D&D Is Changing Your Brain Chemistry

I think about my DN D campaign a lot when I wake up when I'm walking in the shower and when I go to sleep surely thinking about this so much can't be good for me well actually it is D and D is creative and social two very important things for humans and it's also an escape from the stresses and trappings of everyday life but is that all it's doing to us or is playing D and D on a weekly basis fundamentally changing how we think in this video I'm going to be looking at different studies performed on the D and D players as well as talking to a health professional to see exactly what ttrpgs do to our brains and if it's actually good for us or is it the opposite this video is sponsored by my patreon supporters thank you patreon supporters so this whole video was triggered by me finding this article the article talks about a group of grade n students in Texas who substantially outperformed their peers in a Statewide standardized test and in exploring why this group did so well compared to everyone else it was found they had one thing in common they were all Avid players of Dungeons and Dragons all playing the same game of Dungeons and Dragons actually at the same school and things get even spicier when you find out that these kids were struggling academically before they started playing the game the evidence at first glance certainly points to the fact that D and D made these kids smarter they had low test scores and grades before DND D and after they found DND D they were the smartest kids in the state Cade Wells the teacher who ran the D and Club at the school said that the kids learned aspects of geography maths philosophy logical thinking ecology weather and science as well as mythology all from playing DND D and while you need to go of your way a little bit to make sure all this stuff is included in your games most of these do come up in one way or another in every game of D and D David Simkins fundamentally a professor of games and learning at roachester institutes and Technology says that Dungeons and dragons and other narrative roleplaying games of its kind provide many opportunities for learning participation in narrative roleplay can open up interests in topics such as mathematics Science History culture ethics critical reading and media production when d and d and its cousins are played in an inviting encouraging compassionate and intellectually engaged environment play opens the door to truly amazing possibilities for Learning and this all makes sense to me not only is D and D a way for people to accidentally learn new knowledge but it can also put people in a safe environment where people are just more passionate to learn and multiple studies back this up D and D makes kids smarter if applied correctly I mean God knows I would have done much better in school if rather than studying textbooks and doing boring repetitive homework I was instead rolling dice I think D and D for kids is a no-brainer just like hitting that subscribe button is a no-brainer but what about me a man in his mid-30s worried about growing older and losing his quick wit can D and D help me well to find out the big biggest benefits D andd can have on adults I talked to Dr Megan Connell psychologist and author of the book tabletop roleplaying therapy a guide for the clinician game master honestly the number one thing that I think people can get out of playing any tabletop role playing game is conflict resolution in tabletop gaming there's a lot of times where our characters have disagreements and maybe we as players agree what should happen but our characters aren't on the same page yet and so working together to try to get the characters on the same page is something that is incredibly well done in tabletop role playing games and I think that's probably the biggest one is like learning how to talk it out learning how to talk through conflict and come to you know an anical resolution and it's true D and D is amazing for you socially not just promoting better conflict resolution but having a fan group that you see and laugh with regularly that sounds nice right what about a friend group that's all selflessly trying to make sure that everyone else is having fun what if they were non-judgmental and everyone was empathetically putting themselves in other people's shoes what if you were all building each other up that's d and d and that is incred incredibly healthy helping stab off loneliness anxiety and depression but D and D can also help in your career and professional environments too most people work in a team but not many people get a chance to practice working in a team outside of work they often don't get a safe space to practice being collaborative but you get that safe space in D and D and if you DM well you get practice in event management people management conflict resolution creative writing and improvisational skills as well as just learning to be more understanding and patience all incredibly useful skills to develop for work depending on your job and as for playing DND D helping me keep my brain young it just makes sense that using your brain weakly to problem solve and do maths and visualize 3D situations in your mind it all has to be exercising your brain in a similar way that doing sedus or crosswords Wordle or playing those 3DS brain training games if your brain is a muscle then D and D has to be an exercise okay so after doing a little bit more research into this exact thing turns out sudokus and crosswords and the 3DS brain training games only actually make you better at doing soku's crosswords and 3DS brain training games in fact researchers at Western University in London Ontario go alars or whatever studied the effect of brain training games in an experiment involving 72 people high scores in the training game did not translate to high scores in the final test and people who trained their minds did not perform better so really playing lots of DnD D to try and train your brain and making yourself smarter just by going through the mechanical motions of the game unfortunately isn't really a thing it will just make you better at D and D but the author of this study does recommend people exercise more socialize and make sure they get enough sleep if they want their mind to be sharper socializing in fact it's proven that by simply socializing often does keep your mind agile child and improves cognitive function in a 2017 study it was found that a bunch of 80-year-olds had the mental agility of someone 30 years younger just because they had a close-knit group of friends meaning in a roundabout way D and D is keeping my brain younger and making me smarter kind of but not because of the game itself but because I have a group of friends who simply regularly talk to me so in the style of therapy I do one of the things I talk a lot about is being intentional with our time and intentional with our energy and there are so many dep demands on our time and focus and energy these days that it feels a lot of like whacka with everything that you got going on right and so taking time to intentionally connect with your friends for several hours in a week is so hugely beneficial to you simply socializing lowers stress levels decreases depression and anxiety and improves overall life satisfaction it is incredibly powerful I'm sorry just to throw more research at you but this is fresh off the presses hitting the internet last week so I just I had to talk about it a researcher from James Cook University recently tested 25 people over the course of 8 weeks of playing Dungeons and Dragons this was a mix of male and female long-term D andd players and players brand new to the game and a wide range of Ages the research found that the players had a significant decrease in depression stress and anxiety and significant increase in self-esteem and self-efficacy over the study period players often say playing D and D is cathartic and provides aace space to express emotions in the game without concern for outside consequences due to the nature of the game being cooperative D andd also offers players a sense of connectedness and a safe space to explore their mental health problems allowing them to feel more at ease so studies say D and D good so really d and d and ttrpgs in general apart from maybe being expensive if you want them to be are kind of an overwhelmingly positive Hobby and there have such a broad range of different benefits for a broad range of people I asked my viewers in a YouTube survey if they believe D and D had made their lives better in any way and why and with almost 3,000 votes as of filming over 90% said yes with reasons ranging from increased confidence to better communication skills from helping with anxiety to staying connected with friends who you would have otherwise lost contact with from time management and Leadership skills to you guys play regularly it's very clear to me that D and D is improving people's lives which brings me to my next big question obviously not all D andd is created equally some games will help improve skills more than others so what can we do in our D and D games to make sure we're getting the most out of them intention it's all about intention right like if you just go to the gym you go on the treadmill for 30 minutes weightlift a little bit you're going to be more in shape right you're going to be fit right but if you go there going I now want to run an 8 minute mile or a seven minute mile and I want to get I want to be able to jump higher right now we're going to the gym with focus and attention we're measuring progress we're working on a specific skill set so the same thing is true in tabletop gaming right if we were like I want to be better at negotiations so I'm going to have a high Charisma character that is this the voice of the group that is the face of the group and I talk I want to be better at problem solving right it's like okay so I'm going to be this wizard character that controls the battlefield right you know it's being intentional and bringing that intention to our play this is the Lost Universe it's a role playing game from NASA and I bring this up because there are ways that you can introduce educational content into your games whether that's running something like this which teaches you about the Hubble Space Telescope and space in general through a fantasy world or you can just put a volcano in your next game and research volcanoes yourself and try and make it as scientifically accurate as possible so that you as a DM learn a ton about volcanoes and you can pass the information on to your players so they can learn about volcanoes without them really even realizing it I truly believe that DN D cannot just be a vehicle for you to improve certain skills within life both inside and outside of career but it can also be a vehicle for gaining new knowledge and learning new things but only if you actively work towards that and here's the thing while I don't have any actual magical evidence that guarantees that you'll get smarter from playing D and D all these studies we've looked at they shouldn't be taken as gospel and even if they are all true I don't think they move the needle that far in any direction but what I can confidently say is is that DND D can make you happier you just need to ask any DND D player or look at my survey results this game brings people joy and socializing with friends often is proven to be incredibly healthy for you especially as you get older but even if it was all true then that's all that's all good and all but the real benefit of D and D for me is that I'm hopefully going to be playing it long term well into my Twilight years and when I'm old and gray and looking back on life I'm not going to care that much that D and D made me slightly more confident or taught me a couple of new things or that Vally socializing has kept my brain 30 years more mentally agile than it would be otherwise I won't even care that much about the worlds I built and the collaborative storytelling I did I mean maybe I will but I don't think the game will matter to me that much compared to all the fun I had the meaningful connections I made every week or every other week the memories that I look back on as an old man will make me smile and that's it I'm making memories now that I'm going to cherish forever and that to me is the real benefit of d& D this video took me a little longer to make and I put a lot of work into it so please if you like this kind of content hit the like button comment below why you love playing ttrpgs let the algorithm know you like it and that will be a signal for me that I can go ahead and make more content like this thanks for watching

Channel: Bonus Action

Views: 51,776

Keywords: critical role, dimension 20, dnd, dungeon master, nadpod, d&d, dungeons and dragons, ttrpg

Id: 9BrZFClD6GY

Length: 11min 50sec (710 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 22 2024