Combat games help with ptsd

[Skyguns MKII]

So I used to play with a retired military gaming community. I never served but am honored to play games with those that have and that includes here. Our main game was battlefield and for those of you that are not familiar it is a very tactical game in which the soldier classes have equipment and weapons that supports another class. For example, engineer has AT rockets and sniper has equipment to laser guide it to an enemy player in a tank and etcetera. While playing with this club we became good friends and started talking more and more. When getting to know these gentleman over time I ran over some interesting info. That at least 25 of these guys were actually reffered to play this game either by a therapist or a previous club member for PTSD. At first I was surprised but when I took a second to think and it made a lot of sense. I just found it interesting that something as simple as a video game could suppress such a thing. What a remedy... Thoughts? 

[LCADolby]

     I once suffered from PTSD (not related to military combat I better add,) and gaming  is very good at desensitising horrific situations, and helping horrific memories become a just a distant and unpleasant memory. With games the consequences of dying, getting shot, mauled by zombies, crashing etc don't entirely matter in the grand scheme of things. Some of PTSD stems from our natural worries of our own mortality and the mortality of our friends and family, in games if something bad happens, it doesn't completely matter and isn't the end of the world, it's only pixels it can seem really trivial.
     Gaming gives goals to concentrate on; getting to that next level, building that city, defeating that boss, improving our understanding of ACM, and in MMO games working together and interacting with other people etc. It keeps the mind occupied in complex thought and human interaction, unlike TV. TV and such can leave the mind swirling in its own thoughts without any break from bringing back those vivid memories one would hope to forget.
     The mind is very good at remembering the good things you have experienced and MMO gaming is especially good at giving you new more pleasant memories to overwrite old ones you want to forget.

[Skyguns MKII]

     I once suffered from PTSD (not related to military combat I better add,) and gaming  is very good at desensitising horrific situations, and helping horrific memories become a just a distant and unpleasant memory. With games the consequences of dying, getting shot, mauled by zombies, crashing etc don't entirely matter in the grand scheme of things. Some of PTSD stems from our natural worries of our own mortality and the mortality of our friends and family, in games if something bad happens, it doesn't completely matter and isn't the end of the world, it's only pixels it can seem really trivial.
     Gaming gives goals to concentrate on; getting to that next level, building that city, defeating that boss, improving our understanding of ACM, and in MMO games working together and interacting with other people etc. It keeps the mind occupied in complex thought and human interaction, unlike TV. TV and such can leave the mind swirling in its own thoughts without any break from bringing back those vivid memories one would hope to forget.
     The mind is very good at remembering the good things you have experienced and MMO gaming is especially good at giving you new more pleasant memories to overwrite old ones you want to forget.

Very informative thanks for posting. What you say makes a lot of sense on the matter 

[Ramesis]

I had 2 strokes and a HA in Jan. 2007. Couldn't walk...could barely talk.
I'm walking and talking now (still not able to drive). I restarted playing AH
in 2008 (I think) at the urging of my Neurologist as a sorta therapy. I can't say
AH can tke all the credit but it sure did help!
 
Ram

[NatCigg]

nise relaxing climbout, full of sight seeing, regular check of orientation, planning setting awareness, then it begins, like the first whoosh of a roller coaster, your in the fight, grip knuckles mussels joints, the fight is on the line, you tire sweat slip and hold on. and then its over.  you smile for the excitement.  I dont know if it helps ptsd, but sure is fun, even if its a video game.

for the mind to create those emotions in a somewhat safe environment cant be all that bad.  i wonder if vr in a zero g environment could induce a dream like state where the individual loses most sense of reality? hmm?

anywho, if thoughts travel through the brain by way of least resistance, (kind of like a river) then rechanneling through positive experience could help divert some of the less desirable thoughts.

[Wiley]

Interesting.  Seems backwards to me on first glance, but the posts here make sense.

I've always felt a little odd "playing at war" with people who've actually lived through it.  Kind of like how I had all kinds of toy guns when I was a kid, but it bothers me just slightly when I see a kid with a toy gun pointing it at people.  It's silly, but it's just a gut reaction.

Wiley.

[Skyguns MKII]

Interesting.  Seems backwards to me on first glance, but the posts here make sense.


I've always felt a little odd "playing at war" with people who've actually lived through it.  Kind of like how I had all kinds of toy guns when I was a kid, but it bothers me just slightly when I see a kid with a toy gun pointing it at people.  It's silly, but it's just a gut reaction.

Wiley.

Funny you mention that. In my previous job at a Paintball/airsoft park iv know guys that had trouble adjusting after coming back home. So they would play Airsoft for a while and run scenarios. The guns they had were sweet. Operated just like the real thing only it's a 6mm bb and the gas come from a hpa tank or co2 cartridge.

[Delirium]

Interesting.  Seems backwards to me on first glance, but the posts here make sense.

It makes perfect sense. Combat games tend to desensitize individuals to violence and this allows the PTSD afflicted to cope with past stressors. On a side note, treatment involving cannabis and photo-therapy has also been very successful.

The fact that the disease is being addressed at all is a positive imho.

[NatCigg]

not so much desensitize but more putting a positive experience to a negative memory.  i like to think of it like a river, but it is a rewiring of the brain though experience and time.

not that i know anything, 4wiw.

[Traveler]

I’d thought I had it under control.  My wife protected me from most of the stressor’s associated with PTSD.  I could tolerate short, very short trips into the supermarket without  breaking out into cold sweat.  I’d managed to sleep through most nights without have to get up and check the perimeter of the house.  Kathy attended several PTSD workshops run by the VA for wife’s and girlfriends and learned that the best technique for waking me from a bad dream was not to touch me and let me just  wakeup on my own.  We found out that there is no cure for PTSD.  It can lay just below the surface, hidden for  years, even decades,  waiting for a traumatic event to trigger it.  Death of child, 9/11, a sound or smell, any perceived threat real or imaged can trigger the Zero to Rage response in a combat vet.   

After Kathy’s death in July of 2013,  my PTSD returned with a vengeance.  I was a combat medic assigned to the 5th Group.  I zipped a lot of friends into body bags.  I was in country for most of the heavy combat of the Viet Nam war, November 1967 through May 1969.   I was in a base came that was overrun by  NVA Tanks in February 68.  I killed  to stay alive with my bare hands.  We retook our camp days later and I spent long days with everyone else pulling bloated NVA bodies off the wire.   An APC with a plow blade on the front of it pushing the pilled bodies of the NVA dead into a mass grave.   I still can’t squeeze tooth paste out of a tube as a result of seeing that.     

[Skyguns MKII]

I’d thought I had it under control.  My wife protected me from most of the stressor’s associated with PTSD.  I could tolerate short, very short trips into the supermarket without  breaking out into cold sweat.  I’d managed to sleep through most nights without have to get up and check the perimeter of the house.  Kathy attended several PTSD workshops run by the VA for wife’s and girlfriends and learned that the best technique for waking me from a bad dream was not to touch me and let me just  wakeup on my own.  We found out that there is no cure for PTSD.  It can lay just below the surface, hidden for  years, even decades,  waiting for a traumatic event to trigger it.  Death of child, 9/11, a sound or smell, any perceived threat real or imaged can trigger the Zero to Rage response in a combat vet.   

After Kathy’s death in July of 2013,  my PTSD returned with a vengeance.  I was a combat medic assigned to the 5th Group.  I zipped a lot of friends into body bags.  I was in country for most of the heavy combat of the Viet Nam war, November 1967 through May 1969.   I was in a base came that was overrun by  NVA Tanks in February 68.  I killed  to stay alive with my bare hands.  We retook our camp days later and I spent long days with everyone else pulling bloated NVA bodies off the wire.   An APC with a plow blade on the front of it pushing the pilled bodies of the NVA dead into a mass grave.   I still can’t squeeze tooth paste out of a tube as a result of seeing that.   

I'm honestly at a loss of words but I can say I have the utmost repsect for you still fighting when the war is over  god bless

[redcatcherb412]

Lots of combat vets in Aces Hi. PTSD or not, we seem to enjoy the simulation.
I do anyway.