How to Help Us Help Gamers
Our AFK Room program gives convention attendees a place to catch their breath or to cope with mental health issues in a quiet space. Our clinician volunteers are there to help.
If you want to help too, here's how.
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Sixty Seconds About Take This
One-in-four people struggle with mental health issues. Especially in the video game community, the idea that "no one will miss me if I'm gone" is a pervasive one. Take This was founded to let people know how wrong that is, and that there's help for people with mental health issues.
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Anxiety
Anxiety is often misunderstood as someone "just needing to relax," but it can be a terrifying and uncontrollable illness for those who suffer. Anxiety can have no cause or can be related to almost anything at all. Read more from experts and people who have struggled with anxiety.
Video games
Video games can be a a welcoming escape for people suffering from emotional disorders, and video game communities can be a source of understanding and acceptance, when other communities feel unwelcoming. Read more about how video games can be an effective aid to coping with emotional disorder.
Therapy
Therapy can be an effective treatment for many emotional disorders. Read more from Take This experts about how to find effective therapy and how therapy has helped some of our volunteers cope with mental illness.
Depression
Depression is a leading cause of emotional illness, and it's often misunderstood. Depression is not just sadness, it is a debilitating illness that can lead to serious physical and metal symptoms. Read more from experts and people who have struggled with depression.
Helping friends
Our friends and family are our first line of support, but it's sometimes hard to know how to help someone suffering from an emotional disorder. Read more from experts and people who have been there about how to be a friend to people suffering from emotional disorders.
PTSD
Although common among soldiers, PTSD can affect anyone, male, female, young or old. According to the National Center for PTSD, PTSD affects roughly 5.2 million Americans every year. Read more from experts and people who have struggled with PTSD.
Suicide
Suicide is a leading cause of death, and thoughts of suicide can be caused by one or more emotional disorders. Yet in almost every case there is a better answer than taking one's own life. Read more from experts and people who have been touched by suicide.
Take This
Take This is a 501 (c) (3) non-profit charity founded in 2012 by veteran journalists Russ Pitts and Susan Arendt and clinical psychologist Dr. Mark Kline, Psy.D. in response to the tragic suicide of a colleague. Read more about Take This.
Social Stigma
People who suffer from emotional disorders can find themselves shunned or mistreated by coworkers, friends or even doctors. Read more from experts and Take This volunteers on the subject of social stigma, and how talking about mental illness can make it easier for people to find help.