Gaming Better than Sex at Stress Relief?

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An article popped up with one of those remarkable titles that you simply cannot pass up on reading and it is http://www.esquire.com/lifestyle/sex/news/a52580/study-finds-video-games-better-stress-sex/ .  Now we are all gamers here and we’re all nerds so I feel as though many of us can relate.  Upon reading the article I found out that some of the statistics may be solid in supporting Gaming as being a better stress relief than Sex…however I am a scientist…I test theories, I do my research and in every experiment there needs to be a control group in which every participant shares similar background information.  This article provides none of that and simply say, “we interviewed X amount of people and the majority said gaming…”.  Ok well what if the X amount of people you asked never get laid?  With research come…well more research.  Prior questions should have been to find a decent control group in which X amount of people who have casual sex, say every month or two, could have been investigated.  The entire purpose of this is to eliminate a certain bias in participants.  For example, if this publisher’s goal was to convince readers that gaming is better, all they have to do is go sit outside of a Gamestop and ask the people walking in and out.  There are a tremendous amount of holes and flaws in this “study” these people performed and in the field of science research it would never hold up, but beyond my background in research I want to put in my 2 sense from a gamer/non-virgin’s perspective.

So a little over a year ago I went through a really bad breakup with a demon I was dating for almost 3 years, and I can honestly say I was all sorts of fucked up afterwards.  I went through the usual tropes of excessive drinking, never sleeping, and never wanting to be in my house alone, but when I was I found myself immediately drawn back to some of my old favorites for gaming, specifically Final Fantasy X HD Remaster.  After nights of 2 or 3 hours of sleep and a head filled with nightmares, this game was my pallet cleanser, and I can honestly attribute it to taking my mind of some of the horror that were wrecking havoc at the time.  In this aspect I can agree that gaming can be a huge relief in the form of it taking your mind off the formalities of real life.  Who wants to deal with the real world? Work is boring, people suck, moments of personal excitement can be few and far between, however, you can enter into whatever world you want with gaming.  One gripe I have with the stress relief portion is the type of game being played.  You are absolutely not playing League of Legends or Call Of Duty to relieve stress.  I don;t care what you say, competitive gaming is the origin of many people’s stress.

Another counter point to this Gaming is better than Sex for stress relief is the fact that after the breakup, getting laid was the BIGGEST boost in self esteem I could have ever imagined.  Going from thinking no woman wants anything to do with you after a horrible breakup to finding out chicks love big bearded dudes my recovery process in a whole.  IT IS statistically proven that actual human contact is a better form of emotional recovery and relief of stress than anything else.  Well everyone…sex is actual human contact.  Every girl I found out was interested in me following, was just another step furthering me from the demon ex.  It was as if every one of them was helping to lift a huge boulder off of my chest…that in all honesty I could’ve benched right off anyway…but that pressure was gone.

So from a scientific background, this study was flawed.  From a gamers viewpoint, it can seem to make some sense but certainly not to the extent these people at Esquire claim.  And from a man who has recently gone through extreme waves of stress and the differing methods of coping with it, Sex is 100% a better stress relief than gaming.  Also fuck you Eqsuire for buying out G4…any true old school gamer would know that G4 was THE gaming network and you fucking ruined it and took i away from us.  How can you even try to broach a gaming topic after performing such travesties.  Shame on You.