This Mood Log Can Heal Your Gaming Anger
Multiplayer video games can quickly get toxic , especially when you’re stuck in a team of overrated losers and you are the ONLY guarding the final capture point while Trash6Boner9 just DIXES AROUND. You complain to your friend or partner, and they ask why you even play this game if it pisses you off so much. And then you feel completely alone in this world.
But Reddit editor and Overwatch player SirBenny is married to a therapist , so she had a decision. Not to fix SirBenny’s junk teammates, but to help him really feel good playing his video game.
She asked Sir Benny to fill out a daily mood journal, a therapeutic tool for handling negative thoughts and feelings after an unpleasant event. The results (above) read like a child’s diary, in part because negative thoughts can sound ridiculous when we write them down. By simply expressing his thoughts in words, and then taking into account the assumptions and distortions he made, Sir Benny was able to revisit the experience and improve his worldview.
A mood journal can be used when a serious injury occurs, such as the death of a loved one. But you can use them for any event, no matter how “silly” or “small”, that really causes problems. SirBenny says he played Overwatch late into the night hoping for “one more win” and then lost sleep over his losses. “Honestly,” he says, “it helped a lot!”
Here is a blank copy you can print and use. It’s pretty self-explanatory, but cognitive therapist Dr. David D. Burns, creator of the mood magazine,explains how to use it . And here is the hope that less anger will go away.