System of the Stars: Meet the therapist using videos games to teach mental health | Laptop Mag
Arrangement of the Stars: Meet the therapist using videos games to teach mental health
I struggle with anxiety and depression — I've talked about it in my Life is Foreign: True Colors review and my Devil May Cry 20 years later slice. I'm an advocate for talking openly about mental health, just I as well have social anxiety, which, as you might guess, tin be problematic for a journalist who interviews others. Y'all unremarkably wouldn't catch my byline on a Organization of the Stars slice, only I was recently inspired by Twitch, TikTok and YouTube performer Dr. Mick.
Yes, Dr. Mick (Ryan Earl, Ph.D., LMFT) is an actual doctor and a licensed therapist. At 31 years quondam, he's been practicing therapy for nearly nine years, and started hosting a show called "Game Sessions with a Therapist" equally Dr. Mick since September 2022. I caught one of his TikToks while scrolling through my For You lot page, and saw how he broke down Jack's mental state in Mass Effect 2. It defenseless my attending, but it wasn't until his playthrough of The Last of The states that his content really sunk its teeth in me. Funnily enough, it was the video where Dr. Mick broke down a simple sign that gave people instructions on what not to do as opposed to what to exercise — thus providing a lesson in instructing in the affirmative.
Dr. Mick not only entertains his viewers, but he takes the fourth dimension to teach gamers about mental wellness. Every time an emotional or psychological development happens within a game, he pauses and breaks it downward for people. I've too seen him give people advice in Twitch chats nearly their own struggles. It's no undercover that the vocal minority of gamers online are toxic, so seeing someone working their way to de-stigmatize mental health, particularly through gaming, spoke to me on a deep emotional level.
I chatted with Dr. Mick about what sent him on his journey to assistance people, and we had a few conversational detours nearly his dearest for golf.
What's Dr. Mick's history with gaming?
Dr. Mick's gaming journey started with opening a present on Christmas morning time and finding a Sega Genesis packed with Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Altered Fauna and NBA Jam.
"I thought information technology was the coolest thing ever, I didn't know what video games were until that showed up," Dr. Mick said. "It'due south kind of amazing that 'Santa' knew that I would exist stimulated by video games because neither of my parents were into video games."
Dr. Mick later solidified gaming as a huge part of his life when he got a Nintendo 64, and he told me that Star Trick 64 is still one of his favorite games to this day.
"In higher, video games helped me navigate depression," Dr. Mick said. "I'1000 thankful for Globe of Warcraft because that got me through my freshman year of college [...] I spent more hours in Azeroth than I did on campus. Video games have e'er been a consistent, reliable companion for me, and all of the friends I have started with an initial connection I had over video games. I can't actually conceptualize who I am without them."
Removing the nostalgia factor, withal, Dr. Mick'south favorite games of all time are Destiny and Destiny 2. Destiny connected Dr. Mick and his girlfriend at the time (now wife) when they were in a long-distance relationship. During his doctoral program, Dr. Mick raided with his Destiny group every Saturday, which he looked forwards to because "getting a Ph.D. sucks." Destiny was also the game that launched Dr. Mick's stream. "Destiny is only ingrained in me at this point."
What game is Dr. Mick excited about the most?
I asked Dr. Mick what game he's excited for the most, and while I was expecting a mental wellness-related answer, he came at me with EA Sports PGA Tour. For those who don't know, that is a golf game. For fun, I asked Dr. Mick to sell me on this game.
"Golf is a game of decisions, and it's a game where you're actually just playing against yourself," he said. "The amount of controlling y'all take to make, where you have to straight your focus when y'all're trying to do what y'all're doing is incredible and I retrieve perhaps extends beyond any other sport I can think of. It'south not a reactionary sport. You have to visualize and so create whatever shot you're trying to do. So video game golf is fun because you get to brand shots you can't make in real life, experience courses you can't beget to play, and personally, my dad used to play Tiger Forest PGA Bout with me on the Sega Genesis, so it has sentimental value."
I was hooked by Dr. Mick's passion for golf, so I asked what makes a good golf game. He explained that he loves the realistic simulation in the sport. For EA Sports PGA Bout, it needs to allow players to feel the skill gap and progression of your graphic symbol in the game, capture the course atmosphere, and add better announcers.
How does Dr. Mick feel about the PS5 and Xbox Serial 10?
We eventually got to talking about the PS5 and Xbox Serial X. While Dr. Mick doesn't have one yet, he'due south been eyeing the PS5 in item, only stated that, "I can wait."
Correct now, the simply game in his crosshair is Horizon: Forbidden West, and he'south hoping the PS5 slims down at some indicate (me as well, honestly). "My personal investment in adjacent-gen is for sports games, and I fucking hate EA. I don't understand how we movement into next-gen and games have gotten worse." I think we all know which sports games become released on a yearly cycle and either wait the same or accept somehow gotten worse — have Phillip Tracy's FIFA 22 review.
"I nonetheless play NFL 2K5 on a PS2 emulator on my PC because people nevertheless update the rosters every year, and I still play that game more than I play Madden because of how feature-rich that game is, and that came out 16 years ago."
What'due south Dr. Mick's history with therapy?
While it might seem like gaming is what got Dr. Mick into therapy, the two things actually didn't cross paths until late in Dr. Mick's career.
Dr. Mick originally went to school for advertising, the allure being the psychological aspect — "I thought it was absurd that y'all could influence people through art." Even so, he hated the classes, and it wasn't until he spoke to a sociology professor that he was exposed to the idea of therapy.
"After talking to him, I realized that when I was in middle school and high school, I used to spend hours on AOL instant messenger talking to friends and people who didn't fifty-fifty acknowledge me in the hallways of school," Dr. Mick said. "They were opening up to me until the wee hours of the morning and talked to me about their issues and relationships — I must've been good at it because people kept doing it every night. That's when I realized, 'holy shit, I tin do that for a living? I tin literally make my living talking to people and existence nosey about their relationships and helping them put that together? That seems awesome.'"
Dr. Mick was drawn by the complexity of man relationships, and he "learns something new from everybody" he works with, which is why he does what he does now.
"I went on to exist a therapist, and I played video games throughout the process," Dr. Mick said. "As I idea more similar a therapist, games started to take an entirely dissimilar angle for me. And so I started to think about how I could merge these two things. The initial way that I did it was writing academic papers, and trying to assistance therapists sympathize gamers because they are so misunderstood by therapists. [...] At that place is so much more to video games than you could ever understand if you don't play them, and then I tried to bridge the gap that style."
How did Dr. Mick merge therapy and gaming?
And then why did Dr. Mick merge his two passions? According to him, an existential crisis.
He spent nine years in college, five of which he completed with the purpose of condign a professor. "I was an banana professor, and I had achieved what I thought would be my life-long career, but it didn't have the right bear upon on me." Dr. Mick said. "I felt similar I was in this tube of people where I couldn't extend by this certain realm, and I noticed that then many people didn't understand what therapy was and how inaccessible it was."
At that point, Dr. Mick had an urge to take what he knew about therapy and his ability to teach information technology, and bring it to people in an attainable way. "I actually saw a tweet from DrLupo that said 'I'm non a therapist, I'm just a streamer.' And I idea to myself, 'wait a second, I am a therapist and I play games, that's kinda interesting.' I had never watched Twitch before I started streaming, but I said to my wife i dark, 'I want to have a bigger touch than what I have, I'm not happy with what I'm doing, and this is something I've been thinking near doing, and I thought that this is maybe a mode that I could reach people' and she was like 'become for information technology.'"
After that, Dr. Mick hitting the ground running past edifice his first PC and cut out time at nighttime to stream while working fifty to 60 hours a calendar week at his 24-hour interval job. I day, he did a Reddit AMA that fabricated information technology to the front end page over 2 weeks afterwards starting to stream, boosting him from 16 followers to over 930 in one mean solar day. Information technology was then fulfilling that Dr. Mick resigned his day task and co-founded a private do with his married woman to brand streaming and therapy a workable reality.
"I'g doing these ii things and it'south given me a platform now to brainwash folks in mass and use video games as the accessible medium to do that where people can understand grief or trauma a trivial bit amend by listening to me talk about what I'm seeing in a game like The Last of U.s.," Dr. Mick said. "I go comments all the time from people that are like 'holy shit, I've learned so much virtually myself by watching these videos or TikToks,' and that'due south why I do what I do."
Where did the "Mick" in Dr. Mick come from?
The "Mick" in Dr. Mick came from a play on his erstwhile gamertag. A friend he played golf and video games with e'er said he played golf similar Phil Mickelson, who would "become for broke all the time."
With his last name being Earl, his friend dubbed him "Phil Mickearlson," and thus Mickearlson became his gamertag. "When I went to create my Twitch handle, I didn't want to be Dr. Earl, that felt weird," Dr. Mick said. "So I just shortened Mickearlson to Mick and went with Dr. Mick and ran with it."
What does Dr. Mick recall the all-time game is for educational activity people about mental health?
The Final of United states of america I and II are the best games to teach people nearly mental wellness, according to Dr. Mick. He bought a PS3 simply for The Last of Us, and explained that "I don't know that at that place'south whatsoever game that I've ever played that fleshes out and then many dynamics also as that game does."
Dr. Mick wasn't a fan of The Terminal of Us Part Two when it beginning launched, only stated that "playing through it again completely inverse my heed on information technology." We briefly touched on the negative response from fans, stating, "I think The Last of Us Part Ii exposed a sense of entitlement for a lot of people. [...] If you tin can remove yourself and your ain personal investment from information technology, I actually remember it's a powerful game to play and bear witness to."
How does Dr. Mick feel about how well companies integrate mental health into games?
When asked what companies are doing in regards to integrating mental health into games, Dr. Mick argued that mental health has always been nowadays in video games. In the aforementioned way Mario is an able-bodied person, you can't separate the mental and physical parts of a character.
"I think it's a good thing that certain games try to be more aware of the way in which they represent certain issues that people experience in the worlds that they create," he said. I'one thousand all about diverse representation, but I'g as well about accurate representation. I don't like when mental illness is glamorized or used as a superpower. You lot practise better for destigmatizing mental wellness and making mental health part of the chat when you lot represent information technology accurately."
I case of inaccurate representation is in Mass Result ii'due south David Archer. It'due south i of the showtime few times when we've seen autism represented in a video game. Dr. Mick makes it clear, however, that autism is different from mental illness, and he'due south non trying to conflate those two things. He goes on to explain that the manner BioWare represented autism was stereotypical in that the developers used David's autism as a plot device.
What'south Dr. Mick'due south accept on predatory tactics from game developers?
Dr. Mick and I ranted a bit about how we detest games that generate revenue via predatory tactics. I wanted a more psychological look at the issue, especially since UK Members of Parliament called for the regulation of loot boxes under current gambling legislation only a few years agone.
Dr. Mick explained that giving up your price sunk is a very hard affair for humans to get out of, and then companies like Rockstar and EA put forward a desire to keep up. If information technology costs something like $5 to become a new detail, people are more compelled to practice information technology if they've already spent so much try in the game already.
"Yous have a disharmonism of accountability. There's an statement to exist fabricated that game developers need to exercise a improve job of making sure their organization itself is not predatory and is something that is non going to cause distress to somebody if they don't pay to advance," Dr. Mick explained.
"And and so in that location's the camp of people that hold gamers accountable, saying 'don't play the game.' There'due south validity to that. There is power in the masses, but video games are something that many of united states are invested in. I would dearest to play EA Sports PGA Bout on a dark nighttime where I can't play golf myself, then I'1000 going to buy into the game considering they've made it bachelor to me, but then they're going to wallop me with atrocious shit."
Dr. Mick finished his point by explaining that at that place's a tension between those two groups, but that it'due south really on both groups to be answerable. Gamers demand to hold companies accountable for predatory practices and companies demand to ensure what they're using is not predatory in nature.
"We can certainly hold people responsible for their behaviors, but we also have to accept into account that nosotros know that there's research out there that shows that people are susceptible to this and vulnerable to these kinds of practices," Dr. Mick said. "No matter how much y'all want to preach personal accountability, literally everybody is susceptible to it, fifty-fifty people who research it, and that's the affair that's really scary."
What kind of tech is Dr. Mick rocking backside the camera?
Every bit part of our System of the Stars series, we ask celebrities what sort of tech they employ at home. "I had no idea what it took to take a setup that streams at loftier quality. I started with one PC that I built, and I had no idea what encoding was, what bitrate was, what OBS was, what the difference between CPU and GPU encoding was, or how taxing streaming and gaming at the aforementioned time on one PC was. I piecemealed this matter together," Dr. Mick explained.
After spending 3 years figuring everything out, Dr. Mick finally built his ultimate rig. There are two PCs hiding behind the camera. The gaming PC sports an Intel Core i9-9900K CPU, Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 Ti GPU, 32GB of RAM, and three 1TB SSDs packed in an Asus ROG Strix Z390-Due east motherboard powered past a Corsair RM850x PSU.
Attached to that PC, you'll find a GoXLR Mini to monitor and capture audio, a Logitech G915 Wireless Clicky keyboard, a Logitech G903 Lightspeed gaming mouse, a GoPro Hero 9 Black camera and a pair of Sony WH-1000XM4 headphones. To bring it all to life, Dr. Mick has a Dell Alienware AW2521HF 24-inch monitor (1080p, 240Hz) and the Dell S2716DG 27-inch monitor (1440p, 144Hz).
Meanwhile, the streaming PC rocks an AMD Ryzen 9 3900X CPU, an RTX 2070 GPU and 32GB of RAM in an Asus ROG Strix X570-F motherboard powered by an Corsair RM850x PSU.
Connected to that PC is a Shure SM7B and GoXLR to monitor and capture audio, an Omen Spacer Wireless keyboard, a Logitech G502 Hero gaming mouse, an Elgato Stream Deck 15-Key and a Scarlett Solo guitar input. Inside the PC are two Elgato HD60 capture cards, an Elgato 4K60 MK2 capture card and an Elgato Cam Link. For the official camera, Dr. Mick uses the Panasonic LUMIX GX85 mirrorless DSLR, and uses an Elgato Key Light Air for lighting. As far as the monitors go for this PC, he has a Omen 27i 27-inch monitor (1440p, 165Hz) and a LG 27GL850 27-inch monitor (1440p).
That'southward a whole lot of tech to become streams to run as efficiently equally possible. It can be daunting, but keep in mind that Dr. Mick didn't do it all in one shot. "It gets really hot in this room," Dr. Mick laughed.
What is the near vital piece of tech in Dr. Mick's fix?
"Stratospheres alee of every other piece of the stream is the sound equipment," Dr. Mick said. He explained that people easily bail on streams if the audio sucks. Every bit long as y'all have decent audio and can monitor yourself and what you're doing, it's the most important role of streaming.
"I spilled water on my GoXLR during the pandemic and I cried," Dr. Mick said. "I was terrified information technology was going to fry, luckily it didn't, only that was the worst moment of my entire streaming career because there was no way I was getting another one at the time that information technology happened."
Every bit far as Dr. Mick is concerned, everything else comes second. Audio is not but the primal pillar for Dr. Mick'due south stream, but information technology besides helps him connect more than easily with his clients during therapy sessions.
"If I ever demand to do more than than just have people hear what I'grand proverb, having the audio ready-up that I currently accept is huge for that," Dr. Mick said. "I want to create an experience for someone in therapy as close as possible to seeing me in real life equally I tin can."
What games does Dr. Mick recommend to people struggling?
"If you notice that playing a game is creating more distress than alleviating, it'due south probably not a good idea to be playing it," Dr. Mick said. "If you discover that playing a game is allowing you lot to experience some sort of relief, peculiarly if that relief is long term, so I would say it's a worthwhile game to play."
According to Dr. Mick, the tricky thing about people with feet who play video games is that if you utilize video games equally an abstention coping machinery, you lot're making anxiety worse in the long run. People over-immerse themselves in video games because if they end, they'll have to face their issues.
"I dealt with this with depression when I was a freshman in college," Dr. Mick said. "Equally soon as I signed off Earth of Warcraft, I was back to being depressed again, and if y'all're not conscientious, whatsoever game tin can be that for a person."
Dr. Mick explained that it's not most the games you play, it's most the way in which playing games affects your experience of yourself and the latent consequences of the gaming's part in it.
"I would accept been miserable without World of Warcraft, just I was besides miserable longer than I needed to be because of World of Warcraft, and I think it's a very of import stardom for people to empathise."
What tech does Dr. Mick think people should avoid?
"Social media is toxic to everyone who's currently struggling, and I say this as a person who creates content for social media," Dr. Mick said. "I think people who are struggling that spend besides much time in areas where there are misrepresentations of what it is that they're struggling with are actually doing worse past themselves."
Co-ordinate to Dr Mick, information technology's not good if you are continuing to consume things that create distress because yous're worried about what'southward going to happen if you don't consume information technology. Social media tin have a "horrific bear on" on your mental health when you're not using it in a manner that feels controlled.
"When I got rid of Facebook in Wintertime 2022, I remember for a good two weeks afterwards, whenever I would open my phone, the first thing I would exercise is hitting the app that took the place of where Facebook was on my screen," Dr. Mick said. "When I opened up my browser, I'd wait for Facebook just to click on it. It'south wild the way that that stuff gets ingrained into you."
He explained that if at that place are whatsoever technological mechanisms that let yous to limit your social media, use them.
What games or tech has improved Dr. Mick's own well-being?
"Destiny has helped connect me and my wife, it gave me something to expect frontwards to and stuff to hunt," Dr. Mick said. "That was the instrumental function of getting me through a long-altitude relationship and buffering the immense corporeality of stress that a Ph.D plan is."
Streaming has likewise helped his mental health. Playing through each game on stream, being able to connect to people, and explain the processes of each character'south decision is something that he not just does to assist people but to besides amend his own well-being.
I besides asked him about what slice of tech helped him in his life. He jumped from general audio equipment to nerding out about his GoPro Hero 9 and explained how he uses it for "shot analysis" in golf. That'due south when I knew he isn't just a fan of golf, he is a golfer. (At that place was a small tangent later in our conversation where he explained the entire process of shot analysis, which blew my mind, merely I'll spare you the overload of golf trivia). Nonetheless, Dr. Mick settled on his Sony WH-1000XM4 headphones, stating that it'south "bar-none probably the best matter for my mental wellness."
What are some things Dr. Mick has learned mental-health wise while streaming?
"How powerful parasocial relationships are," Dr. Mick said. He went on to explicate that parasocial relationships are a pseudo human relationship a person has. Viewer to streamer is the most articulate example. And then for case, Dr. Mick is interacting with 150 to 250 people at any given fourth dimension, and all he sees is text, simply people who are watching are seeing Dr. Mick engage with them. Therefore, there'south a sense between them that their relationship goes across "I know who yous are."
"Information technology leads to people not understanding the inherent boundaries that are present in this type of relationship," Dr. Mick said. "Despite the fact that I am photographic camera-facing, and that I am talking as candidly equally I can, I am likewise performing when I'one thousand streaming. You're not getting me every bit I am — I'thousand actually a pretty reserved, relatively quiet person when I'g in the earth."
According to Dr. Mick, when people offset to idealize people and celebrities, they outset to experience similar they accept entitlements in that relationship that they don't actually have. So what exercise you do in that state of affairs? Dr. Mick says that you demand to not just set boundaries only set hard boundary decisions.
"I ban people very easily if they're a person that says some dumb shit," Dr. Mick said. "Only if a person that has watched the stream for a long time starts to feel like they have a human relationship with me in their heed that goes beyond the boundary of what our relationship is, I have to assert that boundary and say: 'look I stream, I'one thousand glad you lot find what I do to be meaningful, but I'1000 not your therapist, I'yard also not your friend, I appreciate yous, I appreciate you're a role of my community, but that kind of request or matter is not appropriate and if you go along to do it, I'm going to have to kicking you out.'"
Streamers may be afraid to set those boundaries because it seems antithetical to building a customs, merely in reality, trying to keep everyone on-board makes things worse for your community. If you allow people to stay on considering you're going for quantitative metrics over qualitative metrics, "you lot're going to be in trouble as a streamer."
What can fans of Dr. Mick expect him to play next?
Dr. Mick is already on the grind, jumping from The Last of Us Part II to Detroit: Become Human being, but what comes next on Game Sessions with a Therapist?
After Detroit: Become Human being, Dr. Mick plans on taking a trip downward to the old westward, playing Ruddy Dead Redemption 2, and at some point, crossing over to the time to come with Cyberpunk 2077. Co-ordinate to Dr. Mick, we might also come across The Witcher three, Dragon Age: Origins and Inquisition, Days Gone, and the Knights of Old Republic remaster when it launches.
"When I'm streaming, I am looking for games that allow me to generate content that'll be useful for people that watch me, and the number one game that gets requested is God of War," Dr. Mick said. "Information technology'south actually not a game that produces as much content as people think. I think a lot of people wait at that game and see Kratos and Atreus, and recollect 'wow, that must take a lot of content,' and it doesn't. There might be five times in the game where I could illustrate something, but the rest would just be me playing the game."
On whether he'd consider doing shorter videos of fan-favorite games like God of War and Expiry Stranding, he said, "If I e'er ran out of games to play to generate content, that would certainly be something I'd be open to doing." So there'southward a adventure, folks. Although, removing those modest moments without context would be a completely dissimilar menstruation of how his content is currently presented.
What is Dr. Mick's dream gaming laptop?
We save the best for terminal, as this is our favorite question on Organization of the Stars, where we become to enquire our guest virtually their dream console or laptop, and Dr. Mick happened to describe 1 of the more reasonable, just notwithstanding epic, laptops. The is the ultimate streamer laptop:
"I desire a laptop that unfolds into a three PC setup with a monitor for each," Dr. Mick said. "It would exist a gaming laptop, a streaming laptop and a recording laptop. All three are humming at the same time, already interconnected. Add together a capture card in the streaming one to plug an external source into, a carve up defended keyboard for all iii, and have everything modularly born. Instead of having to buy a new prepare, I desire a subscription where you receive new parts to add into the car. If I want to stream and I'm out or on vacation, I tin set that up and I'g ready to go and stream without worrying about quality."
Interestingly, this is a more realistic production than I was expecting. In 10 years from now, I can envision this laptop beingness real, particularly since something like the Asus ROG Mothership exists. Dr. Mick besides requested for RAM that can just be downloaded, which seems less likely — but hey, you never know.
Source: https://www.laptopmag.com/features/system-of-the-stars-dr-mick-is-the-therapist-using-video-games-to-teach-mental-health
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