Game Therapy - How Can Games Improve Mental Health? - Extra Credits

the World Health Organization introduced a new diagnosis into the International classification of diseases Gaming disorder [Music] thanks to Nord VPN for sponsoring this episode start protecting your internet experience today with 77 percent off a three year plan using code extra credits at the link below the definition of gaming disorder is as follows characterized by a pattern of persistent or recurrent gaming behavior manifested by one impaired control over gaming eg onset frequency intensity duration termination context etc to increasing priority given to gaming to the extent that games take precedent over other life's interests and daily activities and three continuation or escalation of gaming despite the occurrence of negative consequences the behavior pattern is of sufficient severity to result in significant impairment in

personal family social educational occupational or other important areas of functioning the pattern of gaming behavior may be continuous or episodic and recurrent the gaming behavior and other features are normally evident over a period of at least 12 months in order for a diagnosis to be assigned although the required duration may be shortened if all diagnostic requirements are met and symptoms are severe many reputable psychological organizations have questioned the decision to list gaming disorder as an official disease but that's not what we're here to discuss today I am in no way a psychologist so I'm going to talk about something much closer to me something that I do have experience with the healing games can do most people watching this have probably had that moment where the world was too dark the sorrow too heavy and tomorrow was something that you didn't want to face and then you switched on a game you lost yourself in something imaginative or

joyful in another world living another life you felt agency you felt like you had some control where it felt like there was none before and when you switched off that game you felt little bit better and it reminded you that there were things that were still joyful that still felt vivid maybe it even reminded you of the safety of youth playing your favorite game when the biggest worry you had was what you were going to have for lunch the next day these feelings are important they're how we put ourselves back together they're how we stop the spiral and the fact that some of us choose to turn on a game instead of doing something more destructive is equally important unfortunately while millions of dollars are being pumped into studying the harmful effects of games very little is being done to study how we might use them to improve our mental health whether as simple systems of home self-care or as part of a more rigorous clinical environment right now the majority of the studies being done about the positive aspects of games are

related to physical things how DDR might help patients struggling with obesity or how we games can be used to make physical therapy more palatable for those who need it they focus on things like how games might help increase a patient's pain tolerance by distracting them from the pain or the tried-and-true question of whether games increase physical coordination and all of these studies are great they have huge value but they miss the thing about games that might impact the most people that games make us feel okay and where this is being studied most of the studies are around custom-made serious games for therapy which again is incredibly useful and is something we should put more effort into but it also shouldn't keep us from studying games anyone can pick up off the shelf because not everyone has the time or the money to go to a therapist who has custom-built games for what they're struggling with and if a lot of people are turning to commercial games when they're struggling we really should understand how they affect us better we need to look into questions like what games actually leave

us feeling more empowered more satisfied or just more safe after all maybe it's not the best idea to play a MOBA on a terrible day heck maybe it's not the best idea to play any competitive game on a terrible day but it sure would be nice to know we need to ascertain what the exact positive effects we can get out of playing commercial games are and if gaming disorder Israel how do we make sure playing when we're going through things doesn't go from being a crutch to potentially leading us to gaming disorder are there certain types of games that are universally better for our mental health or does it vary from Player to Player does it depend on what you grew up with or what you associate with good things is it all contingent on what you're specifically going through are there times when losing yourself into a deep story based RPG might be exactly what you need and other times we're simply getting into the flow of oak by guitar hero or a Shump helps ground you better these are the sort of

questions it would be great to have answered because so much of our community does turn to games when they feel like the rest of the world doesn't understand them or when it seems like there are things fundamentally not right with the outside world that they can't immediately fix with that in mind it's important even vital that we look into any possible harm video games are doing and if we find they are really doing harm do everything we can to minimize it but that's not enough as one of the biggest applications in the world games affect hundreds of millions if not billions of people we need to look into how they can be used for good and how people are already using them to take care of themselves as designers we need to know what good we can do so we can study and amplify it and as players we need the tools to use our games to help ourselves heal in the best way we can because for many of us myself included gaming is not a disorder but a very positive part of our lives that has helped see us through some of the most

negative aspects of it see you next week everyone exposing your phone tablet and computer every time you log on to public Wi-Fi is not a good look and the thought of letting your campus or ISP log your private data is pretty terrifying that's why I was super excited that Nord VPN was sponsoring this episode I come for the user-friendly experience and I stay for the military-grade encryption and thousands of servers across more than 60 countries look I'm logged in from Germany or am I start protecting your internet experience today with 77% off a three-year plan by using code extra credits at the link below [Music]