Say what you will about online gaming. Call it relaxing. Call it a good way for a consenting, responsible adult to cut loose a little on a Friday night. Just don’t call it kale and quinoa. There are healthy habits, there are unhealthy habits. Then, there are activities that occupy a sort of grey space.
Psychologists sometimes break human happiness into two categories. There is hedonic pleasure. These are activities that provide a short-term rush without influencing your emotional baseline. When you drink alcohol, eat takeout, buy something, or yes, gamble, you are indulging in hedonic pleasure.
That’s not a bad thing. Hedonic bliss is generally very fast-acting. If you want immediate stress relief, these activities are a good bet. However, you should also balance them with other, more sustainable habits.
Eudaimonic Happiness
Eudaimonic happiness exists on the opposite end of the spectrum from hedonic bliss. Eudaimonic behaviors are more like habits. Exercise and mindfulness. Reading. Writing. Drawing. Good conversation. Spending time outside.
Most people say that they enjoy these activities, but they don’t necessarily understand why. It’s because all of the above activities actively reduce cortisol levels in your brain. Cortisol and adrenaline are the chemicals responsible for stress and anxiety. They are productive chemicals—triggering the fight or flight response in dangerous situations.
However, when cortisol is firing off in your brain over something that happened at work, or simply in response to the overall experience of being an adult in these fast-paced modern times, it’s not doing you much good.
Online wagering on sports, such as the ones on Bodog News, and luck based games can reduce stress in the short term, but the impact will pretty much only last for as long as you are playing. To stay healthy while gambling, you need to strike a healthy balance.
Find Multiple Ways to Relax
First and foremost, it is important to make sure that you are not relying only on gambling as a way to cut loose. Develop a list of activities that you enjoy and look for ways to incorporate them more often into your routine.
Make a point of prioritizing things that are good for your mental health. For example, puzzles, reading, and drawing are good for your brain. Scrolling through your phone might also be relaxing—and even acceptable in small quantities—but it isn’t productive in the same way.
Given the choice between an evening of puzzles or a night of Instagram—well. You probably know where this is going.
Instagram isn’t bad. It’s just not as productive. You can think of your habits the same way you might contemplate your meal plans. Yes, a Big Mac is dinner, the same way that a salad is. But while both will fill your stomach, only one will contribute positively to your long-term health.
Choosing the Big Mac occasionally is alright, but you want to make sure that fast food isn’t overwhelming your vegetable intake.
The same goes for how you use your free time.
Avoid Mixing Hedonic Pleasures
Alcohol and gaming so often go hand in hand. The combination can be so fun that it is easy to forget casinos invented this combination as a way of getting you to play more. Casinos have historically handed out free or affordable drinks because the $4-5 per person spent on free beer or cheap wine could very easily translate into $20+ in extra gambling revenue.
The health value of alcohol is questionable even under the best of circumstances. Remember that the outgoing surgeon general of the Biden Administration wanted to place a carcinogen warning on all bottles of alcohol—similar to what you see on cartons of cigarettes.
To drink or not to drink is a personal choice. That said, thinking only of health, gaming, and booze aren’t doing you any favors as a combination. If you are going to drink while you play, do so in moderation.
Take Breaks
It’s easy to get lost in your games. To avoid becoming overly immersed, set timers on your phone. When the timer goes off, make a point of getting up and moving for at least ten minutes. This will give you a bit of time to clear your head and make a more informed choice about your next move. Do you want to keep playing, or call it a night?
That choice can be hard to make when you are in the thick of things. It’s easier while you are getting your steps in. Plus, getting even a little bit of light exercise is a good example of eudaimonic behavior.
Play Responsibly
Above all else, make sure that you are always playing responsibly. Never bet more than you can afford to lose. Understand that casino gaming is one of many ways to enjoy your free time—not a dependable means of making money.
Online gaming is absolutely a valid way to enjoy your free time. The key is to find balance.