Playing war-themed videogames like Call of Duty can help soldiers deal with the mental trauma of front line combat by blocking violent nightmares, according to a new study.

As reported by New Scientist, a survey of 98 military personnel by Jayne Gackenbach of Grant MacEwan University in Edmonton, Canada showed that regularly playing games that focused on war diminished the level of harm and aggression experienced while dreaming about their experiences.

Not only were the subjects' dream less intense but they reportedly also felt able to fight back against the threatening forces that appear in the nightmares.

A control group who did not play games reported having more violent dreams, as well as a general sense of helplessness.

Gackenbach explained the trend by suggesting that violent games act as a "threat simulator," conditioning the mind to process similarly brutal scenarios that manifest themselves in nightmares.

She also claimed that the popularity of gaming amongst soldiers serving in war zones could be seen as a form of unconscious self-medication against the horrors that many of them witness.

"They're taking (PlayStation 3s, Xbox 360s and other consoles) into the field and playing them all the time. And it turns out, there may be a good reason to let them do that."

Can COD help soldiers deal with trauma?

By: Fred Dutton // 3.8.11 // ~RathHavoc[/color]


Well I found this article, and from what it was talking about and the study that proved this thesis correct stated that... "Playing war-themed video games like Call of Duty can help soldiers deal with the mental trauma of front line combat by blocking nightmares"

Exact copy paste from the Author.


Some of my thoughts are... How could a war type game do such, when Soldiers are already on the war front... Some of my questions on the topic are.. How does CoD do that... I mean when I play CoD I rage sometimes. Please leave some feedback! Thanks.

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They always say that facing your demons is the best way to deal with things, they probably only get nightmares because they try to forget about what they have been through without first coming to terms with it.

They could call it CoD Therapy :p

True :y:

I lol'd when you said CoD Therapy :p That sounds pretty cool.. "Yea I just left CoD Therapy" lol

I wonder how they would react to playing zombies? lol they'd probably freak out even more. :wtf:

No

It may make it easier to deal with certain things but.....i guess it won't do jack.
COD can't create the same level of effect as war.
Unless they improve the sound
And make it so it smells when your playing

What it can do is improve your eyesight just a bit a study found you could pick up something better if it was dark i believe or something