Reduce Craving with Video Games

Has the following scenario ever happened to you? You are so focus on doing one thing that you’ve forgotten a meal, or at the least delayed it for a couple of hours. Chances are your answer is “yes”, and the reason for doing that may vary. Some of the reasons may be very important to us; some other reasons may just be silly all together. An obvious example for the gamers, you’ve might have skipped a meal (or two) simply because you tried to get to the next checkpoint so the game will save your progress. Unfortunately, I’m not here to justify such behavior because doesn’t matter how you look at it, skipping a meal is bad for you. However, I do believe this is only one extreme and there are middle ground that gaming can be beneficial in terms of reduce craving.

To (really) generalize that thought: when a person is focus on doing one thing, it may take some of the craving for another away from our system. An article posted on The Atlantic called “Playing Tetris Can Reduce Urges to Eat, Smoke, Drink” by Julie Beck reinforce that thought. The article summarized a study that shows playing Tetris help reduce craving by 24 percent.

Perhaps my favorite part of the article is this, “Strange as it may seem, Tetris could actually be a helpful tool for those trying to quit smoking, or just avoid indulging in an unhealthy snack.” It goes to show the possibility of Tetris (or other games) can be beneficial on certain aspect of life.

Here is the [link] to Julie’s article.