Wounded Soldiers Find Videogames Good Therapy

Via Ars Technica, an article on the Washington Post site reports that the folks at Walter Reed hospital in DC are finding that videogames make excellent therapy sessions for soldiers wounded in the Iraq conflict. In addition to the obvious medical benefits of refining motor control via controllers, the entertainment allows soldiers to reconnect to experiences they may have had prior to their combat experiences. "Video games are all over Walter Reed. They're used for therapy or entertainment, or both. Alcibar doesn't have any hand injuries, but he's been trying to persuade some of his physical therapists to make Guitar Hero available to those who do. It would probably help some soldiers rebuild their hand strength and dexterity. And it's another excuse to play."

Comments

Everyone needs an outlet

[_PimpDaddy7_]

Everyone needs an outlet, in one form or another.

Granted the REAL gun toting maniacs have issues, but for the vast majority of people, they need an outlet in one form or another.

Some people lift weights
Some people do yoga
Some people play videogames
etc

Re:Everyone needs an outlet

[east coast]

Yeah, and some of us do target shooting and never draw a firearm on another human being. Gun ownership != violent minded.

Re:Everyone needs an outlet

[Itninja]

"Some people play tennis. I erode the human soul" - Tycho Brahe

Or, for you visual learners out there: A Picture

Re:Everyone needs an outlet

[jollyreaper]

Yeah, and some of us do target shooting and never draw a firearm on another human being. Gun ownership != violent minded.
--
Dedicated Cthulhu Cultist since 4523 BC. Oh, sure, just the typical attitude I'd expect from a raving cultist. So, what do you say, "Guns don't eat people, Cthulhu does?"

Iä! Iä! Modmedown Fhtagn!

Re:Everyone needs an outlet

[Timesprout]

I never draw firearms on people cos I think body decoration is gross and demeaning. I believe just shooting them with whatever gun I have to hand is a more appropriate response when they annoy me.

Re:Everyone needs an outlet

[east coast]

Oh, sure, just the typical attitude I'd expect from a raving cultist.

Hey, who needs a gun when a Great Old One has got your back?

You should try it sometime. It's very liberating. mwahahahahahaha.

Re:Everyone needs an outlet

[morari]

Gun toting maniacs? You mean like said wounded soldiers, who sign their lives away with thoughts of some grand adventure abroad killing foreigners, pillaging their country and raping their women?

Re:Everyone needs an outlet

[jollyreaper]

Hey, who needs a gun when a Great Old One has got your back?

You should try it sometime. It's very liberating. mwahahahahahaha. Yeah, Cthulhu's got my back. And Shubbie's got my arm, Nyarli's got my leg, and I think one of the Hounds of Tindalos is sniffing around my crotch. No, sir! The only advantage to your position is that you'll get to be eaten first. Don't think me stupid and unwise, I read the tract!

http://www.hellblazer.com/archives/2005/06/best_ch ick_trac.html

Re:Everyone needs an outlet

[Das Modell]

killing foreigners, pillaging their country and raping their women?

Where, exactly, is this taking place?

Re:Everyone needs an outlet

[Mister Whirly]

"Yeah, and some of us do target shooting and never draw a firearm on another human being. Gun ownership != violent minded."

Amen. I am a gun owner and avid target shooter. I have never hunted or shot at any living creature with a firearm. I just like to shoot cardboard tagets.... Now if I was ever forced to react in self-defense, all the practicing I have done on the cardboard targets may come into play...

But I hate people who think every gun owner is a "gun nut". (So called "liberals" who can't stand the freedom to smoke or own guns.) That would be like saying anyone who is slightly religious is a brainwashed cultist zealot.

Re:Everyone needs an outlet

[Mister Whirly]

All over everywhere, in his mind...
I mean, obviously anyone you don't agree with politically is a murderer, pillager, and a rapist

Re:Everyone needs an outlet

[SethraLavode]

And if you re-read the GP's post, you'll see that he never equated all gun-owners with "gun toting maniacs". That would be like calling everyone you disagree with a "liberal".

Some people who are interested in guns are obsessed to an unhealthy and possibly dangerous degree. We all (probably) know people like this. That's who he was referring to.

Re:Everyone needs an outlet

[Mister Whirly]

For the record, I am pretty liberal - much more than I am conservative. I just think it is funny that so-called "liberals" love to take away certain freedoms - ones they deem to be unsavory. That's not very "liberal" now, is it? I don't necessarily find the label "liberal" to be derogatory either. And besides, I call everyone who doesn't agree with me "dumbasses" or "jerk stores".

I never said the GP was equating all gun owners with "gun toting maniacs". If you re-read my post, I was only ranting about those that do, not the GP in specific. And it seems that a lot of "liberals" think that no one should own guns period. I don't find that to be a very "liberal" attitude either.

Types of Games

[svendsen]

I wonder what types of games do the wounded find help them recover (both physically and mentally) vs. the type of games soldiers in the field use to help them?

Do soldiers in the field play violent video games, rhythm games, fuzzy feel good games, etc?

Re:Types of Games

[Tofystedeth]

I heard a story on NPR about therapists doing VR recreations of traumatic events in combat to help the soldiers cope with them that seemed to being showing promise. As far as actual commercial games that people play, I haven't a clue.

Re:Types of Games

[Sciros]

Pokemon. Gotta catch 'em all, but it's easier than doing it with terrorists.

Re:Types of Games

[BenjiTheGreat98]

CNN actually ran a similar story. They had their staff Dr. (Sanjay Guoptra? sp?) using one of these. He said it was very stressful and really put him back emotionally to when he was embedded with a unit, but as stressful as it was he was in an environment where he could deal with it. I found it to be an interesting story.

Re:Types of Games

[Poseiden]

they are humans like you and me, lol. They are 18-19 and early 20's and they play the same games as we do, albeit more often they play violent games with guns because its what they do!!

A positive story is nice

[Nymz]

As someone who loves games, I find it frustrating that the mainstream media consistently portrays video games as the reason behind children shooting up some school, or guy gamers as addicted anti-socials that kill themselves when someone steals their sword of blah-blah. I realize bad news sells, but I'm willing to buy good news too.

Re:A positive story is nice

[drgonzo59]

guy gamers as addicted anti-socials

Actually I think the society's/media's thinking goes something like this:

1. the shooters are monsters

2. shooters are evil

3. we are not monsters

4. we are not evil

5. from 1,2,3,4 => shooters have to be completely different from us

This is the first step -- to identify the shooters as completely abnormal and totally unlike everyone else. This promotes a distancing from the shooters and makes society/media look good in comparison.

Then comes the part of explaining as to how come these individuals are so different than. Here is where the "experts" come in. It's funny how after the shootings / disasters (natural or man-made) experts start coming out of the woodwork and popping up on every news station. In such situations everyone is an expert! The "expert's" reasoning goes something like this:

6. whatever shooters do that we don't, made them evil

7. whatever shooters do that we don't, made them into monsters

8. we find that shooters did [X],[Y] and [Z] that must have made them evil and turned them into monsters

Then it's simple, just plug-in anything that fits into X,Y and Z. It could be video games, skateboarding, eating granola bars, wearing trench coats, drawing/reading comic books, playing D&D. If the shooters would have been cheerleaders it would have probably been cheer leading, if they would have played chess and the experts/media anchors didn't play chess, then playing chess would have been one of those things that made shooters into evil monsters.

BUT

As it turns out the shooters in reality were NOT as different, were not as socially outcast as the media and the "experts" made them to be. In fact, they were quite similar to thousands and thousands of teenagers from high schools all around US (in other words we/our children/our neighbors) are not that different than they were! Now that's shocking isn't it. There might not be an explanation or a good cause as to why they did it. It might just be some random irrational thing. Why do teenagers in middle-class American homes kill themselves? It doesn't make any sense, they are fed and clothed but one day they jump from a building. Why? Well, bring in the "experts" they'll make up something...

Re:A positive story is nice

[IX SICK ECHO XI]

Video games are not a bad influence on children, however irresponsible parents who let them play games too mature for their age group are, but usually it's the game that's the target of controversy, and not the parents!!! We are so blind to what's right in front of us sometimes.

Choice of games

[Opportunist]

I guess it's not SoF that they get to play, is it? Or how about Battlefield?

And wounded officers get to play Supreme Commander? Or is that reserved to generals?

Re:Choice of games

[Chris Burke]

I hear Trauma Center is popular...

And they get to....

[iknownuttin]

In addition to the obvious medical benefits of refining motor control via controllers, the entertainment allows soldiers to reconnect to experiences they may have had prior to their combat experiences.

And they get to (in the video game) slap the shit out of Rumsfeld , Cheney, and Bush, and say, "What the FUCK were you thinking?!?!?".

Alrighty, gimme the karma hit. I expect it. I needed to express what I said.

MOD PARENT UP

[Anonymous Coward]

This is like feeling sorry for injured Wehrmacht veterans. Let's face it, these soldiers were volunteers for Bush's imperial wars. Nobody forced them into the military. Now that they're wounded, they expect people to have sympathy for them? Fuck that. Maybe now that these soldiers are gimps, they'll realize their own failures. Perhaps they could atone for their sins by voting for a peace candidate in 2008?

Re:MOD PARENT UP

[morari]

Exactly, but without the sarcasm. Except for voting in 2008, of course. Any candidate is a joke. If voting actually had the power to change the world, it would be illegal. That's the beauty of a volunteer army, you really get a good sense of which demographics are idiotically patriotic. Ironic that it seems to mostly be the poor, who are probably jerked around more than anyone else by the government. Maybe it should be included on euthanasia eligibility tests: a) Are you a Christian? b) Do you regularly watch sports, particularly pseudo sports like Nascar? c) Would you fight to defend something that has absolutely no interest in your personal well-being, like the United States government for instance? And, to make my previous bit of "flamebait" clearer, I didn't necessarily mean rape in the most literal sense. But to be sure, the armed forces are notorious for partaking in foreign prostitution where poverty stricken women are left with almost no other choice but to cheaply sell themselves out for the pleasure of every dumb farm boy in a uniform.

Re:MOD PARENT UP

[Mister Whirly]

"But to be sure, the armed forces are notorious for partaking in foreign prostitution where poverty stricken women are left with almost no other choice but to cheaply sell themselves out for the pleasure of every dumb farm boy in a uniform."

Well, those prostitutues should have thought about that before they signed up, like the soldiers. After all, they did volunteer.

See how dumb that argument looks now?

Re:MOD PARENT UP

[morari]

I didn't say that they're blameless, as people do allow themselves to be victimized. But it is a situation that is taken advantage of, and usually wouldn't even exist if their countries weren't being blown to bit by some imperialistic force. Sex tourism's sole purpose is to provide middle class assholes with largely unethical activities. So no, I don't see how dumb the argument is. I only see dumb some people are, clamoring for pity when they get an arm blown off and wake up to the fact that war isn't all Playstation with your butt-buddies and iPod tunes in a tank.

Guitar Hero?

[kalirion]

If you're in physical therapy for a hand injury, guitar hero should probably be the last game you want to play. It's worse on your carpal tunnel than Diablo! I've had CTS for over a year until it got better a couple years ago. My hand started hurting again after 5 minutes with Guitar Hero when I tried it recently, and that was on the easy setting.

Re:Guitar Hero?

[YouTookMyStapler]

Probably not for hand injuries, but if you have had head trauma of some sort, it can help improve hand eye coordination.

My hand hurt like crazy at first, but now I can play for upwards of 2 hours, on medium and hard, and my fingers are only a little stiff.

My experience:

[Anonymous Coward]

I firmly believe in the power of computer games to aid in recovery, because they helped me. About 10 years ago, I had a rather serious ear surgery that went wrong and resulted in a brain injury to Broca's Area, the location of language abilities. I remember being astonished at the post-surgical neuropsych tests I took, at one point I was asked to name all the words I could think of that started with the letter M, and I sat there for 60 seconds, unable to think of a single one.
But surprisingly, I accidentally stumbled into a theraputic game, I played Boggle on the computer. At first I was barely able to find a few words in the block of letters, but over time, I improved considerably. And as I improved at Boggle, I discovered my ability to read and write also recovered. As I see it, the pleasurable feedback I got from improving my pattern recognition skills helped rewire my neurons and route around the damaged areas of my brain.

Penny Arcade

[Anonymous Coward]

This sounds like a job for Penny Arcade.

Thank you sir!

[iknownuttin]

May I have another!

they're not so different from you & I

[Anonymous Coward]

Nobody forced them into the military.

Exactly - they were tricked. "We need your help to avenge 9/11!", then Shrub & Co. shipped them off to the killing fields in Iraq, to totally fuck up the Mid-East's most secular country & create permanent military bases.

Now that they're wounded, they expect people to have sympathy for them?

I'd help them if they agreed to join a project to collect signatures for the recall of every politician who votes to continue the wars. Most republicans, Pelosi, Reid, etc. They're still human, they made some mistakes, but it's never too late to realize one was wrong & atone for your previous misdeeds.

Virtual Reality Medical Center

[Anonymous Coward]

Learn more about virtual reality exposure therapy at Virtual Reality Medical Center.

Everyone needs an outlet-Call a plumber.

[Anonymous Coward]

"Everyone needs an outlet, in one form or another.
Some people lift weights
Some people do yoga
Some people play videogames
etc"

Some people have sex.

I hope they are playing Pac Man

[Hoi Polloi]

What's with all of the nightmares in post-op? That post-traumatic stress treament using Battlefield 1942 Desert Combat isn't working out, is it?