I deal with anxiety, both social and general. There have been times where I had seizure-like panic attacks, and I could barely breathe. Recently I was taking a midterm and my hand kept shaking so badly that my writing became shaky as well. When I feel anxious in social situations, it’s hard to physically leave because if I’m in class, I will have to leave, which draws attention to me, and when I come back it will draw even more attention to me. Recently I injured my left foot, making it even more impossible to easily leave a situation that causes me anxiety.

My solution? I play games on my phone.

First off, I am not here to say that all mobile games are amazing, or that most of them aren’t primarily pay-to-win, but I am saying that some of them are beneficial to me.

Although I would rather use another device to play on, games on my phone provide me with a small reprieve from my situation without having to get out my PC or Wii. Like the charm of the Nintendo DS and its subsequent renditions, and also the main point in the marketing for the Nintendo Switch, the portability of a mobile device is not only convenient because it allows gamers to play for short periods of time throughout the day, but it also gives people with anxiety a way to escape.

Speaking of Nintendo, there’s a game I play called "Lep's World" that is quite reminiscent of "Super Mario 3." I play as a leprechaun whose gold has been stolen, and must travel through different worlds in order to get the gold back. While the character may be original, the style of platformer is not in the slightest. But that doesn’t mean it’s a waste of time. It’s a game that feels nostalgic, and that nostalgia takes me back to sitting at my grandparent’s house playing the original "Super Mario Bros." on the SNES, to when I got my first Game Boy, and many other pivotal moments in my life as a gamer. The reminder of simpler times is what makes this game help my anxiety.

Another game I play when I’m anxious is appropriately named "Slip Away." In the game, I try to keep a luminescent sea creature from dying as it travels higher through the ocean. There are no levels, no experience points, only coins that can be acquired to buy different character skins (which make the character look different). There is no official ending, so hypothetically a player could go on for as long as the game allows. Similar to other games such as "Temple Run," "Subway Surfers," and "Flappy Bird," (all of which I have played) the point isn’t to beat the game, it’s to beat your former score.

When it comes to anxiety, your enemy is yourself in this case, and your goal is to do as many things as you can manage without succumbing to the anxiety.

Coping skills are extremely important in dealing with mental illness, and one of my main coping skills is playing video games. Mobile games and mobile gaming devices grant me the ability to be able to game wherever I can, regardless of where I am. Anxiety doesn’t care about where you are when it hits, it just does. When that happens, people (regardless of whether they call themselves gamers or not) can have an easily accessible coping mechanism. In my case, this is an extremely valuable resource, and almost literally a life saver.