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Tag: Mental Health

  • This Holiday Season, Make Time for Self-Care Every Monday

    This Holiday Season, Make Time for Self-Care Every Monday

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    Newswise — During the commotion of the holidays, it’s easy to forget to carve out a few moments for yourself. Sometimes, we forget the toll that work and family demands can have on our mind and body. This Monday, disconnect from stress with some quick self-care tactics for a happier you.

    It doesn’t matter if you’re at home with kids or working all day, stress happens to everyone. It’s natural to keep trying to fit in ‘just one more task. It’s also normal to feel that others are depending on you too much to take a break for yourself.

    If you operate with the needle on “E” – empty – for too long, it’s actually counterproductive. Running out of gas helps no one, least of all, you. Instead, take time to fill up with a trove of self-care tactics that will last you a lifetime.

    Here are some quick self-care tips you can do right now:

    1. Go for a walk– Feel the air, a change in temperature or the warmth of the sun. Look at the clouds.
    2. Take a breather anytime, any place– Take a pause with some deep breaths. Fill your belly with a good, deep inhale. Hold it for a beat, then exhale slowly and fully. Do this repeatedly for a minute or so, until you feel a sense of calm.
    3. Yoga moment– At your desk or in your living room, do some relaxing moves. Try chair yoga or do a quick sun salutation. If you can’t do the whole sequence stand up, reach your arms up to the sun and look at your hands, swan dive with arms out at your sides, then touch your toes – or get as close as you can! Do this a few times, until you feel your body unwind.
    4. Water works – Take a warm bath. This is also a way to take a digital break from your phone and/or computer.
    5. Call a friend – Catch up and share the latest. This will boost your happiness and it’s a natural way to destress.
    6. Sleep – Here’s the prescription: Go to bed early, read, relax, do some bed yoga, sleep soundly, and wake up refreshed! It’s the perfect medicine for longevity, health, and balance.

    Indulge in health and wellness this Monday with self-care! You will have the perfect destress formula: a longer, happier, and healthier life. For more tips to take care of you, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram.

     

     

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  • A hard look at New York’s controversial new approach to the homeless | CNN Politics

    A hard look at New York’s controversial new approach to the homeless | CNN Politics

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    A version of this story appeared in CNN’s What Matters newsletter. To get it in your inbox, sign up for free here.



    CNN
     — 

    New York City Mayor Eric Adams gave the city’s first responders, including its police force, a controversial new task this week – to enforce a state law that allows them to involuntarily commit people experiencing a mental health crisis.

    From CNN’s report by Mark Morales:

    Adams said it was a myth that first responders can only involuntarily commit those who displayed an “overt act” that they may be suicidal, violent or a danger to others. Instead, he said the law allowed first responders to involuntarily commit those who cannot meet their own “basic human needs” – a lower bar.

    The police department is still formulating a plan and Adams, a former cop, said officers will get additional training and real-time support from mental health professionals.

    The move follows a raft of violence in New York City and also increasingly visible homeless encampments in New York and cities around the country.

    Adams framed the policy as a way to help people who need it.

    “It is not acceptable for us to see someone who clearly needs help and walk past,” he said.

    Advocates for the homeless oppose this. “The city really needs to approach this more from a health and housing lens, rather than focusing on involuntary removals and policing,” Jacquelyn Simone from the Coalition for the Homeless told CNN’s Brynn Gingras for her report that aired this week on “AC360°.”

    Mental health professionals are questioning it. “We are defaulting to an extreme that takes away basic human rights,” Matt Kudish, CEO of the New York chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, said in a statement after Adams’ announcement.

    Kudish said New York should do more to help people before they need intervention: “The City has the power to provide onsite treatment, as well as treatment in homeless shelters or supported housing, but has chosen not to.”

    Police are worried it puts them in a precarious position. “As soon as they want to resist, now where does the liability form – on the uniformed officer,” retired NYPD detective Andrew Bershad told Gingras.

    I talked to Ryan McBain, a policy researcher at the RAND Corporation who studies how government policies can reach vulnerable populations, including those experiencing both mental illness and housing insecurity.

    McBain argued Adams’ move is “well-intentioned but misguided,” first of all because police interactions with people experiencing serious mental health issues is “fuel for escalation.”

    “It’s something like 1 in 4 people who are shot by a police officer are people with significant mental health issues,” McBain said. When I looked to confirm that 25% figure, I found this in a 2015 Washington Post investigation.

    “If you stop and think about it, it makes sense, right? People who are disoriented or having atypical thoughts, they’re not in a position oftentimes to comply collaboratively with a police officer,” he said. “And given the fact that police officers are carrying weapons, you have sort of a recipe for bad outcomes.”

    There’s evidence, he said, that actually deploying trained mental health professionals alongside police officers would be more effective. In New York, first responders will get additional training and have access to a hotline with mental health professionals.

    Another issue is more systemic and has to do with how the US deals with chronic and serious mental illness, from a system of large institutional asylums that were shuttered in the ’60s and ‘70s to a flawed system focused on private insurance and community-based mental health centers.

    Currently, there aren’t enough beds for psychiatric patients.

    “We don’t need giant asylums where the conditions are inappropriate, but we do need larger facilities with more beds that can provide the type of care that the patients really need when they have more serious mental health issues,” McBain said.

    More permanent supportive housing is required for people who experience both mental health issues and homelessness. But that kind of solution – the public providing housing alternatives for people who cannot provide for themselves – can be expensive and politically difficult.

    RELATED: How one Minnesota county has been rapidly housing the homeless since the pandemic

    It’s a sentiment echoed by Dennis Culhane, a professor of social policy at the University of Pennsylvania, who appeared on “AC360°” on Thursday. “That is the fundamental problem here,” Culhane said. “You cannot actively and effectively treat people without having them in a place where they can take care of themselves.”

    McBain said that in the US health system, which is geared around insurance paying for services, mental health is not treated on par with physical health.

    “In the best of all possible worlds, you’d have a continuum of care for addressing people’s mental health needs,” he said.

    “And that continuum would begin with high-quality outpatient services that private insurers pay for at parity with physical health conditions. … I think until you see the system try to address these issues in a holistic way, these issues are going to continue to persist,” he said, arguing, “Mayor Adams is proposing putting a Band-Aid on something for which you really need sutures.”

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  • Researchers identify potential mechanism underlying stress-induced different changes of amygdala neurons in mice

    Researchers identify potential mechanism underlying stress-induced different changes of amygdala neurons in mice

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    Newswise — Chronic stress can differentially change the neuronal structure and function in the brain, leading to anxiety disorders and other neuropsychiatric illness. Now, researchers may understand how the different change occurs.

    The team from Nanchang University published their findings on November 30 in Stress and Brain.

    “Prolonged stress alters the structure and function of only some neurons in the amygdala, a brain region essential for emotional regulation and a critical mediator of stress response and fear learning,” said corresponding author Jun-Yu Zhang, associate research fellow  in the Laboratory of Fear and Anxiety Disorders in Nanchang University’s Institute of Life Science. “In this study, we attempted to find the possible mechanism of the differential regulation by prolonged stress.”

    Neurons in the amygdala connect to other areas of the brain, including the prefrontal cortex — involved in cognitive control, the nucleus accumbens — helps translate motivation to action, and the hippocampus — which plays a significant role in memory and learning. In previous research, Zhang and her team found that the neurons connected to the hippocampus were drastically altered under chronic stress, while those linked to the prefrontal cortex and the nucleus accumbens remained unchanged.

    “These neurons integrated in different neural circuits are in almost the same microenvironment, but triggered different reactions to stress, suggesting that the remodeling shows obvious circuit selectivity in the process of chronic stressed-induced excessive anxiety, but the regulatory mechanism has remained unclear,” Zhang said. “Considering the critical role of glucocorticoids — a stress hormone — in the modulation of brain structure and function by stress, we hypothesized that the glucocorticoid receptor may be a potential mediator of the differential regulation of neurons by chronic stress.”

    To test this hypothesis, the researchers exposed four groups of mice to various durations of restraint stress. Over 10 days, the mice were put into a tube fitted to their bodies for either two hours one time, two hours on three days, two hours every day or not at all. The researchers examined how the levels of corticosterone (glucocorticoid in mice) and the expression of the glucocorticoid receptors changed throughout. They found that the levels of stress hormones in the mice increased continuously with restraint time, and they increased remarkably in the mice stressed every day. They also found that the chronic stress did not affect the number of neurons expressing glucocorticoid receptors, but that it did appear to significantly increase the intensity of expression only for neurons projecting into the hippocampus.

    “Our results indicate that the increase of stress hormone concentration in mice, caused by prolonged stress, only selectively causes the significantly up-regulated expression and excessive response of the receptor in the amygdala to hippocampus neurons, suggesting that this signaling pathway may play an essential role in the differential regulation of neurons in the amygdala,” Zhang said. “This study advances our understanding of the effects of chronic stress on the functional circuit of the amygdala, but the specific mechanisms of how the receptor mediates the differential regulation of chronic stress are not yet clear.”

    The researchers plan to further study the glucocorticoid receptor mechanism by examining the effects of chronic stress when the receptor is blocked or removed.

    “Our ultimate goal for this line of research is to understand as fully as possible the circuits and molecular mechanisms by which chronic stress reshapes the structure and function of amygdala neurons and causes excessive anxiety,” Zhang sad. “If possible, we also aim to find essential mediators that may serve as a possible target to precisely treat anxiety disorders.”

    Other contributors include Yuan-Pei Zhang, Chen-Ming Zhong and Bing-Xing Pan, Laboratory of Fear and Anxiety Disorders, Institute of Life Science, Nanchang University; and Long-Xin Wu, School of Life Sciences, Nanchang University.

    The National Natural Science Foundation of China and the Special Funds for Central Government to Guide Local Scientific and Technological Development supported this research.

     

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    About Stress and Brain 

    Brain is the central organ coping with the internal and external stress, and stress persistently affects the function and health of brain. Stress and Brain (Published by Tsinghua University Press) is an interdisciplinary journal publishing investigations related to the intercommunications between stress and nervous system that are of general interest to the community of brain researcher. Its scope is broad and includes reviewed papers and research articles dealing with basic, translational and clinical research on all aspects of stress neurobiology, with particular focus on the impact of stress on brain at levels ranging from genetics, molecular biology to brain imaging and behavior.

     

    About SciOpen

    SciOpen is a professional open access resource for discovery of scientific and technical content published by the Tsinghua University Press and its publishing partners, providing the scholarly publishing community with innovative technology and market-leading capabilities. SciOpen provides end-to-end services across manuscript submission, peer review, content hosting, analytics, and identity management and expert advice to ensure each journal’s development by offering a range of options across all functions as Journal Layout, Production Services, Editorial Services, Marketing and Promotions, Online Functionality, etc. By digitalizing the publishing process, SciOpen widens the reach, deepens the impact, and accelerates the exchange of ideas.

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    Tsinghua University Press

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  • Palm e-tattoo can tell when you’re stressed out

    Palm e-tattoo can tell when you’re stressed out

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    Newswise — Our palms tell us a lot about our emotional state, tending to get wet when people are excited or nervous. This reaction is used to measure emotional stress and help people with mental health issues, but the devices to do it now are bulky, unreliable and can perpetuate social stigma by sticking very visible sensors on prominent parts of the body.

    Researchers at The University of Texas at Austin and Texas A&M University have applied emerging electronic tattoo (e-tattoo) technology to this type of monitoring, known as electrodermal activity or EDA sensing. In a new paper published recently in Nature Communications, the researchers created a graphene-based e-tattoo that attaches to the palm, is nearly invisible and connects to a smart watch.

    “It’s so unobstructive that people sometimes forget they had them on, and it also reduces the social stigma of wearing these devices in such prominent places on the body,” said Nanshu Lu, professor in the Department of Aerospace Engineering and Engineering Mechanics and leader of the project.

    Lu and her collaborators have been advancing wearable e-tattoo technology for many years. Graphene has been a favorite material because of how thin it is and how well it measures electrical potential from human body, leading to very accurate readings.

    But, such ultra-thin materials can’t handle much, if any strain. So that makes applying them to parts of the body that include a lot of movement, such as the palm/wrist, challenging.

    The secret sauce of this discovery is how the e-tattoo on the palm is able to successfully transfer data to a rigid circuit – in this case a commercially available smart watch, in out-of-lab, ambulatory settings. They used a serpentine ribbon that has two layers of graphene and gold partially overlapped. By snaking the ribbon back and forth, it can handle the strain that comes with movements of the hand for everyday activities like holding the steering wheel while driving, opening doors, running etc.

    Current palm monitoring tech uses bulky electrodes that fall off and are very visible, or EDA sensors applied to other parts of the body, which gives a less accurate reading.

    Other researchers have tried similar methods using nanometer-thick straight-line ribbons to connect the tattoo to a reader, but they couldn’t handle the strain of constant movement.

    Lu said the researchers were inspired by virtual reality (VR), gaming and the incoming metaverse for this research. VR is used in some cases to treat mental illness; however, the human-aware capability in VR remains lacking in many ways.

    “You want to know whether people are responding to this treatment,” Lu said. “Is it helping them? Right now, that’s hard to tell.”

    Other members of the team include Hongwoo Jang and Eunbin Kim from the Texas Materials Institute; Sangjun Kim and Kyoung-Ho Ha from the Walker Department of Mechanical Engineering; Xiangxing Yang from the Chandra Family Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering; and Kaan Sel and Roozbeh Jafari from Texas A&M’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

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    University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin)

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  • Loving a Fake Person: Redefining Romance for the Virtual Age

    Loving a Fake Person: Redefining Romance for the Virtual Age

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    Dec. 2, 2022 – When a young man finds himself falling for a 300-year-old cyborg in the 2019 sci-fi film Alita: Battle Angel, they share the following exchange:   

    “Does it bother you,” the cyborg (Alita) asks, “that I’m not completely human?” 

    “You are the most human person I have ever met,” the young man (Hugo) replies. 

    Cinema is filled with examples like this, of humans hitting it off with non-humans. See also the 2013 film Her, in which Joaquin Phoenix falls for a virtual assistant voiced by Scarlett Johansson, and the 2014 sci-fi flick Ex Machina, where a young programmer (Domhnall Gleeson) grows close to an AI robot that happens to resemble a beautiful woman (Alicia Vikander).

    But for many, the concept goes beyond the silver screen. In Japan, a whole subculture is devoted to romantic video games (RVGs), where players flirt with a computer-generated person and develop a relationship that some players describe as feeling genuine. RVGs are played worldwide but are especially popular among Japanese women (though there are several games for men as well). 

    Bizarre? Maybe even unhealthy? No doubt plenty of people would agree. But psychologist Mayu Koike, PhD, takes a different view. She and her colleagues at Hiroshima University are exploring whether such “virtual romantic relationships” could improve psychological well-being or even help people cope with the stress of real-world romance. So far, the answer to both questions is a tentative yes. 

    “People want to love and be loved, desires which can now be potentially fulfilled by virtual agents,” says Koike, who hopes to “cultivate a new field named ‘romantic anthropomorphism,’ bridging the gap between anthropomorphism and relationship science.” 

    Anthropomorphism – or placing human traits on nonhuman beings – is not new in psychology, but Koike aims to apply the concept to help us understand “virtual romance,” a romantic relationship between a human and a virtual partner.   

    Generally speaking, Koike says, her studies showed that if a person felt a connection with a “virtual agent,” their mood lifted – what psychologists call a “positive affect.” 

    “People think playing RVGs can improve their social skills,” Koike says, “and our ongoing study also shows that players want to practice a romantic relationship with a virtual agent before they commit to human-to-human relationships.”

    Her most recent paper, “Virtually in love: The role of anthropomorphism in virtual romantic relationships,” published in the British Journal of Social Psychology, describes three experiments examining the effects of “anthropomorphizing” the virtual partner.

    Results were mixed. When a player anthropomorphized the agent, the relationship felt more authentic. They also felt better and were more likely to desire a real-world relationship with the agent. But in a final experiment in which 104 female players met attractive male actors afterward, there was no correlation between how the women viewed their virtual relationship and how they interacted with the male actors.

    Still, that mood-boost is reason enough to study the process, because “it has a strong potential to improve our real-world relationships,” Koike says. This kind of research “might help to reduce loneliness and improve well-being.”

    Her recent paper builds on her 2020 study in the journal PLOS One titled “What factors attract people to play romantic video games?” Among those factors is a human-like voice and even touch, which is simulated (G-rated) in some games using, for example, a Wii controller to stroke someone’s hair, or a balance board for massage.

    As technology develops, and the quality of virtual agents improves, the potential for virtual romance will increase too, Koike notes. Such relationships could help fulfill the human need to love and be loved, or even serve as a “practicing tool for someone who is anxious about dating.” 

    “We should keep examining how these relationships with virtual agents can affect relationships in the modern world,” she says. 

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  • Your (Afro-Textured) Hair Is Beautiful: The Trauma of Texturism

    Your (Afro-Textured) Hair Is Beautiful: The Trauma of Texturism

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    In our third episode in our four-part series, we’ll be diving into texturism and its impact on many Black and Latino individuals. We’ll also look at ways to gain more appreciation for your naturally beautiful coils and curls. 

    Dec. 1, 2022 – It’s your first day of work at a new job, and you’re a bundle of nerves and excitement. Your hand goes to press the “Join Meeting” button. As you take a breath, that pesky thought fights to gut-punch your self-esteem. 

    “What message will my hair send to my new colleagues?”

    If you’re not a person of African descent, you may have no idea what I’m talking about. Historically, our natural hair texture has been deemed unattractive, unprofessional, and, perhaps most upsetting of all, “unkempt.” Thankfully, the natural (afro-textured) hair movement has gained momentum (on and off) over the past few decades.

    In our new docu-series “Color by WebMD: WebMD’s Exploration of Race and Mental Health,” we’ll dive into what’s known as texturism and its impact on many Black and Latino people. We’ll also talk about ways we can gain more appreciation for our naturally beautiful coils and curls.

    The Four Main Hair Types

    Texturism – or discrimination based on how close or far your natural hair is to European (fine, straight) tresses – can be commonplace within many communities of color, according to Vanessa Gonlin, PhD, an assistant sociology professor at the University of Georgia. To help explain where and how texturism works, she breaks down the four main hair textures.

    • Type one: Straight hair
    • Type two: Wavy hair
    • Type three: Curly hair
    • Type four: Coily or coarse [afro-textured] hair

    Not only may people inside your racial group treat you poorly based on your afro-textured hair texture, but those outside your race may also view afro-textured hair in a negative light, according to Gonlin. 

    “I have type 3 hair, and I’ve never been concerned that I would have a difficult time at a job interview because of my natural hair,” she says. “But I know other people who have coily, type 4 hair who do have that concern.”

    It Starts Early 

    As someone born with afro-textured hair, I have a strong connection to texturism – and so does my sister, Liz Davis, a licensed marriage and family therapist in Kansas City, KS. Liz traveled to the WebMD office in Atlanta, and we discussed how texturism affected our self-concept without us fully realizing it. Liz says some of her earliest, most traumatic experiences surrounding hair happened when we went to beauty salons to get our hair relaxed, or chemically straightened.

    “I just remember my scalp getting burned and scabbing up in different areas,” she recalls.

    Many people don’t consider the psychological factors of getting your hair relaxed, as well as what type of message it can send about what type of hair is considered “attractive,” Liz says. 

    “I don’t even think that I had cognition to understand that my hair texture was being changed.”

    Liz and I also talked about what it was like growing up in predominantly white communities, and how much Eurocentric standards of beauty influenced how we viewed our hair. In college, Liz remembered showing a friend (who was white) various photos of haircut styles and asking her which one she should get.

    “I remember her saying to me, ‘Liz, these are all white people. Don’t you want to pick a hairstyle that’s representative of you and your skin color and your culture?’” Liz says.

    Liz began researching Black, natural hair content creators on social media who talk about their natural hair journeys, as well as share about how they’re taking care of their afro-textured curls.

    “I wanted that for myself. I started to become more empowered in my own sense of self and in my culture,” she says.

    Facial Features

    Featurism is often less spoken of, but it still plays a major role in how people of color are treated within their own communities and can have damaging effects on one’s self-perception, according to Radhika Parameswaran, PhD, associate dean of The Media School at Indiana University in Bloomington. Featurism centers on how close or far one’s physical features are from typical Eurocentric (narrow nose, thinner lips) features. 

    “If your features depart from the very sort of ‘European ideal,’ then you’re not seen as beautiful. Hence, you have eye-altering surgeries in Japan and people in other parts of the world getting cosmetic surgeries that help you achieve features that are more approximate to this ‘European ideal,’” she says.

    This phenomenon is widespread within many Latino communities, says Nayeli Y. Chavez-Dueñas, PhD, a licensed clinical psychologist and professor at The Chicago School of Professional Psychology.

    “For example, if a person has light skin and a wide nose, then there is still that stereotype with comments like, ‘Your skin color is beautiful, but look at your nose,’” she says. 

    Mental Health Effects of the ‘-isms’

    The mental health effects of texturism can be seen in “the most subtle ways,” Liz says. Statements like “I don’t like my skin. I don’t like my hair. I hate social media because everyone on there is so much more beautiful than me” are commonplace with many of her Black and Brown therapy clients, she says. 

    When Liz asks for examples of these “exceptionally beautiful” people, they’re typically pictures of lighter-skinned people of color, with looser curl patterns and Eurocentric features. 

    “It’s an incredibly painful place to sit in when someone is hurting and in pain because of who they are,” she says. “There’s nothing wrong with their hair, skin, or facial features. There is something wrong with our society that’s privileging a Eurocentric standard of beauty.”

    Next, we’ll look at what’s being done to combat colorism, featurism, and texturism. WebMD traveled to Dallas to visit the May family – two millennial parents with Afro-Latina triplet girls.

    Their example is a great lesson for people of color, and non-people of color alike, on how to tackle these harmful thought patterns that children can often adopt at a young age.

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  • 3 Tips for Delivering Your Best Work When You Feel Burned Out

    3 Tips for Delivering Your Best Work When You Feel Burned Out

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    While we often get caught up in keeping up with quantity (making more calls, building more SKUs, working more hours, etc.) it is delivering high-quality work that is a surefire way to please clients and earn respect.

    But if your headspace is clouded with a lengthy to-do list, an unrealistic deadline, or feelings of burnout, quality can fall by the wayside.

    Prioritizing your well-being will allow you to show up as the peak version of yourself. The following are a few tips you should employ to improve your mental space and overall output.

    Related: 6 Reasons You’re Burning Out — And How You Can Fix It

    Take a break

    There are only so many hours in the day and often, you may feel that, rather than taking a time out, the best option is to have another cup of coffee and push through. When you’re feeling stressed, a break of just five minutes can change the next five hours of your day.

    Our brains produce enough energy to power a small light bulb, but if we don’t give them time to recharge, they will actually go into overdrive. This can lead to a loss of creativity, focus and lead to decision fatigue which results in poor choices. If you’re looking to deliver the highest quality work, pushing through that wall you’re hitting isn’t always the best option.

    Take just a moment to meditate, read the news or take a walk. In the increasingly hybrid work world we live in, you can even be productive with personal chores: Empty the dishwasher, prep dinner or put in a load of laundry.

    A quick break can improve brain function, restore motivation, critical thinking and creativity while helping you deliver your best work.

    Related: 3 Tips for Founders Battling Burnout

    Learn to say “no”

    A good way to start setting boundaries is through one-on-one conversations with your supervisor. Keep him or her up to date with how busy you are, your planned vacation time, career goals and any unexpected personal issues. It’s essential to be your own advocate in these conversations because no one understands your life better than you do. By keeping your higher-up in the loop, you’ll have another person in your corner if you must decline an assignment.

    When you are asked to take on a project, seriously evaluate your work and personal life when considering if you have the capacity to take on the challenge before agreeing to it. Biting off more than you can chew can lead to feeling overwhelmed or burnt out, which hurts focus, curbs productivity and negatively impacts results.

    If you refuse, be sure to effectively communicate your reasons for doing so. Always provide alternative solutions, such as checking in with another colleague who may have time to assist.

    Use your vacation time

    Taking time to rest helps us to be more focused, energetic and brings a positive outlook to the office. One of the best ways to recharge is to use our vacation time.

    It can be hard to find time to take personal time off when managing multiple projects and tight deadlines, but it’s important to do so. Studies show that using vacation time is key to reducing stress, improving mental health and boosting productivity while at work. Whether it’s a week off (and make sure it’s at least a week off, as a recent study, conducted by Club Wyndham, found that 43% of American workers polled claimed they didn’t start to relax until three days into their trip) or a single mental health date to catch up on personal matters, it’s in your company’s best interest for you to use your breaks.

    And when you’re off, be sure to fully disconnect: Don’t check your emails and be sure not to stress about what you may be missing or what you have to tackle when you return.

    Related: A Work-Life Balance is Nonsense. To Reach Your Goals, Follow Another Approach

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    Michelle Van Slyke

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  • New York City Mayor Eric Adams announces new initiative that will involuntarily hospitalize more mentally ill people

    New York City Mayor Eric Adams announces new initiative that will involuntarily hospitalize more mentally ill people

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    Mayor Eric Adams makes mental health treatment announcement


    Mayor Eric Adams makes mental health treatment announcement

    17:53

    New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced an initiative that would give the city more leeway to involuntarily hospitalize severely mentally ill people on the city’s subways and streets, even if they do not appear to pose an immediate danger to others.  

    “My administration is determined to do more to assist people with mental illness, especially those with untreated psychotic disorders, posing a risk of harm to themselves, even if they are not an imminent threat to the public,” Adams said Tuesday. “It is not acceptable for us to see someone who clearly needs help and walk past. For too long, there has been a gray area where policy, law and accountability have not been clear and this has allowed people in need to slip through the cracks.” 

    Adams, a former police officer, said the city will be training Emergency Medical Services staff and other medical personnel to “ensure compassionate care.” He said the policy he’s proposing “explicitly states” when it is appropriate to use this process to hospitalize a person suffering from mental illness even if they do not want to go.

    Eric Adams
    New York City Mayor Eric Adams announces new policies for hospitalizing people experiencing severe mental illness, on Nov. 29, 2022.

    Twitter @NYCMayor


    While emergency personnel already have the ability to involuntarily hospitalize those suffering from mental illness in certain limited circumstances, patients are often released after a few days when the immediate danger appears to be over.  

    Adams said he believed the law should “require hospital evaluators to consider not just how the person is acting at the moment of evaluation but also their treatment history, recent behavior in the community, and whether they are ready to adhere to outpatient treatment.” He said he will work to have a new “basic needs” standard for involuntary admission written into state law. 

    But the city has a shortage of psychiatric hospital beds, a situation exacerbated amid the COVID-19 pandemic, which hit public hospitals particularly hard. Adams did not provide specifics for how he planned to increase the availability of beds at the city hospitals. 

    The mayor’s announcement was met with caution by civil rights groups and advocates for the homeless, CBS New York reports.

    A coalition of community groups, including the Legal Aid Society and several community-based defender services, said the mayor was correct in noting “decades of dysfunction” in mental health care. They urged state lawmakers to address the crisis and approve legislation that would offer treatment, not jail, for people with mental health issues.

    Growing concerns about crime, and several disturbing attacks in the subway system, have put the city’s mental health crisis in the spotlight. The city’s public advocate, Jumaane Williams, released a report earlier this month saying the city had not undertaken enough efforts to help those suffering from mental illness. But Williams said in a press release about the report, “the answer is not additional policing nor involving law enforcement in the City’s mental health response.”

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  • New visual scale offers simple measure to help identify job burnout

    New visual scale offers simple measure to help identify job burnout

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    Newswise — “Job burnout” is a term that’s far too familiar to many people. A 2020 Gallup poll showed that 76 percent of employed Americans surveyed have experienced burnout.

    Perhaps due to the condition’s prevalence, the World Health Organization recently reclassified burnout in its International Classification of Diseases as an occupational syndrome resulting from “chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed.”

    Employees and employers, across industries, are increasingly experiencing the harmful effects of chronic stress at work. Job burnout can lead to reduced productivity, increased absences and leaves, job turnover and even hospitalization. 

    Existing methods of identifying job burnout are lengthy and sometimes proprietary, but new research from the University of Notre Dame offers a faster and easier way.

    “Matches Measure: A Visual Scale of Job Burnout” is forthcoming in the Journal of Applied Psychology from lead author Cindy Muir (Zapata), professor of management and organization at Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business, along with Charles Calderwood from Virginia Tech and Dorian Boncoeur, assistant professor of management and organization at Mendoza.

    “Because the Matches Measure is a visual measure, it makes assessing burnout as quick and easy as it gets — across countries even,” Muir (Zapata) said. “It eliminates one of the reasons organizations fail to assess their employees regularly: time. By using the Matches Measure, managers and organizations can better understand how prevalent job burnout is amongst their employees and how it fluctuates over time.”

    Similar to the smiley face pain scale used in doctors’ offices and hospitals (Wong-Baker FACES), the Matches Measure describes burnout (“Job burnout refers to feeling physically, mentally and emotionally exhausted”) and instructs employees to “select the match that best represents how burned out you currently feel.”

    Across multiple pre-registered studies surveying more than 1,200 participants in various industries, this research demonstrates that the visual scale is comparable to existing burnout measures, including the Maslach Burnout Inventory. The Matches Measure similarly relates to the known predictors and consequences of job burnout, yet uses a more efficient, intuitive scale. 

    The study concludes, “Given the advantages of a short, visual measure —reduced participant fatigue, the reduced need for translating feelings into words and increased participant understanding, there is ample evidence to motivate future scholars to rely on the Matches Measure rather than shortening existing burnout scales.”

    For access to the scale, visit www.muirmatches.com.

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  • Negative self-perception appears to self-perpetuate, researchers find

    Negative self-perception appears to self-perpetuate, researchers find

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    Newswise — At the end of a bad day, how do you feel about yourself? The answer could indicate not only how your self-perception formed, but also how it renews, according to experimental results from a research group in Japan.

    They published their findings on Oct. 10 in Cognitive Therapy and Research.

    “People with psychiatric disorders including major depression tend to hold negative self-schema such as ‘I am incompetent’ and ‘I am a loser in life,’” said corresponding author Noboru Matsumoto, associate professor in Shinshu University’s Division of Psychology. Self-schemas are what a person thinks of themselves. “However, how people form and update self-schema and what individual differences are involved in these processes are unresolved issues in scientific research.”

    To investigate the formation and renewing of self-schema, the researchers designed a psychological experiment in which undergraduate students believed they were testing a machine learning-based personality assessment. After each question in a fictional psychological test, the participants were presented with one sentence of feedback on their personality traits, behavioral tendencies and future prospects. All participants received the same feedback in a random order. They then rated each feedback sentence on how well it applied to them. After completing the assessment, they were given a surprise memory test in which they had to recall the feedback received.

    “We found two important factors are involved in self-schema formation and updating: emotional valence — positive or negative — of the event experienced and how much people think the event is consistent with their current self,” said Matsumoto. “Cognitive reactivity, or the tendency to overreact when in a negative or depressive mood, was associated with greater self-schema updating.”

    The experiment is based on the mnemic neglect paradigm, which describes how people selectively forget negative information about themselves. People with psychological disorders, such as depression, are less likely to exhibit mnemic neglect and are more likely to remember the negative information. According to Matsumoto, people who already view themselves negatively are more likely to remember and incorporate negative feedback because it aligns with their already-established self-perception. This is more deeply enforced by cognitive reactivity, Matsumoto said, since people with negative self-schema are also more likely to take even minor negative information more personally.

    To further explore how self-schema are established in the first place, the researchers also ran simulations of self-schema development.

    “In contrast to laboratory settings, where the participants already hold well-established self-schemas, the simulation can demonstrate how self-schemas develop without previous knowledge,” said ‘Matsumoto. “The simulation allows us to mimic the influence of accumulated positive and negative experiences from early life on self-schema development. By manipulating parameters related to cognitive reactivity, we can evaluate how individual differences influence the dynamics of self-schema development.”

    From the simulations, the researchers found that when people with high cognitive reactivity experienced some negative events in early life, negative self-schema developed and strengthened — even if they experienced many positive events later in life.

    “These findings suggest why some individuals develop mental illnesses even in good environments,” Matsumoto said, noting that longitudinal studies are needed to compare how well the simulations match to real life. “Altering the way people encode and integrate events into self-schema may enable the prevention and treatment of mental illness.”

    The Japan Society for the Promotion of Science supported this research.

    ＃＃＃

    About Shinshu University:

    Shinshu University is a national university founded in 1949 located nestling under the Japanese Alps in Nagano known for its stunning natural landscapes. Our motto, “Powered by Nature – strengthening our network with society and applying nature to create innovative solutions for a better tomorrow” reflects the mission of fostering promising creative professionals and deepening the collaborative relationship with local communities, which leads up to our contribution to regional development by innovation in various fields. We’re working on providing solutions for building sustainable society through interdisciplinary research fields: material science (carbon, fiber and composites), biomedical science (for intractable diseases and preventive medicine) and mountain science, and aiming to boost research and innovation capability through collaborative projects with distinguished researchers from the world. For more information visit https://www.shinshu-u.ac.jp/english/ or follow us on Twitter @ShinshuUni for our latest news.

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  • ‘Mental health, Russia-Ukraine War’: What got single people talking on Tinder in 2022

    ‘Mental health, Russia-Ukraine War’: What got single people talking on Tinder in 2022

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    Tinder dating trends: Stances on social issues were considered important for making or breaking matches this year as 75 per cent single Indians sought a match respectful of or invested in social issues on the online dating app Tinder. The top five social issues that got people talking in 2022 were LGBTQ+ rights, environment, mental health, feminism, and the Russia-Ukraine crisis, as per Tinder’s Year in Swipe report.  

    Other issues that got Tinder users talking were cyber safety, inflation, work-life balance, animal welfare, and politics whereas mentions of activism and voter rights saw an increase in profiles.

    Life Coach and Tinder’s Relationship expert Dr. Chandni Tugait said, “Young adults are feeling more confident, recognise what healthy dating looks like, and know what positive signs to look out for when swiping. They are able to focus on the positive characteristics and attitudes that they believe will keep them happy, content, and feeling valued throughout their relationship.” 

    She added, “So while they may go on blind dates, they no longer turn a blind eye to red flags and increasingly look for green flags or positives in a match or a relationship.” Due to the increasing awareness about green and red flags in a match and/or a relationship, red flag, mending heart, and gaslighting emojis were trending on the platform. 

    Apart from red and green flags in a relationship, young single Indians are also clear about the qualities they prefer in a partner. Young Indians prioritised attributes like loyalty (79 per cent), respect (78 per cent), someone who is clear about what they want and has good hygiene (73 per cent), and open-mindedness (61 per cent) over looks (56 per cent).

    Also read: Tinder’s ‘Let’s Talk Gender’ online glossary is the guide we all needed

    Also read: Tinder dating trends 2022: Users want hygienic partners, prefer coffee dates over dinner

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  • College Students Found Help in Personal Pandemic Stories

    College Students Found Help in Personal Pandemic Stories

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    Nov. 28, 2022 – The COVID-19 pandemic was hard on everyone, especially during the early months of the lockdown. But college students had particularly high stress levels, with mental health effects that have remained in some people even 2 years later.   

    During spring semester of 2020, many college students had to go home and live with their families – “which was a big adjustment after being more autonomous – deal with remote instruction, figure out plans such as summer internships, worry about their health and the health of others,” all at a critical time when teens and young adults are “gaining independence, developing a central identity, and figuring out where they fit into the world,” says Jordan Booker, PhD, an assistant professor of psychological sciences at the University of Missouri.

    Olivia McKenzie is an example. Now 23 and working as a paralegal in New York City, she was a sophomore at the University of Michigan when the pandemic struck.

    “We were sent home because of COVID, and I did my classes and coursework online,” she says. “College was awesome for me because I like being around friends and in the company of many people, so being at home and away from my friends wasn’t good for me or for my mental health.”

    McKenzie feels “lucky” because her parents recognized her needs and supported her return to Ann Arbor, where she shared a living space with a few other students and continued online classes from there.

    Booker and his colleagues wanted to understand how college students were coming to terms with shutdowns and quarantines.

    He was part of a team effort, including researchers from private and public universities around the U.S. with expertise in studying how people use life stories to organize and make sense of their lives. The team came together very quickly as colleges were shutting down during spring semester, Booker says. “We wanted to see the implications of the shutdown and how these students were making sense of how COVID was impacting their lives early on.”

    Different Styles for Different Folks

    Over 600 first-year college students were asked to write about the impact of the pandemic on them in response to a computerized questionnaire with narrative prompts. 

    The researchers expected the crisis to be short. But as the pandemic continued, it became clear that, unlike shorter events (like natural disasters), the pandemic never had a “clean break,” signaling its end. So the researchers followed these students for a year to see if they could detect themes in their narratives that might predict their adjustment to the issues posed by COVID-19 and the return to campus.

    The students also filled out questionnaires about their psychological adjustment, sense of belonging, well-being, identity development, and mental health concerns.

    “There are different ways that folks come to terms with their experiences and talk about the impact on their lives,” Booker observes. “Storytelling, in and of itself, is a widespread human activity. We use it all the time to share insights and make sense, day-to-day.”

    But how people tell their stories differs, based on their personalities, cultural norms, and social standards.

    “For example, some people provide more structure, organization, and detail; some people focus on major goals, such as personal success and connecting with others; and some bring in more integration and personal growth,” he says. 

    Personal Growth

    “We found that how the young people tended to emphasize personal success and focus on [independent] values tended to be tied to relatively fewer reports of COVID-related stressors,” Booker reports.

    “Another big theme was the expression of personal growth – ways that students were talking about and recognizing challenges from COVID-related experiences that actually changed their lives for the better,” he says.

    Students who identified ways that COVID-19 helped their personal growth had fewer reports of COVID-related stresses, better mental health in the moment, and more advanced identity development, he says.

    These findings extended to the 1-year follow-up, “where we continued to see valuable insights and ways that growth was tied to most areas of development and adjustment.” The students “were able to incorporate personal reasoning, ways that they could move forward, even with a lot of uncertainty in the world, and we saw initial and lasting positive ties with other areas of development and adjustment.”

    McKenzie says the pandemic “forced me to grow because there were all sorts of emotions I wasn’t used to dealing with full-on when I was distracted by being with friends or going to classes.”

    She’s learned from the pandemic. “I think there was a lot I took for granted instead of feeling gratitude. Now, it’s way easier for me to look back and be grateful or intentional about how I spend my time, seeing people, or being able to go outdoors, which I couldn’t do during the freezing winter in Michigan.”

    Another long-term area of growth has been self-care. “The pandemic caused me to be in tune with myself, perhaps in more ways than I would be at this stage in my life if I hadn’t gone through that.”

    She also has learned to value spending time alone and is more “intentional” about whom she spends her time with. 

    But there were downsides. “Anxiety in particular is a lingering effect – unsureness about general things and being a lot more sensitive to news and world events, because you never know what might happen next,” she says. “I see this not only with me, but with my peers as well. There’s more harsh reality in our lives now, a sense of unease in my generation. Nothing will ever be the same.” 

    Sharing Stories

    McKenzie didn’t directly describe her perceptions of the pandemic in writing during the lockdown, although she was a creative writing student and taking two writing classes. But “how the pandemic was influencing me as a human being got woven into my writing in other ways.”

    She kept a journal and talked about common experiences with friends. “I found a job in a restaurant, which felt like my saving grace during the pandemic because it was an excuse to leave the house,” she says. “For over a year, we were fully masked and limited to outdoor seating, but still quite busy. We exchanged a lot of stories in that space.”

    Sharing stories of common stressors and coping helped forge a “different kind of friendship” with fellow waitstaff and created a “sense of community and comradery during a time when ordinary ways of communing with others were discouraged.”

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  • I Had A Dream Job Playing A Disney Princess. Offstage, I Was In Freefall.

    I Had A Dream Job Playing A Disney Princess. Offstage, I Was In Freefall.

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    In 2012, I booked a dream job playing Princess Jasmine in an “Aladdin” stage show at the Disneyland Resort. At the risk of sounding cheesy, it was magical. The show was a full stage production with gorgeous sets and costumes.The theater held 2,000 seats, bigger than most Broadway houses, and the audience was always packed.

    When I wasn’t playing a literal princess on stage, I was soaring three stories above on a magic carpet as the Jasmine body double during “A Whole New World.” I also had decent pay, health insurance and a 401K.

    But two years later, everything in my life fell apart. I went from having full-time work in a job I loved to being completely unemployed. The show didn’t close. I wasn’t let go. I quit…because I was ashamed that my mental illness was on display for my coworkers to see, and because I was afraid I would be fired. Now I know better.

    I am a professional entertainer, and I also have an anxiety disorder called panic disorder. Those with panic disorder deal with frequent panic attacks during which they experience a surge of adrenaline resulting in symptoms like a racing heart, shortness of breath and intense fear. The panic attacks are so awful that you start to live in fear of the panic itself, which in turn can cause more panic attacks. It’s incredibly common ― nearly 20% of the US population lives with an anxiety disorder.

    Normally, my performance work isn’t affected much by my disorder. My panic triggers are typically physical: feeling dizzy, faint, dehydrated, overheated or overtired. Being onstage in front of thousands? Not a problem. Invigorating even.

    My antidepressants put a shelf under me that keeps me from falling into panic as easily, I have self-awareness and coping tools I’ve learned in therapy to make it abate when it comes on, and whenever I deal with a panic attack during work I just “do it anxious.” I refuse to let this condition keep me from pursuing my dreams.

    But at the end of 2013, I had a traumatic experience outside of work, and I spiraled into a major mental health freefall. I was panicking every day, for most of the day, and after a few weeks of this I was both physically and emotionally exhausted. Depression set in. I was crying constantly. Eventually, my poor mental health started to affect my work.

    As Jasmine, I was expected to do two shows a day in the lead role, and two shows in the chorus member/body double role. I shared the day with another actress. Being a chorus member is fairly low stakes; if something happens backstage and you don’t make it on for a scene, odds are the show won’t be affected. But as Jasmine, once the show starts it is partly on your shoulders for the next 45 minutes.

    I was so stressed, so in fear of my own body, that stepping into that role felt like being trapped. A spike of anxiety at the five-minute call would cause me to burst into tears and declare I couldn’t do the show. My counterpart for the day would have to rush to put on the costume so the show could start on time.

    I knew I was letting my co-workers down, and I felt deeply ashamed imagining what they were thinking of me. I couldn’t bear to have that feeling confirmed by being fired over poor performance, so I quit. I didn’t want to lose the job, but I knew I needed several months with no stress to get back on my feet. Later that year, I lost my health insurance with the company.

    I spent the next year quietly healing. I found a part-time job as a typist, transcribing behind-the-scenes interviews for Marvel movies. I bought an ACA-subsidized health insurance plan and went to therapy multiple times a week. And then I bought a microphone, started auditioning for animation and audiobooks, and began building a voiceover career.

    I thought about trying to go back to “Aladdin” all the time. I was so embarrassed by the way I had exited the show, I didn’t even maintain many relationships with the cast I loved. I was afraid they thought less of me. (That was my shame talking, they didn’t).

    Even though I was performing again, the thought of playing Jasmine carried so many visceral memories of that darkest period of my life. I reauditioned to join the chorus one year, but I wasn’t accepted.

    Years later, while researching a book I was writing for young adults with panic disorder, I learned something amazing. It would have been illegal for me to be fired from that job, because just like someone with any other chronic illness or injury, or disability, diagnosed mental health conditions are protected under the Americans with Disabilities Act.

    This means that you cannot legally be fired, demoted or given disparate treatment at work on the basis of your mental health condition. So, just like my co-worker who, when experiencing a flare-up of his back injury, was able to sub into a role that didn’t require him to do his usual backflip; I was eligible for reasonable accommodations during the flare-up of my chronic condition.

    According to the Job Accommodation Network (a wonderful resource for anyone who is curious to learn more about their rights at work under the ADA), Reasonable Accommodations can include “job restructuring,” “part-time or modified work schedules,” or even “medical leave.”

    I eventually did go back to working for the Disneyland Resort part-time in a few shows and special events, armed with my newfound knowledge. I had always found the overnight dress rehearsals triggering. A shift that went from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. was basically a guaranteed panic attack.

    I requested an accommodation that would allow me to do my dress rehearsals at the beginning of the shift and permit me to leave by 1 a.m. The application process was complicated and bureaucratic ― a lot of paperwork that had to be filled out correctly by myself and a physician before it went through several departments for review. But in the end my accommodation was granted. (I never got a chance to use the accommodation. Shortly afterward, the pandemic shut down the resort for a year, and I decided to retire from my theme park career).

    If you are having an issue with diagnosed depression, anxiety, OCD, bipolar disorder or any other mental health condition you may also qualify to take some time off, work from home a few days a week, be reassigned to a vacant position, or bring a service animal to the office. In my “Aladdin” days, reassignment to a temporary role in the chorus would have been a perfect solution. I could have maintained a paycheck and my health insurance while working through that challenging period in my life.

    Workers, it is up to you to know and stand up for these rights. Employers probably aren’t going to offer them freely. My employer certainly wasn’t sharing these solutions when I was willing to make the “problem” caused by my chronic condition go away on my own.

    Today, my mental health is in a great place. I will always be an anxious person, but I manage it well and now rarely panic. I am blessed to work full-time in voice-over and on-camera work. It’s an exciting job and much more lucrative than a stage career, though I do miss that feeling you can only get standing in a spotlight.

    But here’s what I know now that I wish I had known then: My mental health condition is not a character flaw or personal failing. I deserve the same rights at work afforded to others.

    Reba Buhr, author of Get Thee to a Therapist is an actress, host and voiceover artist based in Los Angeles, California. Reba is also an outspoken mental health advocate.

    Do you have a compelling personal story you’d like to see published on HuffPost? Find out what we’re looking for here and send us a pitch.

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  • Prosecutor: Detroit officers who killed man won’t be charged

    Prosecutor: Detroit officers who killed man won’t be charged

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    DETROIT — Detroit police officers who fired 38 rounds at a 20-year-old Black man wielding a knife will not be charged for his death, a county prosecutor said.

    Porter Burks, who police said had schizophrenia, was believed to be experiencing a mental health crisis when he was fatally struck 19 times during a confrontation with officers early on the morning of Oct. 2.

    Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy announced her decision not to prosecute responding officers Wednesday, saying they had minimal time to “eliminate the threat,” the Detroit Free Press reported.

    “The police spent a significant amount of time trying to get him to drop his weapon,” Worthy wrote in a statement. “He suddenly ran at them with the knife and covered the distance between them in approximately three seconds. Eyewitnesses to the shooting were interviewed and indicated that the police did all that they could to de-escalate the situation before Mr. Burks charged at the police.”

    Body camera footage shows law enforcement pleading with Burks to drop the 3 1/2-inch (9-centimeter-long) blade he was carrying on a dimly lit Detroit street.

    “Drop the knife for me, man. Come here real quick. You’re OK,” said a member of the Detroit Police Department’s crisis intervention team about 5 a.m. on the city’s west side. “You’re not in any trouble. Can you just talk to me and drop the knife?”

    “You’re not in any trouble, OK?” the officer continued. “I just want to help you. I just want to help you, man. OK? Can you just drop the knife for me please? Please? Whatever you’re going through I can help you.”

    But Burks — who had a history of struggling with mental illness — didn’t drop the knife and after pacing in the middle of the street suddenly sprinted toward officers, who fired 38 shots in three seconds, hitting him 19 times. Burks was pronounced dead at a hospital.

    The decision not to prosecute the officers who killed Burks “devastated” his family, said Michelle Wilson, Burks’ aunt.

    The family’s lawyer announced earlier this month that they are suing the city for $50 million in a wrongful death lawsuit claiming gross negligence, assault and battery, and more.

    “He was a smart, loving person. He was a human. That’s a life. He didn’t deserve to be murdered,” Wilson said.

    “It feels like (Burks’ death) is happening all over again. We are hurt, words do not describe the pain.”

    Demonstrators near the site of Burks’ death called for change in the way police respond to mental health calls.

    Detroit Police Chief James White called the shooting a “very tragic situation.”

    “Not the desired outcome. This is not what we wanted,” said White, who later added “our mental health crisis in this country is real. Our mental health crisis in our city is real.”

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  • Fear of COVID-19 continues to impact adversely on psychological wellbeing

    Fear of COVID-19 continues to impact adversely on psychological wellbeing

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    Newswise — Research by psychologists from the School of Psychology at Swansea University found that people’s fear of COVID-19 has led to worsened mental health. The study, just published in the Journal of Health Psychology, also found that older participants and those from minority ethnic groups were most likely to experience COVID-19 fear.

    The researchers examined the impact of COVID-19 fear on key aspects of psychological wellbeing with an online survey of the same sample of participants at two different timepoints during the pandemic.

    The first timepoint took place in February 2021 when daily death rates and hospitalisations were at their highest during the pandemic (to date) and vaccination rates were low. At this point, COVID-19 fear predicted higher levels of anxiety, depression, worry, loneliness, sleep difficulties and problems coping with uncertainty

    The second timepoint took place in June 2021 when daily death rates and hospitalisations had dropped considerably, and many participants had received two vaccinations.  At this  second point, levels of COVID-19 fear had decreased; however, fear of the virus still predicted higher levels of worry, sleep difficulties and problems in dealing with uncertain situations.

    In this way, the impact of COVID-19 evolved, impacting different aspects of wellbeing among the same sample of participants.

    Dr Martyn Quigley, Lecturer in Psychology at Swansea University, who led the study, said:

    “This research demonstrates the significant toll of the pandemic on the psychological wellbeing of many people, especially at the most challenging times during the pandemic. What is particularly striking though is that COVID-19 fear continued to have an impact on people’s wellbeing when circumstances had appeared to considerably improve, thus demonstrating the long-term impact of the pandemic on wellbeing.”

    The research was conducted as part of a Welsh Government (Ser-Cymru) funded project examining the impact of COVID-19 on psychological wellbeing. In addition to conducting survey-based studies, the researchers have conducted online experiments adapted from tasks regularly used in the laboratory to provide behavioural performance markers of mental health coping as we emerge from the pandemic.

    END

    Notes to editors:

    The article entitled, “Longitudinal assessment of COVID-19 fear and psychological wellbeing in the United Kingdom”, can be accessed here: https://doi.org/10.1177/13591053221134848

    Swansea University is a world-class, research-led, dual campus university offering a first-class student experience and has one of the best employability rates of graduates in the UK. The University has the highest possible rating for teaching – the Gold rating in the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) in 2018 and was commended for its high proportions of students achieving consistently outstanding outcomes.

    Swansea climbed 14 places to 31st in the Guardian University Guide 2019, making us Wales’ top ranked university, with one of the best success rates of graduates gaining employment in the UK and the same overall satisfaction level as the Number 1 ranked university.

    The 2014 Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2014 results saw Swansea make the ‘biggest leap among research-intensive institutions’ in the UK (Times Higher Education, December 2014) and achieved its ambition to be a top 30 research University, soaring up the league table to 26th in the UK.

    The University is in the top 300 best universities in the world, ranked in the 251-300 group in The Times Higher Education World University rankings 2018.  Swansea University now has 23 main partners, awarding joint degrees and post-graduate qualifications.

    The University was established in 1920 and was the first campus university in the UK. It currently offers around 350 undergraduate courses and 350 postgraduate courses to circa 20,000 undergraduate and postgraduate students.  The University has ambitious expansion plans as it moves towards its centenary in 2020 and aims to continue to extend its global reach and realise its domestic and international potential.

    Swansea University is a registered charity. No.1138342. Visit www.swansea.ac.uk

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  • E Woman to Transition From Social Network to Nonprofit Organization

    E Woman to Transition From Social Network to Nonprofit Organization

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    E Woman is shifting its business model to offer critical aid to single mothers with special needs children.

    Press Release
    –

    Nov 22, 2022 08:00 EST


    NASHVILLE, Tenn., November 22, 2022 (Newswire.com)
    –
    E Woman, a social networking platform for women, is pleased to announce its transition to a nonprofit organization to provide critical aid to single mothers who have special needs children. This initiative will start in Uzbekistan, with the goal of expanding globally. While the company will remain a social networking platform as well, it is now expanding its reach so its ability to offer support can be taken to the next level.

    In Uzbekistan, women still have limited opportunities to control their own futures due to societal restrictions. In addition, with some having special-needs children, many women are abandoned by their partners and left to fend for themselves. For Amy Shakhlo Karaman, founder and CEO of E Woman and a native of the country, this cause matters deeply.

    “As a woman who has experienced the traditions in Uzbekistan first-hand, I recognize it’s not always easy to establish your independence given these incredibly difficult circumstances,” said Karaman. “At E Woman, we aim to support women in all aspects of their lives and look forward to the opportunity to offer additional aid through our new status as a nonprofit organization.”

    As E Woman shifts to a nonprofit, it has several upcoming initiatives that aim to provide assistance:

    • Through its Bright Soul Bracelets program, E Woman is able to travel to Uzbekistan and provide jobs to women by teaching them how to make bracelets. These bracelets are then sold in the U.S., and all profits raised go to single mothers.
    • In Uzbekistan, E Woman has partnered with the Committee on Women and Gender Equality and the Commission on Ensuring Gender Equality from the Senate of the Oliy Majlis, which is the parliament of the country.
    • Through the above partnership, E Woman has a goal to build at least five safe houses. The Gender Equality Commission is looking into ways to provide the necessary land to accomplish this mission.
    • E Woman also plans to serve women facing gender discrimination in Iran and Afghanistan.
    • In Tennessee, E Woman is working to have 10 female artists from Central Asia come to the U.S. to have a chance to showcase their artwork in a display called The Inside World of Central Asian Women.

    The E Woman app was created to serve as an online women’s support group and give women a safe place to empathize with others who may be going through similar experiences. It also provides forums for different events and stages in a woman’s life, including single moms, working moms, finding work-life balance and coping with a loss.  

    E Woman is available on www.ewoman.world and offered in every language. Members can join categorized groups anonymously or with their usernames to share their stories and connect in a judgment-free space.

    To learn more, visit www.ewoman.world.

    About E Woman

    E Woman is a social media platform dedicated to every woman who feels alone. Founded by Amy Shakhlo Karaman, an immigrant who escaped an arranged marriage in Uzbekistan and came to America to build her life from the ground up, this online community allows women around the world to discuss similar struggles. E Woman is now available on www.ewoman.world and offers every language. Members can join categorized groups anonymously or with their usernames to share their stories and connect in a judgment-free space. To learn more, visit www.ewoman.world.

    Source: E Woman

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  • Can You Manifest Your Way to Good Skin?

    Can You Manifest Your Way to Good Skin?

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    If you’ve dipped your toes in the world of skin-care TikTok, you might have seen a video of someone sharing how they have supposedly “manifested” clear skin. The hashtag #Manifestingclearskin has more than 7 million views, with thousands of videos of people detailing how they purportedly changed their mindset and thought their way to good skin via daily positive affirmations such as “My skin is beautiful” or “I trust my skin’s healing process.”

    The broader concept itself is nothing new. Made famous by 2006’s “The Secret” — a self-help book that’s sold 30 million copies on the idea that anything you wish for in life can be attained via the law of attraction — manifesting has had a resurgence with a younger audience online in the past few years. The practice is traditionally used in connection with love, careers or finances, but as the worlds of beauty, wellness and spirituality increasingly collide and many seek alternative beauty solutions, manifesting a healthy and clear complexion is a natural next step.

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  • Laughter Might Actually Be the Best Medicine

    Laughter Might Actually Be the Best Medicine

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    Nov. 21, 2022 — Among the myriad of prescriptions for health, perhaps none is more important than laughter. In fact, laughter ranks fairly high in the medicine toolbox, with research suggesting that it induces a wide variety of benefits that range from stress reduction and improved breathing to providing an extra boost to the body’s immune system and increasing pain tolerance. 

    But one of the most important benefits of laughing may be its positive effects on mental health and the ability to cope with the multitude of life’s curveballs, especially as we grow older. The challenge is keeping the humor muscle pumped and primed.

    “Research shows that at about the age of 23, our propensity to laugh begins to evaporate, we have more responsibilities – graduating college, professional jobs, promotions, variable interest rate mortgage loans, and stuff like that,” says Paul Osincup, a humor strategist and past-president of the Association for Applied and Therapeutic Humor. “We really don’t gain those laughs back until we are in our 70s.” 

    But 50 some-odd years seems like an awfully long time to reclaim one of life’s most precious gifts, which is why like all muscles, the “use it or lose it” principle applies.

    “Like all other mindfulness and positive psychology techniques, it requires practice, intention, and vulnerability,” says Mallori DeSalle, director of SBIRT Implementation and Motivational Interviewing Training at Indiana University in Bloomington and a licensed mental health specialist and certified humor professional.  

    Osincup agrees.

    “The premise really is that at any point, we can be viewing our lives as a drama or a comedy. The more that we immerse ourselves in humor and really start learning how to use and experience humor – not by chance but by choice– we start priming the pump for positivity in our lives,” he says.

    Not All Laughs Are Equal 

    The first step to harnessing the power of laughter is to understand the language of laughter.

    Laughter can be self-induced at will without a humorous or funny prompt. 

    Laughter can be stimulated by physical contact (e.g., tickling), or induced  by drugs (e.g., laughing gas or nitrous oxide during dental procedures). 

    Laughter can also be caused by alterations in the body’s nervous system or due to mental health conditions. This form of laughter is called pathological laughter.

    But as far as health and well-being go, the most important type of laughter is the one that people are most familiar with, which, according to a 2021 review, is genuine or spontaneous laughter. This is the type of laughter that is triggered by an outside stimulus such as a funny joke or brought about through positive emotions. 

    It can also be activated by humor exercises, which is the sweet spot for therapeutic humorists like DeSalle and her practice partner Lodge McCammon, PhD, certified humor professional, mental health counselor, musician, and motivational speaker. Osincup also  uses humor exercises in his workshops.

    Retraining the Humor Muscle 

    Before letting out an eye roll, let’s be clear: The goal of these exercises is not to create a new generation of comedians or performers or compel someone to “cheer up.” 

    Rather, DeSalle and McCammon use absurdity training in their work with clients, an approach that invites participants to “absurdify”  their discomfort so that they can reframe unpleasant experiences and in turn, gain a brief respite from negative emotions and small annoyances or challenges.

    Recently, the team conducted a monthlong practice series on a community Facebook page that they called the Humor Games. Over 4 weeks, participants were offered a prompt that focused on humor and its benefits, and then given a direction on that prompt. For example:

    Fill in the blank:  Don’t be part of the problem. Be [fill in the blank].

    DeSalle explains that an exercise like this is a warm-up that helps people slowly awaken an otherwise resting humor muscle. While the common response might be the solution, the exercise response should be a caricature of reality and something unexpectedly absurd, like:

    Don’t be part of the problem. Be an ordinary troublemaker.

    McCammon says that throughout each day, participants were invited to post their responses and comments on others, with each week culminating in a Friday event (e.g., funniest post) that would be shared on their own pages and with the overall group. The participants were also coached on how to create memes from the prompts.

    “Over time, they got more and more challenging and, over the last 2 weeks, were considered therapeutic exercises,” says McCammon. “Instead of asking players to plug in something absurd, we asked them to plug in something that was bothering them or something that they were dealing with in life that is difficult.”

    Afterward, participants were asked to reframe the thing that was challenging or unpleasant into something more humorous. For these prompts especially, the humorists used memes. For example:

    Not to brag or anything, but I can [scratch a new car] better than anyone you’ve ever met.

    “Ultimately, we’re helping to find a faster fix – not only is this unpleasant but it’s also funny because [blank],” explains DeSalle. 

    “They can learn how to retrain their thoughts – to reframe – instead of sitting in discomfort and the pain, which is what we tend to do as humans,” she says.

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  • The Nue Co.’s New ‘Water Therapy’ Fragrance Claims to Reduce Stress — And I Love It

    The Nue Co.’s New ‘Water Therapy’ Fragrance Claims to Reduce Stress — And I Love It

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    Of all the psychological benefits beauty products can provide — from a gorgeous lipstick that affirms one’s gender identity to a go-to curl cream that helps improve both a bad hair day and confidence levels — fragrance has always struck me as one of the most influential. A beauty nerd by trade, I’ve amassed quite the elaborate (some might say obsessive) collection of scents that I treat not dissimilarly from my clothing wardrobe, choosing which notes best convey how I’m feeling on a given day. Even if your fragrance wardrobe isn’t as extensive as mine, the practice of selecting a perfume based on mood isn’t that uncommon.

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    Hannah Baxter

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  • Family and friends come together for International Survivors of Suicide Loss Day

    Family and friends come together for International Survivors of Suicide Loss Day

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    FRANKENMUTH, Mich. (WNEM) – Family and friends of those lost to suicide gathered at Bavarian In for the “Hope Starts Here” conference.

    “it’s just a beautiful day, a wonderful event, where you’re surrounded by love and hope and caring and so much empathy in the room,” says Julie Hart who lost her nephew to suicide.

    The event was held for International Day Survivors of Suicide Loss.

    Hope Starts Here conference chair Barb Smith says, “there are events just like this all over the world being held. So this is our local event called Hope starts here is for anyone who has been impacted by suicide in a place to bring people together to let them know that they’re not alone in their grief journey.”

    The annual event hosted by the Barb Smith Resource and Response Network brought guest speakers and more than a dozen vendors offering resources to help those grieving or struggling with the loss of their loved ones.

    “We have a panel of families who have lost someone to suicide to talk about what their grief journey looked like and really the message of hope,” says Smith.

    Organizers say suicide is the 2nd leading cause of death in people between the ages of 10-22. And for every death to suicide there is 120-135 people who have been exposed to someone who has died by suicide.

    “We have 1400 deaths to suicide in Michigan, you know, that’s a lot of people who’ve been impacted that struggle alone. And suffer alone because, you know, we don’t want to talk about it because sometimes it can bring shame or guilt or you know, just kind of that lack of understanding,” says Smith.

    According to the Centers for Disease Control, in 2020, more than 45,000 people died by suicide in the United States; that is 1 death every 11 minutes, and in the same year 1.2 million adults have attempted suicide.

    If you or someone you know is struggling with thoughts of suicide you can call the suicide and crisis lifeline at 988.

    Copyright 2022 WNEM. All rights reserved.

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