Free Mental Health Games for Adolescents

Although some would call psychology a fascinating subject, teenagers would likely find memorizing facts about the brain, mental illnesses and tips for improving their mental health taxing and a little bit boring. However, whether they need to learn more about mental health topics for academic reasons or to improve their own mental health, teens can find games provide a fun and non-threatening platform through which they can learn about psychology. There are a number of free mental health games that adolescents (and their parents or teachers) can play.

Pavlov's Dog

• Although information about Ivan Pavlov's dog experiments and their implications for behavior is easy to find, this game makes learning about this mental health topic fun. In the game from the Nobel Prize organization, teens can re-create Pavlov's experiment by clicking on a combination of foods and signals to see if they can get the cartoon dog to drool on command. After playing the game, teens can read the supplemental material about Nobel Prize winner Pavlov and the significance of a "conditioned reflex," as well as the role it plays in mental health.

The Split Brain Experiments

• Many teenagers have probably heard the terms "left-brained" and "right-brained," but they might not know what they mean. The Split Brain Experiment game, hosted on the Nobel Prize organization's website, allows teens to take the role of a scientist performing experiments to determine how the two halves of the brain relate to behavior and mental health.

Grow Your Chi Self Esteem Game

• One of several McGill University self-esteem games, the Grow Your Chi game helps teenagers associate happy feelings with themselves in a fast-paced, fun environment. In the game, teenagers are given a chi pet and told that they must click on pictures of smiling people and their names in order to gain points. Throughout the game, clouds with pictures and names appear quickly on the screen so that players may click. When they collect enough points, the chi pet will grow. Players lose points for clicking on pictures that don't show happiness or that show others' names.

Eye Spy

• Offered through McGill University's research to determine whether positive game play can help boost a person's self-esteem, Eye Spy is labeled as a "self esteem" game. In the game, teens are presented with a matrix of faces showing different emotions. Only one face is smiling or approving. Players are instructed to click on that face, and then a new matrix pops up. This game is especially relevant to adolescents because it can be played in a short period of time and stopped frequently because there are no points or objectives, so teens could play it for a few minutes before or after school. In addition, it targets self-esteem, a mental health issue that many adolescents struggle with.