Video Games and Depression

Nicholas L. Laning

Before I even write another sentence, I want to say that my opinion is one of balance, and that balance is going to be personal. 

Now, let me tell you what the heck I am even talking about.  I am talking about video games.  (All the girls stand up and walk out of the room).  Alright, guys, somewhere amidst the drubbing of depression, life changes.  It is no longer marked by events.  We don't look forward to things.  All is pain.  There are no highs.  Instead, life becomes about passing time.  That's it.  We want to make it through another day as painlessly as possible. 

Few things help the time pass with as quickly, with as little pain, as video games.  This is of course false if you are playing NCAA football on Heisman, and your players fumble ten times a game.  I remember my parents buying me a PS2 as a means of giving me something to pass the time.  It worked.  At the time, my game was Gran Turismo.  Man, I played that game so much I am surprised it didn't melt in the trey. 

At first I thought it a blessing.  Days passed without me thinking about wanting to die all the time.  Then, after a few weeks, it became apparent that what could be good in small doses was being outright abused.  I had no life, no friends that I was hanging out with.  (Back story, this was 2001, when I had come back home to New Braunfels, and attended Southwest Texas State University for a semester.)  Most of my friends were still up at DBU.  Every story about their lives killed me.  They went on trips, hung out, all of it.  Meanwhile, I went to class, talked to no one, came home, played video games until three am, then repeated.  By the end of the semester I knew that I had to go back to a real life.  My life had become a progression of screens.  Nothing was real.  Everything was a pixel. 

I have seen this time and again in others lives.  Fifteen hour Call of Duty binges, Elder Scroll Marathons.  Entire seasons of Madden played in a day.  This is not healthy. 

Video games can be a wonderful momentary escape to help calm down, to assuage.  Yet, in the end, exercise is needed.  Friends are needed.  Yes, those things are difficult.  You are going to have a hard time.  But, in the end, it is good for you.  In the short term you might think that all of life is too painful to endure whilst in depression, so you will be tempted to check yourself out of life.  After a while that will change.  You will ended up like I did.  You will end up alone, listening to your friends live life, and bitterness and regret will set in.  You will feel trapped.  Your past stolen from you, and your future too.  It may not be anywhere near perfect, but I say a messed up future spent bravely trying to live in spite of your current horror is much better than quitting, and just playing video games to pass the time until you die.