Digest №11: The Practical Benefits of Gamifying Cancer Survival

Bless!

I came up with the the concept of gamifying cancer survival in order to minimise the mental load and exhaustion caused by the long-term effort of staving of the disease and reclaiming your life.¹ I then expanded that concept in how to use such gamification to enlist the help and company of loved ones for your effort of outliving cancer.²

In theory such a gamification works wonders, but I've been somewhat sceptical about the ease of its implementation and therewith its practicality.

I still don't think it's easy whatsoever to implement such a frame of gamification to such a serious effort, but I have heard back from two patients, that though difficult it indeed is very much worth the effort.

According to them it helps with a few of the issues faced, when dealing with such chronic diseases like cancer.

One of the perhaps biggest threats to the quality of life of cancer patients is, that we as a society take away your agency. You get diagnosed and from then on you're seldom explicitly asked what it is you want to achieve with treatment or what you want to do at all. The only option ever treated as legitimate is to get a plethora of expensive treatments, which are highly disruptive to your general health and wellbeing.

I don't think this is news to you. I also don't think that such expensive treatment are illegitimate. My critique lies mostly in the way we belittle and patronise patients. For all your life you're asked to think and reason for yourself to build the life you well please (within bounds, naturally), but as soon as you're diagnosed with cancer (and other chronic diseases), you're asked to pretty please deposit your own will and reason at the door before you enter your oncologist's office.

This is deeply dehumanising.

And this is one of the things gamification unexpectedly helps with. It gives you agency. Granted, you're still playing a sordid game. You may well still be scared and confused and on edge, but at least you're back to being more in the driver's seat. You may not know, where the road's headed, but at least you're now driving the car.

This is deeply human.

None of us knows, where our roads lead. We all just look out the windscreen and try to make out the road to the best of our ability. Sometimes, we get sidetracked or stuck in morass, but at least it's our own doing. This is something gamification can give back to you in a small, but surprisingly significant way.

If you're playing a game, it's you playing that game.

But there were other prediction as to the benefit of gamification I've made in the original article. Did they come true in practice? Or have they died on the way over from theory?

In the twin articles, I predicted that three more things could be achieved by gamifying cancer survival and inviting others to play with you.

I predicted, that (1) gamification would help with allowing you to shut down and take a break and rest from this constant effort of cancer survival and the stress it brings with it, that (2) it would help you to share your struggles and difficulties with the people around you, whom you love and who love you, and that (3) it would help them to be part of your healing journey.

I can now confirm, that my first prediction was correct. I've heard back from a patient, who's noticed, that they've been able to have moments and times of proper and full rest, where they're engaged in other things, and no longer primarily concerned with cancer, allowing them to shut down some of the stress and take a breather.

I can also confirm that the other two prediction were correct, which shouldn't be much surprising. We humans are ultra-social animals after all. We thrive in social interaction, community, and mutual love and support.³ Nonetheless, it may seem silly to some, that the simple act of sharing a burden with others – especially a burden as heavy as outliving cancer – would do anything to lighten it.

But then again, perhaps, it's not the burden that gets lighter, but just the load of it you're carrying yourself. After all, you'd have others helping you carry it. A thousand people can move a mountain, one man alone can merely climb it.

In any case, whether you're a cancer patient or simply any other human with your own woes and worries, it'll almost always help to share that with your friends and loved ones, if not to enlist help, then at least to share the mental burden and stress to lower the load you're carrying yourself.

Naturally, as dealing with cancer can be exceedingly stressful, this advice seems highly salient for cancer patients, and less so for the 'healthy' rest of us, but I don't think that true for a second. I think we all – sick and healthy, pretty and ugly, strong and weak, fast and slow, male and female – can only benefit from sharing our ills and issues.

I myself have had great improvements in my quality of life since engaging in sharing more openly with those around me – family, near friends, and even more distant acquaintances. Perhaps try it yourself. What have you got to lose?

Worst case, everything stays as stressful as now. Best case, the world will open up to you.

God bless you and grant you swift healing and lasting health, Merlin L. Marquard