Can Video Games Help Stress or PTSD?

Video games used to be a distraction for kids as technology developed in the 1980s. Today's video games, however, are remarkably lifelike. They attract players from almost every age group too. Researchers have been working with video games and their use with certain patients. In fact, current studies suggest that video games can help with stress or PTSD disorders.

Distraction From Daily Stress

Stress can take on many forms, from financial issues to family strife. Although you may have a healthy mind and body, dealing with stress can be difficult. Playing video games can distract you from your worries for a short time period. Become a warrior fighting for a kingdom, or solve a murder mystery through this virtual reality. By distracting your mind, you create new neural pathways for the signals. After the mental escape, you can refocus on your issues and possibly solve them with a clear mind.

Spatial Tasks For PTSD Sufferers

PTSD or post traumatic stress disorder sufferers deal with visual traumas almost every day. Whether their trauma is from war or personal tragedies, flashbacks of the situation incapacitate them on both mental and physical levels. Although the association is unclear at this point, PTSD sufferers benefit from paying video games with spatial tasks, such as Tetris. By focusing on a spatial activity, these patients have fewer flashbacks throughout a given week. Further research must be done to see if spatial activities can help both short- and long-term memories.

Virtual Reality Tricks

Researchers are also trying therapeutic video games with PTSD patients. Games that simulate a military experience are used as mechanisms to work through the trauma. Under supervision, patients play the games to face their fears. By working through the trauma on a regular basis with the games, patients have fewer episodes at home. Their minds have essentially broken down the traumas for a short time period so there's no need for the flashbacks to occur. Researchers caution patients that video games don't solve the PTSD issue, but it's a valuable coping mechanism.

Dealing With Assault Issues

Assault victims deal with their own traumas that involve isolation, entrapment and abandonment. Video games designed to cover these feelings are being used to treat certain trauma victims. Researchers report that they're not creating an assault situation through these games, however. They must approach it with the emotions involved so that further damage doesn't occur during the game. The mind is a fragile system, but science continues to seek out simple ways to provide relief from any mental traumas.

It's important to stress that video games cannot be replacements for therapy in extreme situations. If you're battling PTSD, visit a medical professional as soon as possible. They may have solutions that complement the video-game play. Your current, mental health can be improved so that your senior years are more rewarding than ever before.

Why Do I Lose My Hair When I'm Stressed?

There are times people may pull fistfuls of hair out while in the shower. Don't panic—you're not balding. It's likely due to simply to the life cycle of your hair.

In short, your hair grows until it doesn't, at which point it falls out.

The growth phase of hair on our head can last anywhere from two to six years, which is why our hair can get so long. Our eyelashes hairs growth phase is much shorter—about 30 days. After the growth phase, the hair on our head enters the catagen phase, in which the hair follicle shrinks some. Then the hair hangs out for a while until it simply falls out.

This process is constant, and it's absolutely normal for someone to lose 50-100 hairs daily. That compares with the 90,000 to 150,000 total hairs on your head.

Scientists believe stress disrupts this natural process, causing hairs to drop prematurely during their normal growth period. All the hair reaches the resting phase together and fall out together rather than approaching and staying in the resting phase at their own pace. This effect has been shown in mice.

It isn't totally clear what sends the hairs into resting phase, but it's possible that our body's stress hormones or neurotransmitters are to blame.

Similar to the delay between when a hair no longer grows and when we lose it from our head, there is also a delay after a stressful even before we experience the hair loss. Typically, this delay is about three months for people. When you notice you're losing more than the normal amount of hair, think back to three months ago. Was work especially stressful? Did you undergo a surgery or experience a financial setback?

Hair loss is also common for women after giving birth. Scientists believe this hair loss is hormone related. Women have higher levels of hormones during pregnancy, which can prevent the regular hair loss. After they give birth and their hormones decrease, their hair lets go. Giving birth is also a stressful event on the body as well as an emotional one.