The way we talk about depression in our culture is … making me feel depressed. It just seems like something's gotten lost along the way, or misconstrued — as if somehow in trying to figure all of this out our humanity’s been lost.
Some people say that depression is a “disease,” and that there's a pill for it, but the pills don't seem to work very well. What if everything you've ever been told about this is wrong? What if you're receiving a message from within? An invitation to look at something in your life that needs your attention? Look: I'm a clinical psychologist and, including my training years, I've been at this for well over a decade. I've worked in mental hospitals, chemical dependency centres, you name it — and I have never worked with someone who was depressed who didn't have a reason, on some level, to feel that way. They might not have known WHY they were depressed when they first came to see me, but it never took long before we uncovered what was causing the ache underneath. In the field of mental health, as opposed to internal medicine, we call something a "disease" in part so that it won’t be misconstrued as a personal failing or a weakness but this is a false binary. Continue reading. Originally posted on Mind,Body,Green.
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Since stress is a killer, it's vitally important to practice the following healthy ways of avoiding stress in your life, and of managing stress in loving ways.
Stress activates the fight or flight mechanism, where the blood that's normally in your brain, organs and immune system is directed into the arms and legs, readying you to fight or flee. Chronic stress keeps the body in this state, which eventually has a major effect on the ability of your immune system to keep you healthy. Here are some tips to manage stress: 1. Don't be so hard on yourself. Self-judgement causes much stress. It's easy for many of us to blame outside situations for our stress, such as others' rude, blaming or angry behaviour, or things not going our way. But the truth is that most stress is caused by how we treat ourselves. If you start to notice what stresses you, you'll discover that judging yourself is a major cause of anxiety and stress. Try practising being compassionate toward yourself for being human, rather than judging yourself or others for mistakes or failures, or for others' rejecting behaviour toward you. Continue reading. Originally posted on Mind,Body,Green. Not sleeping as well as you used to? Maybe it's just you're naturally getting older. Unfortunately, since sleep is so important for protecting your mind and body physically, it's a Catch-22.
James Clear delves into the science of sleep and how it changes with age. Citing Harvard Medical School and Stanford Sleep Epidemiology Research Centre researchers in a meta-analysis of 65 studies (done between 1960 and 2003 with 3,577 subjects aged 5 years to 102 years), he points out that as we get older, both the quality of our sleep and the amount of time we sleep decrease. Slow wave sleep—the phase thought to be responsible for tissue growth, muscle repair, and immune system repair—also dramatically decreases with age. Guess what that means for your ageing body. Continue reading. Originally posted on Lifehacker. Every year, average 10% of Americans show symptoms of depression. Depression is a harsh disorder seriously disrupting health with bad influence on your life. This disorder controls mind and all of its functions. It causes deep sense of despair, change in mood, losing appetite, insomnia etc.
Depression symptoms are different and changeable with time. According to experts, it can show up inheritably, or as a consequence of life threatening diseases, suffered stress of living under stressful situations. Other reasons for appearing of depression can also be using of medicines and drugs, alcohol consuming, or mental illnesses. Women are more susceptible to this disease because of their often hormonal changes: menstrual cycle changes, miscarriage, pregnancy, pre and post-menopause. Common symptoms of Depression
If you have any of the aforementioned symptoms of depression, be certain to consult your doctor. With his thorough examination he will help you solve your basic health issues or if necessary will recommend you to consult a psychiatrist, psychologist or hypnotherapist. Continue reading. Originally posted on Health and Love page. We live in an age of information overload. While many of us find ourselves inundated with vast amounts of data daily, our fast-paced society also requires us to make more rapid decisions.
Psychologist and behavioral neuroscientist Daniel Levitin, author of the upcoming book The Organized Mind: Thinking Straight in the Age of Information Overload, says information overload creates daily challenges for our brains, causing us to feel mentally exhausted before the day's end. “Our brains are equipped to deal with the world the way it was many thousands of years ago when we were hunter-gatherers," says Levitin. "Back then the amount of information that was coming at us was much less and it came at us much more slowly.” The pace at which we’re exposed to information today is overwhelming to our brains, which haven’t adapted fast enough to easily separate relevant data from the irrelevant at the speed we’re asking it to. As a result, our brains become easily fatigued, and we become more forgetful. By using principles of neuroscience, Levitin says we can regain control over our brains by organizing information in a way that optimizes our brain’s capacity. Continue reading. Originally posted on Fast Company. In treating social anxiety — discomfort or fear in social situations, often of being judged — both relaxation techniques and exercise have been found beneficial.
New research from Queen’s University suggests this is because it changes the way people perceive the world (Heenan & Troje, 2014). In the study, participants watched a point-light display of a human figure walking. The figure walked in such a way that it’s difficult to tell whether it’s coming towards you or going away. Socially anxious people, though, show a bias towards perceiving the figure as coming towards them, since this is more threatening. Participants in this study were shown the walking figure sometimes after they’d performed a muscle relaxation technique, other times after some exercise and other times after standing still. The study’s lead author, Adam Heenan, explained the results: Continue reading. Originally posted on PsyBlog. |
Please Note:All postings on the NEWS page are made purely for information and interest. I do not endorse or denounce any of them but find them all very interesting. I leave it up to you to decide if what you read will work for you. Archives
June 2023
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