cheryl
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These apps make a game out of relieving anxiety. They may be onto something. - Vox
Popular apps are awarding points for beating “bad guys” and completing “power-ups” — and drawing from real, clinically approved treatments.
When Jane McGonigal started feeling anxious as hell 10 years ago, she unwittingly joined a club with 40 million members. That’s how many American adults are affected by anxiety — the most common mental illness in the country — every single year.
McGonigal’s problems started when she suffered a concussion in the summer of 2009. The side effects, she says, were brutal. She spent months in bed with non-stop headaches, nausea, vertigo, memory loss, and, ultimately, serious anxiety and depression. She began to think the pain would never end. She was suicidal.
But McGonigal had something that set her apart from other anxiety sufferers: She is a game designer. She spent a decade researching the psychology of games, even writing a dissertation on it, so she knew that games can help us face tough challenges with more creativity and optimism. And her anxiety was definitely a tough challenge.
Popular apps are awarding points for beating “bad guys” and completing “power-ups” — and drawing from real, clinically approved treatments.
When Jane McGonigal started feeling anxious as hell 10 years ago, she unwittingly joined a club with 40 million members. That’s how many American adults are affected by anxiety — the most common mental illness in the country — every single year.
McGonigal’s problems started when she suffered a concussion in the summer of 2009. The side effects, she says, were brutal. She spent months in bed with non-stop headaches, nausea, vertigo, memory loss, and, ultimately, serious anxiety and depression. She began to think the pain would never end. She was suicidal.
But McGonigal had something that set her apart from other anxiety sufferers: She is a game designer. She spent a decade researching the psychology of games, even writing a dissertation on it, so she knew that games can help us face tough challenges with more creativity and optimism. And her anxiety was definitely a tough challenge.