With the introduction of innovative information management tools for sharing patient data with providers and keeping it secure from third parties, the process of communication within the healthcare context has changed significantly. On the one hand, the levels of patients’ data security have risen noticeably, even with the presence of cyberattacks as a threat. On the other hand, obtaining one’s own health records when switching providers or making a similar change has become much more complicated. By introducing transparency between a health provider and a patent, one could increase the efficacy of the current electronic health record (EHR) system, as well as prevent data from getting lost or omitted in the process.
Based on my personal experience with requesting information when changing therapists, the process of browsing through the available information slows down vastly due to the lack of cohesion in the management of data and the absence of transparency between a patient and a healthcare provider. Where the former could offer insightful and helpful clues and assist with the search, a healthcare provider ha to perform the necessary procedures independently. With the lack of transparency in the management of patients’ personal data, essential bits of it will be lost and omitted.
The reasoning behind the current approach toward patients’ data management is understandable. The lack of transparency in the management of health records stems from the need to safeguard patients’ privacy and ensure their safety. However, the described approach reaches absurdity when patients themselves cannot access their medical records. Thus, transparency in communication between a patient and a healthcare provider is needed.
Laughter And Its Therapeutic Value
Laughing is not just amusing but good for one’s well-being. The therapeutic value of laughter has been thoroughly studied for the last decades and even laugh-based interventions were proposed as a method of healing. Recently, interest in non-invasive and non-pharmacological therapy has increased. Laughter therapy has grown in popularity and received much attention in the media. Therefore, many researchers have investigated the nature of the process and its influence on the organism. Having much power to renew and strengthen a person’s body, laughter is an interminable resource of surmounting one’s health. This paper seeks to investigate the benefits and therapeutic value of laughter.
Primarily, it is necessary to mention that laughter’s first benefit concerns its ability to protect cardiovascular systems, especially the heart. The laughter mechanism helps prevent the emergence of large amounts of cholesterol and fats in and on the artery walls. Moreover, it can increase harmless cholesterol (HDL), which pushes away harmful cholesterol cells (Yim 246). A good genuine laugh causes the inner lining of your blood vessels to expand, releasing nitric oxide. This chemical compound helps reduce inflammation and prevent plaque formation in the arteries. Laughter can be just effective at reducing inflammation as aerobic exercise or taking cholesterol-lowering medications known as statins.
Moreover, laughter causes fewer arrhythmias and relapses of myocardial infarctions during cardio rehabilitation (Yim 248). The cardiovascular system is the primary system affected by laughter. Thus, having mocking at a good joke can help accelerate the circulation and provide oxygen to the organs, especially to the lungs, heart, and muscles. The high blood pressure significantly lowers after laughing for some time.
In addition, it relaxes muscles and kills pain in the body. Typically, the muscles not involved in the process of laughing are subjected to relaxing afterward. For instance, after an intense workout on the lower body parts, one can laugh and the pain will vanish for a while. Moreover, laugh can release natural painkillers named endorphins, which are responsible for alleviating chronic aches.
The other value of laughter relates to stress relief. When people stress out too much, there is always a body response, which is realized through various diseases. Therefore, there is a fit of stress, one needs to laugh it off. A portion of good laugh decreases cortisol, a stress hormone, stimulates blood flow throughout the body, and provides oxygen to the organs (Bains 18). It is also capable of diffusing anger or depression and ameliorates the general sense of health.
The other significant advantage of laughter that proved to be relevant is its ability to boost the immune system. To begin with, the viruses and tumor cells are attacked by an increased number of natural killer cells. Furthermore, more helper T-cells are activated, which help organize the immune system’s response. The antibody immunoglobulin A’s quantity is boosted, which helps to fight the respiratory diseases. It was found that laughter is much efficient over placebo in treating immune conditions; it also reduces the glucose level in blood (Cha and Hong 227). The B-cells become high in number and create antibodies that protect people’s bodies from infectious microorganisms.
Furthermore, laughter is a sustainable method of losing weight. It was scientifically proven that adding laughter to a daily diet and sports regimen helps burn more calories. Ten or fifteen minutes of watching a hilarious video or exchanging anecdotes with a friend burns around 40 calories (Yim 247). When one laughs, the cortisol reduces, causing metabolism to lower, which influences the entire body. Notably, it can affect belly fat because, during smiling, the belly muscles expand and contract, which resembles the abdominal exercises.
In contemporary society, the stress level rises daily due to psychological, social, and economic stressors. Somehow this stress has a negative impact on self-esteem, affecting the quality of life and personal motivation; moreover, it intensifies depression and leads to harmful effects on the person’s psyche and health (Cha and Hong 222). Therefore, there is a need to renew the energy resources a person has and return to a healthy emotional condition. Undoubtedly, laughter unites people – one cannot have that much fun on their own. Humour and playful interaction strengthen relationships, evoke positive feelings, and create a strong emotional bond. This bond allows people to be spontaneous, forget judgments and biases, release inhibitions, and express real emotions, either positive or negative. Laughter is a mighty tool for managing conflict and reducing the tension when the emotions take control.
In conclusion, it seems reasonable to state that such simple things as laughter, entertainment, and joy may positively impact one’s health altogether with the prescribed medicine. As it was found out, laughter has is widely implemented and has valuable therapeutic characteristics. Exchanging one or two jokes with friends or family daily can improve cardiac health, immune system, relax muscles, relieve stress, and even make one’s body slim. In general, it significantly impacts the physical and psychological state of a person. The overall impact of laugh has been accepted and is still used as an additional therapy.
Works Cited
Bains, Gurinder, et al. “Humors effect on short-term memory in healthy and diabetic older adults.” Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine, vol. 21, no. 3, 2015, pp. 16-25.
Cha, Mi Cha, and Hong, Hae Sook. “Effect and path analysis of laughter therapy on serotonin, depression and quality of life in middle-aged women.” Journal of Korean Academic Nursing, vol. 45, 2015, pp. 221-230.
Yim, JongEun. “Therapeutic Benefits of Laughter in Mental Health: A Theoretical Review.” The Tohoku journal of Experimental Medicine, vol. 239, 2016, pp. 243-249.
Psychological Struggles Of The Main Character From The “Ben X” Film
Introduction
The modern cinematography industry has produced numerous pieces of art that depict an accurate representation of mental struggles and intend to give viewers an insight into other people’s minds. These films can be used to engage the audience in conversation regarding various vital topics that can be puzzling for some due to the lack of understanding of others’ conditions and motives. Wedding and Niemiec argue that “nothing conveys information or evokes emotion quite as clearly as our visual sense” (2). This ability to get an emotional response from the viewer allows movie producers to influence people’s attitudes toward the depicted topic, make them conscious about the issue, or evoke sympathy toward the particular person. Through this technique, especially when using the first-person narrative, writers can help viewers to understand otherwise often alienated individuals who have mental conditions (Wedding & Niemiec). This paper will review the psychological portrayal of Ben, the high-school student with Asperger’s syndrome, by Greg Timmermans in the Belgian-Dutch drama “Ben X” by Nic Balthazar.
Plot Summary
The film starts with an introduction to the main character – Ben, who is shown to have a deep interest in the video game “ArchLord.” In that artificial world, he is a strong and well-respected character, and this is the only place where he has a friend – Scarlite. The man behind the character, however, has a lot of troubles conveying himself in the real world, and the audience sees how even simple everyday encounters weigh heavily on his mind. As the story progresses, the audience sees that Ben is a subject of horrible bullying from classmates, which apparently continues for a prolonged period. During one of these incidents, the main character snaps and breaks the window, which leads to the beginning of his mental decline. Ben narrates his backstory and explains that doctors have studied him thoroughly and found that he had “a bad brain” (Ben X). His visit to the psychiatrist does not help the situation, and the bullying continues over the Internet.
The main character escapes back into the game, where he finds his friend Scarlite from the game waiting for him in his room. The main protagonist states that she can “put [him] together again” (Ben X). However, the next day bullying continues and becomes even worse. In a desperate attempt to defend himself, he tries to stab bullies but gets disarmed and fed a hallucinogenic drug. He begins to fantasize about suicide after coming back to his senses. Ben misses Scarlite’s invitation to meet her in real life and attempts to take his life by jumping under the train, only to be stopped by her. They come with an idea to stage a fake suicide to reveal the seriousness of harassment and to punish the bullies. After the successful resolution of this plan, Ben and his family, as well as Scarlite, are shown to take equine therapy sessions. In the end, Ben seems to be in a state of delusion to evade reality entirely, as it is revealed that Scarlite was only in Ben’s imagination.
Analysis of Ben’s Personality
This film focuses on the struggles that the main character experiences throughout his regular daily routine. The condition weighs heavy on his behavior, actions, and decisions, and also takes a toll on his family. Neither his closest family members, not classmates and teachers understand how he feels, and, from Ben’s point of view, even his psychiatrist does not fully comprehend this condition. The main character feels alienated, which only worsens his situation and makes him continuously frustrated.
The theme of bullying is the crucial element of the storyline, as it serves as a focal point for Ben’s issues with everyday life. As bullies argue that “normality doesn’t come easy for him” to avoid punishment for bullying, the school principal lets them off the hook without any further investigation (Ben X). Huard argues that “a harsh perspective and resolute emphasis on the issue is especially beneficial when showing the rest of the world how severe the problem is” (19). The movie portrays humiliation as one of the key struggles that people with mental disorders have to face on a regular basis.
The main character uses scenes from his favorite video game, “ArchLord,” as a coping mechanism against real-world stress factors. Whenever he feels threatened, anxious, or lost, he replaces himself with his ideal version from the video game to use this projection as a medium against the threat. It allows Ben to avoid any escalation of aggression, as well as prevent himself from becoming more stressed out. Normal coping mechanisms are rarely able to help people with mental disorders to deal with their struggles, as it is hard for them to find an understanding person or partake in regular activities (Wedding & Niemiec). In this movie, the main protagonist uses escapism, however, it leads to the development of another mental disorder.
The deterioration of the character’s social skills under pressure from his classmates evokes feelings of compassion, as the viewer sees how Ben’s mental health continues to decline. Whenever Ben gets into a stressful situation, he tries to close himself from the outside interactions and escapes into the projection of his real-life situation as if it occurred in “ArchLord.” In the end, when even this measure stops working, and he breaks down under pressure, further deterioration of his mental state is narrowly avoided via extreme escapism. As the main character finds little understanding from real people, he decides to shut himself up in a delusion that keeps him happy to an extent. Although Ben evades depression, he closes up into himself and accepts this state of mind.
Conclusion
In conclusion, “Ben X” is an astonishing film that raises important topics of struggles in everyday life by people with mental disorders. King states that the movie “is based on the true story of a 17-year-old Belgian boy with Asperger’s who killed himself.” Garner et al. state that “filmic portrayals of autism spectrum conditions are not normative relative to the autistic community” (425). However, this film is praised for its accurate depiction of the mental state of people who suffer from Asperger’s syndrome, using first-person narrative and interviews from the main character’s family, teachers, and classmates for contrast (King). While stereotyping this behavior has its adverse effects, it is essential to show its causes to make people more conscious about the issue. Huard argues that such movies “have the ability to reach, not only a wider audience but a larger, more diverse demographic of people that can learn about a condition” (31). This movie allows the viewer to learn more about the hardships of life with Asperger’s syndrome and is intended to make the audience more compassionate to people with mental disorders.
Works Cited
Ben X. Directed by Nic Balthazar, MMG Film, 2007.
Garner, Andrea, et al. “Authentic representations or stereotyped ‘outliers’: using the CARS2 to assess film portrayals of Autism Spectrum Disorders.” International Journal of Culture and Mental Health, vol. 8, no. 4, 2015, pp. 414-425.
Huard, Michael. The Reality of Fiction: Understanding Autism Through Narrative Films. 2014. University of Southern California, MA thesis. USC Digital Library. Web.
King, Susan. “‘Ben X,’ Surrounded by Bullies.” Los Angeles Times, 2008, Web.
Wedding, Danny, and Ryan M. Niemiec. Movies and Mental Illness: Using Films to Understand Psychopathology. 4th ed., Hogrefe Publishing, 2014.