Recovery and coping stress supported by serious games

Stress is a serious problem that affects a large number of people. Regardless financial or social status, age and profession, a person exposed to stress may develop health problems that can interfere with work and his quality of life. Thus, due to absenteeism and reduced productivity, companies and governments lose money when people are stressed. In this scenario, it is important to use strategies to combat such drawback. Recovery and Coping are examples of such strategies. Recovery refers to activities that allow individuals to regain consumed energy after work, stress or strain. The experience of Recovery is achieved by activities that offer: psychological detachment, relaxation, mastery experience and control. Coping refers to actions and strategies applied by an individual to react to stress and problem situations. Coping with stress can be basically achieved, in two ways: problem-focused or emotion-focused. Literature shows that strategies that take into account the needs of individual workers have a greater chance of success. On the other hand, computer games offer players some experiences like: relaxation, sense of control, challenges, learning opportunities and immersion. These characteristics can contribute to the control process of stress. The objective of this paper is to propose a new methodology for combating stress, focused on emotion. In so doing, we use Serious Games associated to Flow theory and Virtual/Augmented Reality techniques, considering particular patient needs.