The death of Byron ‘UFABET คาสิโนออนไลน์ สุดเร้าใจ Reckful’ Bernstein, a well-known professional gamer and gaming content creator, shook the gaming community. He took his own life at the age of 27. While many gamers find joy and happiness from their hobby, others struggle with depression, anxiety and other mental health issues. They often feel that their game playing is not productive and have a difficult time transitioning back to the real world after a long gaming session. Despite these challenges, there is growing research that suggests that video games can have positive effects on players’ mental health and emotional wellbeing.

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The PERMA model of positive psychology (Seligman, 2011) provides an excellent framework for evaluating the impact of various activities on well-being. Research has shown that the following six components of PERMA are impacted by videogame play: positive emotion; engagement; relationships; meaning and purpose; and accomplishment.

For example, a recent study with a small group of Veterans found that those who played games focused on helping others in need had better emotional and mental health outcomes. The authors attribute the improvements to the sense of gratification and satisfaction players receive from helping others.

However, other studies have indicated that violent games can increase aggression and hostility. One example of this is an experiment in which participants who played a violent game punished their opponents for longer, gave taste testers larger doses of hot sauce and were more likely to guess aggressive words in a word completion task than a control group that did not play a violent video game.