author: Adam Belda
7 Video Games to Help Fight Depression
We have already established that video games can aid the fight against depression. Now we are asking which of them are most suitable for this.
Table of Contents
- 7 Video Games to Help Fight Depression
- Flow – Nuclear Throne
- Purpose – Stardew Valley
- Contact, sense of belonging –World of Warcraft
- Cognitive stimulation – Baba is You
- Flexibility – Dark Souls
- SPARX – a game designed to fight depression
Contact, sense of belonging –World of Warcraft
If this section is of interest to you, feel free to browse through our list of The Best Social Games
They say games kill social interaction. It seems to me that the opposite is true in reality – it's sometimes easier to meet with someone for a game of Vermintide than for a cup of coffee – due to various constraints of time and space.
And I'm talking about people who are in relatively good mental condition. People who are depressed often have a hard time mustering the courage to go outside to meet people. Especially for introverted individuals, socialization is a kind of effort that, combined with mood disorders, can grow to colossal proportions, overshadow the whole world and be impossible to overcome. To go out and meet someone, you need some amount of preparation: get dressed, get out of the house, and get to the spot. And then you need some more strength for personal contact.
Turning the computer on and logging into a virtual world is much simpler, and can be a great, if temporary, substitute for real meetings. Of course, when such a state is prolonged and conversations in the game become more relevant than those in the real world, you should start to worry, but if this is a solution for a period of greatest helplessness – it's better than complete loneliness.
