Beating the bad guys

I came across this interesting article recently about approaching mental illness like a video game. I’m definitely not a gamer (Tetris on my phone is about the deepest I’ve delved into that world), but it made a lot of sense.

The writer has developed a gaming approach to mental illness which she applied at a really difficult time in her life. Some of the key things she mentions are:

• Identifying your “bad guys”
• Tapping into your “power-ups”
• Recruiting allies
• Visualising your “alternate universe” (where all your problems are gone)
• Finding the heroic story in your life

Kind of another way of applying a lot of the principles we come across in behavioural therapy approaches.

I was interested to know what people on the Forums think of this concept, especially people who are into video games such as @Jacques (I’m sure there are others out there too so please jump in ).

Is it a helpful way of framing things?

It also made me wonder if there are other metaphors that could be used as a way of managing mental illness. For the writer, games are something she is passionate about so it was a helpful metaphor for her recovery. Has anyone else got a helpful metaphor they've used or others could use in the management of their MI?

https://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/201508/it-s-time-think-gamer?collection=1078375