Global Reminder: Playing Tetris Is Good for You
As someone who recently experienced an extended period of stress, I can confirm – playing Tetris helps provide some short-term relief with the possibility of relieving some long-term post-traumatic stress as well.
You can play a 100% free version – optimized for mobile – from tetris.com here:
https://tetris.com/play-tetris
Since Tetris is available on just about any device or platform, and in many cases at no charge, adding it to your mental health arsenal is a worthy experiment.
For the curious:
- National Library of Medicine - Trauma, treatment and Tetris: video gaming increases hippocampal volume in male patients with combat-related posttraumatic stress disorder (July 1, 2020)1
-
npr.org - How Playing Tetris Tames The Trauma Of A Car Crash (April 9, 2017)
-
Scientific American - Tetris Shown to Lessen PTSD and Flashbacks (April 25, 2012)
-
I’m not a neurologist, but a quick look up revealed: any time you read something like “hippocampal volume increase”, that’s good. The hippocampus shrinks (or atrophies) when you experience prolonged periods of stress. Less hippocampal volume means more traumatic flashbacks, PTSD, depression, etc. ↩︎