20:19 for me, this card would be "ate too much and felt bad" when ive had like breakfast then dinner, i hate myself and im fat, but i dont hate the fact that i am fat, i hate the fact that i have no self control when it comes to food, which is why im fat (idk, im weird)
If I wanted to draft a mobile version of this game to run by you both, would that be okay? That way folx could play virtually with their support system - such as depressed college students or folx whose family is spread out geographically
12 years ago i went through a severe depression which also developed into social anxiety, severe enough to cause panic attacks when around my close family (Lived with my parents at the time). At the time even though it was just 12 years ago mental illness was stigamtized and taboo, so when i got a diagnosis i didn't seek support even when told by my therapist that it would be the best thing i could do. Mostly i didn't include my family at first because i was extremely scared of how they would react to it, but also because i didn't know how to explain why i was doing what i did or didn't do. So i would have loved to have this boardgame back then, it would have helped give my family some idea what was going on, because i couldn't explain it at the time.
Very relatable game. 10/10. One idea I have is maybe including those times when people say stuff like “it’s all in your head.” I feel like that could show the people that say that understand what their words really do to someone with depression.
I'm planning on playing this game with a few friends but one of the problems I seem to see with this game is that it's a little too short for how many cards there are. There are more sad faces than happy faces on the board which makes sense thematically; but, you run the risk of players getting bored with the concept and not want to complete the game multiple times to see all the cards. I have a feeling the reason Tom made the gameboard so short is because he originally made it for a video where him and two others make a board game in a week. Tom knew that they all had to play each of their board games so he needed to make it a quicker game to keep the video length below an hour. I decided to remake the gameboard by hand but just added extra squares to make the game last longer. Most people are willing to humour a board game at least once but a lot of the time if it's not the next UNO or Monopoly then they'll never bother to play it a second time. Also I think reading the reflections out loud is absolutely necessary for the game to work in it's goals to be educational, otherwise you'll have people treat it like the flavor text on MTG cards and only read the "got angry, go back 2 spaces" part
You know what I don't know where else I could post this so here's goes Most people who go through their transition usually end up taking hormonal correction pills to fix the hormonal imbalance afterwards and make them feel better right? If so couldn't they do the opposite to feel better in their original body instead?
One thing I feel warrants calling attention to is that cognitive behavioral therapy is not an effective form of therapy for people with CPTSD or autistics such as myself. When applying CBT to autists and/or those with c-PTSD it can actually do more harm than good
Like they brought up in the video, its very important to atleast try and stop viewing the disease with shame or embarrassment. That being said, i would no doubt also hesitate suggesting it, but i think my desire for them to understand me better & engage in meaningful discussion would overcome the embarrassment.
The "Low Libido" card seems to be a bit judgemental towards asexual players for whom having a low libido might not be a cause for distress. I'd suggest editing the card to be more inclusive or removing it.
The description of that card was never read, but if I was in charge of the game I'd make it something like: "Depression can have a negative impact on a person's libido, which can be a distressing experience either alone or with other people. Everyone is different however, and being disinterested or repulsed by sexual activity is not always pathological and can be an affirming part of one's identity."
I am a teacher, and this year I will be teaching 11 and 12 year old students. I think this will be an excellent way to introduce the mental health curriculum. thank you for this tool.
Came here from the Try Hard video where Tom original came up with the idea. Thanks for the free pdf I'm thinking of sending it to the counselors that work at the high school I teach at and let them possibly use it with the kids.
Honestly, oddly enough, just thinking of it as an adventure and discovery and experimenting with food did help me a lot personally with helping myself consistently eat (not recovering from an ed, more-so just pulling myself away from what I was doing long enough to eat, and doing it at a reasonably consistent time), like my mind's like "honestly, what does chicken nuggets with hot sauce taste like? It sounds banger" and my mind's like "damn, I can't argue with that" so I just go do it. (or in other cases it's been something like "huh, I haven't actually tried this type of cheese on a sandwhich before, may as well see how it's like now")
I am very grateful for the effort that has gone into this game, and that you not only thought of the concept, but also executed it so well. I can't wait to attempt to translate it and print it so that I can play it with my family.
As someone who tried to commit suicide, I think this is awesome. Since the pandemic has caused so many more people to experience depression, more of my family now relate to my experiences which has really helped me, but before then this would have been a really good way to help explain to them how it was impacting me, and let them know what to keep an eye out for. There is a benefit in this in educating those supporting people with mental health illness to in making them aware of the warnings signs so they can help interrupt the cycle. One thing I think you could add is a mechanic a bit like in monopoly if you roll 3 doubles you go to jail - if you have 3 successive sad faces - "someone notices you're feeling low and offers some support". You can't go backwards on your next turn, or 3 happy faces "you experience a manic phase - skip a turn due to burnout". Also I'd love to have a conversation with you at some point about the chemistry of mental health. I did a load of research into it after my attempt a few years ago, and talking with some other people, there is suggestions it could be useful, but I'm not sure quite how to get the information out there in the best way to help others. You seem like the kind of person that could use that information for good. Even if nothing more came of it, trying to give back seems to be my main motivation now to keep trying to get through each day, because I lack much else! Not fearing the consequences of death really changes your perspective on life!
Okay, so, FUNNY idea... Maybe release the game but do it as a thing where any purchase of the game goes to charities that specifically tackle mental health like the National Alliance on Mental Health
I would legitimately love to play this game with my family. I have been dealing with depression for quite some time and my parents and siblings try their best to supportive. But they don't really understand why I am the way I am. In fact I feel like a lot of people could benefit from this game, you should see about getting it endorsed by a bigger company like hasbro so that more people have access to it.
I feel like adding a bit of skill into the game may be a good idea so that it doesn’t leave the idea that you can’t control it. Maybe if you get the happy faces you get a token of sorts that can be used to negate or soften the effects of a sad card. Not only will this improve gameplay (in my opinion Im not at all a professional) it will improve the element of control and understanding. For example, you could keep the token until something personal comes up and that will help the people around you understand. Love your many many videos you’ve uploaded, and am excited for more, you seem like a really nice guy so I hope to see more of YOU.
I would pay maybe $40 (American) for this game if it were just a bit more fleshed out. As it stands, it’s just a game of chance (aside from choosing the shortcuts to recovery), but I think this game would be a lot more enjoyable and perhaps educational, if instead of competing to get to the end, it were perhaps a cooperative effort between a group of several players who try to help each other on the road to recovery. Perhaps you draw the card “lashed out” and instead of moving forwards or backwards a few spaces and that being the end of it, the players had to initiate a conversation talking about the incident, why it happened, how everybody feels, and how it can be avoided in the future, but not in a way that guilts the player who lashed out into feeling worse, and depending on whether or not the conversation was helpful or harmful, that player would forwards or backwards. Since I’m well aware that there will be a lot of debate about whether the conversation was helpful or harmful amongst players, especially those who are uneducated on depression or who don’t suffer from it, it might be helpful to include on the back of the card positive and negative points that would be relevant to the conversation and at the end (guilt tripping -2 points, and understanding +1 points), the scores would be tallied up by the player who drew the card at the end of the conversation and the player would move forward or backwards that many spaces. I don’t know if this is a good idea or not, but I do think that forcing more interaction with the game would greatly improve the educational value and enrich the experience overall.
In all honesty, I feel like the game is way too short to really represent how it actually feels to live with depression. I have played it a few times via tabletop simulator, and after reading the cards a few times I naturally stopped reading the reflections as I had read them so often. Another key point is that it is not all happy and sad, there are a lot of times where you just don't feel much at all, sort of a "meh" kind of situation, and I genuinely feel this needs to be addressed/added. Something like a green space that could do things situationally, e.g. "Same thing different day: take a card from the last face you picked up" There is more, but its difficult to get things into words, I will hopefully figure out another way of getting my thoughts across to you & Tom. Is there a way of contacting you outside of comments?
This game should absolutely be packaged and distributed. I like the simplistic design of the box as well, although that might not have been deliberate, and rather, may have just been a result of making the game in a day. But just a title on a blank box seems to exude a feeling of putting in the least possible effort because that's all you can muster. And that resonates with me quite a bit, because depression.
(sorry for the repeated message) i know this probably won't be seen, but would be alright if i translated the depression game to spanish? i think some of my friends and family could use some of the stuff made into the game too!
