You Tube's Contribution To Well-being

Rachel on Sisyphus' Ledge has a discussion going about Hugh Laurie in the comments of her post, Just a note. I had to echo the House, MD/Laurie support and call attention to the many excellent clips of both Fry & Laurie and House on You Tube.

You Tube lots of montages of clips from the various series of House set to music. There are some superb angsty pieces that Frank Zappa might have had in mind when he made his, “It’s like listening to Weber at 4 am on a foggy November morning” (such as 4 a.m.). However, because Rachel recently commented that she enjoyed the smiles on the pictures that I posted from a recent Happystance event, I’m going with a couple of recommendations for smiley, blithe montages: Shoop Shoop Song and Smile.

I've previously enthused about blogging as a creative outlet. I think that facilities like You Tube and affordable software are providing even more creative and entertainment opportunities for people: both as creators and consumers.

Wellness for the Lifestyle Challenged

Wellness for the lifestyle challenged offers 12 general principles for healthier living. The steps are all the generic advice that is popular in magazines and newspaper sections. I would include the benefit of counting our blessings. However, I particularly approve of the following as it re-iterates my usual theme that laughter is good for you.

Resolve to go out of your way daily to experience humor, lightness, fun, joy--good times by whatever name you prefer. Laughter and assorted pleasures strengthen your immune system, metabolize bad vibes and act in 1001 ways to make your everyday life richer and fuller. Unlike frustrations, setbacks, tragedy and disaster, however, initiative is needed to bring these sensations up beyond the minimal level of occurrences.

Copyright 2006, Tony Plant Happystance Project

The Role Of Supportive Communities

Dr Crippen has written several entries in his diary for this week that elicit both sadness and anger. Sadness for the predicament of the patients who consult him and anger that the resources are not available to help them. In the Thursday 18th entry for the diary, Dr Crippen poses the question:

What happens to children with learning difficulties? They become adults with learning difficulties. Because they are grown up, people do not realise and are less tolerant.

We learn about Patrick who is 42 and has learning difficulties. Patrick is currently not working and when he is cross he hits people. Patrick does not meet the criteria for help from the local mental health departments. His local 'regular' psychiatrists do not work with people with learning difficulties: his local learning difficulties psychiatrist had diagnosed a Borderline Personality Disorder which Dr. Crippen translates as, "I can't help you and I don't like you."

The Fun And Benefits Of Laughter

Time magazine has a good article, The Funny Thing About Laughter.

There is some discussion about whether laughter is good for us because it is primarily a social activity and implies the presence of others; or whether laughter is good for us because of its beneficial effects on hormone levels and our cardiovascular system. As always, it is probably a combination of both.

Laughter has many benefits for our well-being. And, above all, it is fun, it can make us happy and can be cost-free. I believe that it can help us build resilience and develop a Happystance.

I do sometimes come across people who are hostile to the notion of laughter and developing a Happystance. I respect that some people are angry at the notion of laughter which seems mocking in the context of what else is happening in their lives. And yet, I do know that some of the liveliest groups that I run are the ones with homeless people who are beset with a multitude of problems. There have been laughter projects with homeless people that have offered a way back into society. There have been research projects looking at the link between laughter and improved immune system functioning and greater self-confidence. As Oscar Wilde never put it, "We are all of us in the gutter. But some of us are chortling at the stars".

Allostasis, Sleep and Happiness

Following on from allostasis and happiness I've been thinking about the contribution of sleep to allostasis (and therefore, well-being). The Times carried a summary of El-Sheik's research into sleep quality in children. The more that children are exposed to parental conflicts, the worse they sleep. And, the worse children sleep, the more likely they are to be tired when awake, have difficulty focusing and be irritable and badly behaved. All of which sounds like it could make a contribution to a diagnosis of ADHD, particularly the need to have the behaviour documented in a variety of settings. And, as the children would be tired for most of the day, I think that that criterion would be met.

I wrote about the diabetic children with uncontrolled ketoacidosis who prompted Salvador Minuchin to say that "behavioral events among family members can be measured in the bloodstream of other family members". It seems as if that could also be adapted to "behavioural events among family members can be measured in the diagnoses of other family members".

Allostasis and Happiness

I've been reading a lot about allostasis and allostatic load lately. Primarily because I am trying to understand where happiness and its beneficial effects fit in. Leading advocates of the concept claim that it makes sense of why some societies (such as the UK, the rest of Europe and the US) are experiencing a surge in the numbers of people who are developing obsesity, metabolic disorders (e.g., Syndrome X or type II diabetes) or addictions. At its highest level, allostasis implies that social policies have a critical impact on how we experience our lives, and therefore influence our resilience and ability to withstand disease and to recover from illness.

I've borrowed this following explanation of allostasis from Dr. Salt's summary of a classic paper:

[stress has] many mechanisms, but among the most prominent are the manifestations of physiological stress responses as a result of living and working conditions, inter-personal conflict, as well as the sense of control of one’s environment and optimism/pessimism toward the future. "Allostatic load" refers to the cost of adaptation to a stressful environment, which elicits repeated and sometimes prolonged adaptive responses ("allostasis") that preserve homeostasis in the short run but can cause wear- and-tear on the body and brain. Functional symptoms and syndromes, decreased cognitive function during aging, abdominal obesity, increased risk for hypertension and cardiovascular disease, insulin-dependent diabetes and decreased immune responses are all manifestations of allostatic load.

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