Tasha Dhanraj has a reality check

Hello. I’m Tasha, and I am addicted to a computer game. I’m 18 years old. I should be out protesting in the streets about some infringement of human rights in some country I heard about on Twitter.

I should not be spending my Friday nights playing The Sims 3.
If anyone ever questions my loyalty, they should look at my dedication to The Sims. I’ve been playing the game on and off for 12 years now.

I’ve bought the expansion packs, I bought The Sims 2, The Sims 3… In fact, I’ve been playing it since I was so young that my username on the official Sims forum is ‘boffinbabe12’.

The Sims is a game where you design a family and a house and then control their every move. For a young megalomaniac without many friends, the appeal is obvious.

When I was seven I used to play it in the mornings before school and until bed time when I got home. I was a bit of a loner child. My best friend went to another school, so my only companion during the tough times of Year 2 was my teddy that I took with me every day.

Then, as actual education began to take more of a hold and I felt compelled to get a social life, I felt less inclined to play my beloved game so constantly.

The Sims became something to break up extended lengths of boredom, such as school holidays. Of course, I’m now on my ‘gap yah’ – the longest school holiday I am ever going to have. My Sims playing opportunities are limitless.

The real problem now though is that I am too old to just enjoy it for what it is. I have to analyse my sick reasons for playing it. I’ve deduced that it is something to do with my innate need to feel that I have some kind of power over something, in particular during this time when I am waiting for my exam results and then will have to apply to university with the terrifying prospect that there’s nothing I can really do about any of it!

And if I’m honest, once you look at something that way it becomes a severely less carefree and enjoyable way to waste an afternoon and more some kind of alternative therapy.

I just feel that if I’m going to waste my life away doing something, I’d like it to be at least something that takes me away from my own anxiety-ridden reality.