Well, what do you think?
By the time it’s done, it’ll be a
fully functional Nintendo controller.
I went to Comic Con this last weekend
and had the chance to play some
really cool video games that
haven’t come out yet.
I guess that’s sort of what inspired me to
finish this table.
I’ve been thinking about video games
a lot recently and realized
that they’ve always been a really
important part of my life.
Some of my favorite memories involve
playing video games with my brothers.
Ya know...
After school, hanging out,
eating peanut butter and honey sandwiches,
listening to Footloose on repeat while
taking turns trying to defeat
Ganon in Ocarina of Time.
Good times.
In psychology, video games are often
studied from the perspective of:
“How are they hurting us?”
An easy example of this is,
a lot of research went into exploring
whether violent video games resulted in
kids committing real-life violence.
But what about about the opposite?
Do video games help us?
Well, just talk to your friends and
you realize that...yeah!
I mean, for a lot of people, video games
bring joy, build friendships and communities,
help us relieve stress, and
help us escape from reality for a little bit.
There’s so much evidence that,
like other hobbies,
video games can positively impact
your mental health.
So, what if we took that to the next level?
If video games are good for your mental health,
then what about video game therapy?
It’s not as crazy as it sounds!
Recently, psychologists and counselors
have started using video games in therapy.
That sounds awesome!
So you just play video games
and you can treat your anxiety or depression
or any other issue, right?
And the more that you play,
the better you feel!
Well, not exactly.
Let me clarify a little bit.
The video games themselves are not the therapy.
Instead, they’re just a compliment to therapy.
A tool.
There’s still a trained professional
in the room.
They just happen to be
beating you at Wii Bowling.
So if it’s not the video games themselves
that are treating the issue,
why would mental health professionals
turn to video games?
Well think about it.
Video games are becoming
so much more relevant in daily life.
91% of kids between the ages of
2 and 17 have played video games.
97% of teenagers play video games
for at least an hour a day.
And 63% of all Americans play video games.
And those numbers are only increasing
as time goes by.
I mean, video games are becoming more popular.
They have e-sports on ESPN for crying out loud!
So now I want you to imagine
that you’re a new client.
You walk into the therapist’s office
and you’re expecting them to ask you to
sit down, talk about all of your problems,
and reveal your deepest secrets.
It can be an awkward situation.
And it’s even worse
if you don’t want to be there in the first place.
But if you walk in
and you see all of these systems
and your favorite games?
Well then you’re interested and engaged,
and you have something fun to talk about
and play.
And from the standpoint of the therapist,
it’s great because you can very quickly
build a connection with the client,
or as we call it,
a therapeutic rapport.
It takes that awkward situation
and turns it into a comfortable environment
to open up in.
Beyond building rapport,
video games can also be useful in
shaping different mental abilities.
Think about all the skills that you use
when you’re playing video games.
Dealing with failure and frustration or
learning the value of hard work and effort.
Cooperating with others and
engaging in friendly competition and rivalry.
They might even help you empathize with the
people that you’re playing with or the characters
in the game.
I mean, there are a lot of learning opportunities
in video games themselves.
So you can see how video games could be
helpful for mental health issues like
teaching social skills to kids
on the Autism Spectrum or
rebuilding relationships with
estranged family members or
even helping victims or perpetrators of bullying.
But what would that look like?
Well, a common technique used in therapy is roleplay.
Essentially, the therapist sets up a scenario
and the client has to play it out
as if it’s real.
Depending on the willingness of the client,
it can be really useful and revealing.
Or extremely awkward and not helpful at all.
But with video games, the roleplay
can happen in-game.
And the therapist has the ability to
make real-time observations and
give direct feedback to the client.
And they can even manipulate the game or
change the rules, so to speak,
in order to put the client in a particular scenario,
and then see how they behave.
And actually, there are some video games
that are specifically developed
for therapeutic uses.
I’m not going to go into those in detail,
but if you want to play them yourself,
just go to the description below.
I put a whole bunch of links there.
So let’s get to the real question that you’re all asking.
Does it actually work?
Are video games actually helpful
for things like depression or anxiety?
Of course, like I said before,
video games are not the
end-all-be-all of therapy.
There’s still someone there,
guiding the therapeutic session.
But I will focus on studies that
specifically use video games as their
primary focus of therapy.
This stuff is still in its infancy, so
there's not a ton of research,
but I’ll tell you what I know.
One, for specific phobias such as
fear of spiders, heights, flying, enclosed spaces,
enclosed spaces, etc.
Video games seem to be useful.
However, early evidence shows that it
may not be as long-lasting as traditional therapy.
Second, for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
Recently, it became popular to use
virtual reality headsets for treatment.
I mean, heck, even House of Cards has
multiple episodes where they use VR.
And that’s because VR has shown
high effectiveness in treatment of PTSD,
especially for accident
and war-related PTSD.
Three, for ADHD.
There is very little evidence that shows that
certain video games can help reduce
inattention and hyperactivity.
And finally, in the case of depression,
developmental delays, and autism,
there’s lot of anecdotal evidence,
but no solid evidence and no
controlled studies that show any effectiveness.
So if you know of any out there,
please let me know.
Overall, there seems to be some evidence that
video games successfully treat a
handful of disorders.
We just need more research!
And there’s no denying that video games
can be a useful tool in making therapy
easier and more interesting.
So what do you think?
Would you try video game therapy?
And if so, what game would you play?
Let me know in the comments below.
Thanks so much for watching.
If you liked it, please like, subscribe, and
share this with your gamer buds.
And if you’re feeling generous,
throw me a few bucks on Patreon.
Until next time, I’m Micah.
Think about it.