‘Squid Game: The Challenge’ contestant from Algonquin competed to raise mental health awareness

The top streaming Netflix reality show “Squid Game: The Challenge” has the largest cash prize in game show history at $4.56 million. Algonquin native Catherine Oliver took on the challenge with a dream to expand mental health access in her area.

“I had a dream just like everybody else on that show,” she said.

The reality show is based on the 2021 South Korean TV show “Squid Game,” a fiction series that highlights class inequality by having 456 contestants play life-or-death childhood games.

Netflix’s reality competition show featured 456 competitors from around the world competing in similar games as the original at an old military base in London. Player 435 was Oliver, a mental health therapist and psychoanalyst at her practice, B. Empowered Counseling in West Dundee. About 81,000 people applied for the show, according to Netflix.

If she won the money, Oliver wanted to expand her counseling services and donate to mental health organizations. But being on the show gave her an opportunity to at least highlight awareness on the subject, she said.

“I want to build a system to provide free mental health therapy and keep it sustainable,” she said. “As for personal aspects, I don’t need it.”

Oliver met and bonded with other contestants, some with big dreams such as ending human trafficking, building a school for impoverished children and paying off medical bills for their mom.

Some contestants have criticized the show, saying its set conditions were unethical, and there have been allegations of player injuries.

Oliver declined to comment on those issues, but described her experience on the show as the ultimate test of physical and psychological endurance. Contestants lived in a giant dorm room with no privacy, limited food, limited sleep, no clocks and no sunlight, Oliver said. She was there for about 10 days.

“Reduce all that and your emotions become very heightened,” Oliver said.

The lack of basic needs was a catalyst for fellow contestants to bond because they shared an “intense emotional experience,” Oliver said. The show emphasized how important human relationships and friendships are in order to overcome hard times.

“Those friendships and alliances you see on the show, those are real,” she said.

Oliver was eliminated after the third episode during the warships game. The show’s 10th and final episode is set to stream Dec. 6.

Oliver said she spent weeks preparing for the show by practicing marble games, squid game and gave up caffeine and sugar.

As a mental health researcher, she said she is thinking about starting a podcast covering the psychological aspects of the show.

“Nothing’s been done like this. There’s never been a research project with this many people all locked in one room together. There’s never been a reality show with this many people.”

Her best experience was the feeling of relief crossing the line during the first game “Red Light, Green Light.” Her toughest time was watching other contestants mentally break down, she said.

“And seeing them get eliminated,” she said. “It’s their dreams on the line.”

Despite not going home with the $4.56 million winnings, Oliver is determined to destigmatize mental health struggles and create more access to care. She describes being on the show as a “profound life-changing experience.”

“I’m left with realizing my dream was not going to be fulfilled through that show,” she said. “It makes me think outside the box.”