Video gaming is one of the most known things to do as a hobby. Roughly around 80-90% of the population play video games either through consoles, pcs, or even on their phones. Video games can be scary, based on war, puzzles, or creating and building. People play video games because it can be fun, and you also can make many friends through the online world of gaming whether it is because you stream it on a platform or you play with cooperative games.
Video games
What are video games?
To put it simply, a video game is an electronic game that you can play on devices such as consoles, pc, mobile phones, and other handheld devices. You can play using a controller, a joystick, touchscreen, etc. there are many ways to play.
How do video games help mental health?
Video games are fun and exciting! Some are relaxing and some are scary. But video games have a great way to help with mental health and a lot of people may not understand that so here I have made a list of how video games can help mental health:
- Distract you away from the past trauma
- Can enhance your focus
- Allows you to have social interactions
- Gives you the feeling of accomplishment
- It may help keep you calm and relaxed
- Offers a way to escape from negative feelings
- Can help you cope with negative feelings
There is much more than video games can offer in terms of mental health! Besides it being fun and exciting. Video games can be a way for someone to escape from their real-life issues for just a couple of hours in the day. They can make friends online, find and learn new things.
How do video games affect mental health?
Although video games can be fun and help you with your mental health, there are days when they can affect your mental health. The effects can be small and to cope with that we can simply say to take a break from gaming for the day. Here are some ways that video games can affect your mental health:
- Can cause stress
- May cause anxiety attacks (such as panic attacks)
- Might make you frustrated
- Can cause a lot of negative feelings
- May cause flashbacks (for games that may relate to the past for some people such as war games)
- May affect your sleep pattern/schedule
- Could affect your activeness (you may spend all day playing games and forget to exercise, or you barely move around.)
Video games are very stimulating which in return can cause many negative feelings and effects to the brain and this can affect your mental health. It might worsen mental health issues that a person may already have.
How can video games affect the brain?
Video games are mentally stimulating for the brain. They can help in many ways with things like memory and focus. However, can also have negative effects that may affect your mood or behaviour and this isn’t just for people with mental illness but can affect everyone.
How can video games affect the brain positively?
- Can enhance your focus
- Can help your response or make your responsive system quicker
- Help you to focus your attention
- Will help with puzzle-solving skills
- Can enhance your memory
- It will teach you good behaviours
- Can keep your mind calm and relaxed
- Will boost your social skills in cooperative games
- Can teach children new things (such as reading, counting, or speaking)
- Can help ease your anxiety and depression
- May improve visual response
- Help you to concentrate better
Video games are good for all ages of people when it comes to helping with memory, focus, or teaching new things. Children can learn a lot through spelling games, teaching them to read or write. Teenagers-adults can enhance their focus and also boost their social skills using video games which can then be passed on in real-life activities such as school or work. This can affect the way you think and help you to interact with a new way of thinking.
How can video games affect the brain negatively?
- Can be a distraction (e.g. gaming in class during school or work)
- Some video games can worsen anxiety and depression
- May cause negative emotions
- Video games can become addictive
- Can make some people violent
- May also decrease the concentration
- Could make someone become lazy due to addictiveness
- Can break sleep schedules
- Causes stress
- Can cause negative emotions which can affect mood
Video games can be the cause of some mental illnesses, but it is rare that this can happen because video games are a hobby. Mostly video games can affect your mental illness by how the certain game makes you feel. Besides all that though, video games can cause negative effects on your brain and your well-being. You can get addicted, and some video games can cause gambling addictions such as casino games or gacha games. If you want to enhance focus and concentration, gaming for too long can decrease that. Video gaming is meant to be a hobby but if it is impacting you negatively you should maybe focus on having a break or scheduling your time playing.
Can you use video gaming to help your mental health?
In conclusion, I believe you can use video games to help your mental health. There are many people who have mental illness who have confirmed that gaming has helped them positively. People with ADHD may find some games a way of keeping calm and relaxed. Those with anxiety and depression may find that gaming is a good way to help bring positive emotion. Gaming is a good hobby as long as you don’t overdo it. You can find you’ll enjoy it if you schedule your time on video games, so you don’t become addicted and to ensure that gaming remains a positive experience for you. If you feel that video games have affected your mental health, take a break for a while and speak to your GP.