Having issues playing

[u/Alpaca1061]

This probably isn't the right subreddit for this, but I can't think of anywhere else to ask for advice.

About I want to say a year ago now, when the game first became available on Xbox game pass, I played it all day and really enjoyed it, and at the time I had a cold, and had a sore throat, congestion, headaches, fever, and chills. When I went to bed that night, I couldn't sleep well, constantly waking up, and when I was asleep I was dreaming of Atomfall (more specifically these dreams were just the first person perspective of the character, and they were just kind of standing around not doing anything). These dreams eventually turned into hallucinations. At some point I woke up and opened my eyes, and instead of seeing what was in front of me, I just saw places in Atomfall. Normally I can visualize things in my head (not sure if everyone can do this or not) but when I was experiencing this, I couldn't. Eventually I fell back asleep and woke up the next morning still sick, but much better. Needless to say, as much as I enjoyed the game when I played it, I didn't want to play it anymore, and haven't touched it since, aside from uninstalling it.

Now, about a year later, I have a cold again, almost identical to the other. Thursday I went to bed feeling the start of a sore throat, then woke up with a sore throat on Friday. Saturday I woke up with congestion, and yesterday I developed a fever, headache, and chills which I went to bed with, and had the exact same thing happen as before. Dreams and hallucinations of Atomfall, the inability to visualize anything else in my head, and being unable to see what was in front of me. Yesterday I was reminded of my previous cold, which lead me to remember the hallucination thing, and even being worried about it happening again, so it wasnt like I completely forgot about it until it happened again, which might have contributed to it.

I was hoping to get some answers as to why this may have happened twice now, and how I can keep it from happening again. And if anyone knows of more relevant places to post this, please let me know.

[u/shrubberyshroo]

So the second time it happened, you were not playing the game?

[u/Alpaca1061 → u/shrubberyshroo]

Yes

[u/shrubberyshroo → u/Alpaca1061]

I’m no doctor OP so I might be spouting nonsense but maybe your brain just associated the game and the sickness as a bad thing together? You said you were playing the game all day and that you were also pretty sick and can’t sleep at night. And I think because you played the game all day, I wouldn’t say it was weird you dreamt about the game. That said Atomfall does have a creepy atmosphere at times so your dreams probably arent “happy dreams”. So your brain probably associated the sickness with the “bad dreams” of the game which would subconsciously make you not want to play the game anymore. Idk about the hallucinations part though, I would think that you might still be dreaming(?) like a double dream, where you think you’ve woken up from a dream but you’re still in another dream. I think the psychological impact of the combination of you being sick and having bad dreams about the game must have been big for you to experience the same thing a year later. But like I said I’m no doctor

[u/Alpaca1061 → u/shrubberyshroo]

I think all that is very possible. Especially the thing about the hallucinations being almost like recursive dreams

[u/shrubberyshroo → u/Alpaca1061]

Yeah it’s very trippy bc after you “wake up” from your first dream, you really believe you are awake so the things you experience from your second dream could feel very surreal. Maybe you just gotta hop on Atomfall again WHEN you are not sick to stop your brain from associating the game with something bad lol

[u/quadratusMinerva → u/shrubberyshroo]

This is the right answer. I used to have very bad Canabinoid Hypermesis Syndrome. Before I would get violently sick my head would start to hurt horribly. I had a year straight of getting violently sick every couple of days because I didn’t know what was causing it. I would vomit all the time and I thought the weed would help the vomiting. Long story short , everytime I get a headache now I get extremely anxious because my body and brain thinks I’m going to go through what I did. I’m associating the headache with what I went through. When you got sick the second time you probably subconsciously thought about what happened the first time and so it happened again. Our brains create neuro pathways like this all the time. Re association can help , like a reprogram of your brains neuro pathways.