Stigmatization On Female Gaming 

In this we would be talking about gaming addiction and its effect on your mental health as I will be covering a true story on how it had affected an individual in the past.

This story starts with currently 20 year old sarah thompson who resides here in kamloops and started gaming at the age of 7, unlike most girls she liked things that were mostly stereotypically acceptable for men like gaming, her first gaming device was the playstation which she absolutely fell in love with and enjoyed all the incredibles games on it, as a kid growing up with gaming consoles was basically a two faced coin as it was considered cool to have a gaming console but also in youthful terms “lame” to always be playing them as you would be referred to as a nerd or a geek if seen obsessing over video games like you would over sports or other fun activities. With society’s social construct  playing a vital role in our lives, people never get to be able to have a decision on  what they like and what they cannot, right from birth we are supposed to follow this construct that,  if you’re a girl you like pink and if you’re a boy blue. But the case of Sarah was very different for most people obsessed with gaming because she was a girl and because of that it made it hard for her to make friends growing up.

During her school years because of her gaming obsession she got bullied alot for not acting like other for example she liked dressing up like boy instead of doing her makeup and looking pretty like a girl, she would be called various names making more and more people to this perception in there head of her been out of line and not acting like everyone else( weird ). Because of this her love for gaming grew even more and more stronger as she lost hope in the real world as she could be whoever she wanted in a virtual one.

Fast Forward 8 years into the future, sarah has been isolating herself from the rest of the world for the past 8 years playing video games and avoiding every form of in person contact in the real world , as she avoided family vacations, spending times with friends or even trying to make any, all the friends she had made where all online, sarah could not also let anyone online know that she a girl as she would pose as a guy so she would not have through the same form of stigmatization she faced growing up as a child. Sarah would stay in her room for extreme hours gaming with no regards for real life while also letting go of any hopes and dreams she had, as she fell into a deep state of depression. During this process she was gaining a lot of weight as well, so she started having issues with movement and would require assistance from a walker to help her move around to use the toilet or go get something from the mail. At the age of 16 Sarah is still a hard core gamer struggling with depression and growing health issues. It was her graduation year from high school and she still has not figured out her plans yet, except for one day which ends up differently for sarah on 2nd of october 2017 sarah has a heart attack due to a jump scare from on of her games, her parents hear a large sound of equipment falling in sarah’s room as they rush up there they see sarah on the floor immediately the call ambulance and rush her straight to the hospital. Lucky Sarah’s life was saved and was advised about her gaming addiction, for the first time in her life she gets to look life in the face and realize that she has spent many years not trying anything else but gaming.

After this sarah was placed under extreme care buy her parents with the advice of the doctor she was taken to a therapist which encouraged her to get rid of her gaming addiction, but to not 100% percent quit gaming as most of her problems comes from the stigma she faced as a child from gaming and the bullying she had to gro through. Although it was a very hard journey and she wasn’t able to graduate that year she made sure she put in a lot of effort through lots of gaming withdrawals and made it into a college where she made lots of new friends and tried out new things with them. One thing here therapist said to her was never let people’s perception of you affect how you act or what decisions you make with your life.

1 – Goal: addressing the stigmatization on female gaming

2 – Audience: youths

3 – Core Information: addresing bullying and socially constructed stereyotypes

4 – Detailed outline (each paragraph must have a main topic/information):

Title: stigmatization on female gaming

Introduction: introducing the main character / hero

1st paragraph: growth of addiction

2nd paragraph: hero falls

3rd paragraph: hero overcomes

Conclusion: understanding mental health and finding ones self