Update Two Hundred and Twenty-Six: 10 September 2018

☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

What Indygo was missing in a little tidy package, Robin is a very short game about managing chronic fatigue syndrome, which shares many of its symptoms with depression. While not a groundbreaking or gamechanging experience, it has a sense of reality about it that Indygo did not - at least, one I could relate to.

This game is pretty much my experience w/depression (except less crying). Everything takes energy, everything takes more energy than you have, and you can only do so much in one day. Even fun things take energy (rather than leave you energized) and going out and doing stuff with people takes the most energy of all. And, most realistic, at the end of the day you just beat yourself up over all the things you just didn’t have the energy to do. Yep, that was the second half of 2016/all of 2017!

It’s very easy to overwork yourself over the weekend and exhaust yourself for the week, or completely slack off and then be totally unprepared. Striking a balance is a compromise that still leaves things undone, but it IS possible - if only every once in a while. As a ‘view into the mind of someone with an illness’, this game is successful, if not for more than a couple fleeting moments. And, hey, it’s free! Download it to do exactly four things per day and feel awful about yourself.

The game is based off of ‘spoon theory’, which is a really valuable mental health tool for people across every spectrum, even if you don’t have a diagnosed mental illness. Give it a look-see if you’re interested, and get a little perspective.

Next up:

See you soon!