Tetris as a Treatment Tool For PTSD

You remember Tetris…Atari? God, am I dating myself! I remember playing it all the time. Now they’re using Tetris as a treatment tool for PTSD. I guess anything is possible nowadays.

I would play that game everyday on the old TV after I came home from school. It’s nothing compared to the games of today, but Tetris therapy helps people with the symptoms of PTSD.

Playing Tetris has been linked to increases in hippocampal volume, which in turn has been associated with ongoing reductions in PTSD and depression. Also with anxiety symptoms between finishing therapy and the 6-month follow-up.

PTSD Symptoms

Symptoms can vary widely but typically include:

Re-experiencing Symptoms

Intrusive thoughts or flashbacks of the traumatic event
Nightmares
Physical reactions (e.g., sweating, heart palpitations) when reminded of the trauma

Avoidance Symptoms

Avoiding people, places, or activities that remind of the trauma
Avoiding thoughts or conversations about the event
Difficulty concentrating or remembering details of the trauma

Cognitive and Mood Changes

Negative thoughts and beliefs about oneself, the world, or the future
Feelings of guilt, shame, or fear
Emotional numbness or detachment
Difficulty sleeping
Irritability or anger

Hyperarousal Symptoms: Hypervigilance (being constantly on guard), exaggerated startle response, difficulty falling or staying asleep, and restlessness or difficulty sitting still.

Mental health tool

I bet the developers never thought Tetris would be used a treatment tool for PTSD when they devised the game.

Trauma intervention with Tetris

The idea of using Tetris as a way to help with trauma is pretty fascinating. Playing the game soon after a traumatic event might actually lower the chances of developing intrusive memories, which are a key symptom of PTSD. This approach is based on research in cognitive science and psychology, focusing on how our brains process and store memories.

Here’s how it works:

Memory Consolidation and Intrusive Memories: After a traumatic event, the brain starts working to store the experience as a long-term memory. Sometimes, this can lead to intrusive and distressing memories that feel hard to cope with.
The Role of Tetris: Tetris is a fun and engaging game that challenges your spatial and cognitive skills. Interestingly, playing Tetris shortly after a traumatic event can actually help reduce the brain’s ability to fully process the traumatic memory. This happens because the game keeps your working memory busy, leaving less brainpower to “store” the experience in a way that leads to intrusive memories later on.
Timing is Key: Research shows that playing Tetris can be most helpful if done within a specific time window after a traumatic event, usually within a few hours. This is when the brain is busy processing the memory, and the game can help interrupt that process.
Non-Invasive and Accessible: One of the best things about Tetris as a treatment tool for PTSD is that it’s non-invasive, easy to use, and available to almost everyone. Tetris is a game most people can pick up and play, making it a practical and approachable tool for early trauma intervention.

While this approach isn’t a substitute for traditional trauma therapies, it’s an exciting and innovative way to help reduce the impact of traumatic memories shortly after an event.

Evidence-based gaming

Motor Vehicle Accident Study

A fascinating study by Karolinska Institutet and Oxford University looked into this with motor vehicle accident victims. After recalling their traumatic experience, participants played Tetris within six hours of the accident. The outcome? Those who played had fewer and less intense intrusive memories in the week that followed, compared to those who didn’t. Pretty incredible, right?

Dr. Emily Holmes, the lead researcher, shared that the game’s visual challenges help interrupt memory consolidation. This simple approach helped patients have fewer flashbacks during a crucial time in their recovery, allowing them to focus more on healing and self-care.

Oxford University Research

A study from Oxford University described Tetris as part of a “single dose psychological intervention.” It showed that playing Tetris could actually help prevent unpleasant, intrusive memories in some people after a traumatic event. This research offers an exciting and accessible starting point for creating preventative tools to support trauma survivors worldwide.

These studies show that Tetris isn’t just a fun game—it could actually be a helpful tool for addressing early traumatic memories.

How Tetris Helps with PTSD Symptoms

The secret is how our brains handle memories. After a traumatic event, your brain works to consolidate those memories, storing them so they can start recalling them later. This process can sometimes lead to intrusive, recurring flashbacks—one of the most difficult symptoms of PTSD. But here’s where Tetris comes to the rescue!

Tetris as a treatment tool for PTSD is astonishing. Tetris is great for your brain! It activates the part responsible for visual and spatial reasoning, which can actually help disrupt how vividly traumatic memories are stored. When you play Tetris shortly after recalling a traumatic event, it “tags” the memory, making it less likely to stick around as something overly vivid or intrusive later on.

Studies show that playing Tetris can actually help reduce how often and how intense intrusive memories feel, offering trauma survivors a bit of much-needed relief.

Intrusive thought management

What are intrusive thoughts?

Intrusive thoughts are unwanted thoughts that pop up in your head. Therefore, they can be detrimental to those who are susceptible to them. My intrusive thoughts never made any sense. It was like my brain picked random words and phrases on repeat in my brain.

Early intervention

If there can be early intervention before intrusive thoughts appear, that would be wonderful. Those with PTSD suffer badly with these thoughts. Early intervention could save them a lot of agony, and the feeling like they’re going mad.

I wish I had this before the intrusive thoughts began, it would have been a game changer for me. Sometimes the thoughts would barrage me to the point where I would not care anymore about myself.

Memory disruption

Using Tetris as a treatment tool for PTSD works by disrupting the brain’s process of storing traumatic memories. After a traumatic event, the brain often holds onto the memory in a vivid and intrusive way, which can lead to flashbacks or distressing thoughts commonly associated with PTSD. Playing Tetris can interfere with this process, making the memory less intense.

Intrusive thoughts can be very intense. I know when I miss a dose of any of my meds, the thoughts can creep up on me. I just try to deal with them through the implements I have learned over the years from each of my therapists.

Stress reduction

Anything that can lead to stress reduction is heaven sent. Tetris gets you focused on the game, so you’re not acknowledging the intrusive thoughts. You’re concentrating on putting the pieces in the right spots, so that internal stimuli don’t matter.

Tetris isn’t a cure for PTSD, but it can be a great tool to use alongside professional therapy and other proven treatments. By keeping the brain focused and calm, it offers a helpful way to manage stress for those living with PTSD.

Game-based treatment

Trauma-focused therapy

Tetris is becoming a trauma-focused therapy because it reduces the impact of traumatic memories and alleviates stress. Its ability to help prevent intrusive memories and provide a grounding effect for individuals going through trauma.

Tetris might not be a therapy on its own, but its use in trauma-focused care shows how simple, everyday activities can play a big role in supporting mental health. It’s an exciting step toward creating more accessible and effective ways to help people dealing with trauma and PTSD.

Visual processing therapy

Tetris as a treatment tool for PTSD as a visual processing therapy. You’re so engaged in lining up the pieces so they fit into place, the trauma seems far away. The intrusive thoughts also seem far away, if at all.

Research shows that traumatic memories often get locked into long-term memory soon after a distressing event. Playing Tetris, a simple and engaging spatial task, can actually help during this critical time. By keeping your brain busy with its visuospatial working memory, Tetris can interrupt the process of storing those traumatic memories, making them less vivid and less likely to pop up later.

PTSD symptom relief

It’s been used in emergency settings, like hospitals, to support people who’ve just gone through a traumatic event. By offering quick relief and helping lower the risk of long-term PTSD symptoms, it’s become an important part of caring for those in tough situations.

PTSD symptom relief is exactly what I’m looking for when symptoms arise. I mean, I have some tools I’ve learned over the years, but they only help for a certain amount of time.

Psychological resilience

Tetris as a treatment tool for PTSD can restore psychological resilience. I know you have it in you, the PTSD just masks it. You want to be back to yourself before the trauma. Then Tetris is the new way to go.

Imagine being in a crowd of people without being triggered by all the sounds or people around you. Nothing but peace and calm. The anxiety is nowhere to be found. The intrusive thoughts have left the building.

You’re finally back to your old self. You are no longer distraught over agonizing memories. You have the freedom to move freely. This is what life is all about, serenity. Keep playing that Tetris, and you will eventually get there.

Sum It All Up

I wonder what the developers think about Tetris as a treatment tool for PTSD. Bet they never saw that one coming. They use Tetris in hospitals for emergency situations with PTSD. This calms the patient down by having them focus on the levels of the game, and not on forming memories around that trauma.

I wonder what happened to my old Atari and all the games with it. Remember Pac-Man? Going down nostalgic memory lane. Anyway, Tetris can interrupt the process of storing those traumatic memories, making them less vivid and less likely to pop up later.

Tetris can lead to stress reduction from PTSD by limiting the intrusive thoughts with PTSD. These thoughts can be quite alarming, depending on the trauma associated with them. Finally, some relief from the traumas we process and store in our memories. Peace and love. Until next time…