5 Best Games To Manage Mental Health Issue

Games and mental health issues may look poles apart from the outside, but they are not. Even though nearly every household with a gamer complained of their addiction, recent studies show otherwise. Video games, much like social media, have their power on the user but for different reasons. People gaming for long hours have shown underlying symptoms of depression, anxiety, and other mental illnesses. The act of keeping their mind engaged with a game helps them cope with their intense emotions and, in many cases, aids in improving their overall mental health.

The video game industry is currently taking strides to create games that showcase mental illness and start a dialogue around the topic. We have chosen the best games from the lotto to help you see why this is so. And if any of this seems relatable to you and piques your interest, a good gaming session is always a good idea.

1.  Night In The Woods

Night in the Woods follows the story of the twenty-year-old protagonist Mae Borowski who dropped out of college due to her mental illness. She returns to her hometown Possum Springs hoping that spending time with her parents and friends will help her heal and figure out what to do next. However, her repeated nightmares intensify her depression and dissociative disorder. As a single-player, you can experience the beauty of a light-hearted story that explores various mental illnesses starting with Mae herself. As the game progresses, Gregg, one of her closest childhood friends, confides to her about his bipolar disorder. Through the passage of events, you will come to see the difficulties one faces with a mental illness, especially about actual life incidents and managing close relationships.

Besides, if you do not enjoy playing video games, you can go for simpler games like online Sudoku and Crossword puzzles. They help in keeping your mind engaged and active, along with strengthening memory. Crossword answers 911 is the latest Crossword version that helps the players with appropriate clues, which adds to the fun.

2. Gris

This game does an excellent job of depicting the five stages of grief through its protagonist, who is a woman named Gris. Gris is alone in a Grey World, constantly trying to escape a dark monster chasing to engulf her in different forms. The player has to run this monster which is the portrayal of her grief in various forms. Gris has to collect stars and use them to change her world from a dark, lonely one to one of happy, colorful dreams. Players reported that they enjoyed this game and were able to express themselves and their feelings better. It also helps players to understand what a person experiencing grief is going through.

3. Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice

Hellblade is one of the most popular and successful video games in the genre today. It handles the sensitive part of psychosis that is both triggering and helps the player empathize. The game follows the story of a Pict warrior called Senua, who has psychosis and has to protect her dead lover’s soul. Under neuroscientists and mental health doctors’ supervision, this game turned out raw and close to the truth. The player can experience the mental part of psychosis where Senua doesn’t have any direction while on the game except for the voices in her head called Furies. She is like a Ninja trying to fight the darkness and the enemy and make her way to Helheim.

4. Florence

Following the journey of a woman who just had a heartbreak, Florence explores the aspects of depression and the five stages of grief. The protagonist suffers anxiety and depression due to separating from her boyfriend, who was her first love. As the player advances from Florence living a monotonous life, stuck with her job to meeting Krish, the cellist at a park, one can experience the character’s growth. Krish changed how she looked at life and herself, which became a starting point of their love story and Florence’s passion for painting. Video games like these are relatable to their players at an intense level and help manage their emotions, as the study shows.

5.  Limbo

Depression and grief often resonate well in an eerie setting with no way to escape. Limbo is a hauntingly perfect game that uses only Black and White with no sounds for the player. It openly showcases the mind of someone who lost a loved one and is experiencing grief and deep depression. In this game, the player has to lead a small boy who lost his sister and has to pass through deadly monsters and spiders with only a few limited options like run, jump and stop. The atmosphere of the world created in Limbo is very similar to the headspace of someone with a mental illness, grief, and loss.

These video games have been beautifully exploring the subject of mental health issues, with many more to come.

Conclusion

In this era, mental illness is so common that a survey found that every one out of five Americans is suffering from it. Video games are one of the ways that can help people manage their emotions and empower them. Apart from the list mentioned above, many upcoming games will showcase mental illness in greater detail and accuracy and help people understand and empathize better.