Mental Health and Gaming: Lessons from the Old School

Two things that, surprisingly, work well together: mental health and gaming. At least, they do for me. Especially the old-school kind of gaming—the kind without save points or checkpoints, where losing meant starting all the way back at level one.

Back then, if the power cut out—whether by accident or because you didn’t do the chores your parents asked for—you lost everything. No amount of blowing into the cartridge would save you. (Though we still tried, didn’t we?)

We were the generation of streetlight curfews and water hose hydration. School nights weren’t for games. Weekends were when we got our shot. We’d power through, hoping we could make it to the end. Sometimes we did. Sometimes we didn’t. Cheat codes existed, sure, and if the power stayed on and the console didn’t overheat, you might get lucky. But most of the time, progress came step by step, level by level.

We didn’t have the internet to look up what to do when we got stuck. We had magazines. You know—the ones sold at bookstores. Two things now slowly fading from the world.

What we did have was tenacity. A gritty determination to try, fail, and try again until we finally saw the end credits. And when we did, it was with a quiet shout of joy at 4 a.m., because our parents were asleep down the hall like normal people.

I haven’t seen the front side of 4 a.m. in a long, long time.

But I have seen what it means to get back up. To fail again, wish I had a save point to return to, and still move forward. I’ve often wanted a chance to rewind—to pick a different weapon, a different companion, or maybe just start a fresh game altogether.

But that’s not how life works.

What we can do is take stock. Check our gear. Choose our next step. Sometimes, we still have to smash blocks with our head and stomp on turtles just to clear the way. But we do it.

And here’s the truth: what works for me in mental health may not work for you. Sometimes, the turtle shells bounce differently. Sometimes, the mushrooms don’t give you the power-up you expected. And that’s okay.

Try something else. Switch weapons. Find a new companion. Explore a new level.

And before you know it, you’ve made it through another day. Another week. Another month.

Stay strong.

See you out there.