Depression, a difficult topic unfortunately not discussed as much as it should be. Often shrugged off by those that don’t go through the struggle of coping with social anxiety and difficult situations.
I have heard this question posed on more than one occasion, could gaming be an actual anti-depressant or has it become a placebo effect that has just become popular because of the amount of people that use it as a way to “escape” reality.
Gaming has become, without a doubt, one of the more popular hobbies that people have started using. With E-sports taking over as well as an increase in the amount of people that are actually making a career out of tutoring students in the art of professional gaming it’s no wonder that the online world has grown at an expeditious rate.
With gaming becoming easier to access be it on PC, Console or mobile it’s evident that it has become a popular way to deal with daily stress. I decided to pose the question to a few online communities that have been kind enough to feature Nerdgasm in their channels and the response was vast.
Certain opinions expressed that gaming could definitely be used as an anti-depressant if used wisely while others pointed out that on the contrary gaming without proper time management could definitely cause long term problems in social relationships because of lack of actual human interactions.
A certain point was made too that we as gamers tend to create a virtual world that we entertain ourselves with, creating emotions and feelings that we aren’t able to mimic in daily life which could lead to a further downhill slope into depression and anxiety if not properly dealt with.
On a scientific approach, gaming triggers parts of the brain that aren’t usually stimulated when not in a virtual world.
Scientists are currently working alongside developers in a new way to replace anti-depressants with games that are created to trigger the temporal lobe and in return has the user experiencing stress and anxiety as a less overwhelming venture.
In conclusion, whether gaming is an actual anti-depressant or just an illusion into a coping mechanism is completely up to the person who is experiencing it.
We like to think of Nerdgasm as a community of geeks and gamers alike, should you feel like you are struggling through any of the topics discussed feel free to contact us.
