The Guy I Met online

2- The game that changed everything

"At the start of August 2015 I was diagnosed with anxiety. That was probably one of the worst days of my life to be honest. And that's what caused all of the online chat rooms."

"Before I was officially diagnosed with anxiety I used to get a lot of panic attacks during both being in college and being out and about in the city. When I go out into the city and I'm sat on the public transportation, and there are people sat around me laughing I start to think in my head "are they laughing at me? Have I done something they think is funny?" which causes me to panic. Which is horrible when it starts to take over you."

"I was 16 when this all started happening to me."

"After the anxiety started to get worse, I used to get home from school and shut myself in my room. I thought keeping out of the way of people would help, and also not talking to people face to face. I really wanted to talk to someone about it, but I didn't want to be judged by anyone."

"My best friend Charley is the only one I've told everything too, including the fact that I wanted to tell someone else about what was wrong with me, and who would listen."

(Charley is a huge girl gamer and loves all different film genres)

"After everything that started happening, Charley told me about this game she was on, it was called IMVU. IMVU is basically an online game where you can talk to and interact virtually with people all around the world
. You create and design an avatar to be in the game (animal/human/vampire...)."

"I wasn't sure about it at first because I have heard all of the stories about people pretending to be someone they aren't, and I was worried I was going to find someone like that."

"In the end I did create an account and started playing it. It actually became really addictive after only playing it for a few days."

"I did come across some people who seemed to act quite weirdly around everyone online, but then I did come across some really nice,friendly people. Which is always good to heard on these sort of games."