[selune]

For someone who might be interested in reading some research on the topic:

Videogames may help with anxiety. They may be used as a healthy alternative to otherwise compulsive behaviors (self-harm etc) and just as a general coping technique battling anxiety episodes[0] and also offer a healthy distraction for people suffering from PTSD[1] but it's not a 100% safe route, sometimes videogames may trigger even more anxiety, sometimes people will fall into compulsive/obsessive territory and develop an addiction (which will basically start a vicious loop of anxiety-compulsive gaming-more anxiety-more compulsive etc). I really like this article - [2], it looks broadly into the issue which is multi variable.

[0]: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/292142434_A_Randomi...

[1]: https://www.nature.com/articles/mp201723

[2]: https://slate.com/technology/2015/11/how-video-games-can-tea...

P.s. Regardless of their effectiveness as a psychotherapeutic tool, videogames which are dealing with mental health as their main theme and exposing these issues to wide audiences, are obviously very needed and important.

P.p.s. Hellblade is amazing, breathtaking and everyone should play it. Yes.