Biofeedback is a Beautiful Thing

A couple days ago, I happened upon a "suggested" post about the videogame "Nevermind."

Being that I am a fan of horror video games and psychology, my interest was instantly peaked. (Damn you Facebook and your pointed advertising). According to the game's webpage, "Nevermind" uses a biofeedback algorithm as one is playing the game to monitor how stressed the player is becoming. When the player becomes more stressed out, the game becomes more difficult.

You might be wondering, "well how is that at all helpful? Wouldn't it be better to help the player stay un-stressed, especially if they have anxiety?" This makes sense intuitively, but for people diagnosed with anxiety (me being one of the many) avoiding anxiety-provoking situations actually hinders our progress. The worst thing about anxiety is not the actual situation we fear, it's the anticipation beforehand.

For people with obsessive-compulsive disorder, the most effective treatment is exposure plus response prevention, which is essentially forcing the person with the disorder to either do the very things that they are afraid of (like touch something which they perceive as "germ-ridden") or not do the ritual behaviors to which they have become accustomed (like repeated hand-washing). The goal is to show the individual that nothing catastrophic happens after they change the behavior and also to get the individual's nervous system to "acclimate" to the anxiety. This makes it easier for one to control their own level of anxiety in stressful situations.

This videogame relies on a similar strategy. Imagine (even if you are not a person with a diagnosed anxiety disorder) that you are playing the game and  a stressful situation arises. Your nervous system is flooded with cortisol and adrenaline, and the game recognizes through your increasingly frantic movements that your stress levels are rising. The game suddenly becomes more difficult--to advance you will need to stop, maybe for just a second or two, and breathe. Get those levels back down. The game becomes easier and you can continue. And the beauty of it is, you can do this all in a secure environment.