After a long, hard day at work or college, most of us pick up controllers the moment we reach home to vent out steam. After all, science and ample research says that playing video games can relieve stress, regulate emotions, and make you much happier. Let’s see how video games can alleviate stress and help us unwind.
Video Games Offer Instant Gratification
While video game genres vary widely, most follow the same drill: the player encounters challenges or obstacles, much like small attainable goals, learns the mechanics, masters the controls, and overcomes them to earn instant rewards. For people leading highly demanding lives and struggling with setbacks and failures, this fleeting sense of achievement or satisfaction proves to be a welcoming respite. In fact, studies have shown that as many as 60% of CEOs, CFOs and other executives play video games to counteract stress and feel happier. Science says that there is a psychological pattern in our brain called the Triumph circuit, which rewards engagement and makes us feel good. This explains how the sense of victory you experience after each level can really inculcate a feeling of accomplishment.
Video Games are a Way to Escape Reality
Immersing into an engaging video game to the point where everything else seems distant, can be a welcome diversion from real-life issues and unsolicited thoughts that are pumping your cortisol levels above the roof. Gaming lets you escape reality and enter different realms, a psychological detachment that can alleviate your nerves, much like meditation. When you are playing your favorite video games, shooting zombies or solving puzzles, your mind enters a “flow state, where it becomes so laser-focused on a single stimulus that it automatically stops generating other thoughts; especially the ones that are causing you stress. Since most well-designed games offer players a series of small, achievable task, they help you achieve a sense of mindfulness – a feeling of “being in the zone” which is highly relaxing.
Video Games Offer an Overdose of the “Happiness Hormone”
Whenever you do something pleasurable, like watching your favorite movie, hanging out with your loved ones or eating a sumptuous chocolate, your brain releases dopamine, also known as the happiness hormone, into the nucleus accumbens, the brain’s pleasure center. One of the reasons gaming is so addictive is because it induces pleasure sensation in our brains, which makes us feel happy and euphoric, and helps us better cope with the stressors in our life. A few rounds of your favorite video games can help you recharge and rejuvenate before you rejoin the real world.
Video Games Provide a Creative Outlet
The left side of our brain controls speech, comprehension, logic, arithmetic, and writing; in all fairness, this is the hemisphere we use through the better part of the day. As a result, most of our life is very structured, with a heightened focus on being productive. However, we tend to forget the right side of our brain, which deals with creativity, spatial ability, artistic, and musical skills. Studies have shown that the stress-related hormone cortisol lowers significantly after just 45 minutes of art creation. This shows the positive effects of indulging in creative pursuits. Fortunately, open-ended games such as Minecraft, Roller Coaster Tycoon, and Fortnite Creative allow us to think out of the box, let our creativity and imagination fly through the roof and create whatever comes to mind; the sky is the limit.
Video Games Help You Form Meaningful Connections
Apart from making us feel good, video games are a great way to form meaningful social connections and have fun with friends. Online multi-player games provide you with an avenue to hang out with your friends and play together, without having to be in the same room. Even if your friends aren’t available, video games connect you with likeminded people who share interests with you. In this way, video games combat stress by helping you form and maintain relationships.
