10/30/2025
Dungeons & Dragons Is Good for Mental Health, Study Finds
If you’ve ever watched someone play Dungeons & Dragons (or played yourself), you know it’s quite an immersive, imaginative experience. Worlds are built, spells are cast, and characters are developed in “campaigns” that can last months or even years.
Those many hours of playing are far from a waste of time. Rather, recent research qualified the game as “serious leisure,” meaning it requires skill, commitment, and social interaction. Another benefit? D&D provides players with “the sense of a safe space and a place to create their own identity,” study author Emily Messina said in a statement.
“Players were comfortable being themselves by engaging in the game pursuit,” she explained, “but at the same time were building personas in line with, or in contrast to, their normal personality. They described it as a way to take charge, or lead an effort in ways that their normal personality would allow for, but they wouldn’t be inclined to do.”
These benefits can serve anyone, but they’re especially valuable for people in need of structure — whether retired, transitioning to a new job, managing mental health challenges, or simply weathering a difficult period. The takeaway: Leisure isn’t frivolous; rather, it helps “give us those wins we really need from time to time when life isn’t giving us wins in other ways,” Messina said when she first embarked on the research.
Photo cred: Jessica Rinaldi/The Boston Globe via Getty Images
