May is Mental Health Awareness month. Movies, TV shows and games can be great escapes in trying times. Many are even structured to help facilitate greater mental health practices, from documentaries that foster discussions, to video games designed for therapeutic purposes. We invite everyone to check out the UNT Media Library’s resources to help improve your own mental health in the hopes of erasing the stigma surrounding it. Below, the Media Library staff have shared a few of their go-to films and games for getting through difficulties. Feel free to add your own in the comments.

Julia: Stardew Valley (Game 904 PS4). It’s fun, relaxing, and can really help take your mind off things!

Jeremy: Einstein: His Amazing Life and Incomparable Science – Boardgame 601. Einstein is a game of shapes and patterns. You and your friends play Einstein at different stages of his life, trying to recreate his scientific and mathematical discoveries and theorems. This abstract game creates an artistic space where collaboration and competition combine to stretch the mind. There is a relaxing element of placing tangram like tiles to create shapes as efficiently as possible. The ability to engage my mind on something constructive yet low stakes is the ultimate definition of de-stress for me.

Rachel: Cowboy Bebop Remix: DVD 12520 v.1) & Samurai Champloo, the complete series. (DVD 18074 v.1) These are two classic animes that have superb soundtracks, story lines, and characters. I go back to these when I need something to take my mind off the bus, day-to-day mayhem.

Rachel: Fire emblem: Birthright (Game 701 3DS) & Fire emblem: Conquest (Game 7000 3DS). I’m a huge fire emblem nerd so if i’m stressed I’ll sit down and play a game through on the easiest setting. Birthright is the superior game by the way.

Sarah: My go to chill movie is Thor: Ragnarok (DVD 18505 or DVD 18506 Blu-ray).

Estela: The Good Place, (DVD 17824 V1.-2). When Eleanor Shellstrop finds herself in the afterlife, she’s both relieved and surprised that she’s made it into the Good Place. But it doesn’t take long for Eleanor to realize she’s there by mistake.

Stu: A good film that has helped me and makes me happy (also a little sad) but ultimately happy is Elling. (DVD 1430).

Stuart: We Happy Few: We Happy Few is the tale of a plucky bunch of moderately terrible people trying to escape from a lifetime of cheerful denial. Set in a drug-fuelled, retrofuturistic city in an alternative 1960s England, you’ll have to blend in with its other inhabitants, who have their own set of not-so-normal rules.