After watching a TED Talk about how online game playing could help people conquer depression and anxiety, I was beyond skeptical. But game designer Jane McGonigal managed to convince me.
McGonigal was skeptical herself, but her own experiences, and science, showed it was possible. She developed a game to cope with the depression and suicidal feelings she experienced after sustaining a concussion that did not heal properly. After playing for just a few days, her anxiety and depression vanished, and even though she still had her cognitive symptoms to deal with, she was no longer suffering. McGonigal then renamed the game SuperBetter and shared the game online. Before long, she discovered people from around the world were using it to tackle their own challenges—such as depression and terminal illnesses—and having the same success she had. So she set out on a path to try to understand why this was happening.
Her research revealed that her simple game was helping gamers experience something called post-traumatic growth, which happens when people get stronger and happier after a traumatic event.
SuperBetter also proved that people could experience the benefits of post-traumatic growth without experiencing the trauma firsthand. The game focuses on small challenges we can do every day to boost four key types of resilience: physical, mental, emotional, and social.
Improving physical resilience allows your body to handle stress better and heal faster. To accomplish this, simply make sure you move your body at least once per hour.
Boosting mental resilience will improve your mental focus, discipline, determination, and willpower. Tackling even a small challenge without giving up is all it takes to boost this resilience. McGonigal had people snap their fingers 50 times as an example. Willpower, she says, is like a muscle, and it gets stronger with use.
Emotional resilience, according to McGonigal, can be boosted because we have the power to elicit positive emotions in ourselves at will (for example, by looking at pictures of baby animals). The key is aiming to experience three positive emotions for every one negative emotion as often as we can.
Lastly, McGonigal suggests that a great way to boost social resilience—the strength we get from connecting with others—is through gratitude or touch, such as sending a thank-you text or shaking hands with someone for six seconds.
How’s that for an excuse to play online games?
Epic win indeed.