Why people are playing Tetris to treat their trauma

All In The Mind

ABC listen

Life Sciences, Health & Fitness, Science

4.4 • 785 Ratings

🗓️ 27 July 2024

⏱️ 30 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

For people with PTSD, flashbacks can be an unwelcome and distressing experience. To tackle this problem, researchers have turned to Tetris.

Yep - the falling blocks puzzle game from the '80s.

Today, we discover how Tetris can be used to treat trauma.

If you'd like to listen to more All in the Mind, check out our episode The confusion around concussions.

Transcript

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0:00.0	ABC Listen, Podcasts, Radio, News, Music and more.
0:08.4	When was the last time you played Tetris?
0:11.7	That smash-hit puzzle game that came out in the 80s,
0:14.6	which remains one of the most popular video games out there.
0:19.5	Just in case you didn't know, Tetris is a game where you have to stack blocks as they
0:23.6	fall from the top of the screen. They're in different shapes, so you have to make them fit together,
0:27.6	and you do this faster and faster until you can't keep up.
0:30.6	If there's so much strategy in looking ahead, you want to clear four rows at once,
0:35.6	and that's called a Tetris. You know, that gives you the most points.
0:39.3	It can be a real mental workout, which is why Tetris is not just a video game.
0:45.1	It has also become a therapeutic tool.
0:48.0	I just thought to have discussions about, oh, I wonder if there are any tasks that are less formal
0:52.6	than these kind of psychology,
0:54.3	experimental, boring tasks, like tapping a keyboard.
0:57.6	I'm Sana Khadar.
0:58.8	This is all in the mind.
1:00.0	And over the next two episodes, producer Shelby Trainer is going to find out about the weird ways that Tetris can change the brain.
1:10.5	Part one, trauma and tetris.
1:14.0	Hello, Shelby.
1:15.3	Hello.
1:16.2	What on earth two trauma and tetris have to do with each other?
1:19.7	Because that is such an unexpected link.
	...

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