Investigating the Correlation Between Video Games and Mental Health

This report examines the correlation between video games and mental health, focusing on issues like depression and anxiety. It highlights how individuals may turn to video games as a coping mechanism, potentially leading to addiction and further mental health problems. The report discusses the symptoms of depression and anxiety, offering solutions such as counseling, a balanced diet, exercise, and sufficient sleep. It concludes by emphasizing the importance of early detection of unusual behavior and promoting healthy work-life balance to mitigate the adverse effects of video games on mental well-being. Desklib offers a wealth of similar solved assignments and resources for students.

Introduction
Mental health problem refers to disorders affecting individual social interaction, a person’s
personality and also thought processes. Mental health problems are difficult to be diagnosed
compared to the other physical diseases or illnesses.
Video gamers refers to frequent or addiction on playing video games for long hours. According
to (Grant, Potenza, Weinstein & Gorelick, 2010) they described video game as excessive playing
of video games without control despite the negative consequences.
Among the symptoms of behavioral, mental health problems include changes in personal
personality, engagement in risky activities or lack of self-care, isolation and social withdrawal,
moodiness, frequent anxiety and a feeling of being overwhelmed.
According to (Anderson & Bushman, 2001) claims that people who play video games frequently
are have hostile characteristics arising from depression and anxiety. This study is aimed at
finding out the relationship between video games and mental health problems
Findings
Depression
Depression refers to persistent lack of joy or feeling of being down or lack of pleasure or interest
in daily activities or impaired ability to think.
Depression makes many people engage in video gaming to find some pleasure they miss as a
result of the lack of proper socialization with other people. As a result of seeking happiness from
the video games, this brings up a more health issue within the individual affecting his or her
ways of thinking. According to (Surette, 2012) claims that people who are stressed will tent to
look for comfort in video games so that they can satisfy themselves.

Addiction to the video games as a result of depression may also result in low or negative
academic performance among the school going children. Depression may even make someone
lose interest in activities he or she used to enjoy for example poor socialization among the
working group making the person having the feeling of being alone most of the time and seeking
pleasure from the video games.
Anxiety
This refers to a person’s temporary worry of fear. A person with anxiety may be easily irritated,
having sleep problems, difficulty in controlling the feeling of uneasiness, falling or staying or
having an unsatisfying sleep. Due to these feelings, most people try to compensate by seeking
pleasure from video games, and as a result, they get addicted. According to (Ferguson, et al.,
2008) states that majority of people who engaged in video games were associated with stress
issues. . Symptoms of anxiety may be seen in an individual after some time (years) or
immediately. Stressful life experiences may increase someone’s risk for anxiety disorders.
Solutions for depression and anxiety
For anxiety one can make sure that he or she seeks guidance and counseling if it is aspiring from
family problem or death of loved one. This can help remove the feeling of fear and danger and
thus assisting the person in focus on essential or daily activities.
Taking a good diet can also be a solution to anxiety. Ensure that your food does not contain high
levels of sugars, alcohol or caffeine.
Hormonal imbalances may also bring about anxiety, and this can be handled by seeking medical
treatment from a specialist.
More engagements can be done with guidance and counseling for people who had childhood
trauma leading to anxiety. So as to help them not to like they are isolated. According to (Rusch,

2014) states that people who engage in video games are either being isolated or they are doing
the isolation themselves.
For depression, an individual needs to set goals. This will help the person realize his or her
abilities again because when someone is depressed, he or she feels like he cannot accomplish a
specific task.
Exercise and having enough sleep is also a good remedy for depression. Exercise helps the brain
to think positively while having enough sleep can help reduce anxiety and this can be achieved
by ensuring there are no distractor items in your bedroom like the video games or Tv to
accomplish the objective of getting enough time to rest.
Discussion and conclusion
From the above findings, mental health problems can lead to someone seeking of pleasure from
other things such as playing internet games or video games. As a result of satisfying one please,
the action becomes addiction leading to low socialization, impaired thinking, lack of self-
confidence and this addiction can result in a behavioral and mental health problem. According to
(Campbell, 2013) states that its good to share information when one has difficulties so as to
overcome the issues of people playing video games as alternatives.
The findings have also shown that its difficult to determine signs or symptoms of people
experiencing anxiety and depression, unlike the physical illnesses. This calls for everyone
including parents and work leaders to be very much observant of any unusual behavior among
their colleagues and address them as early as possible to avoid the mental problems.
Employment organizations should also ensure that their employees get enough time to rest and
also spent with their families. This will help reduce overthinking about work-related issues and
also help one in having a fresh mind and fresh thinking.

Reference
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behavior, aggressive cognition, aggressive affect, physiological arousal, and prosocial behavior:
A meta-analytic review of the scientific literature. Psychological Science, 12, 353-359. doi:
10.1111/1467-9280.00366 Anderson, C. A., & Dill, K. E. (2000).

Campbell, C. (2013, May 9). GAMING'S NEW FRONTIER: CANCER, DEPRESSION,
SUICIDE. Retrieved June 5, 2015, from Polygon website:
http://www.polygon.com/2013/5/9/4313246/ gamings-new-frontier-cancer-depression-suicide
Ferguson, C. J., Rueda, S. M., Ferguson, D. E., Fritz, S., & Smith, S. M. (2008). Violent video
games and aggression: Casual relationship or byproduct of family violence and intrinsic violence
motivation? Criminal Justice and Behavior, 35, 311-332. doi: 10.1177/0093854807311719
Grant, J. E., Potenza, M. N., Weinstein, A., & Gorelick, D. A. (2010). Introduction to Behavior
Addiction. American Journal of Drug Alcohol Abuse, 36(5), 233-241.
Surette, R. (2012). Cause or catalyst: The interaction of real world and media crime models.
American Journal of Criminal Justice. doi: 10.1007/s12103-012-9177-z
Rusch, D. C. (2014). Games about Mental Health - Designing the Experience of "What It's
Like." Founders of Digital Games. Retrieved from: http://www.fdg2014.org/papers
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