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In my opinion video games are a common tool for coping with poor mental health, rather than a cause. It should also be noted that video games are a very diverse thing: there are beautiful, artsy games, like Child of Light or Ori and the Blind Forest; there are gritty, realistic games with a powerful story, like Spec Ops: The Line; there are mindless, silly games like Borderlands or Saints Row; there are immersive, massive open worlds to lose yourself in, like Skyrim or Horizon: Zero Dawn; there are games that open up your creativity, like Minecraft or Cities: Skylines; there are games that can teach you history (to an extent), like Europa Universalis IV or Assassin's Creed; there are games that are competitive and online, like Call of Duty or League of Legends. There are so many games, of so many different kinds, with so many different things to offer, for so many different people and moods - you can't really treat them as a monolith, anymore than you could books or movies.
