How Roleplaying Games Can Help Us Build Resilience to Stress
Learning positive strategies for dealing with stress from video games and tabletop RPGs
Stress is a normal part of life. We can’t always avoid it, but we can become more resistant to its effects. But it often how we react to stress can have a more significant impact on our health than the event itself. And when we use positive strategies for dealing with stress, we become more resistant and can bounce back more quickly from the negative impacts of stress. When we play roleplaying games, we often model the best stress management techniques in our characters and as players without realizing it. We can become more resilient to stress and stressful events by applying these to our real lives.
The Dangers of Stress
The most common trigger of stress is due to change. But while change causes stress, it is an unavoidable part of life. From growing up, moving from school to employment, new relationships, and life situations, change is what allows us to grow as individuals.
We face dozens of minor changes daily, from the changing dawn to watching a new show to making decisions for a character in a game. Most of these day-to-day situations will cause us little to no stress. However, many of us will become stressed when there is a significant change in our lives, such as a change in our demands, our support structure, or our ability to control the situation.
For example, being under a lot of pressure to complete a project and the increased demands on your time and abilities can cause stress at work or school. Losing a job and its financial support can trigger major anxiety. And any situation that feels uncertain and you have little to no control over can cause someone to feel stressed out.
Most of us are familiar with the typical signs of stress, such as sweaty palms, a fluttering stomach, and a tense jaw. Often those symptoms quickly resolve after the stressful situation is over.
Right before giving an important presentation, we may feel like we’re literally shaking with anxiety. But afterward, our heart rate returns to normal, and the anxiety fades. There are even some benefits of these short-term stresses, which is why we may enjoy safe but scary situations like haunted houses or theme park rides. (Read more about fear in Why We Like Fear and How RPG Horror Campaigns Make for A Great Experience.)
However, stress can cause long-term health issues. Chronic stress causes various problems, including heart disease, arthritis, inflammation, diabetes, a weakened immune system, increased risk of addictive behavior, and depression. And the stress does not have to be prolonged for these effects. An immediate crisis such as a natural disaster or life-threatening event can put us quickly at risk for these symptoms of chronic stress.
“It’s not stress that kills us, it is our reaction to it.”
—Hans Selye
But it is our reaction to it that has the most impact and more than the event itself. A 2006 study in Kosovo, with participants who had previously had significant life-changing stressful events, found that the relationship between the individual and stressors, rather than the stressors alone, produced the symptoms and the outcome on their personal well-being. Essentially, how they reacted to the events had a more significant impact on their long-term stress-related symptoms than the event itself.
It is essential to manage stress in a healthy way to avoid the dangers and risks associated with chronic stress. But whether it is a major crisis to a minor day-to-day issue, how we react predicts our ability to bounce back from the stress. And we can learn what are the best strategies from playing our favorite video games and tabletop role-playing games.
What Are Coping Mechanisms for Stress
Our reactions to stress are also coping mechanisms. They can be healthy, also called adaptive coping mechanisms, or negative, maladaptive responses.
Here are some examples of coping mechanisms from Goodtherapy:
Maladaptive Stress Reactions
Numbing
Unhealthy Self-Soothing
Avoidance
Self-harm
Adaptive Stress Reactions
Self-care
Seeking Support
Problem-solving
Mindfulness
Being Open-Minded
Take how someone reacts to getting a bad grade on a mid-term in school. An adaptive approach might be through problem-solving and seeking support. The student tries to figure out why they scored poorly looks for ways to improve, perhaps with the support of a study group or tutor, and by the time the final exam comes around, they may be able to improve their overall grade.
A maladaptive approach could be reacting with numbing and unhealthy self-soothing. The student drowns their frustration in unhealthy habits and perhaps even starts skipping class to avoid dealing with the anxiety it is causing them. By the end of the term, their grade has dropped further, and they could risk failing it entirely.
Though we can’t always prevent stressful situations, how we react to them and the coping mechanisms that we use impact the long-term outcome it has on us. And it has been seen that by using adaptive coping strategies, we lower our risk of developing the symptoms of chronic stress and have better outcomes.
“Life is ten percent what you experience and ninety percent how you respond to it.”
—Anonymous
Learning Coping Mechanisms Through Gaming
When playing roleplaying games, we regularly model the best coping mechanisms for our character and ourselves. Though we may not even realize it, we regularly use adaptive strategies to overcome the obstacles and win the game.
In what ways does gaming teach to have positive reactions to obstacles and change?
Stocking up on Health Potions
In a game of D&D, we make sure our characters have had a long rest to ensure full hit points and spell slots before venturing into an unknown dungeon. Or, in a video game, we stock up on the health potions before taking on the big boss battle.
We want to make sure that our characters are well prepared and in their best form for our adventuring. In real life, self-care is equally important. We can take our physical health with proper medical care and exercise and ensure our own long rests with consistent sleep schedules. Or, when we know that we may be likely to encounter a stressful situation, we can prepare ourselves mentally. Just as stocking up on health potions is important for XP, centering techniques and mindfulness can act as boosts to maintain our calm under pressure. (Read more in 12 Centering Techniques For Gamers When Dealing with Stress and Anxiety.)
“Nothing can bring you peace but yourself.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson
Exploration
RPGs often have amazing maps and worlds to explore, and the storyline and quests will encourage us to venture far into unknown territories. Personally, wanting to find out what’s in the next zone is a regular motivator in gaming.
Having an openness to new experiences has been seen to help us build resilience to stress, while isolation is considered maladaptive.
Think about the swordsman that hides from his failures on the battlefield in a bottle down at the local tavern. While he might make an interesting NPC to encounter, to actually play a character that never leaves the bar may get pretty boring indeed.
If we can transfer that excitement about exploration and adventure into our lives, we will better handle stress and the unexpected when it makes its way into our own story.
Adventuring Parties
Few roleplaying games are truly played solo. Even in a single-player video game, players may still find their character working with NPCs to complete quests. From traveling in groups for protection to forming adventurer parties for dungeons and raids, gaining the support of other adventurers helps our characters take on the most demanding challenges.
For many games, it’s not just our characters working with others. From those sitting around the tabletop to times that we partner with others in our guild, we are also seeking support from others.
A 2021 study found that engagement with others, collaboration, and having a sense of community lowered the cognitive load on students and reduced the stress from the educational setting.
By enjoying our multiplayer gaming experiences, for both our characters and ourselves as players, we build this sense of social support and engagement. It means that the very act of being together for a game of D&D or chatting online during a team event is helpful to build our resistance to stress. (Read more about Real Life Party Members and Traveling Companions.)
“In times of stress, the best thing we can do for each other is to listen with our ears and our hearts and to be assured that our questions are just as important as our answers.”
- Fred Rogers
Solving Puzzles
From opening secret doors, solving riddles, and avoiding dungeon traps, roleplaying games are full of puzzles to be solved. Often to accomplish these quests, our characters must gather information and details about the surroundings and situation.
A video game may have a quest to learn about a location or a task. Listen to any D&D game, and the players regularly ask the DM about what they see, feel, and hear in their surroundings.
Seeking information and problem solving when encountering a stressful situation is another adaptive coping mechanism. The Encyclopedia of Applied Psychology notes that people that react to stress with these strategies are better able to adapt to life stressors and are less vulnerable to the health effects of stress.
Take a moment to look at your surroundings like your game’s characters do. When we find ourselves in a stressful situation, we can approach it like a quest to be solved instead of a struggle. Though our personal struggles may not feel like a grand quest, using the same strategies that we employ to unravel the forgotten mysteries of a magical realm in our daily lives helps us avoid the negative impacts of stress.
Rescuing The Princess
Quests in RPGs often include rescuing others. From the princess in the tower to the lost stable boy, the games reward us for being their hero and saving the day. But even when it’s not the main questline, many of us will take side quests to save the town, choose dialogue options that are empathic towards NPCs, and seek ways to help others in the fantasy world.
A study on students after 9/11 found that those with positive emotions were more resilient against depression and other negative impacts from chronic stress than their apathetic counterparts. Positive emotions, as defined by the study, include interest in others, gratitude, love, and empathy.
By opening ourselves to the same levels of interest in our real-life communities as those virtual ones that we eagerly protect, we are building natural resilience to anxiety and stress and the negative mental health impacts that they can cause.
“A positive attitude gives you power over your circumstances instead of your circumstances having power over you.”
—Joyce Meyer
Being the Hero
One of the reasons many of us are drawn to gaming is that we get to be the hero. Our day-to-day may feel mundane and boring, but in the fantasy realm, we are powerful beings that can save the day.
When faced with a difficult situation, our adventuring characters rarely back down from a fight or difficult situation. We may need to temporarily retreat to gather supplies or level up before facing the boss, but we don’t back down.
This resolve or strength of character is also known as grit. It is the very opposite of helplessness. This mindset has been found to be another adaptive coping mechanism to make us more resilient to stress.
And when applied to our real lives, this hardiness of spirit not only lowers our stress levels by giving us back a sense of control during a stressful encounter. But it also helps us to overcome the problems that we may be facing more quickly.
Additionally, playing the hero makes us feel like our characters are making a difference in the world around them.
Having a regular, meaningful world has been seen in studies as an effective coping style against stress. Even if our work is not directly tied to the event or circumstances, continuing that aspect of our lives helps us overcome the impacts of stress and helps us bounce back from difficult situations. (Read more about finding your purpose in The Importance of Why in Gaming and Life.)
Adobe Stock by khius
Playing for the Best Ending
Choices matter in roleplaying games, complex stories in video games, or more open-ended games like Dungeons and Dragons. Many of us play these games by making character choices that give the “best” ending. And in most games, the best conclusion is usually the one closest to a classic happily ever after.
But even in games where the choices are limited, we still play with the expectation of a good ending. We expect that good will likely win over evil, that our character will eventually overcome their setbacks and obstacles in their path. And in the end, we will be the hero that saves the day.
This confidence and hopeful expectation about the successful outcome of the story is the very definition of optimism. While many of us play games with this positive mindset, we may struggle with it in real life.
However, in numerous studies, optimism is associated with resilience to stress. Even when facing major disasters and life-threatening crises, a 2016 study found that people with an optimistic outlook have significantly better mental health afterward than those with a more neutral or negative mindset during the event.
“Just when the caterpillar thought the world was ending, he turned into a butterfly.”
—Anonymous proverb
Play Life Like A Game
When playing a game, we want to win and feel successful. While our characters are avoiding traps and dangers, we try to have the best armor and sound gear. We ensure that they have full health and are well prepared to face any dangers that may lie in their path along their quest.
Difficult situations are a normal part of life. But we can work to avoid being stressed out or facing the dangers of chronic stress. If we play ourselves like we do our characters, we can practice adaptive coping mechanisms when facing difficult situations.
When gaming, most of us wouldn’t think of purposing self-sabotaging our characters to make the game more difficult or purposely lowering our stats. We want the best experience, whether it’s a game or real life.
Author:
Laurie Trueblood is a writer and life coach that enjoys fantasy, science, psychology, and everything nerdy. As the founder of Adventures to Authenticity, her mission is to help others level up and become the best versions of themselves.
Read more on living life as a game: Check out the Is Life an RPG? Why We Should Treat Life Like a Roleplaying Game and Real-Life Questing.
For a list of articles on stress management topics: Check out our category - Dungeon Fatigue - Dealing with Stress
