A psychologist spoke about the harms and benefits of computer games for the psyche

Computer games can both replace therapy and aggravate psychological disorders. Psychologist Irina Smolyarchuk told Izvestia on February 5.

"People with a high level, with a high organization of mental regulation are able to cope with their emotional tensions with the help of simulators. But there is the most important condition: if a person himself is able to realize in himself, to recognize the quality of these experiences," the expert believes.

At the same time, if a person is in a situation of emotional tension or a difficult experience, he defends himself by "running away into the game".

"Here the game does not help, but, on the contrary, increases tension. And here people, for example, with bipolar disorder, with borderline personality disorders, with neurosis-like disorders - in them the game intensifies the state", - emphasized the psychologist.

Smolyarchuk believes that people born in the 1990s are especially at risk of becoming addicted to computer games.

"They have few social skills, so these people are precisely in the risk group to become addicted through computer games. That is, not to reflex their tensions, not to use the game to relieve tension, unmedicated, as an ecological way of self-help, but, on the contrary, to form a new addiction. This is exactly Generation Z", - said the psychologist.

Tagging: the State Duma proposed to introduce new labeling for video games

Gamers will be warned about cruelty and violence in digital content

Earlier, on January 10, Elena Alekentseva, a general practitioner, pediatrician of "INVITRO - Voronezh" told "Izvestia" that video games, which contain plots of aggression and violence, negatively affect the mental health of children and cause overload of the nervous system.

She also noted that constant standing in a fixed posture accompanied by tension causes muscle spasm, resulting in headaches, increased fatigue, vision and posture disorders.