I'm very grateful that it isn't shown off as something terrible when people do such.
Coming from a background with lots of family within the army, I've heard quite the different story in regards of it being a bad trait of immersing yourself with a character. Now you probably wonder why.
At big events where they act out natural disasters, terrorist attacks and what not, you got professional actors running around. Often these people are hired to act out, for example, the part of a hysterical woman who just lost her son and keeps begging for help. Others are hired to act as if they are dying. These people do it extremely well, and often asked to be left alone before the training event starts, so they can get themselves in the mindset of these characters.
From what I've been told these people are utterly terrifying when it comes to how close they come to crawling of the skin of a character, and often invoke many emotions within the soldiers who are there for training.
Actors have to snap out of their role once it is done as well. Their work would be too exhausting, if not mind breaking, if they kept continuing to fuel the emotions they had to express for their work.
I see roleplay as the very same thing. Immersion yourself with your character isn't bad, as long as you manage to distance yourself from their emotions afterwards. It isn't toxic if you feel bad for your character, it starts to become a toxic habit when you as a person starts to feel bad.
Roleplaying isn't much more then reading a good book to me. I've wept over stories I've read, I've laughed, I've smiled, and so many other emotions writers have managed to convey onto me. Yet it never managed to spiral me down into a horrible depression or anything along those lines, given I can wrap my head around the fact, in the end it is just a story and it did not happen to me personally.
At the end of the day, it is all a matter of being capable of shutting that book shut again, enjoying the fact you've read something good, and looking forward to read the next part. Roleplay should be very much the same.
Coming from a background with lots of family within the army, I've heard quite the different story in regards of it being a bad trait of immersing yourself with a character. Now you probably wonder why.
At big events where they act out natural disasters, terrorist attacks and what not, you got professional actors running around. Often these people are hired to act out, for example, the part of a hysterical woman who just lost her son and keeps begging for help. Others are hired to act as if they are dying. These people do it extremely well, and often asked to be left alone before the training event starts, so they can get themselves in the mindset of these characters.
From what I've been told these people are utterly terrifying when it comes to how close they come to crawling of the skin of a character, and often invoke many emotions within the soldiers who are there for training.
Actors have to snap out of their role once it is done as well. Their work would be too exhausting, if not mind breaking, if they kept continuing to fuel the emotions they had to express for their work.
I see roleplay as the very same thing. Immersion yourself with your character isn't bad, as long as you manage to distance yourself from their emotions afterwards. It isn't toxic if you feel bad for your character, it starts to become a toxic habit when you as a person starts to feel bad.
Roleplaying isn't much more then reading a good book to me. I've wept over stories I've read, I've laughed, I've smiled, and so many other emotions writers have managed to convey onto me. Yet it never managed to spiral me down into a horrible depression or anything along those lines, given I can wrap my head around the fact, in the end it is just a story and it did not happen to me personally.
At the end of the day, it is all a matter of being capable of shutting that book shut again, enjoying the fact you've read something good, and looking forward to read the next part. Roleplay should be very much the same.
