Like most tabletop games D&D is intended to be enjoyed communally, but dungeon and dragons is in an amazing position because of the story telling aspect of the game. When you play or watch D&D being played you discover that it isn't like a video game where you enjoy riding along with the story someone else created. You actually become an active participant in how that story goes. Besides the joy of slaying your first dragon and seducing the local bard, I think there is a healing aspect to the game that hasn't been very well explored. And by healing I'm not referring to "healing word" or "goodberry" spells. We as players and DM create our own narrative and in doing so we create space for healing and self improvement. We are the sum of our collected life stories in life. Hopefully most are good stories, but some can be bad. These bad stories (trauma, abuse, illness, depression, rejection, bad relationships, etc) can tend to occupy a lot of space in our minds. The can become all consuming and get "stuck" in our thoughts; much to the detriment of all the good stories that we have in our lives. For example, when you are happy you tend to have happy thoughts, when you are hungry you tend to think about food, but the inverses can also be true that if you only think depressing thoughts you can make yourself depressed (or keep yourself depressed). As a personal example, PTSD can be a defence mechanism. It can help protect you from a lot of the bad emotions that are associated with the trauma, but it also causes a lot of its own problems and symptoms like social anxiety and depression. D&D as a narrative therapy may be able to help that.
Im no expert on narrative therapy, but I'll try to explain:
-Life sucks sometimes and it creates problems
-Narrative Therapy separates people from their problems through the telling of their story
-Objectifying the persons problems can help lower their resistance and defence against dealing with the problem.
-Telling your story is a form of action towards change and fixing the problems.
Building, exploring and focusing on "preferred" or "alternate" storylines that exist outside of your "problem storyline" can help provide a contrast to the problem, putting it more into a realistic perspective rather than the distorted reality our problem can have us live in. This is where I think D&D can help as a method of narrative therapy. Narrative therapy won't change your problem, but it may be able to change the effects your problem has on you. If you have PTSD like me (@themightytink) , or have an anxiety disorder like Felicia Day (@feliciaday), or Ehlers Danlos Syndrome like Jennifer Kretchmer (@dreamwisp), or are navigating the difficulties of life for a Transgender person like streamer Violet Miller (@distractedelf) , or even having allergies that necessitate you walking off camera to politely clear your nose like Travis Willingham (@willingblam), then being able to separate these problems from yourself and explore then through the narrative of you player character can be very freeing and helpful. Having someone you are deeply connected with (like your character) face and even overcome these issues in a safe and loving environment (like your D&D table) can be beneficial to your outlook on life. As an example, my wife in in a wheelchair, so she enjoys playing characters with prosthetic limbs. It honestly doesn't change our gameplay but narratively addressing the issues it creates can change her mind frame about those issues. It allows us to explore her issues outside of herself in a safe place with the added bonus of slaying a rampaging red dragon immediately after. Its amazing to see the transformation of thought go from: "a hero with a prosthetic arm beat that dragon" - to - "my character with a prosthetic arm beat that dragon" - to - "I Am MY CHARACTER".
I love people like Lauren "Oboe" Urban (@OboeLauren) for exploring new ways to bring D&D to people through new mediums like the Discord Server (she has DM'ed for me a couple times now and been amazing at it - much appreciation and thanks Lauren), and people like Joe Manganiello (@JoeManganiello) for bringing D&D to Children's Hospitals and giving people the opportunity to experience this form of narrative love. Children can't always talk about their problems but they do love to play.
Please take care of yourselves. D&D isn't a replacement for proper psychiatric or medical help if you need it. And should you need, please get that help. I would much rather you try to get healthy than play a game of Dungeons and Dragons with me. But I believe there is a space where D&D can be a part of getting healthy. It has honestly helped me and for that I want to personally thank all the people at Critical Role (@CriticalRole), Geek and Sundry (@GeekandSundry) and DND Beyond (@dndbeyond) for that. Cheers and love to you all.
Check out my Disabled & Dragons Youtube Channel for 5e Monster and Player Tactics. Helping the Disabled Community and Players and DM’s (both new and experienced) get into D&D. Plus there is a talking Dragon named Quill.
Well put. I'd love to read some examples of how some people have implemented something like this in their games for my own sake as well as considerations for how to help players who might suffer from or deal with the difficulties of various disorders. I'd also love to read some examples of building adventures around specific disorders in ways that can showcase the difficulties without being triggering while also allowing the party to overcome the adventure and help "heal" the adventure insofar as possible in a fantasy narrative while remaining respectful to the fact that it's never just "that easy."
Beautifully put. That's such a big part of why stories are important to us as humans-- and with D&D, we get to make our own stories together. It can be a really powerful way of changing the way we look at the world. Helping to create a story in which we or someone like us beats their seemingly insurmountable obstacle reinforces the idea that some of the struggles that seem insurmountable in our lives can be taken on if we look at them a little differently-- or if we learn to accept different types of solutions as a win.
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Like most tabletop games D&D is intended to be enjoyed communally, but dungeon and dragons is in an amazing position because of the story telling aspect of the game. When you play or watch D&D being played you discover that it isn't like a video game where you enjoy riding along with the story someone else created. You actually become an active participant in how that story goes. Besides the joy of slaying your first dragon and seducing the local bard, I think there is a healing aspect to the game that hasn't been very well explored. And by healing I'm not referring to "healing word" or "goodberry" spells. We as players and DM create our own narrative and in doing so we create space for healing and self improvement. We are the sum of our collected life stories in life. Hopefully most are good stories, but some can be bad. These bad stories (trauma, abuse, illness, depression, rejection, bad relationships, etc) can tend to occupy a lot of space in our minds. The can become all consuming and get "stuck" in our thoughts; much to the detriment of all the good stories that we have in our lives. For example, when you are happy you tend to have happy thoughts, when you are hungry you tend to think about food, but the inverses can also be true that if you only think depressing thoughts you can make yourself depressed (or keep yourself depressed). As a personal example, PTSD can be a defence mechanism. It can help protect you from a lot of the bad emotions that are associated with the trauma, but it also causes a lot of its own problems and symptoms like social anxiety and depression. D&D as a narrative therapy may be able to help that.
Im no expert on narrative therapy, but I'll try to explain:
-Life sucks sometimes and it creates problems
-Narrative Therapy separates people from their problems through the telling of their story
-Objectifying the persons problems can help lower their resistance and defence against dealing with the problem.
-Telling your story is a form of action towards change and fixing the problems.
Building, exploring and focusing on "preferred" or "alternate" storylines that exist outside of your "problem storyline" can help provide a contrast to the problem, putting it more into a realistic perspective rather than the distorted reality our problem can have us live in. This is where I think D&D can help as a method of narrative therapy. Narrative therapy won't change your problem, but it may be able to change the effects your problem has on you. If you have PTSD like me (@themightytink) , or have an anxiety disorder like Felicia Day (@feliciaday), or Ehlers Danlos Syndrome like Jennifer Kretchmer (@dreamwisp), or are navigating the difficulties of life for a Transgender person like streamer Violet Miller (@distractedelf) , or even having allergies that necessitate you walking off camera to politely clear your nose like Travis Willingham (@willingblam), then being able to separate these problems from yourself and explore then through the narrative of you player character can be very freeing and helpful. Having someone you are deeply connected with (like your character) face and even overcome these issues in a safe and loving environment (like your D&D table) can be beneficial to your outlook on life. As an example, my wife in in a wheelchair, so she enjoys playing characters with prosthetic limbs. It honestly doesn't change our gameplay but narratively addressing the issues it creates can change her mind frame about those issues. It allows us to explore her issues outside of herself in a safe place with the added bonus of slaying a rampaging red dragon immediately after. Its amazing to see the transformation of thought go from: "a hero with a prosthetic arm beat that dragon" - to - "my character with a prosthetic arm beat that dragon" - to - "I Am MY CHARACTER".
I love people like Lauren "Oboe" Urban (@OboeLauren) for exploring new ways to bring D&D to people through new mediums like the Discord Server (she has DM'ed for me a couple times now and been amazing at it - much appreciation and thanks Lauren), and people like Joe Manganiello (@JoeManganiello) for bringing D&D to Children's Hospitals and giving people the opportunity to experience this form of narrative love. Children can't always talk about their problems but they do love to play.
Please take care of yourselves. D&D isn't a replacement for proper psychiatric or medical help if you need it. And should you need, please get that help. I would much rather you try to get healthy than play a game of Dungeons and Dragons with me. But I believe there is a space where D&D can be a part of getting healthy. It has honestly helped me and for that I want to personally thank all the people at Critical Role (@CriticalRole), Geek and Sundry (@GeekandSundry) and DND Beyond (@dndbeyond) for that. Cheers and love to you all.
Check out my Disabled & Dragons Youtube Channel for 5e Monster and Player Tactics. Helping the Disabled Community and Players and DM’s (both new and experienced) get into D&D. Plus there is a talking Dragon named Quill.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPPmyTI0tZ6nM-bzY0IG3ww
This is really interesting and I love the idea. Do you have any suggestions on how to implement this?
Well put. I'd love to read some examples of how some people have implemented something like this in their games for my own sake as well as considerations for how to help players who might suffer from or deal with the difficulties of various disorders. I'd also love to read some examples of building adventures around specific disorders in ways that can showcase the difficulties without being triggering while also allowing the party to overcome the adventure and help "heal" the adventure insofar as possible in a fantasy narrative while remaining respectful to the fact that it's never just "that easy."
Believe it or not i am planning on writing my masters thesis on narrative thereapy and dungeons and dragons so stay tuned.
Beautifully put. That's such a big part of why stories are important to us as humans-- and with D&D, we get to make our own stories together. It can be a really powerful way of changing the way we look at the world. Helping to create a story in which we or someone like us beats their seemingly insurmountable obstacle reinforces the idea that some of the struggles that seem insurmountable in our lives can be taken on if we look at them a little differently-- or if we learn to accept different types of solutions as a win.