[ WP ] In the future a super realistic and advanced virtual reality based war game is released . Shortly afterwards the players start to show signs of PTSD from time spent in the virtual world .

Everyone played the game, it was like the new.. the new.. whats that old popular first-person shooter called again? Oh yea, Call Of Duty, I loved playing that for hours on end, wasting weekends away behind the controller of a silly game. It felt empowering to be able to have 30 kill-streaks and rack up thousands of points.. 
 Where was I again? 
 Oh yea, Merlin. Everyone plays Merlin, its the new Call of Duty. Even though the gear is an expensive 800 $ and could fill up a small bedroom, everyone still played it for hours and hours on end, just like the old game. 
 
 But this game was different. You were literally immerses you into this new world of bloody war and the same concept of murdering other people to rack up points, fake points and fake people of course, but slowly progressing to more and more to real war and real people. 
 
 Every move you made within this large black frame was recorded, an invisible light projected from over 50 projectors built in the frame. All you had to do to see the new world around you was put on a pair of ski-goggle like glasses. 
 
 Soon I was up the leader boards, 6th ranking player of all time, while playing Merlin at least 6 hours every day. I'd get up an hour or two early just to meet my daily score to keep myself on the leader boards. Weekends were wasted, chips and soda were consumed at alarming rates, and I even turned down a family dinner because some asshole beat my score and bumped me down to 9th on the worldwide leader boards. I knew this game was spiraling out of control but it was n't until I had my first night terror did I realize the effect. 
 
 After a 16-hour long Saturday Merlin-a-thon I decided to hit the sack. Turning off the controls felt like I was already losing my 6th place spot. After a shower and some food, I went to bed. 
 
 I had a dream where my assault team was pinned down by sniper fire, and we were hiding out in a two story building. I had my M14 assault rifle, when all of the sudden some towelheads ( the term for the terrorist team ) stormed in and put a gun or two to each of our heads. We obviously slowly put down are weapons, but i was n't really concerned as I've been in similar situations more then once. Then all of the sudden they bring in my 7 year old niece, and the usual feel of the goggles against my face is gone. It felt way too real, and I started panicking. Then they put a glock in my hand and tell me to shoot the crying little girl in the head... 
 
 I woke up screaming, thrashing, doing anything to get that horrible image out of my head. My bedsheets were soaked in sweat, my pillow soaked in tears. My red-glowing alarm clock read 3:24am. My heart raced impulsively and out of rhythm, my muscles twitched and my vision blurred. I was in full on fight or flight mode. 
 
 After calming down with the help of tea, I booted up my classic computer setup, opened a browser, and googled any side effects of playing Merlin. That's when I came across the term `` PTSD'', and how it works and who it affects. I've had anxiey almost my whole life, I know how that feels, and Merlin helped calm me down as my brain became more accustom to being in stressful situations and allowing me to face my fears head on, but this was completely different. I felt I was in actual danger, that someone is going to make me do something awful and do awful things.. 
 Panicking again. 
 *Stop. * I told myself. 
 It did n't work.
