Wed, 24 Apr, 2024

Pokemon Go Helping People With Depression

By Raju Shrestha

Picture Courtesy: www.sciencealert.com Pokemon Go is a mobile app game, based on the animation series Pokémon created in 1995, which uses a mobile camera and GPS to place the Pokémon characters in the real world. In order to get points, players must walk around searching for Pokémon and catch them. Within a week of its release, it is already topping charts across the globe. The app has got us wandering around places, and players are discovering interesting new things. Surprisingly, the app seems to have other benefits as well. Pokémon Go is having unexpected benefits for people having mental health conditions such as depression. Pokémon Go encourages people to go outside, take a walk, talk to others and explore the world around them through a smartphone app. For the people suffering from social anxiety and depression, going outside and engaging in social activities can be difficult. Here in this game, the player needs to walk to discover a Pokémon so that it can be captured and trained. So it encourages people to go outside into the real world. Engaging in any physical activities and social interaction is essential for people suffering from depression. This game motivates people to be involved in social activities like talking with others, making friends and also learn something. These types of games could be a good solution for people suffering from depression. Although the game was released just a few days ago, those who have played the game tweeted that playing Pokémon Go has helped them in many ways. People mentioned about making new friends, gaining a new perspective on social anxiety and a better treatment for depression itself. There are many apps in the market that help us track our mood or invoke positive feelings but they haven’t been much effective. Although, Pokémon Go was not created as a mental health gaming app, it seems to have a huge positive influence on people with mental health conditions.Pokémon  Go, in just a week of its release, has created a sensation among both old and young. The game perfectly balances the real and virtual world engaging people at both physical and mental level. Although the game was never designed as a mental health application, the game might have given a possible solution to cure mental diseases such as depression.