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Positive Effect of Video Games on Mental Health

4/24/2021

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Content Creator: Krithika P V
Content Editor: Anchita Shetty
Blog Designer: Halima Asif
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“Video games? What a waste of time.”
“It ruins your eyesight. Might as well make you go blind!”
 “Turn that off, son! Get out of your room, these games are doing no good to your life!”


I bet all of us, at one point, have had these lines been told to us while gaming. Though, it’s not that they’re completely false. It’s true that long hours of gaming can affect your eyesight and violent video games can make people aggressive and snappy. But, every coin has two sides, right? So, how fair is it to glorify one side while completely ignoring the other?

After years of research that has posed video games as a threat to mankind, only recently have a growing number of studies proved that they are not that bad after all. In fact, gaming has been proven to improve the mental health of humans.

Several researchers have claimed that playing video games has helped many children reduce emotional disturbances and attain emotional stability. It has also been made evident that it can be a source of relaxation and a stress reliever for many youth. 

Teenagers and young adults have claimed that video games have been a good escape from  reality. They feel that tensions, worries, work pressure, relationship issues and every other mentally-demanding element of our lives are addressed better after a few hours of escapism through these video games.

People who believe in the toxicity of video games state that it increases a sense of self-isolation and loneliness among its players. But, factually, socially isolated people find a home in video games. It decreases the possibility of depression as it always keeps your mind busy in one thing or another. Most of the popular video games, being multiplayer ones, also decreases the feeling of loneliness in people.

Video games secretly help in personal skill development as well. The quickness of actions in most video games aides in increasing concentration and improving one’s reaction time. It also improves one’s memory since gamers are often required to remember some prior moves, maps, etc. It also helps in increasing one’s ability in problem-solving and conflict management.

Video games are tasks with quick results. It’s simple: you win or you lose. This quality of these games tends to have many positive impacts on our mental health. Quick wins help in boosting self-esteem. Gradual increase in difficulty of levels develops a feeling of having to better oneself each time. Losing also helps in developing patience and learning resilience in times of failure.

Most of today’s popular video games are multiplayer. This helps gamers connect with new people online and also connect to their friends and colleagues on a different level. Connecting with people online, even with existing drawbacks, has had a good impact on the mental health of many gamers. Most of them claim that their online friends are equal to, or even better than, their real friends. They have also admitted to sharing vulnerable secrets with online friends more than the ones offline. The reason for this has been the insecurities of being judged by people in face-to-face conversations. Therefore, the absence of judgement and the presence of anonymity helps them build really good relationships with the co-players online.

People from all over the world play video games. This means the diversity on these platforms is very high. Connecting with people with a large variety of differences based on gender, nationality, religion, race, language and culture helps people sensitize with one another. They learn to be sensitive to these differences and to be more accepting of one another.
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Video games, as a matter of fact, have also been used in therapy in order to boost the mental health of patients. ​

​Stating an example, a game called “Re-Mission” was designed that contains a tiny robot that shoots cancer cells, overcomes bacterial infections and manages nausea and other barriers faced by cancer patients. Within a study where patients were encouraged to play this game in 34 cancer centers, results showed that patients who played it showed a greater adherence to treatment and cancer-related knowledge compared to other patients who did not play it. 

Summarizing the presented information, video games have had immense positive effects on the overall mental health of people.  People often find a companion in video games when lonely in real life. These eye-opening realizations of something that has been criticised for ages must be made known to the world. 

References
  1. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00260/full
        2. https://qrius.com/how-gaming-can-benefit-your-mental-health/
         3. https://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2013/11/video-games
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Stages of Grief

4/10/2021

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Content Creator: Thrisha Sajeev
Content Editor: Ayisha Fariya
Blog designer: Isra Iqbal

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Every individual grieves differently.

​Losing someone can take an unexpected toll on an individual's emotional state. The sorrow and pain that goes into the process of overcoming, no, accepting the loss, is something that every individual tackles differently. To put it simply, every individual grieves differently. However, the stages of grief act as a binding element between the grievances of different individuals.

Denial 
In this first stage where a person denies the possibility of this happening. A phase of blur or numbness characterizes a terminal illness or passing of a loved one. The person denies their death and continues to exist just as if the deceased is still alive, just in another corner of the world. Though not entirely descriptive of death, the song, "The Man Who Can't Be Moved" by The Script, crisply expresses what it feels like to wait around for a loved one, while they're long gone.
listen to 'The Man Who Can't Be Moved'
Anger
In this stage, the person uses anger as a mechanism to mask their emotions of sorrow and sadness. Apart from denial, the person may be furious at their lost one, for having left them. In my opinion, an apt song to describe this would be, "Will Not Say Goodbye" by Danny Gokey. 
This song primarily reflects emotions of sorrowful rage and angst. The composer explains his state of denial and does not want to believe reality despite knowing that the loss is completely true; they are not ready or willing to accept it. 
Listen to 'Will Not Say Goodbye'
Bargaining
This stage is associated with the "if only's" that rings in the person's mind. It's a stage of remorse and regret, where one imagines a different reality, a positive one if only they'd done things differently. A song that would best describe this stage would be "Yesterday' 'by The Beatles. The verse, "Why she had to go, I don't know, she wouldn't say I said something wrong, now I long for yesterday" tries to bring in rue emotions that a person (the composer/listener) experiences, after a personal loss. 
Listen to 'Yesterday'
Depression 
This stage is composed of deep sadness, and this is expressed either or can be a subtle, suppressed emotion, in which a tough act is put up on the surface, a cover to the hurting soul. A song that rightly describes this stage would be "Slipped Away’' by Avril Lavigne. From the first verse to the last, Avril Lavigne, openly calls out to her, "nana’' and expresses her deep sadness at his passing. Having experienced something similar, the song aptly puts forth the emotions that one goes through at this stage. 
Listen to 'Slipped Away'
Acceptance
I'll start by explaining this stage with the song I associate with, "Supermarket Flowers' by Ed Sheeran. To me, the lyrics were a sad yet hopeful compilation of memories, both dolorous and sweet, to show that the composer, though having been through a tough time, has accepted his mother's death, and is sure that the almighty in the skies above, will take care of his mother.
Listen to 'Supermarket flowers'

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True or False: Are you sure you’re being gaslighted?

4/3/2021

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Content Creator:  Maryam Naseer
Content Editor:  Ayisha Farah
Blog Designer: Bhakti Ghaghda

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​We’ve all been in a group project where it’s common for one person to take charge and instruct everyone about their responsibilities. However, it’s also common for most of those responsibilities to be carried out by a single person. For reasons unknown, I mostly find myself in both positions. And while involved in one such project, I had had enough and decided to question my group members’ accountability. They were then caught off guard and resorted to dodging the question, avoiding responsibility by passing their own comments. These typically sound like,
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 “Why are you overreacting?”
“Stop being so sensitive!”
 “We offered to help, but you seemed so keen on doing it all by yourself...”
“Calm down, don’t you trust us?”
 
...and the list goes on. If you’ve ever found yourself in something similar every time you confront anyone, you’re being gaslighted. 

Gaslighting is a form of toxic manipulation and abuse that has to do more with the victim’s perspective of their sense of self and reality. The manipulator often toys with the victim’s judgement, making them question their reality and actions to avoid responsibility. Gaslighting typically is an insidious process involving constant lying, denial, accusations, invalidation etc., done over a period of time. 

Gaslighters may also be abusers, dictators, narcissists, and cult leaders as this is likely to happen in circumstances that have to deal with authority, given it’s a power struggle.

​Gaslighters are almost always involved intimately with the victim, who may or may not manipulate them intentionally. Most cases are found to be among marital relationships where one of them gaslights the other in domestic abuse cases or even to cover up for their infidelity.

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Gaslighters may also be abusers, dictators, narcissists, and cult leaders as this is likely to happen in circumstances that have to deal with authority, given it’s a power struggle. For example, this could occur in workplaces when an employer accuses the employee of not having completed their task in time even though it was submitted much before the due date.

Most targets play right into the manipulator’s trap as they would much rather change their perception or question their judgement, memory or instinct to maintain peace and avoid a conflict with the manipulator, especially if they’re someone they care a lot about. However, this could happen to just about anyone and may go unnoticed for a very long time.

So how does one know if they’re being gaslighted? Initially, the signs may be very insignificant and do not correlate. However, with time these offences are likely to repeat and snowball into you altering your grasp of events. Some of these signs include:

  • You may find yourself questioning your side of the story almost all the time you interact with them.
  • Their response makes you wonder if you’re wrong to bring up something you’re upset about.
  • They plant the belief that you’re not good enough.
  • They always blame you for the issue, and you’re always the one apologizing.
  • They never listen to whatever you have to say; you feel like you have to scream to be heard.
  • You’re always second-guessing yourself, and they confuse you further.
  • Your self-esteem is very low, and you always doubt yourself.
  • They cause disputes between you and your closed ones, isolating you from the rest.
  • You’ve lost the confidence to do anything without them, you’re very dependent on them.
  • You feel like you’re losing your mind, and you’re falling apart.

If you find yourself relating to these with someone in mind and yet question if you’re being gaslighted, it might be a good indicator that you’re being gaslighted. When you recognize you’re being gaslighted, it’s best first to give yourself some time to cement your beliefs and build enough confidence in yourself to hustle your way out of it. 

Since it’s possible that you might be close to the person mistreating you, rethink the nature of your relationship with them and choose to cut out the toxic people from your life. In the event of an argument, choose to remain silent instead of humoring their struggle to take over your sense of reality. Block out anything they have to say that undermines you.

Reconnect with people that have lost contact with you due to their antics. It would be best to confide in someone you trust to boost your confidence and support you whilst overcoming your thoughts’ loss of control. It wouldn’t hurt to seek their help and advice either. And most importantly, stick to your account of things, without which you’ll always find yourself going back to them.
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