E – Escapism

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ACARA Link: AC9HP8P08

refine protective behaviours and evaluate community resources to seek help for themselves and others

Elaboration

exploring help-seeking scenarios young people may encounter and sharing strategies for dealing with each situation, including situations linked to mental health issues and problematic gaming scenarios.

Learning Intention:

To understand the role of escapism into video games and the relationship with mental health.

Activity:

Materials
- Student workbook and pen
Name stressors that could cause someone to try and escape their real life, and as a result, use gaming as a way to cope with it.
Tanks and Healers (coping tools vs things that actually help)
1. Brainstorm some different “tanks” that would act as problematic coping strategies for different forms of stress, and discuss the different reasons why only having tanks(distractions) to cope with the issue can be its own problem.
2. Brainstorm some different “healers” that would act as constructive coping strategies to different forms of stress.

Why do we become motivated to escape?

In general, it’s a core human motivator is to seek out pleasure and avoid pain. Life isn’t always a peach. We’ve got challenges with our relationships, school, mental health and plenty of other things. Even if your 3 CAR buckets are just not getting the attention they need, that could lead to a reason to escape as well, because you might be coping with boredom, or simply feeling unfulfilled.

It could be a struggle with stress or mental health, or just the feeling that life has gotten tough to handle. It could simply be the stress of being neurodiverse in a neurotypical world.

We don’t believe that Gaming Disorder can exist without an “x”… which is why you need to avoid escaping into games.

DPS – TANK – HEALER

The role of gaming is misunderstood by people who are escaping

Gaming is not the healer.

You are the DPS…. the one getting stuff done in your life.
People mistake gaming to be the healer, but it doesn’t replenish your health pool. Gaming is not the healer, it’s the tank because the distraction essentially tanks the damage you take IRL.
So if gaming is not the healer, what does a healer look like?

What is a Healer?

Exercise for physical and mental health
IRL social connection with family and friends
Getting involved in school
Seeing mental health professionals if appropriate

What causes a Gaming Disorder?

Basically it’s complete life dysfunction and it paralyzes you from living your full life.
The disorder can mask serious mental health issues like anxiety or depression as gamers use gaming to escape / cope.
- Impaired control over gaming,
- Increasing priority given to gaming over other activities to the extent that gaming takes precedence
- Continuation or escalation of gaming despite the occurrence of negative consequences.
- To be diagnosed, it must persistently impair personal, family, social, educational, occupational or other important areas of functioning.
- These symptoms should be evident for at least 12 months.

If you are struggling and you need some help…

The first step might be to chat to your school wellbeing coordinator or a teacher that you trust.
You can try connecting with these two Australian services that focus on young people.
- Click on the logos to go to the websites.