Recovery of an MMO Junkie: In Defense of an Anxious Protagonist

Blessed are the anxious, for they shall inherit the earth. OK, so that’s not exactly how the adage goes, but what about the anxious? Nowadays it seems everyone suffers from some kind of anxiety. Millennials have been dubbed the most anxious generation, and I see it in my friends and coworkers. I myself suffer from anxiety daily. Sometimes social anxiety, sometimes general anxiety. Sometimes mild, sometimes crippling. Sometimes even the thought of the most casual of social gatherings causes me to panic, worry and obsess for days. Of course, we’ve seen this in movies and TV shows as a comedic device: The “Woody Allen” character type — the one (usually a male protagonist, might I point out) who’s the lovable neurotic. His worries are quaint, cute even, and might cause minor mishaps but ultimately don’t cause any serious damage in his love life, social life or career.

This take on anxiety, like the depiction of any other form of mental disorder in the media, can be easily glossed over. That isn’t to say this degree of anxiety doesn’t exist; everything exists on a spectrum unique to one’s individual experience. But presenting this as the sole depiction of anxiety generalizes it as a lighthearted foible rather than an affliction people manage or even suffer from every day. During New York Comic Con last year, I saw a preview of a new anime called Recovery of an MMO Junkie. It was marketed as a fun rom-com: A woman who’s obsessed with MMORPGs (massively multiplayer online role-play…