Am I Too Old To Be Into Videogames And Anime?

Hi there. As the topic title indicates, I'm having an issue where I'm wondering if I'm too old to enjoy video games, anime, and other things I've always enjoyed. This is actually a pretty complex psychological issue I'm having and I didn't know where else I thought would be better to ask than here.

I'll keep the details and backstory brief as I can.

I'm 35 years old, I'm autistic and have some other issues I haven't identified yet, and I'm recovering from back-to-back major, MAJOR clinical depression and depersonalization episodes that started in early August. I've had these depression episodes going back at least since I was 18, but they don't function like other depression issues I've found yet. When I get these episodes in, they erase my emotional feeling of self-identification and paralyze me with irrational fear of age, death, and even time itself. I don't self-harm and I've got medical care for it, but it still comes back and wrecks havoc on my entire concept of existence.

What I'm feeling tonight, and I can't tell if its the depression or if I really feel this way, is that I'm too old to enjoy the stuff I enjoy. Despite my mental issues and autism, I'm actually deeply devoted to living like a mature, responsible adult. Quite literally, I aim to be something like Hank Hill or a toned-down Ned Flanders. I'm married, I own a house and a car, and me and the wife are trying to have kids (we are not childless by choice and never will be). My wife has some extremely large issues herself and both of us are just barely straddling the line of being legally disabled, but we don't consider ourselves disabled. We're both religious and extremely spiritual while keeping up on science and rational thinking (we're not conservative christians and we keep our beliefs to ourselves). I have all the adulting and maturity I need out in the world that I should be able to tell myself I can enjoy cartoons and games if I want to, but for some reason, I have this emotional feeling like I'm doing something wrong in life. Like still wanting to watch cartoon and play games and go to theme parks and write fanfiction or submit stuff to Creepypasta means I'm some kind of sick person who's trapped in a prolonged adolescence and not growing up correctly.

What complicates things is that unlike the last times I've had existential depression and confusion, this time I'm really not a young man anymore. I refuse to be afraid of getting old and dying under normal mental functioning because those are the stupidest things in the world to be afraid of (I'm Christian but I'm big into reincarnation and the universe replaying variations of this timeline again, making fear of death or old age completely without merit), but the emotional feelings that tell me I'm old and I'm too old to be myself remain strong and have numbers to back them up. I'd also like to add that no one in my life is giving me shit for this either. Not my parents, not my in-laws, not anyone from church, no one online, no one at all. You'd think that would help, but it doesn't.

It's easy to say, "Who cares about my age? I'll do whatever I want and fuck anyone who doesn't like it!" like the wisdom goes, but it's another thing when you do actually get old and don't see a lot of other people your age watching anime, getting into emulation, writing fanfiction and basically doing the same stuff they were doing on the internet 17 years ago. I don't see a lot of lawyers, tax preparers and real estate business owners my age doing that stuff in their off time. I'm not "normal" enough to truly fit in with that level of maturity, but I'm not "abnormal" enough to justify doing the same things I enjoyed before my balls dropped either. Add the total mindfuck of the depression/depersonalization and I seriously don't know what to think.

Any thoughts on something like this? Any examples I can counter-balance against the depression voices?
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Comments

Mythical
You should enjoy the things that make you happy! These things are good hobby's and if people are dicks about your hobbies their opinions aren't really worth caring about. You probably already have, but you should talk to a therapist about how you feel as they can help reassure you're on a good path and doing things that are well for you
 
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MeteoXavier
I see my general doctor about this and I trust him fairly good. He's pretty general and kind of easy to get pills from, but he's been good all the same. I don't want to see a proper therapist about it because I've largely been convinced these thoughts are from the disease.

It's only now that the disease seems like it's receding again thanks to my medicine (Venlafaxine) and me still having these thoughts that I'm wondering if its still the disease or its me. I didn't feel way at age 35 before August, but I do tonight. It's really hard to tell if it's me or the disease, but the fact remains that I don't see other healthy, mature 35-year-olds devoting all their free time to games, anime, forums, fanfiction and other culture things still typically associated with young college students and high school students.
 
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S
It's just a phase. I used to feel I was too old for video games when I was 14 yrs. Is it really hard to find older people who don't play video games? I see people all the time who play video games in 20's 30's and 40's. I've been surprised when someone tells me they play games and watches Anime that doesn't looks like the typical nerd. It really easy to find them if you ask if they play games.

It can be bad or good you make it whatever you want.
 
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MeteoXavier
SG854 said:
Is it really hard to find older people who don't play video games?
Click to expand...

Definitely these days it's better, but it's my whole livelihood that this is attacking. Beyond video games. I really do still live like some 16-year-old weeb on the internet and even though I can't think of a real logical obstacle to that, I don't see other grown men or women doing that. Even the younger folk on similar forums to this see the occasional middle-ager doing it and going "LOL, aren't you way too old for that shit?"
 
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DKB
I'm was growing out of video games, and anime while I used to watch it a lot more in the past, I don't anymore. I'm going to be 23 in less than a week. But, I agree with one of the first replies, it's just a phase. I'm starting to play games a lot more, and my brother, which is about the same age as you, still likes both of those things.

Age don't mean jack. Do whatever you makes you happy. Don't stop doing something just because some fool said: "You're too old for those things." It's not like a damn police officer is going to break into your home just because you're watching anime. I'm sure there's 50 and 60 year olds from Japan who are watching anime as we speak.
 
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V
Nobody can be "too old" for something they love. As long as what they're doing is legal, who cares what others think!
 
Quantumcat
The only thing age has to do with it is that as you get older you might not get as much pleasure out of these things. Since this is a common thing that happens, society might make you think that you're not allowed to get pleasure from them. If you CAN get pleasure, then go for it! You're lucky! If anyone makes you think otherwise, then they're just jealous and/or missing out. If it only comes from yourself, you can rest easy telling that voice to f off.
 
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S
@MeteoXavier
To me I would hate to become a boring adult. Taxes, Bills, Work and that's it. What is life if that's what its all about? I see these really old people and I can't relate, I'm from the gaming anime generation.

I think its a phase we all go through. I went through the same kind of thinking too.


There's a few reasons that made me feel that way. Spending all my time on games made me feel unaccomplished. I feel like I wasted time when I could've done something more productive. So it wasn't video gaming that was making me feel bad, it was wasted time. Which could've been anything else, just replace gaming with watching TV, staring at a wall, really anything.

So after some thinking I narrowed it down to time wasting making me feel bad and not games. Games are not the culprit. What makes me feel better is balancing. Play games but also focus on other things in life.

People don't really care if you're a gamer as long as you have other things going for yourself and are a cool person.


Do you go out often? Or are you just mostly at home. Maybe its telling you something. Like to do other things in life. Maybe that's why you feel that way?
 
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TastifulBurger
Let me tell you about this man from Japan.
His name is Masao Gunji, he is a retired police officer, and he is in his 60s right now.
He has a very large Hello Kitty collection, to the point where he is known in the Guinness Book of Records as the largest holder of HK merchandise at 5,169 items worth nearly $250,000, surpassing Asako Kanda's collection of 4,519 items.
His wife helped him in building the collection and people from his neighborhood enjoy looking at his nooks & crannies of Kitty, so much so that they encouraged him to count the number of items to get the title.
This geezer is likely to have seen the dark side & moronic side of people since his job is to deal with them on multiple occasions and such a thankless task is likely to drain him of his spirits.
“Hello Kitty has always cheered me up when I was unhappy,”
3nfLBJF.jpg

Moral of the story? Even in the most serious professions, people have interests their peers would consider to be unusual for their age and/or job.
 
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Paulsar99
You're never too old for anything. Life is already too short so just enjoy what you want and do things that makes you happy.
 
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Jiehfeng
Trust me, most people have misunderstood what maturity really means. It doesn't mean you're only going to do big boy things now, it's just that you're now responsible for yourself and your actions, that's the basic thing. Even most so called adults are basically 14 year olds, intelligence stops growing at the age of 14, everything else is just dead knowledge and ego that you collect from society.

Don't try to fit in, that's the first problem. Rather, take pride in your differences and if you really want, find people who have similar interests. It's better to first achieve this kind of independence and aloneness first though.
 
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billapong
I don't think there's an age limit on video games, but if you're no longer enjoying them then what's the point in playing them? Maybe you could try to find new hobbies or sort out the issues that are preventing you from enjoying them? There's no requirement to play them on a daily basis. If you aren't having fun put them down for some time and come back to them later and see if you can find any enjoyment. If not then just try to think back at all of the fun you had and move on. There's no reason to purposely make yourself miserable.
 
Alexander1970
Hello.:)

Too old ? :rofl2:

You will find here People aged 50+ and more (If you can believe what is stated in some Personal Profiles here.:rofl2:).
And contrary to the "stupid" saying "Video games makes you stupid", it helps many People who have physical or mental Limitations.:)

If it makes you HAPPY and you have FUN ->> Play video Games as long as you like and live.:yaysp::yaynds::yaywii::yayps3:

Thank you.:)
 
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The Real Jdbye
You're never too old for video games. I wouldn't be surprised if many of us still play games when we're 70+ years old.
Considering a lot of anime is aimed at adults I don't see anything wrong with watching it at 35. Maybe just a tad weird, but we're all weird in our own ways, nothing wrong with that.
And my motto has always been "you do you as long as you're not bothering anyone".
 
FAST6191
"I really do still live like some 16-year-old weeb on the internet"

Psychology and general marketing wonks have noted for years that most people crystallise their interests around what they liked when they were 19.

Modern game consoles have lost me somewhat but I got myself a £10 360 the other day (I have otherwise put together a decent 360 library this last few years) and found myself up at 5 in the morning several nights in a row. I am unable to put into words right now what has caused that apathy as visually and mechanically many games are barely distinguishable from PS360 efforts (I was more than 19 when the PS360 hit by the way), though I dare say a focus on online multiplayer, microtransactions and how utterly "safe" a lot of things seem to play it these days probably covers most of it.

Something similar could also apply to anime for me -- I was never involved in the subculture of the time but there is also a reason I know video editing and IRC. Seeing those lists of upcoming things I am usually invariably apathetic (justified as well as none of those have ever been talked about more than 2 years later where people will still tell me of other things).

Additionally while I can stay up to 5am playing games if I want then some might have more limited free time and that might change that and have to consider their time more carefully.
 
Henx
This made me think as I go through this a lot of the time, but not because I like games. As someone said the problem is the sense that we are wasting time. Nowadays I have a journal to keep me on track, so I don't do too much of one thing.

Do you have a purpose in life? If not, find it. Our whole life revolves around finding this purpose. Then make a plan and pursuit it!
When your life has a meaning, happiness will come naturally, and everything else you do to have fun won't feel like prejudice. Time will be available for you to do the things you like then. Or you won't miss them at all, who knows!

Being involved in a community helps with the sense of purpose. But joy is also found, when helping others.

Since you mentioned mental problems, take care of your health! Although I never had serious mental problems, feeling down is common.
When you are not healthy you are limiting your potential, the best you can be.
Follow these steps:
* Sleep is the most important, I recommend this book, "Why We Sleep: The New Science of Sleep and Dreams by Matthew Walker".
* Diet. Try to eat less things that are bad for you. Reduce meat/fish, carbs, etc. Eat more fruit and healthy vegetables. Try different sources of protein, like tofu, tempeh, etc.
* Last but not least, endure exercise a couple of times per week. Go for long walks, running, or do bodyweight at home.

Don't worry too much about what others think.
Change things slowly, don't change everything at once. It took me a long time to change my diet and habits completely. But the results are fantastic!
 

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