If you don’t have a pet, you may think about what caring for an animal entails: feeding, training, cleaning up after and paying veterinary bills. But most pet owners understand that pets provide them with benefits as well.
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A Pet Could Boost Your Mental Health
March 1, 2021 By Leave a Comment
How Gut Bacteria Are Linked to Mental Health
February 25, 2021 By Leave a Comment
Scientists have been studying how the human body functions for millennia, yet there are still countless workings that we still do not fully understand. Just in the past decade, health researchers have discovered an interesting connection — one that affects tens of millions of Americans. It turns out the bacteria that naturally occur in everyone’s digestive tract play an important role in our mental health. [Read more…]
How To Mend A Family Rift
January 18, 2021 By 1 Comment
We often think of family bonds as unbreakable, no matter the circumstances. But, in fact, most American families experience an estrangement that leads to anger, sadness and heartache.
A new book – Fault Lines: Fractured Families and How to Mend Them — by Cornell sociologist Karl Pillemer takes a deep dive into why family rifts occur and how to heal them. [Read more…]
The Mental Health Costs of Caring for COVID-19 Patients
January 7, 2021 By Leave a Comment
More than 125,000 Americans are currently hospitalized with COVID-19 – more than at any other point during the pandemic. Most of these patients are seriously ill, with low oxygen levels and potential organ failure. Most need constant monitoring and many need a ventilator because they are not able to breathe. [Read more…]
Gratitude Isn’t Cancelled This Thanksgiving
November 23, 2020 By Leave a Comment
Like many events this year, Thanksgiving will be a starkly different holiday for most people. Rising cases of COVID-19 mean that many will forgo gathering with family and friends, instead staying home during what used to be America’s biggest travel holiday.
While big dinner parties may not be possible, there is one element of Thanksgiving that can stay despite the global pandemic: the notion of giving thanks. [Read more…]
How to Cope With the Winter Blues and COVID-19
November 16, 2020 By Leave a Comment
In the northern hemisphere, darkness now falls before dinnertime. Most northern latitudes have less than ten hours of daylight in November – meaning most people spend the majority of their day light hours at work.
Evidence clearly establishes that darkness impacts the moods and mental health of millions of people. Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) is a well-founded medical condition that affects about 5 percent of Americans; and another 15 percent experience a milder form of SAD, often referred to as the “winter blues.” [Read more…]
The Link Between Food Insecurity and Mental Health
November 10, 2020 By Leave a Comment
Unemployment rates rose to more than 14 percent in April this year with more than 23 million Americans without work when the U.S. shut down to stop the spread of COVID-19. Since economic activity in the U.S. has resumed, millions have returned to their old jobs or found new ones. But there are still more than 11 million Americans unemployed – more than double than were unemployed in February before COVID-19 spread widely in the U.S. [Read more…]
Do Online Searches For Health Information Lead to Anxiety?
October 8, 2020 By Leave a Comment
We’ve all done it before. Presented with a new ache, pain or rash, we turn to the internet to find out what’s wrong. Typically, the search results include a myriad of health problems ranging in severity from “it will go away on its own” to “you only have months to live.” [Read more…]
What We Know About Homelessness and Intellectual Disability
September 29, 2020 By Leave a Comment
There are more than a half million homeless people in the United States; more than half of them sleep unsheltered each night, while the other half use emergency shelters and transitional housing.
Research demonstrates that 30 to 40 percent of homeless people have a cognitive impairment, including traumatic brain injury, learning difficulties, intellectual disabilities, autism spectrum disorder, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. [Read more…]
The COVID-19 Pandemic Is Affecting Your Memory
September 22, 2020 By Leave a Comment
Research demonstrates our memories are not as accurate as we believe.
While most people think their memories represent the truth, the evidence demonstrates that our memories depend very much on the circumstances we are experiencing at the time and that they shift over time. A large body of research shows that emotions, especially those provoked by negative events, lead to inaccurate or even completely false memories. [Read more…]
What Are The Mental Health Effects of COVID-19?
August 27, 2020 By Leave a Comment
As the COVID-19 pandemic drags on globally, there is little doubt that it is taking a lasting toll on the mental health of millions of people. Fear of getting sick, the loneliness that accompanies quarantine and a fragile economy combine to create complicated challenges to mental well-being. [Read more…]
How to Offer Mental Health Interventions in School
August 17, 2020 By Leave a Comment
Approximately one in six youth ages six to seventeen in the U.S. have a mental illness; depression, anxiety and behavior disorders are among the most common. Data suggest that youth today are five times more likely to experience mental health problems compared to decades past. Today, the uncertainty that comes along with the COVID-19 pandemic is certainly detracting from students’ mental health and well-being. [Read more…]
