Some great replies and advice guys, butt unfortunately I cannot avail of,m as I am always sitting in my wheelchair so I guess the dye is cast for me  whatever I turn my hand to, but at least learning to fly my PMDG777 with all the ad-on toys keeps my brain active and gives me a purpose in life 

Just any thing in life, too much is not good, less than enough either, take the average :-)

 

Interleave with other thrilling activities, like talking with your family and friends, preferably not through Skype or Facebook...

 

Try to learn something from it - I did learn all of what I know ( a very limited amount of knowledge anyway... ) about aerodynamics after getting involved in flight simulation, more than I actually learned flying for real!

 

I still like to simulate airline operations, operating sophisticated aircraft like PMDGs, PSXs, DCS A10s... but I tend to spend more time reading than really vlying, and when I vly, I vly mostly warbirds, ww2 warbirds, in DCS, which make me feel like a kid playing war games, but give me a hell of a great time, and actually help me releasing some of the daily stress accumulated at work, in the traffic jams, etc...

 

So, simming can in fact be good to your health!

That's me. Add denial and you have classic addiction .

As it has already stated, an excess of most anything is unhealthy. I try to limit my excesses to a few bad habits and only one or two obsessions. Coffee and flight simulator related stuff are at the top of the list. So to compensate in other areas of my life seems to work - so far. I watch the cats sleep 22 hours a day and pretend that is me sleeping while I work on some flight simulator related project. Here is a thought, If an excess of a good thing is bad, why are my cats so healthy? I also try on occasion try to limit contact with my wife while I'm at the computer - my nerves can only take so much you know. I know how to tell myself that enough is enough I just seem not to listen very well. I'm amazed that I remain quite healthy. I guess that is because of other excesses in my life such as to much snow in the winter, to much grass the rest of the year and to many outdoor pet projects. I really need to cut down on these some so I'll have more time for coffee and the flight simulator!

 

Regards to all,

Some great replies and advice guys, butt unfortunately I cannot avail of,m as I am always sitting in my wheelchair so I guess the dye is cast for me  whatever I turn my hand to, but at least learning to fly my PMDG777 with all the ad-on toys keeps my brain active and gives me a purpose in life

 

Your attitude toward life is uplifting, thank you for being a part of the FS community. I also find flight sim to be of benefit to brain activity. I am not close to retirement age, but I have a flight sim buddy that is and he often remarks about how it keeps him sharp. I feel it has enhanced my ability to focus and multi-task as well. Ive also read medical studies that show pilots have greater critical thinking under pressure than the average person.

Hello!

Are there any doctors or anyone who sims for 4+ hours who can inform me of the health effects of simming. I have been told by many that video games in general can cause negative effects on the brain, but I have always figured that this is only relevant to games like Grand Theft Auto, in which the aim is to bash people's heads out.

On the contrary, I have heard that flightsim is good for mental development and is actually good for you. Of course, sitting in a dark room with six 99" LED TVs for eight hours can cause you to become physically inactive, but I am sure that 99.9% of us do not do that! Also, on the contrary to many sterotypes, I did some research and found that the most that optical displays can do is cause irritation to the eye! Can anyone confirm all of this? Doctors? Well informed simmers?

Thanks,

Arnav

Actually studies by major universitys show that playing games like GTA reduce agression and stress and have no effect on mental acuity. As for flight sims I use them to unwind or practice my IFR flying. I rarely sit there and look at the screen for hours I usally hand fly to cruise thend turn on the auto pilot and go do something else till TOD. Funny part is that those of us who fly in the real world can't do that and sit in a chair for hours at a time....