As far back as I can remember I have always been a huge video game nerd, capable of playing games from sunrise to sunset or sunset to sunrise. I remember my very first console was the Sega Mega Drive and this was the first game I was addicted to. This began my obsession.

I wish I could add up the time I’ve spent lost in many worlds behind my tv or computer screen. It would be months at this point, close to a whole year I’m sure. And I have no regrets about it.

Up until recently I did not even question why I was so into gaming. So I sat down and thought about it for a couple of hours yesterday as I took a break from the 8 hours I had just put into Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. I came to the conclusion that it is and has been a coping mechanism for me, it has been my therapy and my distraction from pain. Curious to know what other SC warriors thought I asked about a dozen or so about how they feel about gaming, and they all had the same answers. “I’ve been gaming since I was very young too.”, “It helps distract from the pain.”

You can’t focus on pain if you are focused on killing a boss in some RPG for 4 hours straight. Anyway I began looking into how games can be a form of pain management and to my surprise there have been dozens of studies on this already, even specifically regarding Sickle Cell patients. In fact, over the past decade or so, video games have also been shown to help reduce pain in children with chronic diseases, such as SCD.

I found a study by done in 2014 by Talal Ali, a Ph.D student of nursing at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan. She wrote a dissertation called, Using Video Games For Decreasing Pain Caused by Acute Painful Crisis In Adolescents With Sickle Cell Pain. To collect results for this research study, Talal enrolled 30 participants, ranging in age from 12 to 21, to play video games during painful crises and then complete a self assessment of the pain before the games and the pain after the games. The findings? “The use of video games as a distraction modality has proven to show positive and significant results in the treatment of acute pain.”

In an interview with Everyday Health, Dr. Sarah Rebstock, a pediatric anesthesiologist at Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, D.C., she said, “It’s all due to the concept of neuroplasticity … the notion that experience causes the brain to wire itself in certain ways and that rehabilitative therapy can essentially rewire the brain … You’re increasing range of motion, increasing blood flow, and retraining your body to decrease the pain so it’s not as intense.”

After talking to other Sicklers about it I have realized that what games work for me might not work for them. A lot of people are really into Animal Crossing right now, which I have not had the opportunity to play yet, but that’s their go to drug for a few hours of pain relief. Personally online shooters, for example, are a no go when I’m in pain. It doesn’t matter how much I love playing games like Call of Duty: Warzone, the fast-paced nature and inability to pause tends to be too much. I find RPG’s, like the Star Wars series of games, to be helpful but only for lower levels of pain. These tend to be less reflex based, and I can pause when I need to. If I’m having a particularly bad flare up, sometimes I’m still not up for this level of activity. The game that may work for you can depend largely on the level of pain you’re in.

I was glad to find out VR is already used for acute pain management, cancer treatments, and routine medical procedures.

The Children’s Hospital Los Angeles published details about how patients can generally tolerate more pain, and also be more willing to participate in procedures using VR. This also led to less stressful procedures, especially with children. When they were using VR they were more distracted, and also more compliant. Compliance means calmer, stiller children, which means better procedures like inserting a needle once instead of multiple attempts on a wriggling kid.

But is virtual reality a legitimate form of pain relief? Based on its ability to keep patients mentally and emotionally happy, as well as distracted, researchers believe that might just be the case. And I am onboard, I can’t wait for VR to become more mainstream and affordable for my fellow warriors and I. With more research underway every day, maybe we’ll see a day where doctors prescribe gaming sessions to ease pain, alongside medication.