author: Adam Belda
Contact, sense of belonging –World of Warcraft. Game therapy – 7 games to combat depression
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They say games kill social interaction. It seems to me that the opposite is true in reality – it's sometimes easier to meet with someone for a game of Vermintide than for a cup of coffee – due to various constraints of time and space.
And I'm talking about people who are in relatively good mental condition. People who are depressed often have a hard time mustering the courage to go outside to meet people. Especially for introverted individuals, socialization is a kind of effort that, combined with mood disorders, can grow to colossal proportions, overshadow the whole world and be impossible to overcome. To go out and meet someone, you need some amount of preparation: get dressed, get out of the house, and get to the spot. And then you need some more strength for personal contact.
Turning the computer on and logging into a virtual world is much simpler, and can be a great, if temporary, substitute for real meetings. Of course, when such a state is prolonged and conversations in the game become more relevant than those in the real world, you should start to worry, but if this is a solution for a period of greatest helplessness – it's better than complete loneliness.
