Are video games bad for mental health, especially for teens?

Video games are bad for you only if you are playing games so much that it is interfering with the rest of your everyday life: family, work, education and friends. Here are some of the signs of video game addiction: compulsive game-playing; social isolation; mood swings; diminished imagination; and hyper-focus on in-game achievements, to the exclusion of other life events.

However, spending some time playing or simply being in a playful mood is essential to being human, so long as you don't do it excessively.


Game playing can have benefits beyond being a fun way to pass the time. While playing games, it is also possible to:

• Strengthen relationships with others through multiplayer gameplay. Multiplayer games are virtual social communities where decisions need to be made quickly about whom to trust or reject and how to lead a group. People who play these games are more likely to be helpful to others.
• Develop problem solving skills. According to a study conducted by the University of Lowa, playing just ten hours of a game boost the mental processing speed and skills of gamers.
• Develop creative skills. Studies conducted by the American Psychological Association and Indian Psychological Association have found that laying any kind of video game can help kids imagine and visualise things better.
• Learn to be more flexible by trying alternate strategies. A study from British researchers found that playing certain strategic games increased their brain flexibility.
• Improve self-confidence through goal achievement. The University of Utah conducted a study that found regular video gaming even helped children with chronic depression and autism, etc. Kids who played certain games showed some positive signs of improvement. Gaming helped them with empowerment and boosting fighting spirit.
• Learn new knowledge presented by the game's content. Game-based learning is becoming more and more commonplace in the classroom. There are even entire schools, such as Quest To Learn in New York, where the entire curriculum is built around gameplay.
• Help fight stress and depression. Texas A&M University conducted a study asking 103 young adults in which half played a non-violent game while other half played a violent game to play. The results found that those who played violent games showed reduced depression.

Some researchers have also suggested video games an effective way to relieve pain. They found that playing video games by people who suffer from certain serious illness and undergo treatments can help relieve some pain and stress. Gaming allows them to divert their mind by keeping them busy in gaming instead of focusing on pain.