Mental Health Benefits of Video Games
by Sayan Dey August 4, 2022 0 commentsSince time immemorial, video games have been a children’s favorite but a parent’s nightmare. When you’re engrossed in your favorite game, hearing your mother say something like “Enough! Go do your homework ” is common. Though excessive gaming has its drawbacks, there are two sides to every coin. Numerous studies by leading medical and mental health entities have shown that video games can help you learn valuable skills that you can apply in the workplace.
There are numerous misconceptions about video games and their impact. In this age of long-term social distancing and mental-health strains, it was discovered that for years gamers had a tool to help them cope, which is now bringing some consolation to those who’ve never picked up a controller before. The explosive growth of gaming during the pandemic brought into light video games’ mental health and therapeutic benefits.
Positive Effects of Videogames on Psychology
Video games are a common form of entertainment and have become a part of everyday life for many people. Any healthy sport has numerous physical and psychological benefits, such as improved motor abilities, visual and auditory skills, hand-eye coordination, memory, and decision-making.
Other pros include:
Thought Process Stimulation
Video games frequently make you think creatively to solve problems. In other words, playing video games requires players to deeply fuel and engage numerous different areas of their brain; based on the complexity of the game, you might be required to think, strategize, and analyze quickly. Playing video games enrolls deeper parts of your brain, enhancing development and critical thinking abilities.
Mental stimulation is also linked to cognitive development. Video games provide a wide range of cognitive benefits and can assist children in making progress in core cognitive development skills such as reaction times, deductive reasoning, analogy, basic math, and physics understanding.
Not only for children but such benefits can also be noticed in adults after playing a mind-teasing, competitive game for a couple of weeks. Puzzle-based games, in particular, that become more difficult as the player progresses, can help accelerate cognitive development by forcing them to apply new solutions to increasingly difficult problems.
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Remote Interaction & Social Communication Skills
Socialization is also important for multiplayer gaming and esports. While playing video games, it is possible to increase social communication among peers. Given how frequently video games require teamwork, adventure, and puzzle games can also help to develop collaborative skills.
Previous studies found that those who played more video games were more likely to have good social skills, perform better academically, and form better relationships with others, owing to some types of games’ social and collaborative components. This can also help people overcome feelings of loneliness and make them feel like they are part of a genuine community.
Any Battle Royal game like Apex Legends, Fortnite, or any FPS multiplayer game like Valorant, Overwatch requires the players to communicate with teammates and rely on them to take care of each other’s backs. In the long term, this habit develops better relationship understanding and minimizes trust issues with strangers.
Communication is one of the biggest social skills one can have. If used properly, communication skills can differentiate one from the crowd. While most people lack a great flair for verbal communication skills, gamers usually are better at communication. For effective teamwork, multiplayer gamers need to communicate with their buddies in-game and in a very short time with multiple details. By Practicing such games, teenagers can easily improve their sense of verbal communication.
Improve Emotional Resilience
It has always been said that you need to learn how to deal with failure before you start winning. This is a great life lesson that many people learn at a great cost. But naturally, any sports do teach the participants to accept defeat as a part of the game. This lesson is crucial in the game of life.
In gaming terms, it can be frustrating to fail in a match or to fail like an amateur in any given situation. People can learn how to cope with failure and keep trying to put their best on the table in a virtual environment like video games. Here you can run your mistakes countless times, unlike in real life, and learn how to spot the errors and ways to rectify them. In simple words, esports give you countless second chances to improve yourself like any other sport. This is an important tool to learn and can be applied at any age. People can use video games to help them develop coping mechanisms for difficult situations.
Contrary to popular belief, playing video games improves your mood and has long-term effects. Gaming is a great way to spend time with your friends or to relieve stress. Online streaming platforms can also provide a safe space for streamers and gamers to share their true selves in a supportive, close-knit environment.
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Sense of Achievement
We all love winning, getting recognized for the good we did, and getting a pat back on the shoulder. It is because everybody loves the feeling of accomplishment and achievement. Video games push you to think like a winner, put you under competition, and bring out the best. When these things continue with each match repeatedly, you become a contender for the top spot without you knowing it. It develops a sense of achieving the goal even in the laziest & dumbest minds.
You always have an aim and objectives to achieve in the game. When you achieve them, you will feel a great sense of accomplishment, which will improve your overall well-being. This sense of accomplishment is enhanced when you play games that award trophies or badges for completing certain objectives. Attempting to gain more achievements gives you something to strive for.
That strive turns you into a competitive person, and this trait also affects your approach to the physical world. You become more career-oriented, start feeling the heat of competition around you and start reacting accordingly.
Improve Concentration and Strategic thinking
Games can also be beneficial in terms of increasing a player’s attention span. Playing games helps you develop the ability to notice many small details at once and learn to control your impulsiveness. When concentrating on a video game, the player must quickly assimilate a large amount of contradictory information and learn to focus on the most important details while filtering out the irrelevant details; this develops one’s spatial ability and analytical skills.
To maximize the success of their interactions with the game, players must also understand when to act and when to wait. As a result, games that require hours of input at a time frequently necessitate a high level of patience from players. This helps increase the attention span.
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A New Door for Stress Relief
Video games do more than just alleviate emotional distress. Sometimes you really need that dopamine for your own good. Video games can make you happy within moments and can help you to get rid of the tension of work, the stress of study & tiredness of a boring schedule.
They can also assist those who are in physical pain. Because perception is so important in pain, video games use the simple technique of distraction to refocus attention on the gameplay, thereby minimizing the experience of pain. Endorphins, dopamine, oxytocin, and serotonin are released in the body as a result of gaming. All these biochemicals uplift mood and provide calm.
In Conclusion
It’s all about moderation, as with everything else. Excessive gaming can harm your mental and physical health, just as excessive running can cause joint problems and impact injuries. When done in moderation, it can still benefit you and do wonders for your mental health.
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