Category: psychology

Living in a Chaotic World: How to Keep Anxiety at Bay

Ella Fitzgerald sang that “into each life some rain must fall,” but it has felt like torrents of grief have fallen upon us in recent months or years. We all experience hardships and stress, and we are all very well-acquainted with that pit that forms in our stomach when nervousness takes hold. Many of us…


Male-Friendly Environments ‘Critical’ in Reducing Male Suicides: Suicide Prevention Group

Fostering more accessible environments for men and boys is crucial in driving down male suicides, according to a national suicide prevention charity. The call comes as Australia celebrates International Men’s Health Week, which encourages men and boys to take action on their health and wellbeing. It follows the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare’s monthly…


Probiotics Tackles Depression in Clinical Treatments

People treated for depression exhibit greater improvements if probiotics are taken with anti-depressants as compared to only taking anti-depressants, a Swedish study has found. The study found a greater proportion of depressed and bipolar patients that took both probiotics and anti-depressants—55 percent—entered remission as compared to the 40 percent of patients that only took antidepressants. Probiotics…


Study Finds Anorexia Causes ‘Sizeable Reductions’ in the Brain

Anorexia causes changes in the brain in ways much greater than seen in the brains of sufferers of other mental disorders, a UK study has found. The study by neuroscientists at the University of Bath has highlighted the importance of early treatment interventions for people suffering from anorexia. The study said that brain reductions in people…


Coping With Loneliness

There’s a “Peanuts” cartoon panel that might make you smile or—thanks to our ongoing struggle with social isolation—even cry a little. Creator Charles Schulz’s famous hero, Charlie Brown, is lying in a puffy beanbag-type seat with a thought above his head: “Absence makes the heart grow fonder, but it sure makes the rest of you…


Turning a Stumbling Block Into an Advantage

Brooke Gottlieb is 21 years old and a student at Coastal Carolina University. A competitive lacrosse player for a Division I school, she’s majoring in health communication. She’s earned straight A’s every semester since her first year of college, and has been nominated for multiple writing awards. While that may not seem remarkable, Gottlieb is…


Is It Time for a Mental Health Makeover?

“As a single footstep will not make a path on the earth, so a single thought will not make a pathway in the mind. To make a deep physical path, we walk again and again. To make a deep mental path, we must think over and over the kind of thoughts we wish to dominate…


Hospital Design Should Consider the Psychological Aspects of Healing

Long before COVID-19 made the public aware of the importance of good air ventilation, designers had been concerned with how physical environments affect people’s well-being and mental health. In the 20th century, hospital design underwent a profound change. Hospitals used to be a place for only the treatment of diseases and injuries—or places strongly associated…


Life After Loss

Two months earlier, Mita’s partner had died suddenly. “I hate this. I hate it so much. When will it get better?” she asked. Her plea carried the familiar chest-crushing tune of grief. As a widow of three years, I knew too well that the truth would seem incongruous if not insulting. So all I said…


Becoming Resilient in the Face of Grief

Two months earlier, Mita’s partner had died suddenly. “I hate this. I hate it so much. When will it get better?” she asked. Her plea carried the familiar chest-crushing tune of grief. As a widow of three years, I knew too well that the truth would seem incongruous if not insulting. So all I said…