NEWS OF MIND

Americans are not known for their ability to balance work and life. We are more known for our nonstop “business hours” and cultivating environments alive with the strain of anxiety. While we like to look to Europe for work/life balance inspiration, it seems that we could overcome our tendency toward stress by listening to neuroscientist and primatologist Dr. Robert Sapolsky. Dr. Sapolsky has spent the last 30 years specializing in the universal human ailment of stress. Surprisingly, his main research subjects are the wild baboons of Kenya. Even more surprisingly, it turns out we really aren’t much different than those baboons. Except for one crucial difference: We stress more, and for more reasons. Read on to understand why humans are so addicted to stress, and to find out how we can overcome this particular ailment. 1 / 9 In 2004, Dr. Sapolsky published a very well-received book, Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers. In his book, Dr. Sapolsky used zebras as a point of comparison to show

Advice from the experts Maintain regular rhythms: wake up, eat and go to sleep at the same time you normally would. Find a project to keep yourself going, whether that’s work, learning something new or reading Proust. Maintain connections with others by phone or online, and exercise once a day, preferably in green space, and always while social distancing. Richard Bentall, clinical psychologist, University of Sheffield, UK   Limit your exposure to media stories about the pandemic – especially those with experts’ views about what is going to happen over the next three months – because it can cause anxiety. Neil Greenberg, psychiatrist, King’s College London   Think about the things you have done in the past that have helped you to feel a sense of calm and stability. For me, it’s reading. That is something I have always enjoyed, that I haven’t often had time to do and I’m able to make space for now – in the silence of being at home. Aiysha Malik, clinical psychologist, World Health Organ

As an independent mental health practitioner, your insurance needs include: Insurance to protect your professional practice Insurance to protect your business Insurance to protect your income The following summarizes the common types of coverage that clinicians should consider. Not all of them will apply to you. Nor is this a comprehensive list, since your particular needs and your state or provincial regulations may vary. This post is not intended as professional advice on risk management. 1. Insurance to protect your professional practice Professional malpractice insurance :  Pays for legal defense if you are sued by a current or former patient. Get as much coverage as you can afford. The highest level may provide twice as much (or more) coverage as the next level down, but will not likely cost twice as much. Make sure the policy will pay for legal defense if someone files a complaint to your state or provincial licensing board. Errors and Omissions insurance:  If yo

Anxiety Treatment There are few things worse than not feeling like yourself because of mental health struggles. Some people will never live through this experience. But the reality is,  20 percent  of the population suffers from mental illness. I am in that 20 percent. There have been three distinct times in my life where I haven't felt like me: The first time it happened, my grandma had passed away, and I began experiencing OCD symptoms around the age of 10. Back then, therapy ended up helping me break the cycle. Then, when I was in a second semester sophomore in college, and I fell into a spiral of insomnia, anxiety, OCD, and depression caused by heartbreak. Family financial issues played a part in my turmoil too, and I felt like I was losing the joyful, calm, sleep-loving person I had been. I had disassociated from myself, and all I wanted to be was the person before the trauma. Luckily I went into therapy and (at first reluctantly) started on an antidepressant. For about seve

From the way you move and sleep, to how you interact with people around you, depression changes just about everything. It is even noticeable in the way you speak and express yourself in writing. Sometimes this “language of depression” can have a powerful effect on others. Just consider the impact of the poetry and song lyrics of Sylvia Plath and Kurt Cobain, who both killed themselves after suffering from depression. Scientists have long tried to pin down the exact relationship between depression and language, and technology is helping us get closer to a full picture. Our new study,  published in Clinical Psychological Science , has now unveiled a class of words that can help accurately predict whether someone is suffering from depression. Traditionally, linguistic analyses in this field have been carried out by researchers reading and taking notes. Nowadays,  computerised text analysis methods  allow the processing of extremely large data banks in minutes. This can help spot linguis

A new study found that teenagers are increasingly depressed, feel hopeless and are more likely to consider suicide. Researchers found a sudden increase in teens' symptoms of depression, suicide risk factors and suicide rates in 2012 — around the time when smartphones became popular, says Jean Twenge, one of the authors of the study. Twenge's research found that teens who spend five or more hours per day on their devices are 71 percent more likely to have one risk factor for suicide. And that's regardless of the content consumed. Whether teens are watching cat videos or looking at something more serious, the amount of screen time — not the specific content — goes hand in hand with the higher instances of depression. "It's an excessive amount of time spent on the device. So half an hour, an hour a day, that seemed to be the sweet spot for teen mental health in terms of electronic devices," Twenge says. "At two hours a day there was only a slightly elevate

Over 60 percent of adults who were diagnosed with depression by a clinician didn't meet the official criteria for the disorder upon re-evaluation By Lindsay Abrams PROBLEM:  Over the course of 20 years, according to the most recently available data, the U.S. saw a  400 percent increase  in antidepressant use, resulting in 11 percent of Americans over the age of 12 taking some form of depression medication by 2008. Debate rages between those who believe that increased diagnoses mean we are turning normal human experience into a disease, and those who push for increased awareness of a very real psychological illness. Depending on who's doing the arguing, people are either being  treated  or are  suffering  in excess. 'Type A' Personality Doubles Risk of Having a Stroke Countries That Use More High Fructose Corn Syrup Have More Diabetes Being Cold May Promote Longevity METHODOLOGY:  Ramin Mojtabai of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health looked at a nat