(tw: video game addiction , intrusive thoughts, guilt)
[name_m]Ezekiel[/name_m] " [name_u]Zeke[/name_u] " [name_m]Justin[/name_m] McEwell (25) is [name_f]Fiona[/name_f] 's older son. Having lost his father when he was only 7, it was hard for him growing up without a male role model and having overheard his mom talking about her post-partum depression with a friend upstairs, he had a time in his teenage life that brought him a huge amount of guilt about the fact he even existed. As such , he engaged in various forms of escapism to cope with that feeling - the most important one being video games , which he became addicted to to the point of neglecting school and spending his time in the library playing World Of Warcraft instaed of studying. Members of his online guild and his art teacher picked up on the fact that something is wrong - especially the latter became determined to alarm [name_f]Fiona[/name_f] , as he was concerned when his favourite pupil began to turn in homework of lower quality, skipping class and being unusally apathetic during it.
Through the teacher he moved on from a dark place in his life and found the role model he had always wanted, with drawing and art becoming his true passion as he overcame addiction and became way more honest with his mother , not being plagued by intrusive thoughts about worrying her. Therapy also helped - having his therapist share her wisdom and methods really was a great asset in dealing with tempations of playing, managing triggers and channelling negative emotons.
Due to the art teacher’s mentoring [name_m]Ezekiel[/name_m] eventually found his passion in special effects - finding out that it was what initially impressed him so much about video games and wanting to make special effects that do not trigger addictive behaviour nor do they cause significant risk for those dealing with conditions like epilepsy. [name_u]Zeke[/name_u] mostly works on projects like indie films - especially those who touch the topic of mental health - and has recently become great friends with the movie director of one of this projects, who encouraged [name_m]Ezekiel[/name_m] to try out boxing and build up muscle. As such, boxing has become his favourite amateur sport and he hopes he can become a local champion someday, even if his new friend is really much better at winning on the ring so far.