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The video gaming industry’s projected value is $282 billion, which is expected to surge to $363 billion by 2027.
This is mainly due to the increasing number of players worldwide, which grew by over a billion in 2016, reaching about 3.32 billion active gamers.
Today’s most successful gaming genres are adventure and strategy games, betting, and puzzles with popular games like The Legend of Zelda, various BTC Casino options, Minecraft, and Candy Crush.
This incredible growth in gaming has made people wonder: How does it impact mental health? Breaking down stress, combating anxiety, and facilitating cognitive skills are the ways video games can be more than just enjoyable but rather a stimulant for mental health.
The Mental Health Benefits of Playing Video Games
Video games are a source of amusement and a valuable tool for mental well-being.
Games have the potential to help players face and solve different issues, collaborate, and build partnerships, all of which can become powerful means of mental health development.
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A study from Oxford recently revealed that people who included playing games in their schedules experienced more happiness than those who didn’t.
People can manage to shift their thinking to more positive subjects because games essentially allow you to create an identity, which you can use to explore the in game worlds built to immerse you into something other than reality. Depending on how you play games, they offer a more contemplative approach to life.
It’s obvious that video games offer more choices and control in a virtual setting, when our own lives can often be hard to manage. No matter how temporary, they do offer some solace and may even encourage people to make significant decisions in their own lives.
More clearly, players are given a chance to move aside from reality and, instead, choose the imaginative mind places filled with diverse things they usually prefer to do.
Some play games to de-stress, feel happy or soothe their minds and bodies.
Social Interaction and Online Gaming
The feeling of coming together is more powerful in these gaming sessions, where positive emotional messages are exchanged.
Video games bring players together to cooperate on a series of achievable goals, and players are spurred on by these common goals, which increase player on player or team interaction, which makes them so fun.
Because of the in game team dynamics, people end up becoming friends beyond the game, and these friendships can last years. And even if they don’t last or fizzle out, almost all gamers can reminisce about the good old days of Minecraft friendships, and even the late night discord gaming sessions during the pandemic when video games became some of the most important interactive modes for people across the world.
And it’s games like minecraft and animal crossing, even multiplayers like World of Warcraft, DOTA 2, League of Legends, etc that are lauded for building social relationships. And it’s not a stretch to claim that these games did and still do mitigate loneliness, which is a gateway to depressive episodes, anxiety disorders etc.
Gamers learn to communicate better and build closer bonds as they eventually open up about their lives beyond their favorite heroes, which helps to alleviate social isolation.
A study by Osaka University examined the mental health benefits of people who acquired who got gaming consoles during the COVID-19 pandemic.
It showed that the Nintendo Switch gaming console caused a significant leap in mental health scores on the positive side, and PS5 gamers have expressed noticeable improvements in their lives alongside gaming.
The study also found that particular gaming ecosystems can promote social interaction and health, proving that myths about gaming are untrue.
Addressing Anxiety and Depression with Commercial Video Games
Commercial video games are obviously not a cure, but they can help reduce the symptoms of mental health issues like sadness and anxiety.
Some studies say these games may be a painless and cost-effective therapy method. Other approaches to mitigating anxiety and depression symptoms may include moderate gaming in everyday life.
Stress reduction strategies based on introducing calming elements in some games are valuable tools for relaxation, which can be effectively taught through games.
Altering one’s identity and experimenting with this in the virtual world can be a vital skill for young people who might otherwise use abnormal coping strategies that manifest in the form of risky behavior.
They can achieve immense satisfaction, absorbed in experiences that ultimately induce a “flow” enhanced by a positive mood and relief from anxiety.
Emerging Technologies: VR and Mental Health Promotion
The introduction of virtual reality games in the exposure therapy setting has given patients a field to train fear reduction techniques in cyberspace, making them take a step towards minimizing the severity and the duration of the symptoms of anxiety and depression.
Exergaming interventions, which involve playing games that require physical effort, have been proven to be a very effective treatment for anxiety.
Some include exercises, mental involvement, and game-mediated therapeutic benefits while playing the game, which are great ways to keep your mental health safe and sound.
VRS exposure therapy uses its power to create a 3D-enhanced atmosphere that not only elicits some emotions but also shows physiological responses that are very significant for recovery at the end of the treatment cycle.
The Role of Mental Health Professionals in Gaming
The emergence of video games as a treatment for mental health is a significant area getting the attention of mental health professionals.
Therapists and doctors can take a new approach by using existing commercial video games in their sessions to increase patient involvement and improve therapeutic outcomes.
Studies now investigate VR-based applications, especially the efficacy they obtain by recording the sensory and emotional reactions they bring in patients and the game’s capability to make users feel engaged in a virtual world.
Research on roleplaying games (RPGs) is clear evidence that these immersive experiences can be the means of the constructive behavioral changes they learn, as well as help them lessen negative thought patterns.
Scholarly discussions about the different aspects of gaming have raised the need for further in-depth studies with randomized controlled trials as one way to adapt gaming to professional practices for dealing with mental wellness-related issues.
