Is chess damaging to one's mental health?

i hear voices, and they says <<piri piri piri>>

I hear voices too but only if I get really wild!

@YouGetNoRest yes but counterexamples do not refute a general statement. You keep making this fallacy.

A: Smoking is bad for your health
B: My uncle smoked all his life and lived to 100.

A: Men are taller than women
B: I'm a woman and I'm much taller than most men

A: People with higher IQ are more prone to mental illness
B: My IQ is 200 and I'm completely healthy

@JasonNewst No refutation intended and I don't subscribe to nor commit any such logical fallacy. I am just leaving evidence on the table that broader perspective is more likely to exist.

Less we start getting too assertive in what is supposed to be an open thread.

Thanks for sharing tho Jason, that might have needed to be said

I think some people that already have some kind of emotional pain use chess the same way other addictions are used; to avoid feelings and dissociate there pain. For many people chess is an outlet for there problems, just like other games, sports, drugs, etc. What happens to those people that never focus on there emotional pain is they never get a chance to resolve and heal there emotional baggage, and as a result of it piling up over the years untouched they eventually hit some form of rock bottom. That is my personal belief, I don't believe it "causes" you to become mentally ill, but rather it certainly can be used to rub salt on the wound. Chess can be very addicting, you don't need to tell me that twice.

That's an interesting thought, I definitely do channel emotions and intentions in my play and work, both in chess or anything else. I find that in chess especially, it's really easy to "Get into it" and I just go into a vicious mode where I want to break my opponent and consume / kill them. It definitely feels like a fight.

"The aim of chess is to crush the other guy's ego" - Robert J. Fischer

I feel a deep seated instinct to crush my opponent. I want to injure their spirit and make them feel like they were wasting their time. I revel in a brutal victory, especially if I find it to be hard won. I also find it very exhilarating if I feel threatened or worse in game

@YouGetNoRest #10

According to MENSA standardized IQ tests, the highest possible score by Cattell scale is 148. Unless you had not solved specialized IQ tests, all values above 148 are fake.