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Hey Pandas, Can You Help Me Get Help For A Classmate I Think Needs Serious Help?
My classmate is obsessed with video games, namely Nintendo.
Let's call her N. N was normal until last school year, about halfway through. I mentioned a book or something to N (nothing about video games) and she mentioned the new Pokémon game (Scarlet and Violet I think, I haven't kept up with Pokémon games since Arceus) and I said that I don't want to play those since I've seen plenty of bugs and I think Arceus was still better, so I wasn't gonna buy it. Not in a rude way, just put in that I was good with what I had. For the rest of the school year, that's all she talked about. Pokémon, especially Scarlet and Violet. I'd like to note that she isn't associated with anyone who works at Nintendo. Everyone who knew here wanted her to stop being so obsessed, excluding C. C was really oblivious.
This year, me, N, and a friend who came into the school recently, B, are in the same gym class, and this year she's the same, but the obsessing has transferred to Splatoon. B never plaved Splatoon, so N constantly tells her to play it. Every time a Splatfest comes around (twice this school year) it's all she talks about. Other days she talks about Splatoon in general, and when wearing a skirt with squares on it, she sat out in gym cool-down (which is what me, N and B usually do) and "played Tableturf (a game mode in Splatoon, a board game type thing with a grid of orange and blue squares) on her skirt." So apparently she associates colorful squares with a fictional board game. Recently, she's been talking to herself as if speaking to three other people, zoning out, and making sounds like she was in pain, of course comical stuff like "oof," not actually sounding like she was being hurt, or sounds like she was charging and firing an in-game weapon, a gatling gun called a Nautilus. On that note, she is always babbling about "her Nautilus team," basically it means she wants go join a game where everyone uses the same weapon as her, the Nautilus.
So she's also been voice-acting battles in the game she's been obsessed with for seven weeks.
As someone not medically proficient, I'm genuinely concerned. Does she have problems in her family? Was she raised by a screen? Is she just a chronically online iPad kid? Is schizophrenia too absurd to suggest? Does she need medical attention? Therapy? I'm concerned for her well-being. I need assistance.
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I mean my 1st thought was pretty extreme special intrests maybe caused by adhd/autism but
1. I am nowhere near qualified to diagnose anyone
2. I just am very interested in neurodivergancy whivh makes me a little buased
It also could be being on a screen for too long or anything else, who knows- im not too worried personally but we should see what other pandas may think too
She seems just very into what she's in to. Could be a form of maladaptive daydreaming asp, given how she acts out scenarios. I wouldn't be too worried.
It seems like more than just liking it. Me and B tell her to stop talking about it all the time, there are other things to be interested in, and she doesn't understand a word we say. Like she's visibly confused. She doesn't know what we're saying at all
It sounds a lot like autism or ADHD to me, but I'm not a professional, so I don't know for sure. Are you able to talk to her parents about this?
I don't know her parents, and assuming her parents are home most of the time they might already be aware.. I'm not sure though