Has rp ever affected you in real life?

iiDefinit · Joined: 17 Aug 2010 Posts: 32 Location: USA

irt ruined my life with an ex smfh

rubytuesdayhr · Joined: 20 Jul 2007 Posts: 2165 Location: Isle of Man

Whatever our brains have to process affects us on some level. People who say they are not affected are fooling themselves. The brain makes synaptic pathways for everthing, and so we remember things and what we thought and felt about them, and repeated things reinforce those pathways until we get habits or addictions, whether it is looking at math flash cards to memorize the multiplication table or ***. The brain makes the same synaptic pathways for concrete reality as for virtual reality.

What rp's we do can be either constructive or destructive to us and those around us. Negative and dark rp's can affect us negatively much more than we like to think over time, just as being in negative concrete envioronments can.

Some ppl emote more than others both in concrete reality and virtual reality, while some people tend to repress feelings in concrete reality and vent them in virtual reality, thinking wrongly that it's safer.

Many kinds of therapy groups use rp in their therapy as a safer way to experiment in trying new coping skills with much success. This is done usually by being given a certain simple situation to rp about and then trying various ways to deal with that situation. A small group of people will be in thne rp and give feedback as to how they are reacting to each other.

So, yes, more than just laugh at funny stuff, get hot, or mad, or whatever , our rp can form good habits and bad habits of thinking. For this reason I'm kind of careful about what I get involved in in rp, or what movies I watch, cuz I am immersing myself in a virtual environment, and hey, I choose to be uplifted and not get into any more hell than is necessary.

EtherialNeko · Joined: 15 Sep 2009 Posts: 1509 Location: United Kingdom

That's an interesting way to look at it! o.o

Are you a psychologist, or studying psychology? (If you don't mind me asking >.<)

RawrIlyXo · Joined: 17 Sep 2007 Posts: 1121 Location: USA - NM

I always get depressed when I see a character that i want to look like in rl.
I believe it's pretty sad. xD
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GibbertjeDeWolf · Joined: 12 Jan 2012 Posts: 431 Location: USA - NY

MeZergy · Joined: 15 Jun 2006 Posts: 1151 Location: USA - MD

I read this article yesterday called "Losing Yourself in a Fictional Character" and thought it was perfect for this thread. It's about a study done at the Ohio State University concerning "experience-taking". Experience-taking is what happens when people who, while reading a fictional story, find themselves feeling the emotions, thoughts, beliefs and internal responses of one of the characters.