Asmongold opens up about stress and anxiety in Twitch stream

Olivia Richman • June 14, 2021 3:58 pm

Twitch streamer Zack “Asmongold” got pretty honest with his viewers while playing World of Warcraft during a June 14 broadcast.

Asmongold currently has over 2 million followers on Twitch, including over 12,000 paying subscribers. He’s been streaming since 2014, gaining most of his fans by playing World of Warcraft. When WoW Classic launched in 2019, Asmongold helped the category surpass over one million concurrent viewers. But despite that success, Asmongold has been dealing with a lot of negative emotions and stress.

Asmongold explained that he’s been struggling with “really bad anxiety” for a while now.

Asmongold reveals performance anxiety to Twitch fans

While using his “zackrawrr” Twitch account, Asmongold attempted to explain how he’s been feeling. While he doesn’t exactly have depression, Asmongold said he feels “overwhelmed” with performance anxiety. Asmongold said that the feeling “gets in [his] head” and that it’s difficult to deal with.

It’s so bad, Asmongold continued, that he can’t even “pretend to be okay.” Since he can’t get over the feelings, Asmongold admitted that he feels like a “failure.”

“I just can’t deal with it. I just can’t fucking deal with it. Honestly, looking back at footage makes me want to kill myself. It’s really bad,” Asmongold said.

The reason he feels so horribly is when he compares himself to other streamers. Asmongold admitted that he thinks about how other people “can do this properly” but he feels that he can’t. This leaves him feeling like a failure that can’t deal with the amount of stress he feels while streaming World of Warcraft.

“I’ve tried to do other things on my stream and when things happen that I don’t expect I just shut down completely,” Asmongold told his fans.

Asmongold has taken breaks from streaming in the past. The World of Warcraft veteran said that he might take another break in the future as well. This would help him “manage” some of his stress if his anxiety continues affecting him in such a way.