Is Playing Games Good for Stress Relief?

With jobs getting more stressful and lots of us checking our emails around the clock, stress levels are rising as a result. Today, our professional and personal lives are causing us more stress than ever before with lots of people feeling like they are missing out on many chances to simply relax and unwind. It’s more important than ever to find various ways to release anxiety and stress that you can fit into your everyday life. The good news is that playing a game can be a fun and easy way to let go of some of that pent-up frustration and stress. Whether you like board games, casino games or video games, here are some of the main ways that these activities can reduce your stress levels and help you stay in control in the various aspects of your life.

Focusing on Something Else:

One of the main ways that playing a game reduces stress is by shifting your brain from whatever is stressing you out and putting you in a state of flow where you’re focused on becoming better at whatever you are playing. In 2018, a study found that playing the popular computer game Tetris can actually help people who are dealing with life-changing news or conditions like post-traumatic stress disorder cope. Researchers found that while this classic computer game didn’t completely get rid of all worries and stress, it was able to decrease levels of negative emotions and improve positive feelings.

Chance to Unwind:

That awful lingering feeling of anxiety, tension, and stress when you leave the work is known as work-home interference. And bringing our work home with us is often the last thing that any of us want. Even if you are working from home, you don’t want to be thinking about work constantly when you’re not on the clock; this is your time to focus on your personal life and doing things you enjoy. A study from 2014 in the International Journal of Human-Computer Skills found that people who play video or digital games after work tend to recover from stress faster and more efficiently compared to people who used other stress-relief methods.

Reduce Feelings of Panic:

High-focus games like Tetris, Chess, and many popular casino table games like Blackjack and Poker can put you in a similar state of flow, which researchers have found can help to reduce panicking. In the Asian Journal of Psychiatry, one case study found that a researcher who immediately started playing chess on their smartphone when they began to feel panic attack symptoms coming on was able to prevent them having the panic attack.

If you’ve been suffering from panic attacks recently, you might want to think about adding playing games to your list of ways to cope along with deep breathing exercises and grounding strategies. Playing a game like blackjack or poker can help you ground yourself by placing your focus on the game rather than whatever is causing you to panic. And with online casino sites now more popular than ever, it’s easier than you think to grab your phone and start playing your favourite casino game when you’re feeling anxious. Check out Online Casinos to get started; this provider is known for its online casino sites and offers a wide range of reviews, guides and further information to help you choose the best place to start playing.

Improve Communication Skills:

Playing certain games can help with the feelings of disconnect that can come from communication struggles. Trying to get your point across to somebody when you feel like you might as well be speaking different languages is a highly stressful situation to deal with, but fortunately, games can help. The best games to use to improve your communication skills are collaborative games where you’ll need to get together with family, friends, or even random players online to work towards a common goal. Dungeons and Dragons, Call of Duty, and Pandemic are some popular choices.

Get Active:

Physical activity can be a great way to alleviate stress and worry, but it’s not surprising that you might not feel like hitting the gym after a long and stressful day at work. Thankfully there’s a much more fun and interesting way to get moving thanks to active video games like Wii Fit games, Dance Central and Virtual Reality games like Beat Saber, Ohshape, and Pistol Whip. Several studies have shown that physical activity is one of the best ways to reduce stress and tension and will help put you in a better mood by releasing feel-good hormones.

Be More Resourceful:

While many of the gaming situations that you might come across while playing aren’t situations that you would come across in real life, many potential virtual scenarios that you’ll face in your favourite games might require you to be resourceful and think outside the box. And, you can use your resourcefulness skills in solving many of the day-to-day problems that you face in real life at work and home, which can in turn help to reduce stress levels. In the Computers & Education journal, a study published in 2017 found that playing commercial video games was able to successfully improve the resourcefulness and adaptability in undergraduate students, even after only playing for fourteen hours.

Stay Calm:

While violent video games might have a bad reputation among some, the evidence actually points to the opposite of what people expect. Rather than encouraging aggression and violence in real life, a study from 2010 by Texas A&M International University found that aggressive and violent video games can actually help with anger and mood management by providing people with a safe way to release all that pent-up pressure and stress that’s turning into irritability and bad moods. Researchers found that violent video games were actually more effective than others when it comes to reducing feelings of hostility and depression.

Whatever is stressing you out in life, taking the time to chill and play some of your favourite casino, board or video games could have a bigger impact than you realise.