Mental Health and Gaming
I never thought about mental health and video games together. I am familiar with mental health through classes such as psychology and sociology especially when it resolves around social media but never really talked about it in video games. I found these articles for class really interesting. One day at work, one of my team members told me about a game he was playing in which the character he plays explores a haunted asylum. He told me about how realistic the graphics were and how scared he was playing it after about a half hour. I remember thinking to myself as to why they are making a game so scary to the point where people are suffering at home playing, it doesn’t make sense.
Then I read the one article assigned, Gaming’s Favorite Villain is Mental Illness and This Needs to Stop by Partrick Lindsey. He talked about horror video games and how they make characters in a way that makes them seem damaged or broken.
“Not only does this type of portrayal discourage the public at large from seeking further understanding, it also reinforces the idea that those who suffer from mental illness are broken, defective or otherwise “different” (Lindsey, paragraph 8).
Lindsey was talking about how in the video game Eternal Darkness, the character is represented to have some sort of mental illness making it seem not realistic when it is in fact a problem people live with on a daily basis. He said that the characters are dehumanized.
I liked this article because I personally don’t play or watch anything horror related to relate to this or to think about. It made me realize that some movies make people that do suffer from mental illness be considered “crazy”.
On a more positive note, the other article, How Video Games Can Teach Your Brain to Fight Depression written by Jane McGonigal was relatable to me.
I am one to play Words with Friends and mind working games like Candy Crush. It is hard to put my phone down when playing because I have the goal to accomplish that level with 3 stars instead of just 2 stars. Or having the want/urge to buy more lives just to keep playing to beat that specific level.
“When we play games, we’re immediately and constantly focused on a goal. Whether its to solve a puzzle, find hidden objects, reach a finish line, or score more points than other players, the goal focuses our attention and creates a sense of motivation and determination” (McGonigal, paragraph 4). I can definitely relate to this because most game apps on my phone are connected to my social media accounts and I always am trying to out beat my friends with a better score. It also goes on to talk about how games reel one in by making the first level super easy and then slowly increasing the difficulty. When games start to get easy and aren’t challenging to someone they tend to stop playing because their minds aren’t working and it gets boring.
McGonigal also talks about how some people use video games to escape real life. Instead of dealing with real life problems, they go play a game to express themselves instead of dealing with the conflicts in their own lives. Gaming is used as a comfort to some. That is how some people suffer from mental illness because they aren’t being social outside of gaming, they hold all the thoughts in and don’t express themselves having those thoughts building up inside.
I think both articles are great. It made me more aware of the affects of gaming, how they are good and how they can be harmful to some. “We aren’t being encouraged to understand and empathize with mental illness, were being taught by culture to fear it” (Lindsey, paragraph 21). I love this quote from the one article because it is so important to be informed and be aware of ones surroundings to know if someone truly needs help.
References
Lindsey, P. (2014, July 21). Gaming’s favorite villain is mental illness, and this needs to stop. Retrieved December 13, 2017, from https://www.polygon.com/2014/7/21/5923095/mental-health-gaming-silent-hill
McGonigal, J. (2015, November 09). How Video Games Can Teach Your Brain to Fight Depression. Retrieved December 13, 2017, from http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2015/11/how_video_games_can_teach_your_brain_to_fight_depression.html
