Healthy Gamer Coaching Program is live!
Take action now to build a fulfilling life. We’ll coach you through it. We use virtual, peer-to-peer coaching to create a modern and accessible approach to mental health and wellness — one that actually works for gamers.
Healthy Gamer Coaches are trained to work with the unique way gamers think, behave, and succeed. Apply to be a Healthy Gamer Coach, and help gamers live their best life.
Meet weekly with a Healthy Gamer Coach to understand your thought processes, create goals, and make meaningful changes towards a healthier, happier life.
If it causes a problem, it is a problem. We focus on the point at which gaming becomes mutually exclusive with “real” life.
The best way to understand video game addiction is to ask gamers directly. That’s what we do. We get gamers, because we are gamers. And proud of it.
These family programs help you understand, talk and act with the gamer in your life to set healthy gaming habits.
Made for parents of gamers ages 8-18. Let the experience of working with hundreds of gamers help your family.
For many people, gaming is a healthy, productive way to de-stress or have fun. A Healthy Gamer is someone whose gaming is recreational and does not interfere with his or her “real” life. We work towards setting and achieving real-life goals. Healthy Gamer supports recovery with the help of a recovery coach, the support of other gamers, and a curriculum developed by gamers for gamers. Get help that meets you where you are.
Clinical experience with over a hundred gamers tells us that abstinence isn’t necessarily the best way to overcome video gaming addiction. Many people try to replicate interventions from biological substances like marijuana, alcohol or opium. These fail to be effective for video game addiction. Abstinence is crucial for biological addictions that have molecules that directly target the brain. However, video game addiction has a more complicated and nuanced effect on the brain. We look deeper into these nuances to deliver a solution that helps gamers regain control of their lives.
Healthy Gamer is developed by world-class addictions psychiatrist and reformed gamer Dr. Alok Kanojia. Dr. Kanojia is currently the world expert on video gaming addiction. He combines gamer psychology and addiction psychiatry to digitize the most crucial interventions for video gaming addiction. Read More →
Dr. Kanojia, the world expert in gamer psychiatry, helps gamers find real-world balance in weekly support groups. Talk to people who “get it”.
Check out the Healthy Gamer video series made for gamers (pro and amateur) trying to find balance with gaming and real life.
If you are a reformed gamer interested in working with other gamers to help them develop healthier lifestyles, we want to hear from you.
Depression or
Anxiety
Moodiness or
Irritability
Interpersonal
Conflict
Addictive
Substances
Social
Isolation
Unfulfilling
Relationships
Academic
Disengagement
Career
Slump
Healthy Gamer is ideally suited for players of the following games:
Finding Fulfillment in Life
Living with bipolar disorder, I often spend my depressive days in front of my PC, playing video games because I can’t find the energy to do something else. Throughout the Healthy Gamer course, I began to realize that I’m self-medicating but it’s deeper than just my depression. I learned that there were things I was secretly craving and wanting to fulfill in my life. The resource showing the correlation between video game genres with specific personality traits and personal needs was so valuable in realizing what I was missing in my life. This course encouraged me to seek healthier outlets so I was no longer stuck in the never-ending cycle of self-medicating. I still play video games, but I no longer feel anxious or an obsessive need to play 12+ hours per day.
– Fiona. B (Parent)
Turned Life Around
It’s not a stretch to say Healthy Gamer has completely turned my life around. Dr. Kanojia helped me understand what made my gaming habits problematic was how I was using them to avoid confronting the real issues of my unhappiness at my finance job. Over the course of a few months, I’ve learned how to manage my gaming habits, changed careers and got accepted to med school, and feel so much happier and more in control of my life. Dr. Kanojia really gets what’s it like to be us, the gamers, and he’s made himself an absolute expert in this understudied field. There’s nobody more empathetic, compassionate, and knowledgeable that I can recommend than Dr. K. I’m honestly so thankful that I had the opportunity to be part of this program.
– Richard W. [Gamer]
Loving Life in the Real World
I couldn’t handle life’s challenges because it was too problematic. Presented with a real-world problem, I would only last for an hour and then calling it quits. Thus, I frequently escape into the gaming world to cope with my “adult burdens”. On average, my escapism lasts anywhere from 6 to 8 hours of gaming daily. At the age of 30, I am getting no where in life and my body is beginning to ache all over. I needed help. Desperately I went on Reddit to seek help from the community, in which coincidentally, I saw Dr. Alok’s post regarding to gaming addiction. Leaving my pride and ego behind, I began to ask Dr. Alok for help.
My reward system and personal identity had been hijacked by the triumph circuit through gaming. Only to realize this, Dr. Alok coached me to apply gaming skills to the real world. Since then, I have not once felt more thrilled and invigorated increase my skill attributes such as str, int, dex, etc. in the real world (took up martial arts, dancing, piano, mountain climbing; practicing introspection, kindness and resilience). Life in the real-world is meaningful, exhilarating, and stimulating!
– Tony N. [Gamer]
