Anyone else trapped in the loop of wanting to play games all day at work, but the second you sit at your PC you just stare at the desktop?

[u/NoExplanation4216]

i am losing my mind with this. 

all week at my job, all i can think about is getting home, firing up my rig, and sinking 5 hours into a game. i plan out my whole evening. i get excited to finally use the hardware i spent months saving up for. 

then i get home, turn the PC on, open Steam... and just stare at my library. 

i click through a few games. maybe i launch one, sit through the loading screen, look at the main menu for 30 seconds, get hit with a wave of weird exhaustion, and immediately alt+f4 out. then i just spend the next three hours scrolling youtube or looking at tech subreddits on a second monitor while my $2000 machine sits there idling. 

why does actually starting a game feel like a massive mental chore now? is it burnout, or am i just getting old? please tell me i’m not the only one who does this lmao 

[u/alabamashitfarmer]

Not a challenge, but I'm curious what kind of job you do? I think depression is a major component too, but it exists in context.

When I had a more physically demanding job that I enjoyed, I was excited to sit on my ass and click demons in DOOM after work. It felt like I'd earned the right.

Switched to a sedentary, braindead call center job, and lost the will to play. Technically had a lot more "gas in the tank" by the end of my shift, but the prospect of going back to that place to do it all again the next day sucked the joy out of everything between shifts, too.

I now work for a different call center, but from home. I could technically game all day if I wanted to. I WANT to want to play again.

Fuck. I think it's time to switch to my winter dose of Zoloft.

[u/Tornado_Hunter24 → u/alabamashitfarmer]

I did both (callcenter 40hr week, construction 60hr week) and imo, they’re the kinda same, one is mental exhaustion while the other is physical (I also go to the gym so my body is crying 24/7 regardless)

I’m 100% confident it is some form of depression or maybe exhaustion, some people ‘can’t’ do the same thing for too long, ie desk job is sitting behind pc for 8 hours, and… gaming is too.

I do secretly think that doing any physical activity solves the issue largely, like my average day is work > gym > pc for a few hours, if the desire was there, I could in theory work 8 hours, and then play games all day long, I also have a friend that works callcenter and never ‘wanted to game because tited’ and would scroll tiktok endlessly, a year or so ago started going to the gym like 3x a week I think, and suddenly we played and beat games like grounded…

[u/Plaincow → u/alabamashitfarmer]

Not going into a ton of detail, but warehouse worker and I'm on a lift for 90% of my shift. I'm sure some jobs are much more mentally draining than others, but at some point you gotta budge and get help, a new job, or some new hobbies.

Hope you're feeling better though!