Some ten years ago, Erin Reynolds, now a video game designer, made a video game while in university. It was called Nevermind. In the game, players take the role of a psychologist, examining the memories of people who have been traumatized by some disturbing event. But the people are not able to remember the event and it is the players’ job to uncover the event by examining their minds. This goes far deeper than playing your best games at Slots Play Casino.
In order to do this, it is necessary to delve into scary and disturbing places: “a dark forest where baby dolls’ heads fall from the sky, or a circular room made up entirely of human faces that stare at you with huge, gaping mouths.”
One of only a few games, Nevermind can be played using a heart rate monitor. The game can monitor your stress or anxiety levels and according to your response increase the difficulties. Therefore, it is up to the player to remain calm and in control of their emotions. Reynolds understood that this could actually benefit players and help them deal with their stress and anxiety levels.
Reynolds says, “I like to call it a stress management tool disguised as a video game. I’ve gotten many emails from people who played the game and reached out to say that they recognized themselves in some of the characters and they’re going back to therapy. Some of them say that they feel like they’re being seen, because trauma’s being represented in a way that they can relate to.”
However, the game was developed as entertainment, not as therapy. Scientists are looking at the potential of these games for treatments. For example, games could react to the feelings of players and communicate to the player how to check their emotions.
Research into the use of video games
Joanneke Weerdmeester, a behavioral scientist, approves of Nevermind. She studied the game, DEEP, for her PhD in psychology. In this game, the player puts on a virtual reality headset and immerse in water filled with fish and tranquil music. During the game, you wear a belt around your diaphragm which is measuring your breathing. When you breathe calmly you move forward. When you take short narrow breaths, you become stranded.
Weerdmeester was interested to learn whether playing this game could actually reduce anxiety by teaching people how to breathe deeply and calmly through their diaphragm.
She carried out a study using two groups. One group played DEEP and the other group was taught breathing techniques with the use of an app. Both were found to reduce anxiety but those playing DEEP got to benefit from something extra. Weerdmeester reported that “Only players that played DEEP showed an increase in this feeling of self-efficacy, so this feeling…that they were competent enough, and it also showed an increase in their perceived ability to cope with stressful situations.”
One big difference between the game and an app, is that with the game, the player knows when they have learned a skill and this promotes self-worth. There is still much work to be done and Weerdmeester is involved in this endeavor. However, medical practitioners in Boston Children’s Hospital actively use games to teach children emotional control.
Using games for children with anger problems
Joseph Gonzalez Heydrich is a psychiatrist who works with children who have serious anger issues. He was interested in using video games to teach these children anger control skills, for example, deep breathing, but in a way which would be more engaging for children. His hope was that this would reduce the need for medications.
A member of his team, a research assistant, developed a program similar to “Space Invaders”. This game involves players shooting down asteroids and avoiding hitting friendly ships. But in this version of the game, there is a small change: “The player measures their heart rate with a wrist band while playing. If their heart rate goes up, their ship will only shoot blanks.”
He reported that “The kids really picked up on this very quickly, we thought that it was going to take a long time to remodel the brain…they were very quickly lowering their heart rate in the game to be able to score points.”
A few trials were carried out on patients between 10 and 17 years. They played several rounds for a few minutes each time. One trial included young people with more serious difficulties who were in an inpatient psychiatric facility.
The researchers reported an improvement in the ability of these children to control their anger and that there was a spillover into situations outside of the game. A further is planned, this time with 200 young people.
Is there a future for the use of video games in managing emotions?
The clinical psychologist and game designer, Kelli Dunlap, thinks there is. She has used these games with young children and found them to be useful in regulating the emotions of these children. She says “It’s really, really cool to see someone playing a game, and all of a sudden, they’re noticing their screen is getting red, or it’s getting harder to play, and like, ‘Oh, that’s right, I need to check in with myself. I need to remind myself to calm down.’ That is such a difficult thing to teach.”
However, she does stress that there are a few issues with these games.
True, these games can be more fun for young people than therapy but in order for them to really benefit, they need to spend a significant amount of time playing the game. Dunlap says “It’s cool and novel for about a day or two, but because the games they use are …small mobile games, most of the time kids get bored with them and then walk away. Even if w can get attention, it is hard to maintain and engagement, because what we’re asking them to do is practice skills that we want them to practice, but it’s not always the most fun or playful way.”
A further issue is that not everyone is in a position to pay for virtual reality headsets. They are expensive. According to Dunlap “For the type of patient who would benefit from these interventions and has actual access to these interventions, I think they can be very effective. However, it is a small slice – better than nothing, but they’re also not going to disrupt or upturn the current struggle around mental health and getting access to mental health resources.”
Technology is forever moving forward and hopefully, these games will be improved. There is hope that these will become even more useful to those young people with mental health issues.