind.

Definitely use video games for stress relief.

I do but for me its more of the fantasy type games, Skyrim, Zelda, Red Steel 2. I only recently moved to an area that has high speed internet so solitary offline play has been a staple of my stress relief for years.

My son got me hooked on The Sims years ago. He says it was to keep me (yes Mom wore combat boots) from meddling in his life. I could meddle in simulated peoples lives instead. LOL Of course there is The Sims 4 now. Anyway I was playing The Sims 2 around the time when Katrina hit. I was working as the head cashier at a department store which was part of a national chain in the small city of Mandeville just north of Lake Ponchatrain. We evacuated with our elderly neighbor to the town of Bogolusa, further north to where her sister lived. Unfortunately with Katrina "further north" was not near far enough. The house took a huge tree during the storm. Luckily no one but the house was harmed. After the storm there was no phone, no T.V., sporatic radio information and most of the roads were impassiable. The house was pretty severely damaged so rather than trying to evacuate completely out of the area we chose to go back south to see what state our arpartments were in. They were fine so we went back there. The store I worked at was in walking distance and it was fine also. The whole area was on one of the main electrical lines leading to major hospitals and government complexes so within three weeks we had water & sewer services as well as electricity. The store opened up shortly afterward. I grew up near the hurricane prone Gulf coast so I was used to storms but Katrina was worse than any I had experienced and I was a teen during Camille. What I was not used to was dealing with survivors. Many of my customers had horrific stories to tell and needed to talk so I let them but it took it's toll day after day. I turned to my Sims game. Instead of playing with the little people I built houses. I started with a copy of my neighbor's sister's house and went from there. By then the T.V. stations were back on and we were seeing the damage down in the city first hand. The St. Tammany Parish goverment complex a few miles away was where they were staging a lot of the rescue efforts for down in the city and the helicoptors went right over where I lived and worked hour after hour, day after day. I still cringe everytime I hear a helicoptor go over me. It brings back stories of people who had literally lost everything including friends and relatives but then it also reminds me of building little houses in a computer game and going on from there to taking college courses to learn to design them for real. A computer is a tool and like any other tool it can be used for both good and bad. A computer game is just another tool as well. Your hammer can build a house, break a thumb or kill a person. The difference with computer games and hammers is that computer games are designed with obsolescence in mind. They want you to buy another, and another and another...... If you have ever looked at The Sims games you know how I know this. LOL However in the end they might have cost me quite a bit but they led me somewhere I had now ever thought I would go.

I do, but only games like Hidden Objects and puzzles. They for me are relaxing. My TBI was non-military related. It was a 12cm brain tumor.