Going through so much depression and this game is helping me immensely

[Tommara]

please seek out a real life therapist and get on medication. please do not use the game to run from your troubles.

I agree with the OP and also agree with this.

I've been playing online games since the original Diablo, then Everquest, Asheron's Call, Anarchy Online, Star Wars Galaxies, Dark Age of Camelot, City of Heroes, WoW, Everquest2, Eve Online, Star Wars The Old Republic, The Secret World/Legends, and a host of others that either no longer exist (as do some of the games that I've listed) or weren't much fun.

I made a lot of friends in Diablo and Everquest and met a lot of them in real life (and even married one of them), but lost touch with them after WoW (except my husband, of course. We're still happily married )

I've also met a lot of jerks online who I thought were my friend, but turned out not to be the case. That can be really crushing unless you're very well cushioned by people you know in real life.

I made some good friends that I met in FF14, but have never met any of them in real life.

One of them passed away on Christmas Eve, and I'm still struggling with the fact that due to the pandemic and travel restrictions, I could not be a "real" friend to her, or even attend her funeral. We weren't playing FF14 at the time, but a few months ago I returned to FF14 and it really tore me up that the last in-game e-mail I had received was from her.

While online friends are better than no friends, be very wary of the limitations and the fact that some of them may be deceptive.