Play games more when depressed?

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This held true for me too when I was depressed some years ago. I couldn't get into games, books, movies or anything else I normally enjoy. The only thing that gave me anything was family and forum activity. Had I had pets, I'm sure they would have helped too, but they were all dead (and a big part of why I was depressed).

But anyway, I definitely didn't have the energy for games then.

There are two bad feelings where playing some types of video games give me something:

When I'm really ticked off at someone I sometimes find it therapeutic to play beat 'em up games.

And when I'm anxious or nervous or just wanna feel sedate, I find it incredibly soothing to play Solitaire and Mahjong on PC or DS.

same here. it doesn't help that all big budget films have the only the most attractive actors/actresses and everyone seems to be living it up with just no care in the world, and seemingly no jobs. but i guess it is only just if one wants to attract audiences, even those "based off of true stories" usually dramatize the boring reality. party scenes don't bug me as much since i don't like parties anyway.

i also don't play games as much when im depressed, i simply don't have the energy to put input into a game. i haven't picked up a controller in almost a month, and even then i only play for about an hour and a half. when i was a lot more joyous around 2, 1 and a half years ago i used to go up to four hours daily playing. (that's a lot for me, short attention span, and of course, high school student. busy busy!)

at times simple ambient music at night is the only option.

when autonomy is taken, you regress to this stuff. It's hard to look for a way out,
This is one of the worst reasons to be "entertaining yourself".
And I do agree about it getting worse, and wanting less and less.
Eventually, I hated music.

Then I started weightlifting. Kinda. Then I legitimately started lifting and going through puberty. The feels bruh.

Ok, I'm gonna get a little Countryside technical with this topic and point you towards the concept of "Escapism in Video Games". It's a theory of trying to "Escape" reality and all of its hardships in a world under your control. When it comes to games, it's arguable but in most cases, you have full control over situation and it gives most people, if not all, a sense of balance (spiritual, not physical) as well as a sense of safety.

You can also take away the idea that it is because in games, you will almost always see an outcome equal to or greater than what you put into it. Example, In an MMO, I'll accept a quest from an NPC(pronounced "En-Pee-See"... couldn't resist...) that will reward me with new gear and a bit of EXP. I go out to complete the quest, which is usually kill "X" amount of "Y", then return, hand in the quest, Rewards, Praise in flavour text that gets glossed over or ignored and move on.

Gaming is addictive to most people but people who suffer from depression, who lack confidence, find meaning to it and are hooked on it easier, possibly more so than one would be to smoking. Honestly, I'm a gamer for the above reasons but remember, gaming is more evil than smoking. Cigarette companies sell products that you know will kill you eventually but games companies sell products that don't affect peoples health directly which means they can sell their product to the same customers for years without worry.

any way, to sum it up, "Escapism" and "Sense of Fulfillment" cause gamers to delve into the gaming world when depressed.

-Edits-
Just want to excuse myself for any grammar or spelling problems, I'm British and tiered while writing this ^.^" lol

When I'm depressed or very stressed, I find that I simply can't play games. I often try, but I can't focus on them enough to do much. When I'm happy, I can play a lot and I can play often.
The only exception to this seems to be freecell.

When I am a bit depressed sometimes I play a lot of games, usually though if I hit what I like to think of as my rock bottom depressed state I don't play video games, I can't because I zone out too much and loose interest, I loose interest in most things and resort to sleeping a lot; so for me this does not hold entirely true.

Definitely turn to gaming when I'm down. I've had many occasions when the Mass Effect trilogy was a very big help in feeling better or at least great company when I was feeling alone.