Elden Ring & How It Helps With Depression.

"Don't you dare go hollow"

    Elden Ring, a sequel to games referred to as "souls" games. Notorious for their difficulty and harsh gameplay, those who persevere will go on to become "Elden Lord". I chose this game to write about because although at first glace this game doesn't initially come through as an educational or mental health focused game. But once you read what the community has to say about their experiences with this game, you begin to wonder "Why? of all games?"  Hundreds of people have wrote about this game helping with their depression, and helping them overcome their mental roadblocks in everyday life. Today we are going to break down how the world of Elden Ring is helping its players overcome their struggles. 

    At the beginning of your adventure, you are given your essentials, and then literally dropped into the open world, to explore and do whatever you please. You learn quickly that there is a certain pecking order in these lands, and that you just so happen to be at the bottom of the proverbial food chain. Your goal is to slowly climb to the top, enemy after enemy, puzzle after puzzle, boss fight after boss fight. And here is the kicker, unlike other games, you ARE NOT able to change the difficulty. From seasoned professionals of the genre, to the newest videogame player, everyone experiences the same challenges. This brought rise to a paradox, its seemingly endless cycle of trial and error.

    Let's get back to the question here, how is this helping people? Isn't stress a bad thing? And how is constantly failing going to help someone with their depression? Well kind reader, this is a process called "Stress Inoculation". Also called Stress Inoculation Training (SIT), this form of Cognitive Brain Therapy is often used for patients with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Simply put, when your brain undergoes high levels of cortisol (Stress hormones) it begins to shift into overdrive, computing and analyzing thousands of bits of information about your bodies condition, as well as your surroundings. By partaking in S.I.T. you are giving your brain ways to find alternative ways to handle stressful situations as well as come up with coping skills. S.I.T. is a effective form of therapy according to PTSD.va.gov  and has been supported by research. 

    Let's make an example; You finally climbed to the top of a castle, ready to fight the last person at the top, luckily you saved your game at a rest stop. You get ready to fight and you realize that this final enemy is like nothing you have seen before. So then you go through the cycle. Restart, fight, analyze, lose, repeat. Slowly yet surely learning their moves, patterns, and abilities. Until finally you win! you used all the information you learned after repeated failed attempts to finally overcome the challenge. 

    Remember when I mentioned the hundreds of people who wrote about Elden Ring helping them with their depression? Let's go over what those people said and review what they had to say. For this we are using the Elden Ring Reddit Community Posts. According to user Dawooky "But what this game has reminded me of is with persistence, planning, and the right attitude that even this will pass. It's the only game I've ever played that I can apply to real world problems." This along with many others agree that the game has taught them a multitude of problem solving skills that can be applicable to real world issues they have. Another great resource for this is a video essay published by Daryl Talks Games. About 3 minutes into the video, Daryl shows multiple testimonials and accounts who say "Dark Souls Changed My Life". Dark Souls is the Original Predecessor to Elden Ring.  And I 100% recommend that you watch his video!