On Chess and Anxiety
| #gaming, #personalTable of Contents
This is my first personal blog post and probably most vulnerable. However, I won't be going into too much detail on my mental health struggles. This is more about how I cope with panic attacks and severe anxiety. Just in case this needs to be said: this is not medical advice and this is not a highly research and factual essay. This is about my personal experiences only.
The "Tetris: Effect and PTSD
I've heard once before that tetris can help with symptoms of PTSD and read a study about it.[1] This study isn't exactly relevant to my case, but knowing the way tetris (and other games) effect your brain is helpful. This also makes sense to me as a regular gamer who has expereinced The "Tetris" effect" many times over the course of my life. "The Tetris effect occurs when someone dedicates vast amounts of time, effort and concentration on an activity which thereby alters their thoughts, dreams, and other experiences not directly linked to said activity. [2] For me, this translated to seeing items in the real world as objects in the relevant video game. The first time this happened to me, I was playing a lot of *Minecraft - I would see items in the real world as sets of blocks. Chess had a more potent effect on me - I would see objects and items as chess pieces and positions. (sometimes this made me feel like a chess genius even though I'm average elo).
How e-Chess helps my panic disorder
Basically, I have chronic panic attacks. A lot of them are triggered or directly related to PTSD. I don't know how I discovered the cure that is Chess but I try not to rely on perscription medications due to a fear of deleveoping a physical dependence on them, even if they work fantastically. I think I realized that anything extremely distracting seems to quell an oncoming panic attack. At first I thought it was counter-intuitive because I was taught to "ground" myself and really tune in with my body. This is actually not helpful in my case. The more I attempt to calm down, take deep breathes, and tell myself "I am safe and in control", the worse it gets. In fact, this has caused some panic attacks to last hours for me. In comes Chess.com to save the day. I started playing online regularly around 2018, was there for the chess boom of 2020, and recently I picked it back up. I can't tell you the exact moment of epiphany when I decided to just start playing in the middle of a panic attack but it happened and it's been life-changing. At first I was nervous about my elo but now my rule is to absolutely ignore it and just play as much as possible until I feel calm. What's more important is calming down.
My assumptions
I think chess might be really good for my nervous system. It's a safe and almost "fun" way to experience stress (similar to working out, although I know nothing about that). I mean, it's proven to improve memory, and elevates your creativity. It requires absolute focus which is exactly what my brain needs. Apparently, it can make talk therapy more effective too. Note: I would love a therapist where we just talk and play chess the entire session.
While writing this post, I did some light research and discovered there was a study on this exact topic[3]. So I'm not the only one who has had success with this!
Other video games help too
Another reason why chess works so well specifically is it's accessibility. I just whip out the chess app as soon as I feel myself panicking. The complexity of chess forces you to really focus and enter what the docs call a "flow state". "The flow state is defined by intense involvement in an activity with high degrees of concentration and focused attention accompanied by a sense of pleasure."[4] However, any video game that requires a lot of focus and attention works well for me too, and helps me enter that "flow state". I've been able to successfully come down from panic attacks by playing handheld games on the 3DS, League of Legends (specifically ARAM), single-player story driven RPGs, and logic puzzles. Even simple NYT Times games can do wonders in a tough mental state. If you're familar with therapy at all, you know about the coping skills "toolbox". Well, mine is a variety of logic games on my smartphone.
Conclusion
e-Chess is one of the safest and best ways I've learned to cope and limit my panic attacks without pharmecitials. I wonder if something like this can help others with similar or different mental health issues like OCD, general anxiety, and more. I genuinely think this is a viable way to cope with certain psychological disabilities and I hope there's more research on video games and their positive impact on mental health.