One of the things I loved about WoW is that I could play it at any time of day or night. I could always find something to do in World of Warcraft that would be beneficial for one (or all) of my characters, even at, oh, 4am. For a long time, it was a habit to play WoW until I was just so exhausted that I would have to go pass out.
This was especially the case when I had a headache.
You can make all the jokes you like about a raid leader/guild master/etc having game-induced headaches (God knows I did get some headaches due to other people in that fashion), but since the age of 18-19, I’ve had some seriously bad sinus headaches on a fairly regular basis due to something called vasomotor rhinitis. I was on a steroid nasal inhaler for this for quite some time, but for the last several years, they haven’t made that particular inhaler any longer and other prescriptions don’t work quite as well to the point where there’s no real point to taking any regular prescription for the condition at all.
What works best for me, during some of my most severe headaches, is taking an over the counter decongestant, along with some Tylenol, waiting for it to kick in and then taking a nap or going to bed when the pain is bearable enough to ensure lying down. (Lying down always makes it worse for me, and sleeping while sitting up sucks.)
WoW was a great habit to have when I had headaches. I would be sitting up (good for my head), I would be entertained (thus distracting me from the pain) and it wasn’t something that required a ton of attention when I was obviously not feeling 100%. But it required SOME attention and that was really, really awesome.
It’s been over two months since I last played WoW. I haven’t uninstalled the game yet, but my account is inactive and I have no plans to reactivate it. I haven’t really missed it all that much. Part of it is that I threw myself into National Novel Writing Month (and “won”, by writing 50,000 words in the 30 days of November), so when my account was disabled on November 10th, I didn’t really have a chance to miss it ’till December. And I didn’t really have a chance to miss it in December what with the holidays and family and all kinds of stuff.
I find I don’t really miss WoW very much now, either. I sometimes miss the idea of raiding and I certainly miss the idea of being really good at something (tank healing!), but other things are taking the place of most things I used to do in-game.
Except farming when I’m up late with a headache, like I am right now. There’s still not a good option. Television is loud and is also too passive, mostly. Reading is too difficult with the headache. Other games aren’t as interesting. At least when I’d farm in WoW when I was up with a headache, I felt like I was doing something useful with my time. I do miss that aspect of the game.
But, having said that, I guess I’ll go try to watch some TV or a movie on Netflix and hope that’s enough to distract me until the Tylenol and decongestant kick in.
Hope you’re all doing okay out there. Aside from this killer headache, I’m doing pretty well. :)
PS: The last episode of Blessing of Frost is being recorded Soon(tm). Let Majik and I know what your favourite bits were — episodes 43-74 only, please! :)