Hello everyone.

Having a strong passion for mental health awareness, as I struggle from generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) and obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), I always find it interesting to find out how other people use games, such as Habbo, to cope with their shyness, anxiety, mental illness, disability or any other type of emotion.

If you are shy, feel anxious or suffer from an illness or disability, what makes Habbo your "go to place" or coping mechanism? If you had a network of other people within a similar situation, would you be comfortable with meeting and/or talking with them?

I'm very shy and I think Habbo helps me reach out and make friends. It gives me an opportunity to be myself rather than a girl trapped in a shell while irl.

I've been a Habbo player for a number of years now (Over 10 years)
I used to use Habbo to escape whatever is going on in my life to talk to people online and have fun. As of late, (the last year or so), I've found it really hard to come on Habbo, make friends to have fun as there's so many toxic people around. That, and people hate how I'm so up front and honest about everything, sometimes resulting in upsetting them in the process.
Habbo used to be a large community where people would come together and have fun, leaving their personal issues out of it but these days there's so many trolls, people trying to find out every little dirty thing about you to expose you... It's just not enjoyable anymore.
I suffer from depression myself and find that Habbo isn't actually helping me, if anything some days just makes it worse.

I came back on habbo in 2013 after going through something traumatic, it was hard to communicate with others online, it still gave me much anxiety but it wasn't as bad as in real life. But the hardest part on Habbo was, filtering through the people who actually cared or not, to get the people who understood you and didn't judge you for you decisions. It was so hard getting there but in the end I found them, little bunch of people that I actually cared about more than the friends I have in real life. 

I've actually got a facial disability (along with hearing and speech), I'm not afraid to tell people that, but I think being behind the screen gives me a sense of protection (sadly enough...), and you get to know a lot of people before getting down to the roots, and finding out who is actually genuine and who is just faking their nice'ness, thus showing yourself. I'm also quite vocal with my opinions or if something doesn't sit right with me (like bullying, or homophobia, or just stupidity and annoying trolls, etc), and some people on Habbo just do not take 'no' or a disagreement for an answer or can't take a light joke, and they don't like honesty. It can get exhausting, haha. All that being said, I've met some amazing people on there, and I'm grateful for that. And it also helps with my anxiety in a way, like I can just talk to anyone online, whereas in real life, it's more on a personal level and makes me close up a bit, lol. I think it's pretty damn scary yet fascinating how you can open up to someone online so much, more than with your friends in real life. I guess it depends on the situation, idk.
I am also an introvert who likes to keep to herself a lot, and have a big family, and I soon get frustrated and drained from being around people for so long, that Habbo and my room are my escape because I can be physically by myself.