Stress Management

[firestar464]

Study finds unhealthy commodities—like alcohol and social media—are connected with poor mental health

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-08- ... media.html

[caltrek]

How Hope Beats Mindfulness When Times are Tough
August 30, 2024

Introduction:

(Eurekalert) A recent study finds that hope appears to be more beneficial than mindfulness at helping people manage stress and stay professionally engaged during periods of prolonged stress at work. The study underscores the importance of looking ahead, rather than living “in the moment,” during hard times.

Mindfulness refers to the ability of an individual to focus attention on the present, in a way that is open, curious and not judgmental. Essentially, the ability to be fully in the moment.

“There’s a lot of discussion about the benefits of mindfulness, but it poses two challenges when you’re going through periods of stress,” says Tom Zagenczyk, co-author of a paper on the work and a professor of management in North Carolina State University’s Poole College of Management. “First, it’s hard to be mindful when you’re experiencing stress. Second, if it’s a truly difficult time, you don’t necessarily want to dwell too much on the experience you’re going through.

“Because hope is inherently forward looking, while mindfulness is about appreciating your current circumstances, we wanted to see how each of these two mindsets influenced people’s well-being and professional attitudes during difficult times,” Zagenczyk says. “The COVID pandemic presented us with an unfortunate, but useful, opportunity to explore this topic. And we chose to focus on the performing arts since that sector was particularly hard hit by the pandemic.”

For the study, researchers recruited 247 professional musicians from the organization MusiCares to take two surveys, one month apart. The first survey was given in September 2021. In addition to collecting broad demographic data, study participants were asked about their thoughts and experiences at the beginning of the pandemic – March to August 2020. They were also asked questions aimed at capturing how hopeful and mindful they were from September 2020 through March 2021.

Read more here: https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1056334

[firestar464]

A meme based on various findings of cutting-edge research projects. DISCLAIMER: I am not advocating in any way for the use of various substances in jurisdictions where these substances are banned. I'm simply making a meme about potential breakthroughs in depression treatment and stuff

[Powers]

Cognitive Behavioral Torture

[firestar464]

Cock and ball torture

[Powers]

Cock and ball torture

*treatment.

[caltrek]

Future of Nation, Economy and Presidential Election Top U.S. Stressors
October 22, 2024

Introduction:

(Eurekalert) WASHINGTON — More than 7 in 10 adults said the future of the nation (77%) is a significant source of stress in their lives, with the economy (73%) and the 2024 U.S. presidential election (69%) following closely behind, according to the latest Stress in America™ survey released today by the American Psychological Association.

At the same time, the poll found many common stressors among people with different political party affiliations. The survey was conducted by The Harris Poll on behalf of APA among more than 3,000 U.S. adults age 18+ between Aug. 1 and 23, 2024.

Compared with the previous two U.S. presidential elections, stress related to the election was similar to 2020 (69% vs. 68%) but significantly higher than in 2016 (52%). What sets the 2024 poll apart from previous APA election surveys is the collective stress about the potential fallout from the election results: More than 7 in 10 adults (72%) said they are worried the election results could lead to violence, and more than half of adults (56%) said they believed the 2024 presidential election could be the end of democracy in the U.S. Meanwhile, around a third of adults (32%) said the political climate has caused strain among themselves and their family members, with (30%) who said they limit their time with family because they don’t share the same values.

“For nearly a decade, people have faced a political climate that is highly charged, which has led to the erosion of civil discourse and strained our relationships with our friends and our families. But isolating ourselves from our communities is a recipe for adding more stress to our lives,” said APA CEO Arthur C. Evans Jr., PhD. “We must remember that the most extreme voices are often the loudest, and that the majority of adults share similar values and concerns.”

Stress in America™ 2024: A Nation in Political Turmoil reveals a country where trust has been shaken in the government and in each other. Most adults (54%) reported they have very little to no trust in the U.S. government, and 41% of adults reported the state of the nation has made them consider moving to a different country. Half of adults (50%) said tension around social and political topics makes them less likely to want to connect with other people and around 3 in 10 (28%) said they have nothing in common with people who have different political opinions than they do. More than 2 in 5 adults (46%) wouldn’t date someone who didn’t share the same political opinions (47% of women said this, and 45% of men.

Read more here: https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1062093

[firestar464]

Men who conform to traditional gender roles are at a higher risk of suicide, finds study

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-11- ... roles.html

[caltrek]

Because bereavement can be seen as a form of stress, or perhaps a cause.

Bereavement Science Researcher Provides Insights on Parasocial Grief
January 2, 2025

Introduction:

(Eurekalert) MIAMI, FLORIDA (Jan. 2, 2025) – Many people are surprised by the intensity of their response when a well-known person dies, and their feelings of sadness may last longer than they expect. In fact, that sadness and grief can be intense, and preliminary research suggests that grief after the death of a public figure looks very similar to grief over our personal relationships and can have comparable levels of intensity.

Wendy Lichtenthal, Ph.D., a bereavement science researcher, is available to discuss “parasocial grief” – that which occurs when a celebrity, political figure or other highly recognized person dies.

In her research, Lichtenthal, founding director of the Center for the Advancement of Bereavement Care at Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, part of the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, focuses on advancing bereavement science and “meaning-centered” grief therapy for families, caregivers and others.

Here, she provides an overview of why we may grieve the loss of someone who has been in the news but not in our personal lives.

See link provided below for comments from Wendy Lichtenthal, Ph.D.

Conclusion:

To a person going through the process of grieving, we would say, “Rather than setting a timeline, give yourself space to reflect on the fact that this person somehow mattered to you, maybe more than you realized, and that’s OK.”

Read more here: https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1069377

[firestar464]

Higher income is linked to both greater life satisfaction and more stress, study finds

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-03- ... -life.html

[caltrek]

Can Mindfulness Combat Anxiety?
by Chris Woolston
May 16, 2025

Introduction:

(Eurekalert) If you’re anxious about work, finances, the state of the world, or anything else, you might try a moment of mindfulness. Paying close attention to the present moment without judgment — the basic idea behind all mindfulness techniques — can help calm anxiety and improve focus, said Resh Gupta, a postdoctoral research associate with the Mindfulness Science and Practice research cluster.

“A lot of research has shown that mindfulness can reduce anxiety symptoms,” she said.

The calming power of mindfulness is well-known to people who have made the practice a part of their daily lives. Still, experts continue to investigate how it works and which types of mindfulness might be most useful for different types of anxiety, ranging from fleeting bouts of worry to more chronic, clinical anxiety disorders. “We all experience anxiety, but it can manifest in many different ways,” Gupta said. “It’s a tough problem to pin down.”

In a paper published in Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, Gupta and co-authors laid out a new approach to understanding the relationship between mindfulness and anxiety. Instead of taking a one-size-fits-all approach, they propose that different kinds of mindfulness practices might be helpful for different varieties of anxiety. The proposed framework should ultimately help us understand how to match anxiety sufferers with more precise treatments, Gupta said.

Todd Braver, the William R. Stuckenberg Professor in Human Values and Moral Development and a professor of psychological and brain sciences, is a co-author of the paper. The other co-author is Wendy Heller, a professor of psychology at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. The work was supported in part by the Mindfulness Science and Practice cluster and the Arts & Sciences’ Incubator for Transdisciplinary Futures.

Read more of the Eurekalert article here: https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1084264

For a technical presentation of study results as published in Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/ ... 425001460

[caltrek]

Positive Expressive Writing Consistently Improves Wellbeing, but Not All techniques are Created Equal
May 21, 2025

Introduction:

(Eurekalert) The benefits of positive expressive writing for psychological health and wellbeing depend on the particular approach and on individual differences, according to a systematic review published on May 21, 2025 in the open-access journal PLOS One by Lauren Hoult from Northumbria University, U.K., and colleagues.

Writing interventions first explored in research direct people to write about stressful or negative topics repeatedly over the course of several consecutive days, which often improves mental health in the long run, but risks heightening negative emotions in the moment. Positive expressive writing, on the other hand, emphasizes self-reflection, gratitude, and imagining a hopeful future, benefiting wellbeing over time without risk. While previous studies suggest that positive expressive writing can boost health and wellbeing in non-clinical populations, no existing reviews have assessed the best ways to administer positive expressive writing interventions.

To evaluate which techniques have the most health and wellbeing benefits, the researchers systematically reviewed 51 articles about positive expressive writing interventions published between 1930 and 2023. All studies focused on non-clinical adult populations and self-administered interventions, including techniques like “best possible self,” or writing about an optimistic future, and writing gratitude letters.

The researchers found that across positive expressive writing techniques, psychological and subjective wellbeing outcomes improved most consistently, including measures of happiness, life satisfaction, and gratitude. Effects on measures of physical and mental health, like trait anxiety and depression, varied across people and intervention types.

The authors emphasize that inconsistencies across studies, such as differences in the control group or the duration of writing protocol, made it challenging to compare positive expressive writing interventions. Moving forward, they suggest that future researchers measure both health and wellbeing outcomes, assess individual differences across participants, and use more rigorous methods.

Read more of the Eurekalert article here: https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1083813

For a presentation of study results as published in PlosOne: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/artic ... e.0308928

caltrek’s comment: This is another instance in which the psychologists may clash with political theorists. Political theorists realize that writing about issues that cause distress can result in organizing around finding solutions to social problems. Psychologists may argue that “to write about stressful or negative topics repeatedly over the course of several consecutive days… often improves mental health in the long run but risks heightening negative emotions in the moment.” They may therefore favor “positive expressive writing.”

[firestar464]

Viral goodnight calls on TikTok are showing the softer side of masculinity

https://san.com/cc/viral-goodnight-call ... sculinity/

Posting here as it falls under men's mental health.

[40lightyears]

Viral goodnight calls on TikTok are showing the softer side of masculinity

https://san.com/cc/viral-goodnight-call ... sculinity/

Posting here as it falls under men's mental health.

Next up: viral trend where guys are allowed to feel emotions without apologizing first. Wild times ahead

[firestar464]

Neurosteroids identified as potential therapy for treatment-resistant depression

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-05- ... stant.html

[caltrek]

Exploring the Meaning in Life Through Phenomenology and Philosophy
July 25, 2025

Introduction:

(Eurekalert ) Psychological and philosophical studies have long shown that a person's subjective moods and emotions have a significant impact on how they experience the “meaning in life.” Philosopher Matthew Ratcliffe pointed out that a person’s mood vividly operates in the background of perception and plays a major role in how they grasp the meaning of their life.

In psychology as well, there have been empirical studies investigating how mood affects the perception of life’s meaning. Meanwhile, phenomenology has revealed that the lived, first-person experience of the body deeply influences the way we perceive the world. In adjacent fields, concepts such as affordance, solicitation, and enaction (enactivism) have been proposed one after another. These concepts focus on how human physical interactions with the world influence and form the way humans perceive and understand their surroundings.

In many ways, this work marks a paradigm shift: it treats both meaningful and tragic experiences as parts of the same experiential landscape and explores “meaning in life” as a perceptual experience of that complex geography. This shift was made possible by introducing phenomenological methodology into the philosophy of life’s meaning, which could serve as a bridge between philosophy and psychology, opening the door to more productive interdisciplinary collaboration.

Notably, psychology has developed both quantitative and qualitative scales to measure how people feel that their lives are meaningful. These existing approaches vary widely, but the “geographical model” proposed in this study approaches the experience of life’s meaning from a completely different angle. It may offer new insights for psychology and related fields.

With eyes set on the future, Morioka remarks, “My next goal is to integrate this study with other ongoing approaches in the philosophy of life’s meaning: namely, the solipsistic approach to meaning in life and the liberation and recollection approach. Through such integration, I aim to build a new, systematic framework within the philosophy of life’s meaning.”

Read more here: https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1092321
From the study as published in Springe Nature:

When we experience a devastating event, such as the death of a beloved family member, we may ask ourselves, “What am I living for?” and sink into sadness, unable to find the answer. However, if we are determined to survive this low point in our lives and try to get through life with the help of experts and close friends, sometimes our lives gradually begin to look less negative. In this case, it is our positive attitude towards life that creates a sense of meaningfulness. If we have different attitudes towards life, our lives will look different corresponding to those attitudes. This is one of the simplest descriptions of the mechanism or structure of the emergence of meaningfulness that we experience in our lives.

Source: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1 ... 025-00854

[firestar464]

Keto diet linked to reduced depression symptoms in college students

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-09- ... ptoms.html

[caltrek]

Study Finds Self-affirmations Can Boost Well-being
October 27 , 2025

Introduction:

( Science Alert) Self-affirmations – brief exercises in which people reflect on their core values, identity and positive traits – can increase people’s general well-being and make them happier in small but significant ways, according to research published by the American Psychological Association.

“Even brief, low-cost self-affirmation exercises can yield significant psychological benefits in terms of enhancing personal and social well-being,” said study author Minhong (Maggie) Wang, PhD, of The University of Hong Kong. “More importantly, these benefits are both immediate and long-lasting.”

The research was published in the journal American Psychologist.

Previous research has suggested that self-affirmation exercises can have specific benefits, such as improving underrepresented students’ academic performance and increasing people’s motivation to quit smoking. The exercises work by reminding people of their inner strengths and acting as a buffer against external threats and worries. In the current study, Wang and her colleagues wanted to investigate whether self-affirmations also have more general positive effects on people’s well-being, and if so, whether those effects are short-lived or long-lasting.

To answer those questions, they reviewed data from 129 studies of self-affirmations published in peer-reviewed journals, with a total of 17,748 participants. To be included in the analysis, each study had to involve a standalone self-affirmation exercise – the self-affirmation could not be part of a larger intervention – and include at least one outcome measure related to well-being. Outcome measures were grouped into four categories: general well-being (mood and life satisfaction); social well-being (sense of community and belonging); self-perception and sense of self-worth; and reduced barriers to well-being (negative symptoms like anxiety or negative mood).

Read more here: https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1103170

[firestar464]

New Scientist- Psychiatry has finally found an objective way to spot mental illness

https://archive.ph/TkSvD

[firestar464]

WIRED- Microdosing for Depression Appears to Work About as Well as Drinking Coffee

https://archive.ph/8YV34