RPGs and mental health issues

[Umbran]

Alcoholism? Substance abuse? These are national scale issues, not gaming group scale. It isn't like there's a "war on drugs" because of a few stoner gamers, and I would not expect that the rate of abuse among gamers is really notably higher than in the general population.

I think maybe in gaming you have a sort of reporting bias - in most other hobbies, you go out into public to partake of the social aspects of the hobby, and in public, abusers and troubled folks are typically trying to cover their problems. In gaming, you frequently go into someone's home - the social dynamics are different, so you may get to know more about the problems the people have.

By which I mean - you probably know more about your gamer friends than about others. How do you know you aren't really surrounded by people with troubles who aren't gamers?

 

[Tequila Sunrise]

I haven't known many gamers with mental health issues, but I did have one kid with a doozy of a head. Severe prosopagnosia, social autism, and ultimately paranoia which made him the one and only player I've ever disinvited to my game.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I've known quite a few socially maladjusted gamers, but gamers who were TRULY mentally ill? Few qualified, and all were connected to one group. One whom I didn't really know him was a gamer friend of gamers I gamer with- he committed suicide.

The next closest was a twofer- a gamer in that group who was a deluded enabler of her pedophiliac gamer husband. Yes, she had kids with him and did not leave him once his secret was revealed.*

That's a lot for a group to handle, and it tore that group up.

But that was one group & three gamers in 35 years of gaming, covering 3 states and 5 cities.






* tangentially, also in that group was a guy I've been buddies with since 1985. His dad had a buddy who was a card player and boardgamer with whom we formed a foursome for bridge, Acquire, and a host of classic railroad boardgames. His Dad's buddy was also a pedophile. (Never touched my buddy or his siblings.)

 

[Umbran]

It also depends what you call an "issue".

For example, let us consider alcohol. By some definitions, the college student who gets plastered every weekend to the point of passing out is a functioning alcoholic. By that measure, I've known far more non-gaming alcoholics than I have gaming ones.

 

[S'mon]

No, all the evidence I've seen (albeit mostly back in the '80s) indicates that gamers have fewer problems than the general population. OTOH, RPGers skew high IQ, and higher IQ is associated with fewer problems. I wouldn't be at all surprised that if you controlled for IQ, RPGers might have more problems, at least of certain kinds, than people of similar high IQ.

I also expect it varies by country, and the comments above tend to fit national stereotypes - Americans are fat and take drugs, Finns are alcoholic and commit suicide, etc. But these are stereotypes that go well beyond RPGers.

 

[OnlineDM]

Hmm, I haven't seen this yet. Now, I've only been gaming for a couple of years, but of the six players in my in-person game, none of them have any mental issues that I've noticed so far. Well, one has struggled somewhat with depression, but she's coped pretty well in my (admittedly limited) experience. No substance abusers, either.

This is a pretty small sample size, though, so who knows?

 

[fanboy2000]

I can't say that I've had so many hobbies in my life, but I've had some. Well I guess being a football referee was the only social hobby that I had... But anyway, IME I don't see this sort of stuff in other past-time activities. At least not to the same extend.

Has anyone else noticed that our hobby has unusual high percentage of mentally unstable people or is it just me? Or do you think I'm drawing the wrong conclusions?

I feel it's important to point out that watching sports, probably one of the most common and mainstream hobbies in the western world, is a hobby that is often practiced by going to a bar and drinking large quantities of alcohol.

That doesn't really say much about mental health issues in RPGs, but I think it's important to understand that other hobbies, at least, have similar substance abuse issues.

 

[Elf Witch]

I have never played with anyone who had a substance abuse problem. I have played with people who have mental health issues such as depression, bi polar and PTSD.


I have all three of those diagnosis so I deal with mental illness everyday of my life. I have found that people with mental health issues are attracted to things like gaming because it allows you to play being someone else.

Though I have never played with anyone who made it impossible because of their issues to have them at the table.

I have also played with a great many well adjusted people.

Because of the nature of gaming I think you are more likely to see the illness manifest itself than if you were just going to the movies.

 

[theredrobedwizard]

My two current groups include:

3 - Clinically depressed.
1 - Autistic.
1 - Bipolar.
1 - Cocaine addict.

Six out of twelve seems statistically significant. Going back over my groups since the late 90s, the percentage seems to stay constant; even after changing cities three times in the interim.

 

[nedjer]

I'm not aware of any RPG data - but there's a stack of evidence that face-to-face social contacts and friendships are good for health and mental health. So that might predict good mental health among players in regular round the table groups.