After long, anxious school days, do you ever feel that taking your mind off your work by playing a video game has improved your mentality? Many students will claim that once their school work is complete, playing any video game helps relax the mind and take away stress from long school hours.

According to CNN News, “A new survey suggests that playing may actually improve their literacy, communication skills and overall mental well-being.”

Video games, as seen by parents, are a complete distraction from what is considered to be important and is thought to be a bad influence on a person’s well being. Most would even say that they do not take video games seriously, but in reality, they are so much more to a student who suffers with anxiety/stress.

To a student, schoolwork is something that must be completed on time and correctly. Classes and school take up most of their time and unfortunately worsens the state of their mentality. All students handle stress differently and some will use different approaches to work on their mental health.

“In the past, I used to be very bad with understanding my work and no matter what I did, I always fell behind. The feeling of falling behind my classmates gave me so much anxiety, so I did the only thing I knew best. I went online with some friends to play some video games and I found that I felt much better than I did before. That boost in my mental health really helped me stay dedicated to working on improving my grades and I will always be thankful to have something to help me,” commented Alex Webster (11).

Society must recognize that even the strangest of methods can be revealed to be very reliable to those who do not know where to turn for help. Video games should not only be seen as a distraction, but as a coping method to aide with mental issues such as anxiety or stress.