A Spoonful of Gaming

After my first big break-up, I remember retreating into my room for a while and spending a good chunk of time reading some of my favorite stories and playing my favorite video games.

Even today, I anticipate an evening gaming session when I get home from my general work day. It offers up the opportunity to unwind and de-stress. During particularly hectic days, those gaming sessions are only even more needed.

I’ve always attributed this stress relief to the types of games I enjoy. I love farming sims, dating sims, and turn-based role-playing games. These games are heavy in the slow, methodical feeling of progress. They are also typically accompanied by a strong narrative that draws the player into the world.

However, as I continue to learn more about nerds, geeks, and gamers with my current vocation, I am learning that the type of game has little to do with the effect here. Whether it is the latest high-action first-person shooter or the monster-raising anime game, people flock to games as an active practice for positive mental health.

And I’m not alone in this observation.

DeepWell DTx is an up-and-coming organization founded and led by some leading health and gaming experts working in tandem.

The project aims to take the existing world of video games and combine it with the world of mental health treatment.

Think about the ESRB rating that you see on the cover of every video game ever. The one that made your mom tell you that you couldn’t have that game because it was rated M for Mature.

Now imagine for a moment that you look right above that rating, and you see that this game has been approved as a therapeutic prescription designed to ease the impact of obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Games are already being used as medicine, so DeepWell is taking the initiative and helping to make that medicinal knowledge available to the general public.

Keep an eye out for more of this in the future - gaming can be good. It is doing active good.

Innovators like DeepWell are taking that good and amplifying it for the betterment of all people. I share that goal and look forward to a vibrant future for the future of health, medicine, and video games.

P.S. If you want to hear more about gaming and fitness, I was a guest on the Active Faith podcast last week and discussed how gaming can be good self-care.

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June 21st, 2022