Games vs. Depression [Highlighting Mental Health]

I've been chipping away on this video for about two months, and now I've spent the past 24 hours whoring it out to people. But it's worth it considering the subject matter.

I've suffered from depression and OCD at various points throughout my life, and have often used games as a coping mechanism. When I played Depression Quest on a GameSpot livestream a few months ago, we got like, almost a hundred emails and twitter messages from people who wanted more discussion around the topic. So together with the help of random internet people I put together this mini-doc about the links between games and mental health issues. It's sad that we still feel weird about talking about this stuff, but I'm hoping this will encourage a handful of people into opening up, and eventually looking for help.

Have any of you guys ever used games as a crutch to get through depression?

Well done Sir. Its good see someone help bring these subjects out in to the open. And i have defiantly used games to escape at times in my life. Not sure if it was because i was depressed or just needed to escape maybe both but never really truly thought about it to seriously.

@dannyodwyer This was super great, thanks.

My mother glanced over as I was watching this, and got a little choked up at the end.

Was cool to see Alexander Bruce, he's mentioned the highs and lows of making Antichamber for quite a while now. Some inspiring words there from everyone involved (Lucy looks like Jennifer Lawrence :P). RPGs with their mini goals does help to apply to real life, where if I can just get out of bed and get groceries, I feel good about myself.

This is weird, but I didn't realise I had depression until I played Depression Quest just before you did on Random Encounter. I was playing it and thought "hey, I can relate a lot to this..." and then put two and two together. I've studied psychology and yet I never made the connection, maybe because I was in severe denial. This past year I've been depressed when I failed my 3rd year of Medicine and had to redo the year just because I failed the Pathology module. Since September 2012, I only had one subject to retake, so the whole year was me completely bored out of my mind, guilty about failing (that's just part of being an Pakistani or any Asian son), and didn't even go to classes at all. I was also living in Prague, with no true friends that I could turn to. I'd come back to England to my parents' place every month or so, and the visits increased in frequency.

I had been playing and buying way more games this year than any previous year. Kentucky Route Zero, Proteus, finishing the Longest Journey games, The Dream Machine. Not exactly happy games XD

When I knew I had depression thanks to that game, I opened to my family and have now been able to get back on track for studies. Medicine is one stressful subject, it's no surprise the leading cause of death in medical students and doctors is suicide compared to any other profession. I hope more people get to see this documentary, well-produced and important.

Checked this out earlier on GS, all I really have to say is that it's great to see some actual honest to god journalism coming out of the game media. With more pieces like this gaming might one day actually stifle some of it's publically accepted poor preconceptions.

I have been diagnosed with PTSD. I use games to escape, but I used them too much. It was like what I would imagine a bad drug addiction being like. Like everything else you can use video games too much and escaping, as great as it is, can be far more damaging than the pain.

We feel pain and discomfort for a reason. (I personally believe that it's meant to point us toward Christ.) Without pain, we wouldn't know something is wrong with us.

There are days when I don't want to get out of bed, or even live. I get very angry at the world for all the inane crap we have to deal with on a daily basis; however, escaping (with video games or something else) all the time is just ignoring the problem. Mental health issues, like physical aliments, don't just fix themselves, you have to seek treatment. I would encourage you to, instead of playing games, go find a therapist, pastor, spiritual leader, psychologist, or even just your family practitioner and get real help.

Lexipro is amazing.

Edit: It's 0530 and I should be sleeping. I apologize for any gramatical errors. I'll fix them, if can remember, after I get some sleep.

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