How has Doom helped your personal life?

So this thread is gonna get a little deeper, as it's going to involve more personal topics. That being said, it's always nice to get to know more about people. 

For me personally, Doom has always helped me through a lot of life situations. Especially in more recent times, playing Doom has not only helped motivate me and get me through tough times, playing it almost feels therapeutic for me. 

As an example, after going through a break-up with my first girlfriend, I spent an entire day playing Doom. I remember playing Deus Vult II, with a gameplay mod that I don't quite remember (I think it might have been one of PillowBlaster's mods like Russian Overkill). But what I do remember is that I played through all the way to the end, even when in most cases of playing Doom, I would stop to take frequent breaks due to fatigue. I remember taking only one break to eat something, and that was it. By the time I was all finished, I actually felt so much better in general, like I felt more capable. All of that, I did after spending several days wallowing in my own self-pity, only to play some Doom to take my mind off the fact that I felt like I had failed horribly as a boyfriend. 

Another story is that some time after finishing Doom 2016, I couldn't help but feel this improvement in my performance at the gym, where more often than not, there would be this "inner Doomslayer" telling me to just finish this one set, even if I was hurting a lot. According to my inner Doomslayer, "don't stop when you're tired, stop when you're done." As a result, I've channeled more of my aggression into my reps, and it shows in my results, both physically and mentally. Working out is every bit as psychological as it is physical. 

This next example may not involve actually playing a Doom game, but working on my Doomguy cosplay has brought me a lot of good things. In fact, working on it is probably one of the few times where I truly felt at peace with myself. Social media and just spending time on my phone had brought me into a deep depression, and working on the cosplay helped a ton in diverting me from said social media. Especially during the last few months of 2016, which were rather rough on my mental health, the Doomguy cosplay helped immensely in me taking one day at a time. 

As of late, I've been playing lots and lots of Complex Doom to deal with my own feelings of uncertainty about my own future, especially because I'm heading into my senior year of college, I'm looking to enter this program that's supposed to get me a master's degree in five years as opposed to six, and my parents pretty much expect me to have a job fresh out of college. 

Case in point, I'm doing a full run-through of Plutonia, something I haven't done in years. 

So, what's your story? 

Doom tells me if something is difficult, try to think of a different approach, or an approach suits you. You'll get a lot of these feelings by playing difficult maps and try your best to find a way to get through it. Other things are plannings limited things or stuffs.

Doom is what inspired me to write music, so... I guess there's that.

No personal feelings or situations involved in this one but it's a good thing that I met, played and know Doom up to this day. 

Or else, I wouldn't have the knowledge or met you ladies and gentleman in forums and stuff like that.

Other than that, by playing Doom, the game tells me: Git gud

I can imagine a life without Doom.

It would be much better, productive, and enjoyable.

Neither running maps nor mapping in and off itself has helped my personal life in any way shape or form, but I can say, with certainty, that it also did not get in the way of my personal life, and that's what's most important.

The mapping aspect of it has served as a great creative outlet for me during times when I can't bring myself to do anything else but still feel the need to make something. Beyond that, it really hasn't affected me much at all.

It's probably hurt my productivity and my social skills, if anything.

In personal stuff? nothing. but it did help me to start Mapping which is something i appreciate

Nope, Doom has not changed anything in my personal life, that's a positive thing. The negative side is that I spend a lot of time playing Doom in my bedroom, for someone of my age, it sounds embarrassing, for me, it's what I like to do until serious business like studies and jobs come to me (and I mean, next week). Another negative point is that I don't know anyone from my neighborhood or, my country, that also plays Doom like I do, so this is me-only stuff, despite sharing in this forum, it's not the same feeling. 

Thinking of Doom makes me kick ass. All I have to do is hum the D_RUNNIN solo in my head and I turn into a badass.

Doom is a prime example of old and dated still worth being appreciated. It has actually taught me that lesson.

Also, Doom has helped me through many moments of boredom

It helped my personal life disappear :/

Doomworld was my best English teacher.

7 hours ago, Decay said:

I can imagine a life without Doom.

 

It would be much better, productive, and enjoyable.

This is true as fuck but the part of me that's been addicted to the game/community for eons is like NO! DOOM GOOD! REAL LIFE BAD!

Doom kinda taught me when I feel depressed and shit I need to download a slaughtermap and bfg the shit out of them. it's my kinda guilty pleasure or something.

7 hours ago, Decay said:

I can imagine a life without Doom.

 

It would be much better, productive, and enjoyable.

It would be more productive for sure. Better, well,  if productivity is important to you.  Enjoyable? Hell no.

8 hours ago, YukiRaven said:

Doom is what inspired me to write music, so... I guess there's that.

This. Dunno where I'd be without it to be honest

This game makes me feel at home...

It gave me so many amazing years of memories. Whenever I'm feeling down or upset, ZDaemon is always there for me. I cannot imagine my life w/o this epic game in it. Mapping for doom has enhanced my creativity skills quite a lot, and is a great mood booster for me too!

And like any other FPS game, as they say, it helps you to focus better irl, and improves problem solving skills as well ... and makes you feel good about yourself after beating a hardcore survival map, or being on top of the Fragboard!

So yeah, #DoomForever! <3

It has helped me to go trough some rough times, actually. It's so straightforward that I don't even need to think all that much or listen to expository dialog so I can understand a story. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but in those moments I just want to blast the shit out something and feel like a one man army.

It's helping me combat my social autism when I make my LP videos. And it helps me learn how to multitask (Dooming and simultaneously trying to tell a story is an extremely difficult task). 

Also, Skulltag is what introduced me to the glories of PC multiplayer gaming and shitposting in game chat. Not sure if either one of those are benefits but yeah.

Doom is a creative outlet and stress reliever for me.  I try to make my maps reflect my mood at the time of mapping.

complete freaking opposite

It keeps me from actually chainsawing people.

I'm not sure Doom itself has helped my personal life much, but a few people (and one wad in particular) in the Doomworld community certainly have in my 5 years+ of being here so far.....

Thanks to Tarnsman comparing me to the "DSP of Doom streaming" a few years ago, I learnt (slowly) how bad my rage could be perceived by others. (combined with other such feedback from elsewhere)

Thanks to Alfonzo, I learnt that being persistent via "banging my head against a wall" is a poor life choice, and that it was perfectly acceptable to play Doom wads on other difficulties than UV, which I then applied to Sunlust.

And thanks to Sunder, I learnt that it's fine to walk away from playing certain types of Doom wads if you're not enjoying them.

Granted I'm still learning these lessons slooooooooowly, but I've become more conscious of how my "rage" is unacceptable at times, and to enjoy things more in general instead of trying to be all "UV only" and "rawr rawr this wad sucks why am I playing it?" I want to be more the nice guy than the angry one, which I guess is useful in my personal life. Thanks Doomworld community for constructively pointing out some flaws that needed fixing.

5 hours ago, Memfis said:

Doomworld was my best English teacher.

This, I hope my english isn't too bad lol

Doom has pros and cons for me. I use to map when I feel a little depressed and I tend to procrastinate another aspects of my life while doing it but on the other hand I really enjoy making maps because is a creative process, kind of when someone creates a song or a painting so I prefer to have it than not to.

it provides me with some entertainment, that's how it helps me

4 hours ago, stru said:

It's helping me combat my social autism when I make my LP videos. And it helps me learn how to multitask (Dooming and simultaneously trying to tell a story is an extremely difficult task). 

Absolutely true. Doing commentary videos has helped me a lot, such as public speaking or multi-tasking.

Still waiting for your SOD Map07 video. Wait, I guess you're busy f(ight)-ing Zapdos this time ;P

Doom is why I chose programming as a career. It still continues to influence me as I'm studying software engineering.