Games About Mental Health
1st November 2019Video games can be an incredible medium through which people can express their struggles with mental health. Describing mental health issues to those who haven’t experienced it is nearly impossible – but video games can allow you to put yourself in someone else’s shoes, and interact with their reality. It can be a therapeutic tool – to feel heard and understood, and it can be educational – to understand and support those whose struggles you haven’t experienced.
Robin
This is a very short game dealing with chronic fatigue syndrome – of course, chronic fatigue syndrome isn’t just a mental health issue, many people suffer from it without any mental health problems. However, it’s something most people with depression will be very familiar with.
Neverending Nightmares
This is a horror experience based on the creator’s own struggles with depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder. As a horror experience, it won’t necessarily be something everyone will want to attempt – if you’re interested but can’t handle horror, then I recommend some lets plays.
If you’d like to experience it for yourself, I’ve written a beginner’s guide to horror, so you can acclimatise before attempting it.
Schizophrenia Simulation
I can’t comment on the accuracy personally, but reading through the comments on the itch.io page, some people found it spot-on, while others found it inaccurate. Which isn’t surprising, experiences with mental health vary. For now, we have something that represents the experience of many, and perhaps one day, there’ll be another game that describes other experiences of it.
Depression
This one is quite interesting – the game has 11 levels, based on the experiences from a variety of people interviewed specifically for the project. Very simple, but rather interesting.
TIE - A Game About Depression
Depression and existential dread through the daily grind. All in pixelated art set to melancholy music.
Anxiety Attacks
An interactive experience based on the creator’s own experiences with anxiety attacks. The dev did warn that it’s not recommended for those suffering from anxiety, panic attacks, depression or photosensitive epilepsy.
The Beginner's Guide
From the creator of The Stanley Parable. This one is a little different, I’m including it not so much as an experience of depression… but instead, the experience of reading into another person’s state of mind. This is a tricky one, which was the intention.
When The Darkness Comes
This is a walking simulator that uses a variety of landscapes to emulate the feelings of living with depression and anxiety. A passion-project from the developer, this is based on Sirhaian’s own experiences.
This Experience is NOT for everyone. This Experience explores themes such as depression, anxiety, verbal abuse, manipulative control, and suicide. This game could also potentially trigger epilepsy attacks. Seriously, do NOT play this Experience if you believe this might affect you in any way.
