Can Video Games Be a Healthy Outlet for Stress Relief?

My younger brother, Trevor, has a great strategy when he’s triggered to play a video game to which he’s addicted. The moment he’s tempted or emotionally drawn to play, he pulls out his journal and acknowledges his feelings. He writes down that he was just triggered to play his game. He then does some stretching exercises for a few moments.

The point of a game is to enter into a small world that is an escape from our everyday life. It’s a challenging but captivating diversion. We can’t predict if we’ll win. We play games, as the philosopher Bernard Suits explained, to voluntarily take on unnecessary obstacles for the sake of maybe overcoming them.

I can go on a hike to clear my head, and put my reasons for doing so out of mind. My ability to do this isn’t perfect; sometimes, the larger world of reasons breaks through. But often, I can get most of the way there. I can throw myself into the sheer physical effort of getting to the top and let all my other practical worries fall away. And that s