Class/Job Stress and Adrenaline Rush, how do you deal?

Not a troll thread.

With that out of the way. Does anyone else get this and if you do, how do you deal with it? To preface I'm an officially diagnosed hypochondriac, so I already have severe panic with things all health related.

Well recently, I've started to get panic attacks while playing the game. Like I'll be playing with my friend and have to stop for 30 minutes to an hour to calm down, or sometimes in the case of the other day, 2 hours and bailing on a dungeon because I had to run outside and take forever to calm down (as it's those sudden feeling of impending doom and going to die panic attacks).

My friend started to notice a pattern of it happening when either 1. In Bozja, 2. Leveling Healer, and 3. PotD. And suggested it might be the adrenaline causing my usual fight or flight, just without symptoms to cause it this time.

So I started trying to pay attention to when I play and he may be right. I get that feeling of 'at the edge of my seat' when healing. Like every button press is a life or death decision and if I fail we all fail and it's my fault, so the pressure causes higher heart rate, adrenaline rush, and if I try to ignore the feelings, it goes into full fight or flight.

This is only on harder play of healing, pressure roles, or pressure times. Dungeons on my main SMN or DPS (because we're expendable) doesn't cause such reaction.

So my question is, does anyone else have this issue or face this, and if you do what do you do about it? I don't want to just give up on healer or Bozja, but I'm not exactly any help if I have to bail on my party because I have to run outside and calm down.

How do I deal?
I switch mains.

In stormblood, playing NIN gave me headaches, so I tried tanking and found it smooth and low stress.

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Originally Posted by Nekaru_Infitima

So my question is, does anyone else have this issue or face this, and if you do what do you do about it? I don't want to just give up on healer or Bozja, but I'm not exactly any help if I have to bail on my party because I have to run outside and calm down.

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How long have you been healing?
Is this just something that will get better with time? Or are you a veteran healer still having this problem?

Yes when I first started tanking there were times when I would queue for a dungeon in duty finder and I would get so anxious I would have to withdraw and run to the bathroom lol.

Honestly I got over it by bringing a friend along in discord to talk as I tanked and eventually doing things on my own little by little. I basically had to build up my confidence and realize that even if I messed up and caused a wipe it wasn't the end of the world.

So basically I dealt with it by investing time and patience with support from others.

I personally feel that its a big help to realize that, even as a healer, your job isn't as important as you think, especially in Bozja, where many other players can pick up any slack. Which isn't to say you're not very important, but runs won't end if you mess up, and 99 times out of 100, no one will be upset. Everyone makes mistakes, it happens. Its all about getting into the right mindset beforehand. If you acknowledge going into things that you're play won't be, and doesn't need to be, perfect, then healing becomes a lot less stressful.

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Originally Posted by ItMe

How do I deal?
How long have you been healing?
Is this just something that will get better with time? Or are you a veteran healer still having this problem?

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Anything above 50 dungeons seems to have started causing it. Before when I was leveling healer, and only doing easy stuff it had no effect. But recently when I tried to get WHM to 80, and ended up in 60+ stuff, the issue has started.

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Originally Posted by NairaTelauriel

I personally feel that its a big help to realize that, even as a healer, your job isn't as important as you think, especially in Bozja, where many other players can pick up any slack. Which isn't to say you're not very important, but runs won't end if you mess up, and 99 times out of 100, no one will be upset. Everyone makes mistakes, it happens. Its all about getting into the right mindset beforehand. If you acknowledge going into things that you're play won't be, and doesn't need to be, perfect, then healing becomes a lot less stressful.

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It's healing or Bozja. In Bozja any class does it, as I just fail at every CE.

For healing it's anything above lvl50 dungeons. After having a tank die, one run went south as I felt more pressured the whole dungeon in the most recent one, and in the end I had to bail for a panic attack. I told them I was having one though and said if I couldn't calm down in 5 minute to dismiss me, they said they'd wait but I ended up outside to calm down and I don't blame them one bit after 30 minutes that I was AFK booted. I still feel really bad for that run...

It just seems the pressure of healing causes really bad adrenaline rushes.

We all have our unexpected “anxiety” moments on the most unpredictable times & while irritable it may be, it’s good to reflect on & acknowledge them rather than deny it or put up due to other’s satisfaction/pressure.

This is why I don’t do static or savage altogether.

Coming from WoW ((a far hostile & reputable known as highly toxic players)).

You cannot alter or have certain things accomodate you 100% since you’ll never know what type of players you’ll come across, or the very least worse show your friends’ true colors which is far scarier & sad ((had this happened to me when I thought my whole FC of 6 months were kind & mellow but switched to “elite/ unruly, impatient” mentality that I just couldn’t do it.

Don’t feel discouraged when having those moments & just delight on the few people that are willing to go the extra mile for you & acknowledge your flaws no matter what.

At the end of the day we’re still people, partaking on another reality through our avatars & just be the best you can be, try to experiment things out of your comfort zone through small steps,

But more IMPORTANTLY, have fun & enjoy the game along.

There’s already enough life stressors currently going through our personal lives, more heavy enough to handle, try not to let Eorzea world be that to you.

Cheers & thanks for opening up.

The best way I found is to record myself and rewatch my gameplay. In the moment and panicking, it can feel like chaos and everything is a split second decision, but rewatching the video as a third person, it's easier to see what's going on without the stress of making a mistake. I can see how much time I truly have, that part that I thought was hard to heal actually had time to cast two gcds, i just didn't cast anything, or I had a cd like rapture or indom that I can use. [if you're new to healing, it might be helpful to go over the video with a friend who is familiar with it] Then I'll go back and do it again and this time it's easier to more calmly handle that situation with what I now know

It won't help for seeing things the first time, but I think if you do this enough it can also give you the confidence to handle things even if it is new and unknown. "I've handled these other things that are hard, so I can handle this too."

As for CEs in bozja, they're pretty hard, a lot of mechanics will one shot you, and because theres so many CEs it's hard to remember all the mechanics. So don't worry if you die. That's why you'll see even perfect legends lying on the ground, or so few people qualify for the duel. It's normal to mess up and die.

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Originally Posted by Nekaru_Infitima

Anything above 50 dungeons seems to have started causing it. Before when I was leveling healer, and only doing easy stuff it had no effect.

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If you've mainly done "easy stuff" as healer, maybe you're still acclimating to the role and never overcame "Healer anxiety."
What kinds of content have you used your healers in?

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Originally Posted by Nekaru_Infitima

But recently when I tried to get WHM to 80, and ended up in 60+ stuff, the issue has started.

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Do you get this feeling when going back to the other healers?
Maybe you just don't like WHM.

How do you deal with similar situations IRL, such as giving presentations to people you haven't met before?

Videogames are not usually the place people find out they have performance anxiety, but that's exactly what it sounds like to me.

Well as a WHM main for 7 years, I can tell you that sometimes that button press is a life or death decision and the party can wipe and it will be our fault.

But that's okay.

Wiping isn't the end of the world. We pick ourselves up and try again. You will get people in randoms who act like it's the end of the world to wipe, but it's really not. If you are stressed in that situation, you might try running healer with friends who you know will be okay if the party wipes as you're learning, and then venture out into randoms again when you have a good grasp on things.

Bozja CEs can be a real mess with things going on all around you and you dying to something you didn't even see. But it's okay to floor tank. Even as a healer. We're not robots and we will fail sometimes.