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Mental Health
It's that time of year again!

As the days get shorter and the nights grow longer, some people in the world may find their mood affected by the change in seasons. If you notice yourself feeling down or struggling emotionally, know that you're not alone and that help is available.

Don't forget to reach out if you feel yourself slipping into a negative headspace. Talking to someone and sharing what you're going through can make a significant difference. Consider contacting a helpline in your area for support.

If you're unsure about which helplines are available in your country, you can find more information at: https://findahelpline.com

Remember, seeking help is a sign of strength, not weakness. Your mental well-being is important, and there are resources and people ready to support you through difficult times.

Getting help is OK.

Feeling down is OK.

You are not alone, you are worth, you are important.

As Mench said, seeking help is strength, never be afraid of getting help.

Hugs.

Thanks for the nice message Mench

Just wanted to add, be careful of bleed. It can make tough times worse, and if you're not in a good space mentally, there's nothing wrong with taking a break. Your health and well-being comes first. Make sure to review the help bleed file if you need.

As someone who has struggled with their own mental health, I just wanted to say thank you for posting this.

For everyone else reading this, I used to be ashamed of how I felt and the way it affected me. If you feel like I sometimes still do, I just want to let you know that you are not alone and it's okay to feel how you're feeling. Your feelings are valid and, like Mench's post says, there are people and resources ready to support you. Things can get better.

I love this
Don't forget to get outside and play in the sunshine!
It's definitely worth considering whether Sindome has a negative effect on your mental health and whether you'd be better off and happier if you were to quit, especially in the winter months.
I needed this. I woke up this morning and… things feel different. The weather is different. The air feels different. Winter is coming.

Take care of yourselves people. This winter the world in general is going to be extremely rough for all the empaths and neurospicy out there.

I appreciate @Mench and the rest of you for keeping the mental health discussion alive and well.

I live in the Pacific Northwest. Seasonally Affective Disorder (SAD) is so much of a thing that they actually wrote a news article about it recently as a reminder.

I have struggled with mental health issues my entire life. Depression. Anxiety. ADHD. PSTD.

I will echo what others have said about it being okay to not be okay. It is okay to talk about it.

One of my biggest barriers to improving my mental health was believing that I had to stay positive all the time. I had the belief that "Nobody" wanted to listen to my challenges. Even to the point where if someone asked me how I was doing, I would tell them that I was fine because I didn't want to burden them or bring them down.

I'll tell you, life got a whole lot better when I realized that EVERYONE is going through something. "Suffering is the human condition" as the Buddha said. God promised Abraham that his life would be full of struggles.

We get closer to each other by sharing our struggles. By being honest about the challenges that we are facing. Even by being honest with ourselves about how we are doing.

Please know that you are not alone. We are all in this together. During the good times, and the bad ones.

Something to add to this form is a staff point as well - If you need a break from your current character, review Help Vacation.

You can get a six-month break from your character to try something new and see what else is in the game.

Note that this isn't to be used as a way to avoid in-character consequences, but it can be good if you're in a rut with your character and need something new.

Mental health is a lifelong struggle for me. Part of why I quit Sindome a while back. I came back though, after I had more time and energy to put in the game. Sometimes we need breaks and that's fine. Roleplay that gets very immersive can weigh on us a lot, feel almost as emotional as real life. When it gets too much, step back for a while, for your own sake, and so you don't do things you'll regret if you care about your character a lot. In general, I feel people are very understanding of the concept that 'real life comes first'.

It's easy to neglect yourself, but what often reminded me was when I realized I was taking better care of my character than myself. It's a little wakeup call sometimes.

Given some of the recent threads, I want to pop this back up on everyone's radar. I want to offer some insights and lessons that I have learned on my own mental health journey.

Staff have removed content here.

I have also been fortunate to work with a few very good therapists. I am currently in therapy once a week. A lot of my therapy recently has been focused on how I'm not alone in my struggles. How practically everyone in the world is going through things right now. Society is a polarized clusterfuck. Jobs are disappearing left and right. Inflation is out of control. Etc. Etc.

For the roughly 30-50 people who are active in Sindome, the MOO has become to one degree or another, a "safe space". While safe spaces are important, I don't think Sindome necessarily should be one of them. We all need a "third space" where we feel comfortable. A place that isn't work or where we live, where we can express ourselves and find "our people".

The recent conversation about High UE characters, combat and the fear of loss crystalized this for me.

We, people, are collectively going through a lot. Society is going through a lot. We, for the most part, are not in the headspace where we can really shrug off "loss". Even if it is virtual. Loss still represents an investment of time. We are seeing loss all around us. Every day. In greater and greater magnitudes.

IMO - Sindome is at it's "best" when it is filled with a lot of triggering, uncomfortable, adult content. Toxicity. Manipulation. Betrayal. Bullying. Psychological warfare.

Not simply for the sake of being a shitty person, but in the service of a story. Of putting an organization on top of others. Of becoming powerful enough to exert your will. Of forming a collective to create a sense of safety and belonging. Whatever the story is.

I feel like this game has gotten away from that because most of us are not mentally healthy enough to create that kind of world without major amounts of bleed. I include myself in that "us". We collectively don't want to connect to a game world that induces stress and has our sympathetic nervous system constantly triggered. We don't have the physical and emotional reserves to deal with that.

(Edited by Mono at 7:43 pm on 10/22/2024)

Thanks for that post, Hek. I'd say that's accurate - at least for me. The escape from real life is important; things are already hard enough. Maybe you're right, SD isn't the place for that 'safe space', but call it the Sunk Cost Fallacy if you like… or foolishness. Or a lack of 'sticking to theme'. There's an awful lot of that that gets thrown around and sometimes, I think it's coming from a place of judgement by those that bring it up.

Regardless, SD is a place where many of us pour our creative talents, our imagination, our souls into. The stories we create live on in our own minds, and we learn to love this place similarly to how we love the real world... with a lot of cursing, swearing, pain, frustration, and anger alongside the moments of joy & excitement.

I don't mind a balance, like in real life, where sometimes things are good and sometimes they suck. When the shit gets too deep though, just like in real life, it just drives home the point that SD -is- a game. Easier to walk away from, be it for an hour, a day, a week, a month, or forever. Just like life though, you end up waking up the next day and driving on.