Student Life October 2019
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GAMING AND ME<br />
BY LOUISA SADLER<br />
There has been a lot of discussion recently<br />
about gaming and the way it affects our<br />
mental health after recent shootings which<br />
have happened once again in America. A lot<br />
of gamers came out and protested against<br />
the view that gaming, and the violence in<br />
those games, are the reason behind the<br />
shooting. They even talked about how gaming<br />
impacted on them positively in terms of<br />
their mental health and how they have made<br />
friends through their love of gaming.<br />
For me personally, gaming has<br />
had such a positive experience<br />
for me mentally.<br />
I’ve never been into the most violent video<br />
games out there, my favourite games include<br />
Kingdom Hearts, Tomb Raider and Spyro.<br />
They all have a violent element to them due<br />
to being fighting games but I played these<br />
games for the escapism not the violence.<br />
Whenever I felt sad, angry and just wanted<br />
to escape reality for a few hours I would<br />
either read or game as being transported to<br />
another world allows my mind to relax and<br />
take a break from everything. It allows me to<br />
follow a story that I am in control of and can<br />
follow at my own pace whereas I feel that life<br />
controls the pace of my story and I can never<br />
seem to follow what happens next. Gaming is<br />
such a stress relief for me and is one of my<br />
coping mechanisms when my mental health<br />
gets too much.<br />
Now don’t get me wrong, despite being<br />
a stress relief for me, gaming has also<br />
caused me to rage like you wouldn’t believe.<br />
There have been many times where I am<br />
screaming at the telly and wanting to throw<br />
my controller at the screen because I just<br />
cannot defeat the boss that I am stuck on<br />
(Kingdom Hearts is the worst culprit for my<br />
rage despite it being a Disney game) and<br />
therefore progress the story on. However, the<br />
feeling I get when I do finally defeat the boss<br />
is such an overwhelming feeling of relief and<br />
triumph it makes up for the frustration I go<br />
through.<br />
Overall, gaming is such a positive source<br />
for me through its ability to allow me to<br />
escape reality and is one of my most effective<br />
coping mechanism when it comes to my<br />
mental health.<br />
17 • GAMING • STUDENT LIFE
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