Therapy in Game Form

An anonymous reader writes "That's right, playing PC and video games can be good for you, according to this article on BusinessWeek Online. The article talks about games that can help people improve their self-esteem, fight phobias and ADD." There's obviously some biofeedback hardware involved with the games mentioned, but sadly there's no pictures with the story. It's also probably safe to assume that such games won't be coming to an arcade anytime soon.

Comments

OCD

[Jane_the_Great]

Games can also be enables of health problems. For instance, a person with OCD may thrive in a MMORPG where the best players are the ones who play the most and go on the most quests. Clicking repeatedly to kill monsters will appeal quite a bit to those with a disorder like that. I've also noticed that games such as The Sims can also enable people with mental health disorders to further their behavior. Rearranging furniture, building and rebuilding over and over, et cetera, all seem like activities someone with an OCD-type disorder would enjoy. Better than playing these games, people with these disorders should try to seek help for the problem rather than just moving it into a different medium than real life.

Of course, games, like most forms of entertainment, can be a great stress reliever. But all things in moderation.

Re:OCD

[therealmoose]

As someone who has mild OCD (the type that compels me to step on each tile twice on the way to getting 1520 on the SAT I, not the type that makes me nuts), I have to say that it is an advantage in many games but especially any RPG-type game. Most of these strongly encourage repetitive behaviour, and some (especially MUDs) require highly accurate repetition.

As far as the therapy angle, it's a game d00d.

Fight fire with fire!

[AtariAmarok]

"...that can help people improve their self-esteem, fight phobias and ADD."

Nothing like a long late-night session of AD&D to fight ADD !

Considering how evil videogames are...

[Tezkah]

They seem to help in a lot of situations

Escapsim

[StarWynd]

For me the best kinds of games are those which combine escapism and require a good deal of thought. After a long, frustrating day it might feel good release that frustration with ripping off someone's head a la Mortal Kombot or fragging away in Quake or Unreal. However, those games tend to feed the negative emotions rather than alleviate them. This happens because I am still actively thinking of frustrations and annoyances rather than putting them out of my mind.

My preferred game are ones that I can escape into where I can forget the troubles of the day and engage my mind in something else. For me, a good adventure game fits the bill, but it all depends on what you can enjoy and immerse your mind in. Just don't immerse yourself so much that you forget to do little things, like eat or go to work. ;-)