minesweeper is literally causing me health issues

minesweeper.on...
i did not play any new minesweeper to capture footage for this video.
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#minesweeper

[@portc6809]

I literally started playing minesweeper because of your first video and it's gotten to the point where when I'm sitting around with friends my brain will idly think of minesweeper board patterns. We're in this addiction together lmao

[@iamerror]

Falling asleep after playing Minesweeper for an hour is torture! (same with tetris)

[@tablefr]

i cant sleep because of thinking about the patterns its horrible

[@loser_lenny9915]

im so happy that im not the only one who does this LOL its what my mind literally defaults to, especially getting up after an hour or so of playing

[@tryviper1404]

Tetris syndrome minesweeper edition

[@0-Kirby-0]

Tetris syndrome is my favourite thing about games like Minesweeper. I generate and solve entire boards in my head, in perfect bliss. No missed clicks, no timer, just patterns and rhythms.

[@memyselfishness]

There's a game based on minesweeper called Tametsi. I had to delete it from my steam library. My brain had become obsessed with it. At night, I wasn't sleeping, but literally hallucinating the game as I went about solving the puzzles. I was late to classes and skipped meals because I was playing this game. It took over my life. But, I've also never enjoyed a puzzle game as much as that one.

[@Benedict_XII]

My benchmark for a game being good is simple. Does it obsess me beyond my own control so much that it’s burned into my retinas and carries over to my dreams?

[@arabwaluigi5248]

Can’t wait to try it!

[@sebastianfors4491]

literally went and bought the game right now

[@killermetalwolf2843]

so what youre saying is that i should stop playing 4d minesweeper before its too late?

[@strawberry641]

thanks for the recommendation

[@JustPeachyMind]

As someone who has ADHD and was addicted to alcohol for about a decade, I relate so much to this. The feeling "zen" from a dopamine heavy activity, the shame from trying and failing to quit, and even feeling my identity was tied up in my drug of choice. Fear of losing my identity by getting sober was one of the scariest parts of quitting drinking, but I can tell you from the other side, there is so much more to you than any one addictive behavior. Like you said, some people might be able to play minesweeper, but it just isn't for you. Rooting for you!

[@stjeep]

im currently addicted to a few things... its cause me to lose my friends. i tried to apologise for it, but its dumb to apologise for something youre still doing and will continue to do for a while. i deserve it but ive just never felt so alone before. its a choice of hurting myself or hurting my friends. i just wish they understood how much of a fucking struggle it is instead of thinking im a bad person because im simply refusing to stop, or choosing drugs over them

[@stjeep]

@@ObeyRL99 great advice for somebody who isnt me

[@stjeep]

@@ObeyRL99 youre missing the point. i never asked for your pity or your help. sometimes people just want someone to listen, whether its shouting into the void or posting on the internet. i mostly wanted OP to feel less alone in the struggle by sharing im going through something similar, but i also wanted to share my situation in case anyone else could relate to me as well. youre giving me this advice only to make yourself feel better, and to feel morally above me so you can call me toxic when i dont follow your unsolicited advice. you have said nothing new that i havent heard yet, your advice was the most barebones advice you could give. my second comment was not one of self pity, it was me telling you your advice was solid, but save it for someone else. i would love it if you did just leave me alone, this is bonkers and to be honest, incredibly frustrating.

[@stjeep]

@@ObeyRL99 you also make a shit ton of assumptions for someone just giving out advice. ive never once blamed anyone but myself for my own problems. the only reason im sad is because ive lost my friends and will never be given a second chance. i am upset because they LITERALLY think i am a terrible person because of the fact that i use drugs. they want me to stop right here right now, and thats just not possible for me. i was given an impossible ultimatum. i am upset because i already KNOW its my fault. i really did not need this right now dude, maybe dont give out advice to people who never asked for it

[@stjeep]

@@ObeyRL99 considering you just said youd drop it, i have no understanding of why youre still going. my second comment was one telling you to leave it alone, it just went over your head. what was i supposed to do, tell you to leave me alone in my first comment when you hadnt even commented yet? jesus, dude. youre concern trolling. which is a pretty toxic thing to do. how can you not see the position you put others in when you take their own experiences, give them unsolicited advice, and then criticise them on how they choose to share their story, while also making them out to be unreasonable when they dont give a rats behind about your bunk advice. never ever tell anyone not to share their experiences because it might trigger someone else. the whole POINT of this is to take control of your own shit. it is not my problem nor anyone elses if somebody gets triggered by something someone says. thats an excuse. you are the only one legitimizing addiction here. if you really want to respond to someone going through a tough time, then dont try to be some kind of saviour. just say something along the lines of "i understand, its pretty tough." you are looking down on me right now and you cant see that the only reason this situation has sprung up is because of your attitude along with the advice. the first time was okay, i read it and understood what you were trying to do. in my second comment, i said you had nice advice, but your advice is better off with someone else. to which you try to analyse me and assume im wallowing in self pity or seeking consolation and encouragement to engage in harmful behaviours. no dude, i just didnt want to continue this conversation with you. the only reason i am frustrated is because of your reply where you make assumptions about me. you cant see me, or feel me, or hear my thoughts, i was actually in a pretty decent mood at the time of my first comment because things have been looking UP for me. but that does not change the facts of my situation, things can get better and still be BAD. all i did was share the low parts because theyre the parts that are hard. it sucks that hearing my story makes YOU sad, but if youre only giving out advice to make yourself feel better, its not worth it and its not genuine, even if youd like to believe it is. i will not delete a single one of my comments, but go ahead and delete yours if youd like. id appreciate it if you make that your last reply, seeing as you said you would stop responding but made an entire paragraph, even including questions! what you want to hear is a "yes sir, ill follow your advice right now sir". reevaluate the way you respond to people who do not take your advice the exact way you want them to.

[@kiks12]

I'm glad youtube recognises my Minesweeper addiction and recommended this video to me as I've found a great new channel

[@myx9588]

You too? What's happening to us?!!

[@monty7131]

Yo same... PAH feels good to not be alone tho

[@jg9301]

SAME

[@Mutantcy1992]

I don't know the last time I played minesweeper and it got recommended to me too

[@Ethiixx]

I’ve tried to play it since Windows 95 and I’m terrible at it, never understood the rules enough to finish a single level 🙃

[@andriypredmyrskyy7791]

I want you to know that this is an incredibly approachable video about addiction. I'm sure it'll plant a seed in lots of people's minds about how to live their best life, not for anybody else, but for themselves. Future-you deserves some love.

[@sweettea735]

I started playing minesweeper ironically, to spite my friends who call me an ‘old man’ but I’ve somehow managed to fall in love with Minesweeper 😅

[@totally_not_a_bot]

I had a similar thing going with Osu. I wrecked both wrists. Repeatedly. Among other minor and major injuries, I seem to have collected a permanent wrist injury. It sucks more some days and less others, and directly correlates with use and stress. Typing this out on my phone stings a bit. Not worth it. There was a point when I was considering amputation. I decided against, thankfully. I would have hated prosthetics lol So yea. I feel your pain. I feel the intense, repeated, high-speed bursts of focused input. I feel the dozens of plays a day, most lasting 30 seconds or less. It sucks. I hope you can fully heal. This is Tim. Peace.

[@kiiro712]

Osu is really bad for wrists and hands, especially if you play with a tablet. I love rhythm games but I stopped playing Osu because how uncomfortable it feels

[@twinsisterr]

almost destroyed my wrist on osu a few years ago

[@finthefishsep20toma]

Struggling with a legit addiction to THC, this video was way more relatable than I expected it to be

[@meganlouise9007]

Hope you're doing okay! Hope you can overcome your addiction soon, you deserve to 💕

[@finthefishsep20toma]

@@meganlouise9007 thank you :) that's very kind of you. Sending you well wishes!

[@toastzombie18]

As someone with ADHD, I relate super hard. I've gone down the hyperfixatuon hole many, many times and the worst feeling is knowing that the fixation is toxic for you. I wish you all the best with figuring out a healthier habit. Regardless of minesweeper though (I'm a digital artist, I'm very familiar with carpal tunnel) TAKE CARE OF YOU WRIST TENDONS. When you're in pain, ice your wrist for 20 minutes at a time. For wrist maintenance, learn tendon stretches, there are a lot of resources online for this. Stretching before I do any repetitive wrist movement has been a life saver. It decreases a lot of pain and numbness that would otherwise happen.

[@orangeguy5463]

I'll be honest chief. You're explaining literally what I've gone through to the letter. Planted the seeds by friends explaining the rules, never quite got that good, then pandemic, then wrist pain. Although I also play some instruments and felt wrist pain from playing too much, compounded with a horrible addiction to minesweeper while listening to podcasts as a focus-tool to distract me from my work with something that still feels like my brain is actively engaging with something. It's all about the feeling of solving technical problems while actually just goofing off. I am even also a PhD student, in mathematics, and considered some information theoretic and cryptographic principles in terms of making guesses in minesweeper, but it didn't go anywhere.

[@ar1steia486]

As a top minesweeper player myself (player 4964672, rank 1327 trophies and rank 436 time with a 61.986 pb expert time as of writing) I have certainly had the feeling of hand cramps after a long run, but never to this level and not to where it impacted other facets of my life. I won't be leaving minesweeper anytime soon, but I'm glad that you can put your addiction behind, and wish you best of luck in your future endeavors!

[@LucasStraub]

I'm a minesweeper addict too. I also got minesweeperdotonline blocked because everytime something is taking too long, I go there and play a match. It's kinda funny see that I'm not the only one addicted to this silly game haha

[@mayanightstar]

A couple times a year I get wayyyyy too addicted to some mobile game or another, and it causes me a lot of shame. Thanks for sharing your story. Your online stats are still how they were- proud of you!

[@jakezepeda1267]

I do this too lol. But I've learned to embrace it because I often drop whatever it is very suddenly. Either by burning out or some whack update or something else takes over. For me, it's nicer having something to occupy me than doing nothing at all and I know I'm going to hit that burnout point sooner or later. It seems like a waste of time, but I learn stuff as a result of trying to optimize or just do better at whatever game I'm playing.

[@FrokenKeke]

Time to get on the Picross train, here we goooo!

[@codesymphony]

this

[@thatyoutubechannel9953]

I'm going to relapse on Tetris lmao I can't wait until I can't stop seeing tetrominos falling every time I close my eyes, I wanna feel that dread

[@Sigma.Infinity]

Easy solution to the arm problem - train yourself to use your non-dominant hand. It's a lot easier than most people realize. I did this years ago. It's great when my hand/wrist/arm starts complaining about overuse, I just switch to the other side for a while.

[@Mapsforunicorn]

I thought I was the only one! I can't believe you and others in the comments are experiencing the same thing! I have anxiety and I started using minesweeper to cope with anxious feelings, but it started becoming actually toxic. Instead of doing homework I would just sit there like a vegetable for hours and play minesweeper. I would close my eyes at night and I would be seeing minesweeper in my head. The thing that finally pulled the plug is that I finally faced my grades and noticed they were crumbling. I am still trying to rebuild my life, and hopefully I won't be sucked into coping with minesweeper again.

[@alexmasak]

I'm addicted too. I'll literally spend 3 or 4 hours playing at a time while listening to podcasts. I've had entire days where the majority of them were spent playing minesweeper. I've even solved minesweeper patterns in my dreams. We are not normal

[@plantpun]

You and minesweeper 🤝 me and mahjong solitaire. For real, it's so odd to start a game as a time waster or thing to do with your hands and it becomes a beast unto itself. Although, at the end of the day, we didn't fall into the gacha game hellhole, so we've got that going for us! Hope your wrist feels better soon

[@scoreunder]

I have so many friends who play MajSoul which just tells me you were a hair's breadth and the grace of god away from getting addicted to a Mahjong-themed gacha game

[@liz257]

Solitaire 🤧 I was addicted

[@XxguaxinimxX.]

I can relate to that. The feeling that you have an addiction, but you don't want to do that, yet something magically pulls you back to keep playing and playing... I think I've found a solution for this, that's how I overcome my addiction: It basically is to chain yourself and trowing the key away: you need to find some blocker (website blocker, app blocker, program blocker, etc..) that ask for a password to unlock the things you've blocked. Now you can generate a random long password that there's no way you'll remember, than its done! Now you can do the thing even if you want! Just be aware that you might have to use recursion here, that is, a blocker that blocks another blocker.

[@notveryhoney]

i didn't know there were other people like me who have this type of relationship with minesweeper, it makes me feel a lot better.

[@ronangregory4499]

This video was kind of a relief to see, because I didn't know being addicted to a simple puzzle game was something other people went through. It's not Minesweeper for me, its a game called Levels+ that I have almost 1000 hours in. It's gotten so bad at points, I'll be playing it while hanging out with people, or it will be all I do from the moment I get home from work (accompanied by KZbin and Podcasts ofc). I can't seem to focus on anything without it. Recently, I switched to Solitaire, but it's not any different. I get headaches and my eye has been twitching for weeks now. I wish I was able to do other things without getting the desire to move numbers around endlessly. I feel like I'm never productive or creative anymore.

[@iamerror]

I believe in you and your ability to let it go (if that's what you want)

[@dumbiev3263]

all the comments saying they would hallucinate or imagine minesweeper stuff during idle time/trying to sleep make me feel like im looking through a mirror haha. happens to me with a lot of games and activities i get obsessed with

[@idiomatic444]

Same

[@Cerealae]

I experienced something similar with Osu!, for some reason when I picked up the game again last year, I would routinely experience wrist and finger pain. Thankfully for me, not playing for a while causes skill loss which by itself was discouraging enough for me to not play substantially. Good luck on your journey off minesweeper and I hope you find a similar zen experience elsewhere.

[@bbkiki8480]

I’ve been playing minesweeper so much lately that I have a hard time falling asleep. I see the squares and the numbers when I close my eyes. It’s gotten so bad.

[@Arseniy_Arsenicum]

My God, I'm not alone... My addiction was so severe, that I've had to reinstall Windows, just to erase all of my records, and get rid of muscle memory of navigating programs tab in milliseconds to open minesweeper... Once I was on a date, it was going well, we've got to my place... And when something in me just yelled out: "I know, what we can do together! We can play minesweeper to see who can beat it faster!"... She laughed, thinking it was a joke... Nope... We spent two hours minesweepering away, then she left, and I've continued on my own... Never heard from her ever again... Minesweeper addiction is no joke...

[@fluffybutter4684]

I remember in my 2nd year of highschool I got bored one day and taught myself how to play and ended up developing a severe addiction to the game lol. It got to the point where my grades were dropping and I was starting to lose sleep because all I would do the second I got home was play minesweeper. Rinse and repeat for months. I reached a point where I could play the game through muscle memory so I'd just turn my brain on autopilot and zone out for hours on end. I forced myself to stop playing after awhile because it was literally causing me to dissociate which was NOT good for my mental health. This was such a hyperspecific experience that I went through so seeing that so many other people went through the same thing is somewhat comforting.

[@QuestingRefuge]

It's so tough when our bodies can't always do the things we love. RSI sucks! Wishing you the best of luck

[@teeks8713]

I find it pretty funny that I found this video, since I’m a Tetris addict that turned to minesweeper for a bit to try to help. I guess it’s nice to know I’m not the only one!

[@hyfi_n]

there have been points where ive played minesweeper so much i start imagining people around me as cells, like 1s and 2s, and how to strategically play them in crowds 😭

[@nodisponible8]

I had a similar situation with Factorio, it's weird how something can be so good that it hurts

[@putumaharanianggunningtyas7506]

omg finally someone that i can relate to. ive been playing for a year now. i played minesweeper all the time whenever i feel i need to focus like on meeting, starter for study time, etc. lately it became pretty strange because every time i wake up and every time i go to bed, i have huge desire to play it on my phone. how i start and end my day is by playing minesweeper. sometimes it comes to my dream like the block pattern, the bomb, the number. and every time i get little free time like waiting in the cashier line, on the train, etc ended by me playing minesweeper. it become too much i cant even enjoy it anymore but i cant stop. just like wth is going on. i became sick of it and started to play snake instead. now i try to give options to my brain to reduce the amount of time i play minesweeper. i play something else like puzzle and sudoku.

[@coal.sparks]

Well, it's good to know that I'm not the only one who has this kind of obsession. I have a number of games that I turn to that fit this bill (Big Fish took a lot of my money for them). I haven't played minesweeper in a while, but I was addicted to it in the 90s and early 2000s. It was a little harder than solitaire and yet it was something I could do while I thought about something else. I will play games like this while watching TV, chatting with family members, even while waiting for content to load in what I think of as "actual video games" (you know, the kind that make my graphics card hate me). I hope you can find one that doesn't hurt your body as much.

[@jameyowens81]

Got hooked on minesweeper in my early twenties. 1 second beginner, 3 second intermediate, and 17 second expert. Took months to kill the impulse to open the app compulsively

[@elsiekarlak741]

i totally get it. i occasionally get really attached to mobile puzzle games and the feeling of getting in the zone is so addictive. sometimes i get so deep in one that my brain will just think in whichever puzzle it is at the time and i'll do them in my head for that mini bump of zen. probably not the best for me

[@Cazra-VaporwaveWitch]

I experienced a similar form of speedrun-induced muscular trauma back when I used to speedrun a game called "PUSS!". I injured my hand trying to spam-click the first boss so that I could beat it in 2 cycles instead of 3. I had to take a break from the game for a while to recover.

[@raracool04]

I’ve been playing Tetris a lot recently, I play just with an Xbox controller, but some of the competitive ways to play show that some players’ wrists are made of steel. I’m genuinely surprised there hasn’t been much talk of wrist injuries in the classic Tetris community. One phenomenon that could be related to your (and my) addiction is Tetris Effect. It’s where, hours after playing Tetris, you still see the patterns of a Tetris game and sometimes even play games of it in your head. I get this a lot after watching Tetris tournaments, and it’s such a fascinating phenomenon that I have no doubt extends to Minesweeper.

[@brandontoh3194]

I... also developed an ache in my right wrist due to Minesweeper. That happened many years ago, during the Windows XP era. I relate so much to your love/hate relationship with the game - using it as a fidget game, chasing a faster time, sinking way too many hours into it instead of working...

[@alexatascher7500]

i had a severe addiction to minesweeper in my junior and senior years of high school; my grades suffered a lot because all i would do in class was play the game. other obsessions (killer sudoku is the most comparable and a jigsaw puzzle app is the most current) have replaced it since. sometimes i still dive into minesweeper for a few days, and seeing the literal thousands of hours i spent playing on my profile reminds me of the chokehold the game used to have on me. i have adhd, and minesweeper was the perfect amount of extra stimulation i needed while watching youtube or netflix or listening to a podcast. it definitely has a special place in my heart

[@bunadryl]

whenever i played minesweeper for a few days straight and went to sleep i literally imagined a minesweeper board and playing it and where to place flags it was so weird, similarly happened with solitaire

[@masonya101]

I always thought my wrist started hurting after a season working in a fast food chain. Like, pinching, or connecting all my fingers together, those thing are sometimes painful after I carry sth heavy. You've opened my eyes. It was always minesweeper. Hell.

[@haysdixon6227]

this is how i feel about sodoku, i’ve fallen into a habit of playing it whenever i have a few seconds compulsively and really need to stop

[@MaxPicAxe]

I have similar thing with my ears when listening to music. Sometimes, I say, that's it, I'm banning my left ear from listening to music for a few days to give it a chance to heal, but then I go back to listening max volume in both ears again and the cycle repeats.

[@M3LP]

As someone who use to smoke, quitting is a you thing, only you can quit, no one can help you quit.

[@rafiki_9562]

It took me a long time to break my minesweeper addiction, and I am so glad I did. I would hallucinate different patterns in the game because of how much headspace it took up

[@Bobbias]

Having done some damage to my wrist through playing rhythm games, this hits home.

[@davidkonevky7372]

I downloaded a minesweeper app like 6 months ago and I have been obsessed with trying to beat my high scores. I would randomly be thinking of bomb patterns in unrelated situations bc of how much I was obsessed with it. I'm now playing more nonogram but I still don't forget my minesweeper era

[@QBeeIII]

alongside the addiction, my forearm is constantly sore from all the minute movements needed to play fast

[@mac5565]

Very relatable video here. Since like 2018 I've been using Minesweeper and Tetris as a way to artificially increase the amount of podcasts, video essays, and music I can take in, while helping me pay more attention to them. My wrists are still mostly fine, but the arrow keys on my laptop are shot, and my general ｃｏｎｔｅｎｔ addiction is facilitated, and it kind of sucks really. Never figured out how chording works (that is what's it's called, right?), so at this point I don't even bother right clicking any more. It's like a section of my brain has been quartered off and dedicated to processing this algorithm while the rest barely even notices it's happening.

[@KlaustoFausto]

I'm also quite addicted to minesweeper. Not that I'm any good, I just love the rythm of the game and the quiet of mind it gives me. Just recently, I broke my own record and completed a 19 by 25 field with 150 mines (the shape is weird because I'm using a custom implementation from the app Simon Tatham's Puzzles, which is awesome I can only recommend it). I got 2 minutes 55 seconds, which for me is a spectacular time, yet it took months of grinding dozens of games a day in the public transport, at the café, during university, slowly bringing the time down second by second. I love the way you play, it's really quite efficient and honestly just beautiful. Watching this video, I have found a few moments where I was like "huh? How did he know there was no mine beneath that field" - and I have played probably hundreds of thousands of games over a decade now. I was about to point out those places and start a discussion, but that could just make it harder for you. For the past few months I told myself if I could only get beneath the 3 minute mark, I'd put away this game alas, in peace. This video helped me a lot in breaking my never ending addiction, thank you

[@mrnobody6609]

I used to play minesweeper like it was a drug that I was addicted to. You eventually get to the point that you can instantly solve it after the first click. The only thing that slows you down is your speed and accuracy with a mouse.

[@scoreunder]

I have a Kensington Expert Mouse and people keep thinking it's for wrist protection reasons or something but no I was just tired of my previous gaming mouse having ever so slight inaccuracies on the mousepad lmao. Your mouse journey resonates with me a lot

[@gulfgiggleanimations4472]

Thank you for making this video. I’ve been having wrist problems since early this year because of playing Metroid Dread way too much and mashing during boss fights. It wasn’t as difficult to stop as it seems for you with minesweeper, but my wrist is still far from healed. It still acts up after playing certain games, such as pc fps games. What really worries me is that it also hurts when I draw for a prolonged period of time. I love animating. It fills me with so much joy as I see everything come together with the pride of being able to say “I made that.” I’m incapable of articulating the dread of a possible future where I’ll need to give that up all because of a stupid chase for dopamine. On the bright side it’s been a good motivator to having better health, I’ve even been periodically doing workouts in an attempt to get my blood circulating more. To be honest, I don’t even know if it’ll get better for me, but I’m not going down without a fight. I’ll sleep a bit easier knowing that I’m not alone in this struggle.

[@dootdoot5124]

i had something similar to this in highschool! every single class for the whole school day id be on minesweeper as often as possible. or sudoku or solitaire or tetris. its so addictive!!!!

[@Lulink013]

Minesweeper is a confort game for me. An activity I can do without much thought or care for the outcome, just solving it square by square. And it's really easy for me to put down once I have something more stimulant to do.

[@pdnaa]

I'm using a split ergo keyboard with a tenting kit (Iris Rev 4) and a vertical mouse (MX Vertical), occasionally switching to a trackball. I've felt the pain of beginning RSI and carpal tunnel when I obsessively played CSGO (especially KZ, a movement game mode), so I decided to do everything about it to stop the pain. I play less, switched keyboard and layout (to Colemak), and got different mouses. It has helped a lot, but it shows the problematic side of how we currently interact with computers and how fragile our bodies can be.

[@eurosomething]

I once did one perfect click and the entire minesweeper map solved itself, it was so amazing, I've been chasing that high ever since.

[@juisefish]

I can really relate to this, even though my problem's with crochet. The simple repetitive motions really help get my autistic brain to focus, plus I get a big dopamine rush from being able to point to something and say that I made that over however many hours. The only problem is that I'm really bad at pacing myself, and instead of taking a break maybe every 30 minutes to do some simple hand exercises, I completely lose track of time and end out stressing my hands for literal hours straight. The only thing that gets me to stop is if I have to go grab a drink or if I can start to feel my hands become a weird mix of numb/on fire that I know can't be good, like what my right hand's stuck feeling as I type this. Sometimes I joke that I'm going to get early arthritis from this, but I know that that's the exact opposite of the future that I want. I love doing things with my hands, and the idea that one day I won't be able to make things at the same frequency that I do now scares me. All of that is to say that this video really struck a cord with me; I know that this was published a while ago, but I really do wish you luck with kicking your minesweeper addiction! I hope that everyone in the comments grouping together to tell their own stories and experiences is helpful to hear, too, because it's definitely been weirdly reassuring for me. I really enjoyed this video, and if you celebrate anything, I hope you have/are having a great holiday season :)

[@mashcake5988]

i relate to this so hard. i use to be really into rhythm games (i guess i still am but not so much playing them) and such especially 4 key games like osu mania, step mania, muse dash ect. but i had to completely cut myself off from them due to the same wrist pains. even when i felt early signs of the pain i just told myself that i just needed to change my posture while playing and itll all go away. so i kept playing until i got a really bad pain that lasted for 2 weeks. really tough stuff, luckly that was a year ago now and i haven't really played since then but i get how hard it is to stop especially when its routine. hopefully you are able to work through this as well!

[@indieIist]

I too struggle with my stims and finding ones that don't ultimately do more harm than good. Fantastic video!! ♥

[@professorunitato]

Minesweeper and Tetris friends were the absolute bane to my productivity in highschool

[@Northflowo]

as someone who has achieved minesweeper sobriety for two years now. you can do it we're all in this together

[@uniworkhorse]

It's interesting how single player games have this insidious innocence to them that make them more replayable than multiplayer games - I'm currently ̶o̶b̶s̶e̶s̶s̶e̶d̶ ̶w̶i̶t̶h̶ ̶ addicted to Noita, a really unique roguelike, but have bounced between FPSes like Valorant and Apex. Noita is just so much more comfy, doesn't bug out on me, lag, or call me names or rage. It's so fascinating that this form of single user media can almost... create a relationship with you that online multiplayer just can't. Love how articulate you are with your feelings of the topic and how the game GAVE you something - peace and focus. Very hard to quit something that helps you.

[@joffles6516]

I literally just spent 3 hours straight playing minesweeper… I can’t do this I’m at college and I have a crazy amount of homework to do. And now I’m watching this video instead of doing it

[@sejcai]

the fact that this video also blew up and has overtook the original minesweeper video is… something ah hell nah this man really put one of the most emotional songs from omori in the background

[@SilkDragonZen]

This is the first video of yours I've watched, but I've faced similar addictions and as it happens I'm also a practicing Zen Buddhist - y'know "meditates every day online with their sangha and teachers, attends retreats several times a year, has taken a bunch of precepts, etc."-kind. I hope you achieve your goal of never playing again since yeah, your wrists deserve your love and care and kindness so they can heal and stay healthy.

[@eggsontoast]

Playing Minesweeper in highschool was the start of a revolving door of mindless puzzle games. I would move between Minesweeper, Solitaire, Nonograms, Sudoku, and some other similar puzzles. Generally wrist pain gets me to stop for a while. It always starts back up again though. Similar to you, I would do these games as a focusing tool. I could listen to music, a podcast, long video essays, boring lectures. Or I could sit there for hours and daydream. Due to my ADHD, these things are difficult without something extra occupying my brain, and so Minesweeper & co. filled that gap. I'm going to take this video as a sign that I should try to quit again

[@umkm2k]

They say nothing on the Internet truly disappears... So somewhere in the vaults of 1999-2000 AOL Instant Messenger picture archives, there is a screenshot I sent my friend of my top time, 68-seconds. I never broke 70 again in all these years.

[@freddyccino]

Hi, I got this video recommended to me today and it is beautifully put together. I struggle with many hyperfixations and addictions because I have ADHD, and it's been especially difficult for me this year. One of my problems is crosswords, which has made it impossible for me to get out of bed, get food, attend uni classes, shower, and do homework. I also struggle from alot of joint pain due to a connective tissue disorder so whenever I get addicted to crochet or knit, it becomes a huge problem for my body. I think that you took an excellent approach to facing your addiction; you have a very real way of measuring your progress in recovery, and there is truly so much shame that is forever fucking nagging at you and is kind of impossible to keep to yourself. (And I want to remind you, because I personally know the guilt of it, that it's ok to have relapses and it doesn't make you a bad person in any way. We are naturally drawn to dopamine, and it is insanely difficult to cut off a huge part of your life and happiness and regular struggles so quickly. It often feels scary to even imagine being a person without your addiction because it feels so integral at that point. If you struggle with any of that too, I see you.) I wish that there were such measures of progress easily available for other addictions, as I've been trying to quit BRFBs (mainly nail biting) for over a decade with no longtime success. On a positive note, one addiction I HAVE overcome (just this year!) is my social media addiction, which has been in place since sometime in middle school. And I have many more to go! To anyone that comes across this comment, I love you and I wish everyone all the best in their personal recoveries ♡ If your addictions interfere with your physical health, then please try to take breaks every half hour if you partake in them at any point, and also try to maintain good posture and move your body around regularly! For wrist pain, a secret cause for some people is poor neck posture because your nerves connect to your wrists through your neck, so always keep that in mind if you start experiencing wrist pain. I hope that those tips are helpful to whoever may need them, I've had to find many cheats for reducing joint pain due to my disability.

[@DMTri-no8sh]

This video came up after an embarassing amount of time playing minesweeper and nonograms on my phone and listening to podcasts so I had to put my phone down and comment. I have noticed it's causing me some wrist pain for a couple of months, my wrists are pretty roughed up already from a sport accident. I've tried to quit but it's the best focus/stress stim I have right now. I've been trying to find a stim that maybe doesn't fuck up my wrist as bad and I don't accidentally spend 3 hours on it but nothing seems to stick. Great video btw!

[@zoe9987]

This is honestly one of my worst fears, minesweeper is my therapy after a long day, and feeling pain in my wrist after a couple hours of play is fairly standard for me. Good job on managing to quit, I'll keep an eye on those numbers for you ;)

[@poptartmcjelly7054]

I used to speedrun minesweeper in class endlessly because i was so hooked. My record was 46 seconds but i don''t remember which board size it was.

[@Feverm00n]

Thanks for talking about this! Not enough credence is given to various behavioral compulsions and addictions, and the power they can truly have. And we collectively need to wake up to this fact as we spend more and more time at the whim of developers and technology. And really the only productive way to do that is to do it with compassion for ourselves/those who are addicted. It’s interesting that you talk about the “zen” feeling of playing. For me, it’s Free Cell. Though I never saw it as feeling particularly zen. Maybe it’s because I’m very familiar with the concept due to mental health issues, but the feeling of playing Free Cell always felt more to me like some kind of dissociation. A way to make whatever else I was doing more tolerable, a numbing. Maybe combined with a mild flow state, as I am familiar enough with the game that I navigate it very smoothly. It feels to me like the opposite of a “zen” feeling. But I guess it depends on how one defines feeling “zen.” I think of ultimate non-judge mental presence, mindfulness, groundedness. Free cell makes me feel checked out, maybe slightly serene, able to easily passively let information flow over my brain because my attention is elsewhere (vs my attention being on the moment, the flow itself). But I don’t know what I’m talking about really. I do heavily, HEAVILY relate to your experience though. Best of luck with your attempt to quit! Maybe you could make a follow up video sharing what coping skills and strategies helped you change. I know I could benefit from hearing what works for you!

[@mullinu546]

Listened to this while playing minesweeper. But anyway. I play on my phone. That solves the mouse arm problem.

[@chiyo9014]

I have to play minesweeper for at least an hour before I go to bed every night. It's amazing how fast you can get at it.

[@shawkbait]

holy shit, ive been playing minesweeper for almost a year bc of the first video on speedrunning. ive learned so many strategies and techniques since i first started, which is cool and all, but so much of that time was spent playing the same game over and over instead of collegework and zoom classes ToT i use the same site for minesweeper too- the quests and everything keep me going its kind of surreal seeing the person that started it all for me recounting on those experiences, in a way i connect. Im glad u are severing your connecting to minesweeper, i personally will probably continue to grind away on expert and evil boards. As someone with ADHD and really bad control on my impulses, its nice to see someone like you get over this addiction!

[@narconyx]

I get this, I'm a drummer and got into doing remixes with drum pads, I once played drums to the point where my thumb on my hihat hand actually bled. Similarly with remixes, hitting a slab of plastic at stupidly high BPM at a fast speeds can totally screw up my wrist. But at the same time drumming is my life and it's not something I can just give up, it's hard balancing the urge to play with the need to relax and let myself heal. When I didn't have hearing protection every play session would leave me with tinitus for the next 2 hours but that wouldn't stop me from coming back to it.

[@stroudw]

Weight lifting for your arms, shoulders, and forearms will help with this. I played fps games on pc a lot and exercise of this kind really helps.

[@shenahan4999]

i was playing minesweeper while watching this and i kid you not at 9:41 just a little bit after you mentioned your high score, i literally got MY all-time high score, and it was ALSO 77 seconds!! i jus play the google minesweeper but still... crazy

[@victorias.f.]

This video reminded me of my complicated relationship with Solitaire. I used to spend hours playing it on my computer, while listening to music, with yt videos on the background, I couldn’t do anything without having a Solitaire tab open. It was everything I thought about. I had to uninstall it because I wasn’t being productive and wasting all my free time. I still play it sometimes, and miss it so much. Thank god it didn’t affect me physically like your minesweeper addiction. Hope you’re doing better!

[@french-ishtoast]

I’ve always played google minesweeper during class and nobody else ever knew how to play

[@wuwubean]

not me playing minesweeper while listening to this video. well jokes on you MY wrist issues come from rhythm games, so clearly I don't have an issue /j no but legitimately i've been having this issue with minesweeper, sudoku and all it's variants, tetris, 2048, and most lately solitaire. for me these games are the only ways for me to clear my head. and my issue isn't with my wrist, (again, rhythm games caused that problem), it's actually with my vision and head. I get ocular migraines, and staring at these kinds of games for too long brings them on and prevents me from seeing for a bit. after this video I think i'm going to go read a physical book and let my eyes rest.

[@hellgazer8370]

yeah... it happened to me as well. i played minesweeper in my mind at night, trying to figure out board patterns and what made sense. it also happened with tetris 💀

[@fascher_]

I've never played the game, but I can relate. Kudos to you for being public about this as well, and keeping your numbers the same. That takes guts. For me, I've been addicted to social media and tried to stop for years. A year ago I managed to cut down the two biggest sites taking up my time: twitter & tumblr. Reddit is really difficult to leave for good, but every time I go back and force myself off it, it gets a tiny bit easier. Last is KZbin, but yeah I've already got more time than before. It was really hard to quit because I didn't realise I had other habits and addictions that fed into it. Like for instance, listening to music on my headphones. Headphones block out the world and all distractions. Once I stopped wearing them, distracting myself got easier. But I could only stop wearing headphones once my environment around me changed. I was using headphones to block out noise so I could think clearly. My environment could only change once I stood up for myself. I could only do that after I got help from others etc etc etc... it was all connected. This is just my experience, and I'm not out of the woods yet, but things are getting better. I just wanted to share since I think sometimes issues or habits that seem unrelated could be contributing.

[@milefiori7694]

Seems like a game with visual candy decorated with sparkling effects with earape audio design is not everything in video game. Sometimes the one that is interesting by design is enough to engage someone to keep playing. Until their wrist break...

[@lily91109]

I used to play minesweeper on windows93... Replaced it with Crypt of the Necrodancer for a bit, now I obsessively crochet. Crochet has the rhythm, the counting, and I can bring it anywhere I go. My wrists don't hurt atm but I don't think I'll be shocked when they do.

[@heather19515]

damn. she's smart. crowdsourcing accountability

[@ritac.g3314]

I have the same thing but with tetris, and it's making me anxious, depressed and insomniac. I am an artist and it is breaking my creativity. But I can't stop, it's an scape from my negative thoughts and problems. It's horrible.

[@tumbke]

I suggest getting a drawing tablet. And wrap the pen with really thick tape so that you’re gripping a thick boy and won’t cause your hand much tension (a trick we got from tattoo artists). Hourly stretching helps too. I’m a digital artist who works with wrist and arm pain daily. Switching to a drawing tablet is much more ergonomic than a mouse. Afaik ergonomic mice is modeled pretty similar to how you hold a pen but i holding a pen is way more intuitive imo. This might you work in less painful ways. Your vids are really good and i hope to see you more in much healthier ways.

[@anthonyrepetto3474]

I was playing minesweeper obsessively, back in 2006... but I was doing something particularly insane: speed/instinct! Just KEEP CLICKING QUICKLY! No cognition! Try to remove your rational and judgement-based thinking... enter FLOW-state. Just click, click. Escape all fear of mine-death. It's a bizarre act... and you will start to do REALLY WELL, considering that you're clicking randomly. Don't think about how it's happening. Just click fast, continually, NO thinking.

[@SmolJordan]

okay i used to be totally obsessed with minesweeper so i related hard to this video, and during the first half I had a burning urge to recommend playing tetris because that's where my addiction turned after a while and i became obsessed with nes tetris instead. then you revealed YOU WERE ALREADY STARTING TO DO THAT, blew my mind ngl. they both scratch a similar itch in some ways. I found tetris to be more enjoyable in the long term simply because minesweeper is more RNG dependent, but i love both games. Both games have also caused me wrist pain from overplaying. really excellent video

[@colawaffle]

What first started off as playing minesweeper in class to kill time slowly became an addiction of me hallucinating and not being able to sleep over constantly imagining minesweeper patterns and solving them. My right hand is notably less flexible and a lot more stiff compared to my left, and I play minesweeper using a trackpad so you can imagine how much more constrained my hand is compared to using a normal mouse.

[@janewan1196]

thanks for this video, this will help me keep track track of my own physical health while doing the things I enjoy. it may be a false sense of hope, but I feel like my own game diversification will help: my hobbies include modern tetris, Rubik's cubes, chess, the occasional mobile minesweeper, and much more, and I hope that that variety keeps my joints and ligaments supple for a long time

[@bilgtex]

I have a similar situation but with various solo patience games. I have at any point no less than three decks of cards on me, and I cannot get enough of solving the games over and over.

[@sydney7701]

help i saw this in my recommended while i am addicted to minesweeper ... ive been trying my best to speedrun and have started to memorize complex patterns i can't stop

[@Emma-eo1tq]

One time I spent all night playing minesweeper and got really freaked out by the sidewalk on the way to middle school the next day!! That was a tough phase. It also gave me carpal tunnel syndrome at university.

[@Emma-eo1tq]

Not as bad as 2048 for me nowadays

[@jlnrdeep]

My solution to this kind of problem of carpal tunnel was adapting the dualshock controller as a keyboard mouse via steam and using the triggers as left/right buttons this helped a lot with the hand pains and it's useful to play any kind of game

[@Snakeyes244]

After overcoming drug addiction, I found that video games such as Minesweeper and more so RuneScape had become a serious addiction in replacement. Video games are really not that different than addictive drugs. Still struggling to get past it. So so relatable for anyone with addiction.

[@progect3548]

I once played minecraft for approx 800 hours over the course of 6 months or so, but I thankfully didn’t experience health issues. hopefully you get better soon :)

[@miracles423]

The algorithm decided having minesweeper in the title worked again! Congrats on this vid blowing up and good luck with the detox!