
The healing power of video games - jwallaceparker
http://www.polygon.com/features/2014/1/16/5238330/the-healing-power-of-video-games
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gmu3
I've read similar stories of teenagers with cancer turning to online games,
because everyone treats them differently in real life once they're diagnosed.
In games though, they'll get yelled at and raged at like everyone else which
is ironically welcomed.

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izzydata
Can say the same thing about people with disabilities or deformities that make
people treat them differently. Even if people treat them better or more formal
they often just want to be treated like everyone else.

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astrobe_
Sadly "I hope you die from cancer" (or "I hope your mum dies from cancer"
etc.) is a message one sometimes gets when one beat a player online. Some
kids/teens/twenteens are looking for the worst ways to hurt others with words
just because they can't stand losing. If one wants to use video games as a
therapy helper, one should avoid competitive online games.

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zacinbusiness
There is also research being done and even practical use of that research that
shows how some video games can help soldiers who are suffering from PTSD.

The basics of the theory are that our brains haven't really evolved to truly
tell the difference from what we are seeing on the screen and what we are
seeing in real life. So, you can guide a soldier through a really violent
battle scene in a video game, with things exploding and people shooting at
them, and their brain can eventually "rewire" itself to not be afraid of these
things because no harm is happening to the actual person. It's fascinating
stuff.

[edit]

Here's one reference but there are loads more:

[https://intro2psych.wordpress.com/2008/11/26/can-video-
games...](https://intro2psych.wordpress.com/2008/11/26/can-video-games-treat-
ptsd/)

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dijit
I swear I keep seeing this come up. :\

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shakr
Awesome article.

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benched
I don't have cancer, but for me, video games (esp. Minecraft) provide an
escape from the psychological ravages of just being a person among people.

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zacinbusiness
Sort of building on my previous post and re: this post, there are interesting
new ways of looking at video games as a sort of modern, digital puppetry and
even digital performance. The idea is that as a gamer you are taking on a new
persona and even an entirely new body and, with that, you act out different
aspects of your personality or explore areas of yourself that you don't get to
normally explore. It's interesting, of course, because people are drawn to so
many different types of game, and so you can sort of see how they are
expressing a normally repressed aspect of themselves. Violent video games in
particular are interesting, because people are drawn to them for so many
reasons. Sometimes someone is just violent by nature, but other times they are
competitive (or they wish to be), or they are just looking for the comradeship
that one gains from being part of a team. So playing video games can be really
useful and highly therapeutic in that way.

