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This is a cautionary tale.
When I was 17 years old playing Starcraft 1 multiplayer was a truely stressful experience. I wanted to win so bad in those days. That was all that mattered to me, winning. I got an adrenaline rush just from starting up a ladder game. I was young and it didn't really affect me much then or at least I didn't think it did. I was shaky and sweaty but it would go away. Little did I know it was taking a hidden toll on my body.
I moved on to Warcraft 3 and started to become more serious about winning. My practice hours lengthened. My diet got worse and I rarely got enough exercise. I'm a very skinny guy but I was still out of shape physically. Being thin does not equal being in shape. I didn't know this then. I realized I needed to do something about stress in games but I had no idea what to do at the time. When I started playing poker for real money I found a lot of techniques to manage my mental mindset and stress.
The most important thing I learned was to not be results oriented. This did wonders to relax me in ladder games. But it wasn't enough. After finishing games only then would I realize I'd been stressed. I was tired a lot and I'd eat a lot of sugary foods and drinks. I wasn't a fan of energy drinks but my diet was still way to loaded down with sugar. I didn't know enough at the time about how my body worked to make the connection.
Fast forward a few years to the release of Starcraft 2. I was really determined to be good at the game this time. I really thought I could be. My practice sessions were way to long and I would feel pretty awful afterwards. One morning I woke up with a ringing in my ears. It never went away, I still have it to this day (Tinnitus). I'm fairly certain it was caused by my marathon Starcraft sessions combined with bad diet and lack of exercise. I also had panic attacks, trouble sleeping, and was fatigued during the day.
So I quit playing starcraft seriously. I'm 31 now and just now beginning to understand why I had experienced these problems. I hope others can learn from my experience and avoid my mistakes.
Your body isn't really built to handle stressful situations that are happening in a virtual space. An adrenaline rush in a game of Starcraft or even just a feeling of stress can be detrimental to your body and your play. When you're moving around in the real world an adrenaline rush helps you move faster. And the adrenaline dissipates from your system quickly.
The problem is not the adrenaline rush. It's that in Starcraft you aren't moving and never really leave that stressful situation until the game ends. And those of us who que games back to back for hours at a time run a serious risk of complications from this behavior. High blood pressure and heart disease would be two of these.
However as a young person you're more likely to see the effects of this stress in a different form. When adrenaline is released into your system it causes your body to release glucose (sugar) into your blood stream in anticipation of heavy activity. But you won't be doing any so you then release insulin to clear out the excess glucose from your system. Essentially you're sending mixed signals to your bodies metabolism.
Again if this were to happen only occasionally it wouldn't be bad. But if it happens consistently over long periods of time you will start seeing negative effects. If you do this for a few hours you'll become hypoglycemic (your body is running out of glucose). If you've felt this before you will probably recognize the symptoms.
Shakiness, sweating, numbness/tingling in hands or legs, hunger (craving for sugar), headache, fatigue, impaired judgement, irritability.
The first thing you will probably think of is I should go grab a monster or redbull. That's also one of the worst things to do. In order to effectively combat this you need to eat complex carbohydrates on a regular basis. Complex carbohydrates break down slower than the simple carbs in those energy drinks and thus do not overload your system with glucose. Instead they provide a steady stream that won't trigger a drastic insulin response. Eating small meals more often (every 2 hours or so) will also help. And drink water not juice, milk or soda. Your body functions better when you're fully hydrated. Athletes have noticeable decreases in performance even when they are only slightly dehydrated. You do too even if you don't realize it.
Some examples of complex carbohydrates are whole grains, fruits, vegtables, nuts and beans. These also have bulk to them so you can't eat a lot of them without getting full, unlike the refined sugary drinks and snacks.
Unfortunately I don't have a good solution for you if you get stressed while playing Starcraft. It's the heart of the problem and all I can say is play less. Everything in moderation. This may not sound like a great idea if you're trying to be the next Bonjwa. But playing 10 hours a day may not get you there either if you feel terrible for 8 hours of it. And you may not actually benefit from those last 8 hours. Take 4 of those hours and get outside. Do some cardio, stretching and weights. Or find a sport to play.
My best advice to you is not to set out to win in everything you do. Instead set out to see what you can learn. If you learn enough you might win some occasionally. I'm not saying don't try hard. I'm just saying be smart and don't go to extremes. Pushing your limits isn't always good. Sometimes its better to work around your limitations instead. But you can't do that until you recognize that we all have different limits.
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hm i get those symptoms sometimes, but i figured most of them were caused by the inhuman conditions I play in (summer time is tough for gamers)
so i guess sc2 is confirmed for most unhealthy e-sport? guess the moba players can consider themselves lucky their games aren't as streesful as sc2
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Im never getting adrenaline rushes from playing starcraft 2 nowadays, although Im currently doing a diet where I dont eat any carbs whatsoever, would you say Im in trouble even though I dont feel that way?
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I recognize a bit of myself here. Thanks for writing it up. Apparently doing a PhD and playing SC2 in my spare time wasn't a particularly bright idea. I also got some stress-related heart condition.
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Well this explains a lot.
I'm pretty much a wreck after 4-5 hours playing, never really thought about why.
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On July 30 2013 06:43 InfCereal wrote:
Well this explains a lot.
I'm pretty much a wreck after 4-5 hours playing, never really thought about why.
You can practice techniques to fix this problem. It's not like your brain has some "Starcraft 2 button" in it that gets pushed every time you open up a ladder game. The issue is with the way you approach stressful situations, the way you perceive Sc2, the important of the goals you have regarding Sc2, and just your general sense of what a ladder session is. Sc2 is a fast-paced activity, and that definitely contributes to it being stressful for lots of people, but there are also lots of Sc2 players who don't get too stressed out by playing because they just look at the game differently than you do (and they're still good players) so it seems that you can definitely adjust your perspective to help combat this problem.
That said, playing 10 hours a day (or doing anything 10 hours a days) without healthy eating, fresh air, and exercise, is a fool's errand.
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Wait, adrenaline releases glucose into the system? What about diabetics then? Does this lead to hyperglycemia?
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On July 30 2013 06:35 NEEDZMOAR wrote:
Im never getting adrenaline rushes from playing starcraft 2 nowadays, although Im currently doing a diet where I dont eat any carbs whatsoever, would you say Im in trouble even though I dont feel that way?
As a rule listen to your body. If if you feel bad figure out why and fix it. If you don't feel the adrenaline rush you could still be getting stressed. You'll know by how you feel after the games over. I'm not a doctor so I can't give you to much advice on diet or anything. For myself though I just try to eat healthy non processed foods low in sugar and exercise a lot. If you're trying to diet to lose weight, burning more calories than you eat is the way to go and the reverse for gaining weight.
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so your pretty much saying you'll be fine if you constantly take breaks and exercise between games (jumping jacks, push ups, etc....) I notice this happens to me after playing a bit.
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On July 30 2013 06:51 TheRabidDeer wrote:
Wait, adrenaline releases glucose into the system? What about diabetics then? Does this lead to hyperglycemia?
I'm not diabetic so I don't know much about this. But I would assume that most diabetics are familiar with handling these types of changes by monitoring their blood sugar levels. If your healthy your body regulates it automatically.
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On July 30 2013 06:51 TheRabidDeer wrote:
Wait, adrenaline releases glucose into the system? What about diabetics then? Does this lead to hyperglycemia?
It's possible at least. However i personally don't notice a big effect, at least not comparable to doing real sports. But every body reacts different so the effect may be larger for other diabetics.
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don't people take breaks? usually after I win/lose a stressful game I take a few minutes off to relax, walk downstairs to get something to drink (normal things, like a glass of juice, coke (that's what you lads call coca-cola in 'merica right?) or lemonade), etc.
Or, if I just lost a stressful game and I get mad I take even longer off because hitting the find match button while you're mad is never a good idea  .
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On July 30 2013 06:59 ManiacTheZealot wrote:Show nested quote +On July 30 2013 06:51 TheRabidDeer wrote:
Wait, adrenaline releases glucose into the system? What about diabetics then? Does this lead to hyperglycemia? I'm not diabetic so I don't know much about this. But I would assume that most diabetics are familiar with handling these types of changes by monitoring their blood sugar levels. If your healthy your body regulates it automatically.
I am diabetic, but haven't paid attention to blood sugar level changes from playing sc2/stress. It struck me as odd though, because before I exercise I have to eat sugars to keep my sugars up so that I dont become hypoglycemic (because I am burning energy through exercise). I mean, I havent ever noticed my sugars rising from playing SC2... but the only time this becomes noticeable is when it is a significant rise.
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On July 30 2013 06:57 intense555 wrote:
so your pretty much saying you'll be fine if you constantly take breaks and exercise between games (jumping jacks, push ups, etc....) I notice this happens to me after playing a bit.
Technically yes. But my definition of a break is now much different than it was a few years ago. A few years ago standing up for 5 or 10 minutes would be a break. Now I think it's better to spend as much time away from the computer as I spend at the computer. So my breaks have become much longer.
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The best remedy is to not invest so much into a particular game. For me, it has worked wonders to keep things in perspective: this is just a ladder game which I won't even remember in a few hours, let alone a day or two from now!
Also, I learned to feel like I am in control. This is basically how I think during a game:
"I am better than my opponent. I am in control of the game. He has not expanded yet, so I know a big attack is coming. I am preparing defenses, it's okay. Everything will go smoothly."
That kind of attitude really lowers my level of stress. However, if something does go wrong (let's say he goes for Dark Templars and I fail to account for them):
"Ouch. I better account for Dark Templars next time. I have learned. I have grown stronger. gg well played"
If you have a good attitude, then ladder will be anxiety and stress-free! 
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similar story.
i have paused playin sc2 for some months to focus on studying/learning and only played little bit of Diablo 3 (which is obviously much less stressful). Later trying couple of matches for fun SC2 confirms your feelings 100%. Exactly these symptoms occur because of the stress that builds up during a game. If you play many games back to back you become somewhat stress tolerant and don't seem to feel the pressure as much (but it is still there). But since i only dipped in occiasionally 1-2 matches. I could feel body tension much more real that before.
I knew this feeling from playing Counter Strike for a long time, but there it rarely occured, because between every round you have enough time to cool off and also the game it self plays quite straight forward/predicable, which obviously creates less stressful moments. SC2 is much worse in this regard, because you have to pay close attention for the whole duration of the game which can be quite long, which builds up the adrenalin in your body, this is definitely not healthy.
That's why i decided to not play SC2 anymore.
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On July 30 2013 07:04 TheRabidDeer wrote:Show nested quote +On July 30 2013 06:59 ManiacTheZealot wrote:On July 30 2013 06:51 TheRabidDeer wrote:
Wait, adrenaline releases glucose into the system? What about diabetics then? Does this lead to hyperglycemia? I'm not diabetic so I don't know much about this. But I would assume that most diabetics are familiar with handling these types of changes by monitoring their blood sugar levels. If your healthy your body regulates it automatically. I am diabetic, but haven't paid attention to blood sugar level changes from playing sc2/stress. It struck me as odd though, because before I exercise I have to eat sugars to keep my sugars up so that I dont become hypoglycemic (because I am burning energy through exercise). I mean, I havent ever noticed my sugars rising from playing SC2... but the only time this becomes noticeable is when it is a significant rise.
Ya an adrenaline rush from a computer game won't compare to actual physical activity. It's just when you're in that stressful situation for a long time combined with not eating properly that you can see negative effects.
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I like these kind of threads.
They teach us more about being 'athletes'
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Good post. I have started to incorporate a seriously healthy diet and exercise into my daily routine as I play and it helps a lot!
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EPT
