Wellness Articles from Medworm

Posted on : June 05, 2007
Two of the worst words of all
	: ‘Not now.’ (This column first appeared in the Greenville News, but I re-wrote and expandedÂ it for my EMN readers in the September edition.Â So here it is with a few special thoughts for the medical community.) Here’s the link to the EMN online edition as well: http://journals.lww.com/em-news/Fulltext/2011/09000/Second_Opinion__Two_of_the_Worst_Words_of_All__Not.8.aspx If you were watching me, secretly, you would see that I sometimes do things that are decidedly non-adult. I can be seen dancing across the hardwood floor with my daughter, with no music audible (except inside her lovely head). She apparently aspires to be a choreographer, and though I am no dancer, I am the only male in the house who will dance with her. When she asks, what can I say? I know many l... ...»

Full Recordings Available Now: 2011 SharpBrains Summit
	We are pleased to announce that full recordings for all presentations delivered during theÂ 2011 SharpBrains Summit: Retooling Brain Health for the 21st Century (March 30 "” April 1, 2011) are now available both to Summit Participants and to non-Participants. You canÂ Learn More Here and Access 40+ Talks and 20+ hours of up-to-date information and analysis of brain science, technology and innovation, delivered by nothing short of a world-class faculty. "“> RegÂisÂtered SumÂmit ParÂticÂiÂpants can access all SesÂsion RecordÂings by clickÂing on the sesÂsion titles in theÂ Agenda page and using the same Username and Password they used to participate in the Summit. "“> Didn't RegÂisÂter to ParÂticÂiÂpate in the 2011 SharpÂBrains SumÂmit but want to access all SesÂ... ...»

Is California Eliminating Mental Illness Treatment?
	According to DJ Jaffe, co-founder of the Treatment Advocacy Center which advocates for mandated outpatient treatment laws, California is “eliminating mental illness treatment.” This, of course, will be a surprise to the tens of thousands of mental health providers in California. Millions of Californians currently receive treatment for their mental disorders, both in the private and public sector. In fact, Californians wanted to make up for past deficiencies in funding their mental health services, so they passed a law in 2004 that set aside new money specifically to help fund treatment. Jaffe claims the money isn’t going to the programs it was intended to fund. Should we take his word for it? The easiest way to see whether Jaffe’s claims hold up are to look at the... ...»

As you would have done to your kids
	I think a lot about the slow, certain dissolution of medicine as we know it.Â Mental health issues crowd emergency departments, as few mental health clinics are available.Â Psychiatrists are in short supply.Â Drug abuse overwhelms the medical system, with either patients seeking pills or patients families hoping to get them off of pills. Persons with little interest in their own health continue to smoke and drink, use Meth and eat poorly.Â Disability claims are skyrocketing as younger and younger individuals confabulate their misery in hopes of attaining a check, paid for by someone else. The poor, with genuine medical problems, have increasing difficulty finding care as jobs, and insurance, fade away.Â Politicians, eager to be re-elected, eager to be loved, promise more and supply le... ...»

If I Could Go Back To College: Iâ€™d Be A Little More Practical
	[If I Could Go Back is a series of articles that center around the college experience. Hindsight is 20/20, and sometimes the best advice we could ever give stems from experiences in our past that make us cringe just the tiniest bit.] “If I could do it all over again, I’d major in Education.” “Oh, me too. Either that or Business.” “I should have majored in Economics. At least then I’d have a real job.” These are not the words of slackers or lazy, “Generation Me” complainers. Nor is this a made up conversation invented by a conglomerate of strict parents hoping their children will study something safe in college. This dialogue was actually spoken, by real twenty-somethings, all of whom worked hard for good grades and big fellowships... ...»

Ring the Bells That Still Can Ring: Letting Go of Perfectionism
	Of all of the concerns clients bring to therapy, perfectionism can be one of the most relentless and the most difficult to overcome. It shows up under any number of guises, from the more mundane to more serious versions: "I'm not going to try to learn how to waterski because I know I won't be any good at it." "Anything less than an A is not a good enough grade." "I need to punish myself for not being perfect." Perfectionists engage in multiple problematic thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. They tend to fear failure, disapproval, and making mistakes. Sometimes they fear success. They overemphasize "shoulds" and engage in all-or-nothing thinking. They constantly pressure themselves to succeed. A shameful belief about inner “badness” often is at the core of pe... ...»

Promoting Healthy, Meaningful Aging Through Social Involvement: Building an Experience Corps
	(Editor's note: Pathways responsible for higher-order thinking in the prefrontal cortex (PFC), or executive center of the brain, remain vulnerable throughout life"”during critical early-life developmental windows, when the PFC fully matures in the early 20s, and finally from declines associated with old age. At all ages, physical activity and PFC-navigated social connections are essential components to maintaining brain health. The Experience Corps, a community-based social-engagement program, partners seniors with local schools to promote purpose-driven involvement. Participating seniors have exhibited immediate short-term gains in brain regions vulnerable to aging, such as the PFC, indicating that people with the most to lose have the most to gain from environmental enrichment.) Over ... ...»

Nutritional Supplements to Treat ADHD, Bipolar, Depression: EMPowerplus
	In this study, only 49 percent of the participants kept providing the researchers data at 6 months — meaning the majority of them dropped out of the study before the 6 months were up! LOCF is generally frowned upon in good research unless there’s a very good rationale for its use. Why? Because research shows that this method gives a biased estimate of the treatment effect and underestimates the variability of the estimated result. In other words, it stacks the deck to demonstrate a treatment’s effectiveness — even when it might not be. It’s a research slight of hand. The bigger problem with this study and most of the studies cited by TrueHope is that they all suffer from significant design problems. All are open-label designs with biased, self-selected samples... ...»

5 Tips for Staying Calm in a Hurricane
	When hurricanes or tropical storms are forecast to reach us, we often go into a panic and fear the worst about the coming storm. The uncertainty of the storm provokes a certain in anxiety in most of us. Some of those fears are very real, as government officials ask residents to evacuate areas directly in the path of the hurricane. Low-lying areas are especially at risk for flooding. Calm is a hard emotion to muster when our entire environment is turning against us. It is ever harder to remain calm when you’re asked to evacuate your home, and live in a shelter or with a family member for a few days. Will my home still be standing when I return? What about my most cherished possessions? Even folks who aren’t asked to evacuate fear the loss of electricity to their homes, and wheth... ...»

Zimbardoâ€™s Infamous Prison Experiment: Where the Key Players Are Now
	It's arguably one of the most controversial experiments. It all started in the basement of the psychology building at Stanford University on August 17, 1971 after psychologist Phil Zimbardo and colleagues took an ad out in the paper stating: "Male college students needed for psychological study of prison life. $15Â per day for 1-2 weeks." Over 70 people volunteered for the Stanford Prison Experiment. Twenty-four healthy, smart college-aged men were picked and randomly assigned either to be a guard or a prisoner. The aim of the study was to explore the psychology of prison life and how specific situations affect people's behavior. But the experiment didn't last very long "” six days to be exact. Zimbardo was forced to pull the plug because of the disturbing behavior of the guard... ...»

Study Links Obesity and Cognitive Fitness â€” In Both Directions
	Obesity linked to Cognition (HealthCanal): - "Obese people tend to perform worse than healthy people at cognitive tasks like planning ahead, a literature review has found, concluding that psychological techniques used to treat anorexics could help obese people too." - "According to a review of 38 studies on cognitive function and obesity by researchers from the University of NSW, obese people have a tendency toward "reduced executive function", meaning planning, goal-oriented behaviour and decision-making." - "Obesity may both cause and be caused by the reduced executive function, said review lead author Dr Evelyn Smith, from UNSW's School of Psychiatry." To read article: clickÂ Here. To access study: Click onÂ A review of the association between obesity and cognitive fun... ...»

Study: What comes first, Obesity or Cognitive Fitness Challenges
	Obesity linked to Cognition (HealthCanal): - "Obese people tend to perform worse than healthy people at cognitive tasks like planning ahead, a literature review has found, concluding that psychological techniques used to treat anorexics could help obese people too." - "According to a review of 38 studies on cognitive function and obesity by researchers from the University of NSW, obese people have a tendency toward "reduced executive function", meaning planning, goal-oriented behaviour and decision-making." - "Obesity may both cause and be caused by the reduced executive function, said review lead author Dr Evelyn Smith, from UNSW's School of Psychiatry." To read article: clickÂ Here. To access study: Click onÂ A review of the association between obesity and cognitive fun... ...»

Presidents As Patients: An Interview With Dr. Connie Mariano
	Eleanor Concepcion "Connie" Mariano has quite an impressive resume — even for a doctor. Not only was Dr. Mariano — or, Dr. Connie, as she's more intimately known by a few — the first Filipino-American to become a Rear Admiral in the United States Navy, but she was also the first American woman to be appointed the Director of the White House Medical Unit. In June 2010, Dr. Mariano released The White House Doctor: My Patients Were Presidents: A Memoir (Thomas Dune Books, 2010). I was able to speak with her recently about the psychology behind spending nine years caring for three Presidents of the United States through everything from surprisingly panic-inducing blisters to that sex scandal heard ’round the world. Alicia Sparks: Whether you were headed to a lo... ...»

Using Tragedy to Justify Mental Health Services in Delaware
	In a letter that could’ve been written in virtually any state by any National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) representative, NAMI Delaware executive director Matthew Stehl and president Mary Berger recently wrote an op-ed for Delaware’s leading newspaper, The News Journal. In the opinion piece, Stehl and Berger decry the lack of adequate funding for mental illness treatment in the state. In a period of economic recession, state-funded health and human services are usually the first to undergo cuts. But it’s an especially relevant issue in Delaware, because the U.S. Department of Justice struck an agreement with the state to ensure it improves its mental health services for its indigent and poor residents who need mental health services. All of which is good. I’m ... ...»

Can Religion or Spirituality Help Ward Off Depression?
	People of all shapes, sizes, colors and nationalities get depression. There seems to be little rhyme or reason to whom it strikes and when. Many people swear by certain things to help them keep depression away. Some people use exercise, while others throw themselves more into their work. Others take a daily dose of a herb like St. John’s Wort or fish oil, because of the association these ingredients have had with a reduction in depression in some studies. But what about religion? Can a strong sense of spirituality or religion help you ward off depression? According to new research that followed a group of people over 10 years, the answer is a qualified “Yes.” The new longitudinal research out of Columbia University wanted to followup on previous research demonstrating th... ...»

To Heal After an Affair and Rebuild the Relationship
	"For many people, an affair is deeply traumatizing [and] some marriages can't recover from it," said Jason Seidel, PsyD, founder and director of The Colorado Center for Clinical Excellence in Denver. But if you decide to work on your relationship post-affair, you must accept a hard truth: Another affair can happen. This is the paradox of healing, Seidel said. Often, partners who've been cheated on will demand full access to their spouse's email, cell phone records, Facebook and other accounts (or they'll sneak around to get the access), he said. They see this as legitimate and essential to helping reestablish trust in the relationship. A common belief is "How could I ever trust you again unless you give me full access?" While this thinking is understandable, it simply doesn... ...»

From End To Beginning: Navigating a Transition Well
	I've had transitions on my mind recently. A lot of clients I work with feel stuck in the middle of a transition they didn't quite anticipate, or that felt thrust upon them, or whose ramifications they just couldn't calculate at the outset of the change. Marriage, divorce, childbirth, graduating college, losing a job, moving back home: whether positive or negative, transitions can be messy. And they can also give birth to previously unforeseen opportunities for growth. Therapy is, after all, about change, so I guess it is no surprise that as a therapist I should be witness to transitions galore. William Bridges, author of a book aptly titled Transitions, writes that moving from here to there involves three distinct stages: endings, the middle ground, and beginnings. He emphasizes that... ...»

Brain Health Research offered by the Alliance for Aging Research
	We just noticed that the Alliance for Aging Research offers an excellent list of references on Brain Health Research, organized in these 10 sections below. Enjoy! #1 Nourish Your Noggin: Eat a Brain Healthy Diet #2 Use It or Lose It: Stay Mentally Active #3 Work Out for Your Wits: Exercise and Keep Fit #4 Interact with Others: Stay Social #5 Rest for Restoration: Get Plenty of Sleep #6 Unwind for Your Mind: Manage Your Stress #7 Guard Your Gray Matter: Protect Your Head #8 Think Overall Health: Control Other Conditions #9 Give Your Brain a Break: Avoid Unhealthy Habits #10 Understand Your Risk: Consider Your Genes Related articles: The Ten Habits of HighlyÂ EffectiveÂ Brains Debunking 10 Brain Myths (Source: SharpBrains) ...»

Secrets of Adulthood: Family Vacation
	Good-bye, I’m off for vacation! Right now, I’m in that stage where it feels like so much work to get away, I’d rather just stay home. But I’m sure once we’re underway, I’ll be glad we undertook it. As I’m getting ready to leave, I’m reminding myself of my Secrets of Adulthood for family vacations. What are they? Click through to find out! (And then add your own in the comments…) Less is more. Start early if possible. When packing an item that might leak, put it in a plastic bag. Don't let anyone get too hungry. Especially me. Cheerfulness is contagious, and crabbiness is even more contagious. Wear sunscreen. Carry tissues. Remind kids to visit the bathroom"”don't wait for the thought to occur to them. Never choose the buffet opti... ...»

The Myth of â€˜The Oneâ€™ and Other Relationship Fantasies
	Psychologist Jason Seidel, Psy.D, has heard partners lament all-too often: "This isn't the person I married" or "I'm worried this person isn't perfect for me." And you know what? They're probably right. But there's more to relationships than a partner who remains the perfect fit your entire life. Seidel explains more about the myth of the perfect partner and other relationship fantasies. 1. Myth: Your partner will always be the one. Fact: There is no "once-and-for-all best match," said Seidel, founder and director of The Colorado Center for Clinical Excellence in Denver. People and relationships rarely remain static. So that once great fit may "become broken, stale or wrong for [you]." In fact, according to Seidel, as you continue to grow in your life, you might ... ...»

The Greater Pain Scale
	On a scale of one to ten, What is your loneliness? Think of one as a day when your Family was out shopping, Laughing, going to movies, but You were sick in bed. Ten is Like everyone you knew Perished, or decided you were Worthless and abandoned you. What about your fear? Ten is the worst, one is the least. Be candid; maybe we can help. One is when you reach Into your desk drawer and Find a rubber spider, a ridiculous Fuzzy black joke that Makes you fall out of Your swivel chair while across The divider coworkers laugh. Five is the idea that everyone In the world knows your thoughts, Knows your hopes and how to Shatter them. Eight that everyone Knows what you think of them, Including her. Ten is that nothing about you Is a secret to anyone. Tell me about your sadness. Ten is the memory ... ...»

Making a Fecal Mountain out of a Skidmark
	Discussion to follow. Closing the window. What do those two little thingies at the bottom mean? Why does only one turn blue? Does that mean the card has been contaminated? Hour 7 Paperwork and documentation. Question and answer Hour 8: megarectal proficiency testing with volunteer administrators (Source: edwinleap.com) ...»

Quiz: Do You Make Other People Happy?
	As put forth by the Second Splendid Truth: One of the best ways to make yourself happy is to make other people happy; One of the best ways to make other people is to be happy yourself. Everyone accepts the Second Splendid Truth, Part A; the Second Splendid Truth, Part B often isn't as clear to people. But to focus on Part A here — how do you know if you're making other people happy? What are some signs? Are the following statements true for you: Do people seem to feel comfortable confiding in you? Do people follow your recommendations? Are you a source of material comfort or security for someone else? Do people whom you've introduced often go on to have a continuing relationship? Do people seem to drift toward you? Join a conversation that you're having, sit down next... ...»

5 Quick Facts about Art Therapy
	The very words "art therapy" can sound abstract (no pun intended!), and many people have little understanding about its origins, principles and purpose. That can easily create myriad misconceptions. Here, we lay out five facts about art therapy. 1. Art therapy has many uses. According to Cathy Malchiodi in her book The Art Therapy Sourcebook, art therapy is "a modality for self-understanding, emotional change and personal growth." A vast field, art therapy has been used on a variety of populations, with everyone from young kids to the elderly, war veterans to prisoners and people with physical disabilities to those with psychological disorders. In her own practice, Malchiodi helps clients with everything from processing emotions to gaining personal growth. In her book, she explai... ...»

Is Addiction Simply a Brain Disease? It Is Now
	Among addiction experts and researchers, there’s been a long-running debate as to whether drug or alcohol addiction, and even “behavioral addictions” such as compulsive gambling, are actual diseases or not. It’s not just a matter of semantics — if researchers can trace addiction’s root causes to an actual medical malfunction in the brain, perhaps that disease could be directly treated. Who am I to disagree with a “four-year process with more than 80 experts actively working on it?” Their result? Addiction is a “chronic brain disorder and not simply a behavioral problem.” I suppose if we wanted, one could argue that all mental disorders can be viewed as “brain disorders” and not “simply behavioral problems.”... ...»

2 Must-Try Mindfulness Practices
	"Just as an untamed elephant can do damage, trampling crops and injuring people, so the untamed, capricious mind can cause harm to us and those around us." So writes Jan Chozen Bays, M.D., a physician and Zen teacher, in her book How to Train a Wild Elephant & Other Adventures in Mindfulness: Simple Daily Mindfulness Practices for Living Life More Fully & Joyfully. How often have you let negative thoughts run your life? Let a punitive perspective take over so you end up beating yourself up for the smallest of supposed offenses? Or just experienced the days like you're listing through a boring book, going through the motions but skimming the significant stuff? Something that can help is mindfulness. According to Chozen Bays, "Mindfulness unifies our body, heart and mind, br... ...»

The Idiotâ€™s Guide to Dealing With Idiots
	Idiots. The world is full of them. How hard it is for us, non-idiots, to put up with them. But to get our jobs done, our kids fed, and our pets groomed, we must deal with them. Idiots come in many shapes, forms, and types, but the ones that frustrate me the most are those who don't believe in any form of mental illness. These creatures maintain that all mood disorders are cute, creative stories crafted by persons who enjoy obsessing, ruminating, and crying their eyes out… a wealthy bunch who can't think of anything better to do than come up with a make-believe tale about a few neurons wandering around the limbic system afraid to ask for directions, just like Moses. We must tune out the idiots to achieve any kind of sanity or serenity. But how? Here are four ways that have work... ...»

A few bad applesâ€¦go to jail
	Our county recently had a large drug-bust.Â Some 37 people were arrested, for a variety of charges, from distribution to manufacturing and all the rest. Since it was in the paper, and public knowledge, I felt it important to find out how many of them were regular ‘customers’ of the emergency department. Of the 37 arrested, there were some 167 ED visits over the past few years since we have had EMR. Now, what do we do with that number?Â What does the customer service model say?Â What do we feel about the need for insurance, or other social supports, provided by government? Complicated question, I suppose.Â But looking through the chief complaints, it seems that an inordinate number were for painful conditions. As prescription drug abuse skyrockets, as deaths from those drugs... ...»

Facebook Tied to Poor Mental Health in Teens, Kids?
	You know it’s a good time of the year for psychology “news” when the American Psychological Association holds its annual convention. Why? Because they push out a bunch of sexy press releases about presentations at the conference. Case in point, “Social Networking's Good and Bad Impacts on Kids,” a presentation that presents a seemingly-random selection of research findings about social networking websites like Facebook from the past few years. This quickly gets turned into an exclusive focus on the negative aspects of the talk — “Facebook tied to poor mental health in teens: What parents must know” (CBS News), “Too Much Technology Breeds Health Problems in Teens” (Patch.com), and of course the inevitable, “Is constant R... ...»

Bipolar Disorder Missed When Presenting with Depression?
	Coming as a surprise to more than a few mental health professionals, a new study out today suggests that bipolar disorder is often missed in patients who present only with major depression. The study examined 5,635 adults seen at community and hospital psychiatry departments in a number of different countries. The discrepancy was reported because of the use of “bipolarity specifier criteria” that are broader than the DSM-IV criteria, the standard for diagnosis of mental disorders by mental health professionals. Using the broader bipolar criteria developed by the researchers found an additional 31 percent of patients who could have been diagnosed with bipolar disorder. So what’s really going on here? Are professionals really “missing” bipolar disorder? Or have ... ...»

Antidepressants Overprescribed in Primary Care
	Antidepressants have long enjoyed a reputation as being a quick and “easy” treatment for all types of depression — from a mild feeling of being a little down, all the way up to severe, life-debilitating depression. But like all medications, they have side effects and instances where they should not be prescribed. Hence their continued need for a prescription after seeing a doctor. So what does it mean when primary care physicians are handing them out like candy? It suggests that your family doctor doesn’t really understand how antidepressants work, or what they are approved to treat. In short, it suggests that antidepressant medications are being over-prescribed by well-meaning doctors who are simply not using very good judgment. Melissa Healy, writing for the LA T... ...»

Art Therapy Exercises To Try at Home
	I’ve always loved art. Looking at interesting, unique, beautiful-in-their-own-way images and objects always has made me feel alive and happy.Â As a child and teen, I also loved drawing, painting and creating everything from collages to greeting cards. And I loved losing myself in the work. So I was excited to learn more about art therapy, where clients create their own art to help them express emotions, better understand themselves and grow in general. In her book, The Art Therapy Sourcebook, art therapist Cathy A. Malchiodi describes various exercises that readers can try at home. Below are three that I found especially helpful. By the way, remember that this has little to do with artistic ability or the final product. Instead, Malchiodi suggests focusing on the process, your intu... ...»

Limiting work hours: residents and parents?
	The American College of Graduate Medical Education has enacted further restrictions on resident work hours.Â No more than 80 hours per week of work for resident physicians, averaged over one month.Â And no more than 16 hours of continuous work for first year residents (24 after that), which includes patient care, academic lectures, etc. Whenever they do this sort of thing, everyone seems excited that it will make everyone safer.Â After all, residents won’t be working as much, so they’ll be more rested and make much better decisions.Â It’s all ‘win-win,’ as physicians in training and patients alike are safer. I guess.Â The problem of course is that after training, work hours aren’t restricted.Â There is no set limit on the amount of work physician c... ...»

AreYou a Healthy Woman?
	I’m attending blogger 11 in San Diego. I’m here wearing many “faces”. I’m a blogger, registered dietitan, and speaker. But lately, I think my most important role is an organizer. I’m a passionate advocate for self-care, making sure every day there is time for “me”. We do so much for everyone else that we tend to fall off our own to-do list. Am I right? Been there, Done That This is how I lived most of my life. “is everyone happy? What can I do for you? Yes. Yes. Yes. Of course. Yes. Ok!” What I learned is that I did a lot despite my willingness to focus on me. I was young but felt old. Tired. I wanted to change things. So I did one step at a time.That was Over a decade ago. I changed my perceptive and changed my life. A the end of... ...»

Depressionâ€™s Other Symptoms
	The hallmark symptoms of clinical depression are no doubt sadness and loss of interest in activities previously enjoyed. Many people also are familiar with appetite and sleep changes. But there's a whole set of other physical symptoms that are less known but just as debilitating. In fact, depression can literally hurt. According to a study conducted at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, up to about 76 percent of people who report the typical emotional symptoms also report physical signs, such as stomach problems, headaches, backaches and chest pain. Depression also is a chameleon. It can look like various other illnesses and conditions, even, for instance, the flu. Which, not surprisingly, makes diagnosing depression tricky, and thereby finding the right treatment... ...»

Doctor, Is My Mood Disorder Due to a Chemical Imbalance?
	Dear Mrs. ——– You have asked me about the cause of your mood disorder, and whether it is due to a "chemical imbalance". The only honest answer I can give you is, "I don't know""”but I'll try to explain what psychiatrists do and don't know about the causes of so-called mental illness, and why the term "chemical imbalance" is simplistic and a bit misleading. By the way, I don't like the term "mental disorder", because it makes it seem as if there's a huge distinction between the mind and the body"”and most psychiatrists don't see it that way. I wrote about this recently, and used the term "brain-mind" to describe the unity of mind and body.1 So, for lack of a better term, I'll just refer to "psychiatric illnesses." Now, this notion of... ...»

True Beauty Is Found Underneath the Skin: An Interview with Susanne Veder Berger
	Since birth, Susanne Veder Berger was taught to hide herself, to cover the six-inch "port-wine stain" that dominated nearly the entire left side of her face. (Doctors call the condition "naevus flammeus," a vascular birthmark resulting from deep dilated capillaries below the surface of the skin.) When Susanne was only four years old, she was taught how to apply a mask of thick makeup to her face each day in an effort to avoid teasing and humiliation. Susanne did this literally every day of her life for more than 50 years as she attended Seneca College in Toronto, got married, moved to the New York City suburbs and raised two children. Conditioned to believe that if the mask ever slipped — from careless application of her makeup or perhaps by shedding a tear — the world ... ...»

7 Books That Changed The Way I See the World
	One of my favorite things: when I read a book that transforms the way I see the world, or the way I see the possibilities of writing. Another one of my favorite things: when I convince someone to read one of those books, and he or she loves it as much I do. So keeping that in mind, here’s a short list of books that transformed the way I see the world. I could go on for pages, but here’s a start, and if you’re at your bookstore or the library, check these out… 1. Christopher Alexander, A Pattern Language. I’ve never been interested in interior design or architecture, but this book taught me how to be aware of why certain spaces are pleasing — or not. I think about it all the time. 2. Scott McCloud, Understanding Comics. I’ve never been interested i... ...»

Love, Suicide and Well-Being: International Positive Psychology Associationâ€™s Second Congress
	We live in a world that needs our help. – James Pawelski, Director of Education and Senior Scholar at the Positive Psychology Center, University of Pennsylvania, just before asking for a moment of silence for the victims of the terrorist act in Norway. From July 23rd through July 26th, the International Positive Psychology Association’s second congress took place in Philadelphia.Â Two years ago, during a particularly miserable time in my life, my best friend, Professor Joel Morgovsky, suggested we go to the first congress together. I wasn't in the mood. But I went, and I was sitting in talk after talk and workshop after workshop; mostly they were interesting, but please, when do we get to go home? Then I heard Barbara Fredrickson speak.Â There are a few transformative lect... ...»

Fullerton Police Beat to Death Mentally Ill, Homeless Man
	A police officer only needs to use “reasonable force” to make an arrest. How many Fullerton, Calif. police officers does it take to arrest one man? Well, it took five patrol cars, 6 officers, tasering 37-year-old Kelly Thomas numerous times, and beating him so badly that he went into a coma. And then died a few days later. What was Thomas’s alleged crime that resulted in his death? Breaking into cars, looking for things to steal. Welcome to our more violent America, where citizens stand by while the police beating took place, too afraid to intervene and save Thomas’s life. Is this what we’ve come to? Kelly Thomas was a long-time member of the Fullerton homeless community, and apparently had schizophrenia. While sometimes scary looking (as not bathing and not ... ...»

The New Grief: How Modern Medicine Has Transformed Death and Grief
	The realities of death and dying have changed profoundly in a relatively short period of time. Why? Thank the ongoing and remarkable advances in medical diagnosis and treatment. As a result of these advances, life expectancy in countries like ours continues to grow. We all die, but modern medicine is getting better and better at staving off death. And because of this the nature of grief has changed. In her groundbreaking 1970 book, On Death and Dying, Elisabeth KÃ¼bler-Ross identified a process which she believed individuals pass through when they are confronted with death. At the time, sudden and unexpected death was much more common than it is today. The grief associated with that kind of loss is captured powerfully in Joan Didion's memoir, The Year of Magical Thinking, which recounts ... ...»

CBS News, Others Get Nose Job Story Wrong
	In one of the worst examples of health reporting I’ve seen today, a bunch of news outlets have equated “symptoms of a disorder” with having the disorder itself. It may seem like a subtle difference, but in the world of mental health diagnosis, having a symptom of a disorder is not the same as having the disorder itself. The study in question was conducted on people seeking treatment for a nose job. To assess patients’ psychopathology, the researchers administered a bunch of psychological tests to the patients before their rhinoplasty. One of those tests was the Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale modified for body dysmorphic disorder. Now, the researchers only found a 2 percent rate of body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) among the 226 patients they tested. That rate is... ...»

12 Weeks to Feeling Better: Try Psychotherapy Today
	It’s time for psychotherapy to stop beating around in the bushes and get a new marketing campaign going for itself. It’s time for organizations like our own, the American Psychological Association, the American Counseling Association and others to join together and have people understand a simple, basic message — 12 weeks is all most people need to start feeling better when faced with a mental health issue. Psychotherapy still gets a bad rap because of a basic misunderstanding of the process it entails, or prejudice around thinking that if you need to see a therapist, something’s really wrong with you. It doesn’t have to be this way. Just like the endless pharmaceutical commercials on TV for antidepressants and ADHD medications, psychotherapy could be remindin... ...»

I have a patient to send you! The safety net is tearingâ€¦
	Last night I was contacted by a physician in the local urgent-care.Â Â I like him, and we made polite, but brief, conversation.Â ‘So, are you guys busy?’ I gave him the status report.Â ‘Well, yeah.Â We have about 25 people waiting to be seen the waiting room is full and every patient room is full.Â Also, we just received a gun-shot wound to the head by EMS.’ ‘Wow, sounds terrible!Â So, here’s what I need to send you…’ What he sent was, in fact, reasonable.Â A young woman with signs and symptoms of meningitis (who was treated earlier in the day for and upper respiratory virus…with Amoxicillin, of course.) She needed a lumbar puncture, which I performed and which wasÂ negative. But I had this thought.Â I could probably have said,... ...»

Good news on disability: or â€˜disability.â€™
	Good news on disability:Â or should I say ‘disability.’ Anyone working in social services or medicine (well, anyone with half a cerebrum and some rational thinking capacity mixed in with their compassion) knows that the disability system in the US is completely out of control.Â We routinely see patients who say, when queried about their disability, ‘well doc, honestly, I don’t know why I’m on disability!’Â Which is fine if you’ve had a serious head injury or stroke, but if your complaint is ‘injured back while using chain-saw,’ maybe disability is a little generous. So, here’s some light in the darkness: http://lsolum.typepad.com/legaltheory/2011/07/pierce-on-administrative-law-judge-disability-decisionmaking.html Hallelujah!Â ... ...»

Change in Relationships: What to Do When Your Partner Changes
	Your once sort of neat partner becomes a sloppy mess. Or they start spending more time on the golf course. Or worse, when you first met they wanted to have children, but now say they're not interested. What do you do when your partner changes in small or big ways? Here, Terri Orbuch, Ph.D, clinical psychologist and author of 5 Simple Steps to Take Your Marriage from Good to Great, offers her insight on change in relationships. Myths about Change It's a myth that people or relationships don't change, Orbuch said. In fact, it's inevitable. Relationships go through different developmental stages and situations, such as job loss, health problems, financial issues and family conflict. So it's natural for changes to occur. Another myth, according to Orbuch, is that change is bad. So m... ...»

Mental Illness is Not Simply a Brain Disease
	Last month, Andrew Brown writing for the UK’s Guardian, noted when Professor David Nutt kept referring to depression as a “brain disease” on a popular UK television program. We commend Andrew Brown for his calling out Professor Nutt in trying to dumb down the portrayal of mental disorders to simply “brain diseases.” Mental disorders remain complex disorders that involve all aspect of a person’s functioning and life — their brain and biology, their psychological makeup and personality, and their social interactions and relationships with others. The cause isn’t just one of these things in the vast majority of people who have a mental illness — the cause is all of these things, in differing proportions. I’ve written about this in th... ...»

Integrative Behavioral Couple Therapy: Where Acceptance is Key
	“There are two sides to every story.” This timeless saying couldn't be truer when it comes to conflict in a relationship. In fact, it's how couples therapists Andrew Christensen, Ph.D, and the late Neil Jacobson, Ph.D, start off their 2002 book Reconcilable Differences. Well, actually, they share a third side: their objective take on a couple, which usually includes some truth from both stories. In the late 1990s, Christensen and Jacobson developed a type of couples therapy called integrative behavioral couple therapy (IBCT), which combines techniques from behavioral couples therapy with new strategies to cultivate acceptance. Recently, Christensen, a professor of psychology at UCLA, and colleagues (2010) published their findings from a five-year study that compared the ef... ...»

Sallie Mae, Markel and Dewar Discriminate Against People with Mental Illness
	Sometimes you just have to shake your head — the more things change, the more they stay the same. It can really be depressing to see how, 3 years after the federal mental health parity act was passed, the company known primarily for underwriting students loans — Sallie Mae — is discriminating against people with a mental illness. It’s doing so through one of its myriad of products called tuition refund insurance, something that allows you to reclaim up to 100 percent of your tuition if an illness strikes you while you’re in school. But not just any illness — it has to be a physical illness. If a mental illness strikes you, you will only get 75 percent of your tuition returned. There’s a silver lining on this cloud… suggesting change may be fo... ...»

7 Tips for Deciding How Best to Spend Your Time, Energy and Money
	We all have to make decisions about how to spend our time, energy, and money. Because of my happiness project, I now explicitly ask myself, "Will this decision make me happier?" I'm determined to get the most happiness bang for the buck. Here are some questions I consider: 1. Is this decision likely to strengthen my relationships with other people? Strong relationships with other people are a key "” the key "” to happiness, so decisions that help me build or strengthen ties are likely to boost my happiness. Yes, it's a hassle and an expense to go to my college reunion, but it's likely to have a big happiness pay-off. 2. Will this decision provide me with novelty and challenge? Novelty and challenge make me happier"”but they also make me feel insecure, intimidated, frustrated,... ...»

The 5 Types of Girlfriends You Need In Your Life
	In her classic book, Gift from the Sea, Anne Morrow Lindbergh articulates the process of gathering girlfriends. She writes, "I shall ask into my shell only those friends with whom I can be completely honest. I find I am shedding hypocrisy in human relationships. What a rest that will be! The most exhausting thing in life, I have discovered, is being insincere." Girlfriends are as unique as the shells Lindbergh describes in her pages. Some have the gift of empathy and compassion, while others challenge us in ways that lead to growth; some friends listen, while others dole out smart advice. Women need different kinds of friendships at different points in their lives. I have compiled these five types of girlfriends, drawing from the examples in Robert Wick's book, Bounce: Living the Res... ...»

Knowing When to Say Goodbye: How to Break Up With a Friend
	The heartbreak of ending a friendship can be devastating whether you were friends for two or twenty years. And it can be particularly hard when it's with girlfriends. In a study (PDF) published in Psychology Review (2000), UCLA researchers found that in response to stress, instead of "fight-or-flight,"Â women "tend-or-friend." Although both sexesÂ release oxytocin associated with relaxation when stressed, it is more prominent in women — and this feel-good hormone promotes a maternal behavior to tend and bond with others. The feedback I received after posing a related question over on our Facebook page was a testament to that. Out of the over thirty responses we got, only a few were from men. Facebook friend William Miller, for example, left this comment: "Do most people a... ...»

Alzheimerâ€™s Disease: New Survey and Research Study on Awareness, Testing and Prevention
	Very interesting new data reinforcing two main themes we have been analyzing for a while: 1) We better start paying serious attention (and R&D dollars) to lifestyle-based and non-invasive cognitive and emotional health interventions, which are mostly ignored in favor of invasive, drug-based options 2) Interventions will need to be personalized. The study below analyzes data at the country level, but the same logic applies to the individual level Many fear Alzheimer's, want to be tested: survey (Reuters): - "The telephone survey of 2,678 adults aged 18 and older in the United States,Â France, Germany, Spain and Poland was conducted by researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health and Alzheimer Europe, with funding by Bayer AG" - "When asked to identify the most feared disea... ...»

Leapâ€™s profanity/narcotic quotient
	Leap’s quotient Â The number of F-bombs used is inversely proportional to the chance of receiving narcotic analgesics in the emergency department. Â That is,Â # F-bomb=1/narcotic Rx (Source: edwinleap.com) ...»

Leave the medicine to me, Mr. and Mrs. Psychiatrist
	Look, I have no delusions that I’m a psychiatrist. (Get it?Â Delusions?)Â My specialty encompasses many things, but my general involvement with psychiatry is trying to assess depression, anxiety, psychosis and suicidal ideations; or the risk for future suicidal or homocidal events.Â I do practice medicine well. As an emergency physician, I know sick.Â It’s what I was trained to do, and what I have practice for nearly two decades. So I find it very unsettling to have this conversation, prior to a psychiatric hospital accepting a patient: ‘We can’t accept him, he has an elevated white blood count.Â It’s 13,000.’ ‘He fell down, it means nothing.Â He has no focus of infection.’ ‘He might be medically unstable, or have an infection. Yo... ...»

Taking Your Teen to a Therapist
	It's hard enough knowing when you need to see a therapist and navigating the entire process from picking a professional to making the most of your time once you do. (Here are some tips, by the way.) But doing this for your teen can seem outright overwhelming. Educating yourself on the process, however, helps immensely. Below, clinical psychologist John Duffy, Psy.D, who works with teens and authored the book The Available Parent: Radical Optimism for Raising Teens and Tweens, discusses everything from telltale signs to see a therapist to talking to your child to making the most of therapy. When Your Teen Needs Therapy According to Duffy, the time to take your teen to a therapist is "when you note a marked change in either her affect, her behavior, or both," especially "if the chan... ...»

The Psychology of a Heat Wave
	As the U.S. and Canada enter into a heat wave, I get a lot of questions about how heat impacts human behavior and our moods. So three years ago, I wrote a blog entry that reviews the research about weather affects our moods and behavior. It’s still a good overview of the research in this area and worth the read. But it’s nice to highlight a few points from that article, as well as other research, that demonstrates how the weather — and especially hot weather, in this case — can impact our mood. Does a heat wave lead to more violence? Do we have more or less energy during high humidity? What about depression and anxiety? Read on for the answers. Heat waves come and go nearly every year in some part of the world. What makes them especially difficult for indigenous po... ...»

Depression and Empathy in Couples
	Discussions focused on eliciting support, with one partner playing the role of help seeker and the other playing the role of help giver. The couples were given an alarm that beeped after 6 min, at which point they switched roles and continued the conversation for an additional 6 min.” In the second part, each individual reviewed their recordings separately and after watching the discussion in 30-second segments, paused the recording and wrote down the thoughts and feelings they experienced at that time during the interaction. They were also asked to infer and write down their partners' thoughts and feelings. In the third part of the study, five coders independently judged “the degree of similarity between perceivers' and targets' statements by examining the taped discussi... ...»

Bed Sharing Seems Okay for Toddlers
	While not particularly popular here in the U.S., bed sharing arrangements are a little more common in many other countries, especially when sleeping quarters may be scarce. A new study just published suggests that such bed sharing between parents and their toddlers and young children probably don’t result in any kind of long-term psychological or social problems. The study followed a sample of 944 low-income families who were enrolled in the Early Head Start program, and followed the toddlers and parents over the course of five years. Once other factors were accounted for — such as the family’s socioeconomic status, the mom’s educational level, ethnicity and parenting style — the negative outcomes associated with bed sharing went away. This suggests that bed s... ...»

Unwasted: An Interview with Sacha Scoblic on the Sober Life
	As a recovering drunk myself, I was especially interested in the new memoir, Unwasted: My Lush Sobriety by Sacha Z. Scoblic, a writer in Washington, DC, and a contributing editor to The New Republic. I thought I’d ask her more about what she thinks about life without booze. 1. If you knew all that you do today, what would you have done differently your first year of sobriety? Sacha: The first year of sobriety is riddled with basic epiphanies most adults have sooner than do addicts (like: Paying bills is not optional and I don't have to drink just because it's Arbor Day) as well as turbulent emotions rising to the surface after years of self-medication through alcohol, drugs, and denial. And then there's this feeling that no one understands your loss, cravings, or anxieties, bec... ...»

3 Handy Ways to Help Your Child Overcome Negative Thinking
	Negative thinking isn't something that just plagues adults. It also plagues kids. In the book Freeing Your Child From Negative Thinking: Powerful Practical Strategies to Build a Lifetime of Resilience, Flexibility and Happiness, child psychologist Tamar E. Chansky, Ph.D, writes that for kids with a "negative thinking bias," negative thoughts become "the default, the first, last and final word." Kids simply don't realize that they have a choice in whether they internalize these thoughts. Instead, they start to see these inaccurate beliefs as absolute truths. Fortunately, Chansky says that parents can help! Whether your child expresses negative thoughts occasionally or on a regular basis, you can help them overcome these harmful patterns of thinking. Below are three activities to... ...»

Wishy-Washy? Help in Making Good Decisions
	Anyone who knows me well will tell you that I'm a tad indecisive, not about everything, but most things. Here's a typical experience: I’m at a restaurant, perusing (i.e., studying) the menu and pondering. I ask what everyone else is having, and ponder some more. Then I chat with the server. If I’m wavering between two dishes, I ask what's the better option. If I just have one meal in mind, I focus my questions on that dish. After I get the answer, sometimes, I think some more. Aside from being a super fun dinner date (fortunately, my boyfriend and friends just laugh it off now…most of the time), I clearly have decision issues. So what's my problem "” and yours if making simple daily decisions feels like you're gearing up for the choice of a lifetime? An articl... ...»

How to Reach Members of the Military and their Families?
	As I was researching The Happiness Project, I was struck by the fact that I often found it more helpful to read about one person’s idiosyncratic happiness project than to read about general principles applying to all humankind or studies applying to large populations. For some reason, reading about Thoreau’s very individual decision to move to Walden Pond, or St. Therese’s struggle to stay patient with the nun who made clicking noises during evening prayers, was what taught me most about myself. I’ve heard from people whose lives are very different from mine, on the surface — but it turns out that we face many of the same challenges in our happiness projects. Here’s a question for you, readers: I’ve been steadily getting email from members of the ... ...»

I Am So NOT Sorry: An Exercise in Exposure Therapy
	One form of cognitive behavioral therapy is exposure therapy, where your brain is supposed to form new connections and rewrite the language of your amygdala (fear center), so that it doesn't associate every dog with the pit bull who took a bite out of your thigh in the fourth grade. By doing the exact thing that you most fear, you are, essentially, telling the old neurons in your brain to take a hike so that new ones, who don't know anything about the pit bull, can now live inside your brain and tell you that everything is peachy. Yeah, well, that's the theory. So you jump into a pit bull fight and say, "Here, doggie, doggie, you want a treat?" If he doesn't take your leg off, you are good to go! If he does take your leg off, you have much more exposure therapy ahead of youR... ...»

10 Practical Ways to Handle Stress
	Stress is inevitable. It walks in and out of our lives on a regular basis. And it can easily walk all over us unless we take action. Fortunately, there are many things you can do to minimize and cope with stress. Here are 10 ideas for handling stress without causing more strain and hassle. 1. Figure out where the stress is coming from. Oftentimes, when we're stressed, it seems like a big mess with stressors appearing from every angle. We start to feel like we're playing a game of dodge ball, ducking and darting so we don't get smacked by a barrage of balls. We take a defensive position, and not a good one at that. Instead of feeling like you're flailing day to day, identify what you're actually stressed about. Is it a specific project at work, an upcoming exam, a dispute with yo... ...»

Want To Feel Happier by the End of the Day?
	Do you need a happiness boost — right now? If so, take a look at this menu of options and make your choices. Remember, the more you tackle, the bigger the boost you'll receive. When you're feeling blue, it can be hard to muster up the physical and mental energy to do the things that make you happier. Plunking down in front of the TV or digging into a tub of ice cream seems like an easier fix. However, research shows (and you know it's true) that these aren't the routes to feeling better. Try some choices below. The more you push yourself, the better you'll feel; but if you can't tackle a big task, just do something small. Even a little step in the right direction will give you a lift. According to my ground-breaking happiness formula, to be happy, you need to think about... ...»

Thinking globally to improve mental health: New NIH initiative
	Thinking globally to improve mental health: NIH announces international research initiative (press release): - "The Grand Challenges in Global Mental Health Initiative, led by the National Institutes of Health and the Global Alliance for Chronic Diseases, has identified the top 40 barriers to better mental health around the world. Similar to past grand challenges, which focused on infectious diseases and chronic, noncommunicable diseases, this initiative seeks to build a community of funders dedicated to supporting research that will significantly improve the lives of people living with MNS disorders within the next 10 years." "“ "Participating in global mental health research is an enormous opportunity, a means to accelerate advances in mental health care for the diverse U.S. popul... ...»

The Psychology of the Casey Anthony Trial
	So Casey Anthony was found not guilty of murder, meaning we can go back to our everyday, regular lives. On July 5, the jury found Casey Anthony not guilty of first-degree murder, aggravated manslaughter, and aggravated child abuse (but found her guilty of four lesser, misdemeanor offenses related to her interrogations). What? You mean you “want answers” as to why she wasn’t found guilty? We all want answers in our lives. We yearn for answers. People spend years in therapy looking for answers. But life isn’t always so neat, nor does it always provide easy-to-understand answers to such a tragic series of events that led to the death of Casey Anthony’s toddler, Caylee. So the short answer is — there are no answers. You’re looking for justice in a worl... ...»

Living the Compassionate Life
	In November 2007, religious historian Karen Armstrong won the TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) award because of her many contributions that have made a profound difference in the world. Each recipient is given $100,000 and a wish for a better world. So, three months later, when Armstrong accepted the award, she asked TED to help her create, launch, and propagate a Charter for Compassion that would be designed by prominent thinkers, philosophers, and leaders from a variety of different faiths. Its mission? To restore compassion to the heart of religious and moral life at a time of such flagrant violence and terrorism in the name of race and religion. As I read through excerpts of Armstrong's book, Twelve Steps to a Compassionate Life, and reviewed her interview earlier this year wi... ...»

Affordable Prenatal Fitness For Pregnant Women
	Low cost, prenatal fitness classes. What a progressive thought. The New York City Prenatal Fitness Initiative is a community model that should be replicated on a national scale. A nurse midwife, Marilinda Pascoe and Andrea Bachrach Mata, an aquatic fitness instructor founded a program that offers prenatal water exercise and yoga to low-income pregnant women in North Manhattan and the Bronx at an affordable cost. For 7 weeks, pregnant women will be able to do light aerobics, swim, dance, gentle stretching and exercise for a total cost of $60.00 in a community pool. Not only will these women have fun by releasing endorphins (substances released by the brain that make you feel happy) but they will also be reducing their risks of developing gestational diabetes, obesity and other potential com... ...»

Reading the Newspaper When Youâ€™re Depressed
	Learning to read the daily newspaper when you’re depressed is like learning to feed the ducks in Annapolis without getting crapped on by the seagulls: it demands good timing, a certain strategy, and an obnoxiously wide hat (to shield your head). I can’t check CNN.com every half hour for the most recent headlines like Eric, my husband, does. I’m way too anxious about the world’s doom and gloom. Like all the other important activities in my week, I wait for the right moment: when I have a full stomach of protein and fiber, when I’m semi-rested (very rare with two insomniacs as children), when I’m not too caffeinated (even rarer), and when I’m not ticked off at a family member (rarest). When all these circumstances align, which happens as often as a l... ...»

Welcome new physicians! Watch where you stepâ€¦
	Today is the day that new resident physicians begin their training all across the United States.Â Today, our future family physicians and pediatricians, neurosurgeons and emergency physicians, plastic surgeons and laser tattoo removal specialists (OK, not really a specialty, just a side-line) will begin learning how to be physicians, having completed four years of expensive college and four years of even more expensive medical school.Â Anxiety-filled and debt-ridden, they will embark on four to seven (or even more) years of training to make them knowledgeable, technically proficient physicians. I will occasionally wax poetic and philosophical for their benefit.Â But not today.Â Today there are practical matters.Â Today I want to give them a few pointers, to ease their transition into ... ...»

A rest for the heart
	This is my column in July’s EM News.Â Have a restful day! http://journals.lww.com/em-news/Fulltext/2011/07000/Second_Opinion__A_Rest_for_the_Heart.10.aspx We travel to Hilton Head, SC, every spring for an ‘end of school-year’ vacation. It is a tradition that started several years ago; one which our family treasures. We plan months ahead, when we arrange lodging. Then, as the date draws closer we have to restrain ourselves from jumping up and down at odd, inappropriate times. The beach calls to us in an inexplicable way. We live in a beautiful county, surrounded by mountains and lakes. It is, in itself, a worthy destination, perfect for biking, hiking, fishing and/or kayaking. But when May rolls around, our eyes turn to the east, and we long for the sand and sea. It is on... ...»

June Update: High-Quality Summer Brain Reading
	Let's explore someÂ high-quality new resources, announcements and studies in this June ediÂtion of the monthly SharpÂBrains eNewsletÂter. The field is clearly on the move! Portraits of theÂ Mind: Several sharp brains (Rick, Karen, John, thanks!) strongly recÂomÂmend the recent book Â "PorÂtraits of the Mind: VisuÂalÂizÂing the Brain from AntiqÂuity to the 21st CenÂtury" (which includes the image on the left) as great readÂing and as a beauÂtiÂful cofÂfee table book. Promoting Healthy, Meaningful Aging Through Social Involvement: The curÂrent issue of CereÂbrum includes the excelÂlent in-depth artiÂcle on the value of volunteering program Experience Corps to promote healthy and meaningful aging through social involvement. Working memory training can improve fluid i... ...»

Design Psychology: Beyond Pretty Properties and Nice Knickknacks
	Design psychology goes beyond aesthetics, and beyond art and decor books to find something more — it seeks to uncover your very emotions and thoughts about settings. Design psychology seeks to connect you to the types of places, spaces and items that evoke the most pleasant memories. Design psychology is about discovering your personal style and finding a place that truly fulfills you and feels like home. Here's an excerpt from a Los Angeles Times article on how design psychology works… When Ran and Ronit Ever-Hadani expanded their Mar Vista home, they ended up with a long, narrow space that had a fireplace smack in the middle. Because the room was almost like a bowling alley with no natural flow, the couple didn’t have a clue what to do with it. So the area remained u... ...»

5 Foods that reduce belly fat
	Sonal Bahuguna: Reducing Belly FatYou can reduce belly fat by adding healthy food to your diet. Tired of the fat around your belly? Want to get rid of it? You can easily get that perfect shape by doing regular exercise that makes you lose weight and look fit. The first step to reduce that extra fat is to improve your diet and add healthy food in your daily regime. So, here are some food items that you can add to your diet and you will have a flat belly: 1. Mushrooms: It is a rich source of vitamin D. Vitamin D is known to help in reducing weight as the proper absorption of calcium by body depends on it. People who have deficiency of vitamin D face problem in burning fat. If you eat three ounces of mushroom daily, you can fulfill the requirement of vitamin D in our body.2. Whole grains... ...»

5 Key Steps to a Healthy Mind
	I have spent many years working on my health and my happiness. I learned early on how my thoughts and my mind can affect every experience I have. Therefore I began researching and learning about the health of my mind and how I could use my mind to benefit my life and my overall happiness. I figured there are enough obstacles to deal with out there in the big world and I didn't want to be sabotaging myself from within. There are several different factors that affect health and happiness including nutrition, lifestyle, exercise, stress, family and career. However the one big factor that in my experience often gets overlooked is the health of the mind. It seemed to me that in order to create and maintain a healthy and happy life the work must begin with the mind. Your thoughts are extremely... ...»

The Illusion of Confidence
	We often overestimate our abilities, and overestimate the abilities of others who exude confidence.Â Are we correct in thinking the athlete who radiates confidence must be competent in her/his sport?Â The salesman who speaks with extensive knowledge and confidence must know what they are talking about, right? These scenarios are often manifestations of the illusion of confidence. Confidence is often considered a “true” signal of the extent of one's memory, knowledge, skill, and ability.Â However, confidence is often misleading and not congruent with ability.Â This type of unwarranted confidence leads to “epistemic irrationality,” or more commonly known as simply delusion and self-deception. The illusion of confidence has two distinct but related aspects.Â Fi... ...»

Families Affected by Mental Illness Feel Little Support From Churches
	A new study conducted at Baylor University indicated that families with a mentally ill member would like their congregation to offer more assistance. The study, published in the journal “Mental Health, Religion and Culture,” was the first to look at how mental illness of a family member influences an individual’s relationship with the church. “Families with mental illness stand to benefit from their involvement with a congregation, but our findings suggest that faith communities fail to adequately engage these families because they lack awareness of the issues and understanding of the important ways that they can help," said Diana Garland, Ph.D., dean of Baylor's School of Social Work and co-author of the Baylor study. The study surveyed nearly 6,000 participant... ...»

Devotions for Doctorsâ€¦and patients! Facing illness as family, and with faith.
	Trained as an emergency physician, my entire career has been spent pondering, searching for, often finding and managing the worst possible eventualities in my patients.Â Chest pain is, first and foremost, a heart attack or pulmonary embolus.Â Abdominal pain is appendicitis, a ruptured tubal pregnancy.Â Fever with headache is meningitis.Â And neck pain from a car wreck is an unstable cervical spine fracture. So it has taken enormous effort to ‘dial-down’ my response to my wife’s recent cancer, treatment and recovery.Â I drive her to distraction with ‘how are you feeling?’Â I pester her endlessly to eat.Â I have imagined every bump or cough a metastasis.Â I have envisioned all the worst outcomes imaginable.Â I endlessly ‘catastrophize,’ as o... ...»

10 Myths about Happiness
	I’m leaving my desk for a few days, so in my absence, thought I’d re-post one of my favorite round-up pieces, about ten widespread myths about happiness. A while back, each day for two weeks, I posted about Ten Happiness Myths. Here they are, for your reading convenience. (Click on each myth to read a longer explanation of it.) 1. Happy people are annoying and stupid. Wrong. Actually, studies show that people find happy people much more likable than their less-happy peers. Happy people are viewed as friendlier, smarter, warmer, less selfish, more self-confident, and more socially skilled — even more physically attractive. 2. Nothing changes a person's happiness level much. It's true that there's a powerful genetic link to happiness — usually it's estimated t... ...»

Experience Corps: Promoting Healthy, Meaningful Aging Through Social Involvement
	The current issue of Cerebrum "“a great publication of the Dana Foundation"“ includes the excellent in-depth article Promoting Healthy, Meaningful Aging Through Social Involvement: Building an Experience Corps, written by researcher Michelle Carlson: "Over the last decade, scientists made two key discoveries that reframed our understanding of the adult brain's potential to benefit from lifelong environmental enrichment. First, they learned that the adult brain remains plastic; it can generate new neurons in response to physical activity and new experiences. Second, they confirmed the importance of social connectedness to late-life cognitive, psychological, and physical health. The integration of these findings with our understanding of individuals' developmental needs throughout li... ...»

Marsha Linehan: What is Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT)?
	Last week the New York Times ran a fascinating piece on Marsha Linehan, Professor of Psychology at the University of Washington and the original developer of Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT), a modification of standard cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), but including elements of acceptance and mindfulness. Her work has been designed specifically for people who harm themselves, for those diagnosed with borderline personality (BPT), and those who suffer from pervasive suicidal thoughts and/or attempts. For the first time in her life, the mental health expert disclosed her own story (that we also discussed on the blog yesterday), which involved hospitalization at the age of 17 that lasted longer than two years. Benedict Carey, author of the interview with Linehan, writes: No one knows h... ...»

Dare To Be Happy
	If there is no struggle, there is no progress. ~ Frederick Douglass Let's get this out in the open: I am bipolar II. That means the mania is really low-key and infrequent and the depression, at least in my case, for most of my life, has been pretty much nonstop. There are degrees of depression, of course. Mine gets severe relatively quickly and stays that way a relatively long time. Yes, I have been an inpatient at psychiatric hospitals. Yes, I have self-harmed. Yes, I have been on every psychotropic medication known to man, and failed most of them. The two that I'm on right now combine for one really annoying side effect. I have even, since about New Year's, been undergoing a course of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). My memory is shot, along with many other things, but the suggesti... ...»

Donâ€™t Have Enough Time? 7 Practical Steps to Try
	Some mornings Theresa Daytner spends hours hiking. She also goes on trail rides, used to weight-lift twice a week with a trainer, reads nightly, watches her favorite TV show, enjoys massages, gets her hair done and planned a huge surprise birthday party for her husband, with people arriving from all over the country. And she sleeps at least seven hours a night. Oh, and as journalist Laura Vanderkam writes in her book, 168 Hours: You Have More Time Than You Think, Daytner is busier than most. She's the owner of a seven-figure revenue company and the mother of six children, including twins! She also coaches soccer and regularly attends her kids' games, is helping her 21-year-old plan a wedding and is expanding her business. I barely have time to clean my room, do one load of laundry, coo... ...»

When Your Workplace Is Toxic
	If you find yourself in a toxic relationship, you always have the option of ditching the friend and moving on. However, when the environment in which you make your bread and butter damages your self-esteem and robs you of self-confidence, you can't exactly walk out… if you want to eat that night. What to do? More than a few friends have complained to me recently about toxic workplaces and their dilemma of how to live sanely within insane walls. So I thought about this more, consulted some experts, and offer a few suggestions. 1. Keep the focus on you. Just like you learn in a 12-step groups for friends and families of alcoholics, the only person you can totally control is yourself, so it's best to begin there. Theoretically, no one can make you feel a certain way unless you allo... ...»

Medical school or typing pool?
	Last night, working in the emergency department, I realized yet again that EMR is a problem.Â While governmental bodies and consulting firms endlessly praise the utility and wonders of electronic medical records, the hard reality ‘on the ground’ is that entering electronic data, for every patient encounter, is a productivity killer. In fact, I realized that I spend far more time looking at the screen, clicking the mouse and typing the history for the patient counter than I ever spend actually talking to, and touching, the patient. I believe that EMR, while having some utility, has simply caused us to obtain and store more data than ever, most of which is unnecessary at best, and at worst, damning and confusing.Â (Damning because if my vast chart conflicts with the nurse’... ...»

Meditation for Slow Learners
	You can't read too many health headlines anymore before you run across a story extolling meditation's many health benefits: from calming anxiety to increasing resilience, from lowering blood pressure to building immunity. Meditation does it all! And is being embraced in practically every medical field. But what is it? I'm a bit of a slow learner, so even as I promised myself two years ago that I would start each day with 20 minutes of meditation, I am still thumbing through books trying to figure out how, exactly, you do it. I have learned much from Elisha Goldstein's Psych Central blog, "Mindfulness and Psychotherapy." Because I believe, on some level, that all forms of meditation are about creating space. And Elisha reminds his readers of that by continually repeating the mea... ...»

Nocturnoblogâ€¦blogging my night shift
	I haven’t worked a night shift in many months.Â For a time, years ago, I worked full-time nights.Â I did it for about seven years, at which time my wife told me I was acting depressed and should move to a daytime schedule.Â Still, the vagaries of the ER require that we sometimes be here all night.Â Blech.Â So, I thought I’d take this opportunity to chronicle my thoughts through the night.Â Please be patient if my thought processes seem to ramble. 1)Â I had, in my lunch container, a cheeseburger, two packs of Swiss Cake Rolls, and a turkey, pepper-jack and honey-wheat bread sandwich.Â I arrived at 2250.Â It is 2330.Â I have consumed one turkey sandwich and one pack of Swiss Cake Rolls.Â It may be a long night. 2)Â I came to work without sleeping much.Â I simply coul... ...»

Are Low Carb Diets Bad for the Brain?
	Are low carbohydrate diets bad for the brain? Ketogenic diets (low carbohydrate diets) promote the increased use of ketone bodies–soluble compounds produced by the body when fatty acids are broken down–by the brain. But, is this safe? When examining epileptic children who spend years in ketosis, or the accumulation of higher than normal ketone bodies, there seems to be no negative effect on cognitive function, except fatigue in the beginning stages of the diet (Hale, 2010). In addition, ketogenic diets are used as treatment for some diseases.Â Klepper and colleagues (2003) reported that ketogenic diets have been used for decades to treat intractable childhood epileptics, but they can also be used for treating other conditions such as glut 1 deficiency syndrome and pyruvatedehy... ...»

Can You Take Someone to the ER for Mental Health Help?
	When I came home from work, she was sitting on the back porch steps, crying. Another friend was sitting next to her, arms draped around her shaking shoulders, trying to understand the words in between her hiccuped sobs. “Is everything okay?” I asked, even though I knew this wasn’t just a normal bout of tears. Julie (not her real name) had been crying the entire day. When I left for work she had been sobbing in the bathroom, and (I learned later) had turned on the shower to muffle the sound of her emotion from the rest of the house so no one would come and check on her. No one knew how long she had stayed like that, melted to the bathroom floor, clutching a towel to her chest, the shower running hot and humid whenever she felt she was getting too loud. It’s possible ... ...»

Cultivating Self-Compassion
	When something has gone wrong, when there's been a mistake made, no matter how small, many people are all too quick to point the finger "” at themselves. They flog themselves for any failure, letting their self-esteem bend and bow at the face of disappointments and triumphs. For many, self-esteem is shaky at best. But there's something you can build that's more substantial than self-esteem. Something that doesn’t waver and can actually boost your well-being "” and your performance isn't a factor. According to psychologist Kristin Neff, Ph.D, in her book Self-Compassion: Stop Beating Yourself Up and Leave Insecurity Behind, that something is self-compassion. Being self-compassionate means that whether you win or lose, surpass your sky-high expectations or fall short, you sti... ...»

Tiki Barber, Football, Retirement and Depression
	As a reminder that depression strikes anyone, at any time, for any reason or no reason whatsoever, I give you Tiki Barber. For those of you unfamiliar with Mr. Barber, he was a professional (American) football player who decided to retire four years ago at age 32. A good time to retire as a football player, as your body starts to show its age against the physicality of the game. He took jobs as a sports commentator at NBC, both in their sports division and for “The Today Show.” But Mr. Barber’s depression appears to be directly related to a number of events that occurred in his life after his retirement. And now he says he wants to get back into the game, at age 36. His real problems appear to have started when it was revealed he was having an affair with a 23-year-old N... ...»

6 Tips to Help Summer Depression
	The kids are out of school. Your neighbors are whistling on their way to work, greeting you with an enthusiasm peculiar to warm weather. And if you hear one more person ask you about your summer vacation plans, you will throw a US map and atlas at them. You don't mean to be grumpy. But darn it, you are miserable in the oppressive heat, your kids are home for 90 consecutive days, and you are don't have the stamina to pretend you are giddy that summer has arrived. Sound familiar? You're not alone. After publishing a piece recently about the trigger of Memorial Day for me — reminding me that most of my relapses have happened in the summer months — I've heard from so many readers that fear this time of year for the same reason: summer depression. Ian A. Cook, MD, the direc... ...»

4 Ways to Manage Oppositional Defiant Disorder in Children
	Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD) is a childhood disorder that affects anywhere from 6 to 10 percent of children. It is characterized by a negative set of behaviors in a child directed toward the adults in their life, and can sometimes be mistaken for disorders that share some characteristics, such as conduct disorder and even attention deficit disorder. The diagnosis of Oppositional Defiant Disorder is given by mental health professionals to describe a set of behaviors a child is exhibiting that include: Often loses temper Argues with adults and authority figures Refuses to comply with adult requests Blames others for his mistakes Deliberately annoys people Is easily annoyed by others Is angry/resentful and spiteful/vindictive. Sound like a child you may know? If a child exhibits fou... ...»

The Practice Testâ€¦on Kindle!
	For all of you fans of electronic books (which have finally out-sold print books), my latest book, The Practice Test, is available as an e-book.Â Here’s the link! http://booklocker.com/books/5196.html Thanks for your support! Edwin (Source: edwinleap.com) ...»

Americaâ€™s Mental Health: Budget Cuts, Poor Training and Stephanie Moulton
	Anybody who’s been an administrator in a community mental health system in America in the past three decades knows the drill. During bust times, state governments actually come close to doing a good job with members of society who are at their most vulnerable. Services are — while never fully-funded — well-funded, and for the most part, there’s enough staff to cover the huge need in communities for mental health care for the poor. But when budgets tighten, the first place governors look to cut are social services. High on the list of social services to be cut are mental health services, because they are often people intensive. Nevermind that most of those people are poorly trained “aides” or others who often have little direct education or experience wit... ...»

7 Tips for Minding My Own Business
	Lately, I've really been focusing on trying to be less judgmental. It's a tricky resolution, because it's hard to turn it into specific, manageable resolutions to keep me on track. What, exactly, do I do differently in my life to be less judgmental? I need to change the way I think. One of my helpful mantras, though, is to "Mind my own business." I remind myself: 1. No one asked for my advice. Except in the rare instance when people specifically ask me for help clearing their clutter, raising their children, or deciding their careers, I should keep my advice to myself. 2. I don't know the whole story. It's very easy to assume that I understand a situation and to form a judgment when in fact, I understand almost nothing about what's happening. 3. It doesn't affect me. A f... ...»

The Incredible Shrinking American Vacation
	Vacations are theoretical concepts that exist today only on paper. That's according to Joe Robinson, work-life balance speaker, trainer, and author of "Don't Miss Your Life." His statistics are dire: Some 25 percent of Americans and 31 percent of low-wage earners get no vacation at all anymore, according to the Center for Economic and Policy Research. This is because, unlike in 138 other countries around the world, you’re not entitled to a vacation longer than the current news cycle. You happen to live in a country that, along with the esteemed likes of Myanmar, the Guyanas and North Korea, has no minimum paid leave law to make vacations statutorily legit. Now maybe it's because I have been self-employed for most of my working life — and the few jobs I have held, I di... ...»

Cultivating Your Passions
	Many of my happiness-project resolutions are meant to help me keep my vision wide. To counteract my impulse to work all the time, I push myself, with moderate success, to follow resolutions like Force myself to wander, Take time for projects, Read at whim, and Take notes without a purpose. And my most important resolution, of course, is to Be Gretchen. These resolutions have dramatically changed the way I react when I develop — as I sometimes do — unusual interest in a new subject. Nowadays, I allow myself to follow a new passion as far as I want. Sometimes, it's true, I’m lucky enough to have been able to turn these passions into my work. When I became obsessed with Winston Churchill, I wrote a book about Churchill. What a joy it was to write that book! My preoccupatio... ...»

Bipolar Disorder: Tips for Reducing Relapse
	For many mental illnesses relapse is part and parcel. Bipolar disorder is one of these. What’s especially unnerving for people is that relapse can seem random, as though you go to bed feeling one way and wake up another, feeling hints of mania or depression. Why relapse occurs is largely unknown. But we do know certain facts based on research findings, according to Joseph R. Calabrese, M.D., director of the Mood Disorders Program at the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, in this excellent article in bp Magazine on relapse: “Those who are diagnosed with bipolar II are more likely to relapse than those with bipolar I. Their episodes of depression, mania or hypomania are often shorter than the episodes experienced by those with bipolar I but tend to return more of... ...»

Can a Negative Emotion, Like Regret, Actually Make You Happier?
	Assay: Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about the important role of negative emotions in a happy life. Some people seem to believe that the purpose of a happiness project would be to achieve a life in which you were 100% happy, 100% of the time. This isn’t realistic, and in any event, even if it were possible, it wouldn’t be desirable. Negative emotions are a key part of rational thought and effective performance. Also, up to a point, they can be of great service to happiness. They’re loud, flashy signs that something isn’t right. Because they’re so unpleasant, they can sometimes prod us to take action when nothing else can. For instance, envy and deception have helped me to make useful changes in my life. I just finished Neal Roese’s book, If Onl... ...»

6 Ideas for Creating Fun Rituals with Your Family
	My parents and I have always been like the Three Musketeers. When I lived at home, we'd sit down to dinner every single night"”no TV or cell phones, though my dad would leave the soccer game on in the living room and spring from his chair to stand at the edge of the kitchen to catch a good play. (Or if he heard the signature “Gooaaaallllll!” roaring from the announcer.) We took family vacations regularly and rarely experienced big events separately. For instance, whenever I had a performance at school, my parents always made sure that one of them was there. If they had to, they’d miss work to support me during one of my silly shows. My father passed away almost two years ago, but my mom and I still try to eat dinner together and regularly have shopping dates. When my g... ...»

Can You Have Too Much Happiness?
	I can safely say that I think few of us struggle with having too much happiness. We turn to the happiness gurus to help us increase our happiness for a reason — who wouldn’t want to be happier? Pretty much all of us do. For many of us, the pursuit of happiness is not only something we’ve grown up on, it’s something we’ve come to expect as a right. I mean, it’s right there in the Declaration of Independence! But like everything in life, too much of a good thing is a bad thing. This includes the pursuit of happiness. Too much happiness can be just as detrimental in your life as not having enough. That’s the finding anyway of Gruber and her colleagues (2011), in a recent review of the happiness research. Let’s see what they had to say. Too Muc... ...»

The Seed: 9 Pieces of Advice for Graduates
	In his new book, The Seed: Finding Purpose and Happiness in Life and Work, international and Wall Street Journal bestselling author Jon Gordon tells the story of Josh, a guy who, like so many of us, has lost his passion at work. When Josh's boss challenges the young worker to take two weeks off to assess his attitude and intentions, Josh heads to the country. There, a farmer hands him a seed and tells him that when he discovers the right place to plant the seed his purpose will be revealed to him. This tale takes readers on a quest to explore their own passion, purpose, and happiness in life and work. The themes presented are most appropriate for graduates just embarking on their path. Here, then, are nine such lessons presented in the story, in the words of Gordon: 1. Focus on Get to i... ...»

How To Do Great Work â€” and A Giveaway!
	When you're on the job, you might feel like the last thing you're doing is meaningful work. Like you're stuck in a rut and just going through the motions. Email? Check. Phone calls? Check. Data entry? Check. Meeting? Check. Lunch? Check. More email. More calls. Home. Whether or not your days feel this mundane, you still might not be involved in exhilarating, engaging work that makes you happy. In Do More Great Work, Canadian coach Michael Bungay Stanier — founder of the company Box of Crayons — helps readers "stop the busywork, and start the work that matters.” Specifically, the book features a variety of exercises, which Stanier calls maps, and thought-provoking questions that help readers figure out what their own meaningful work is and how to do more of it. (It... ...»

A brief review of cognitive behavioural approaches for pain management
	Cognitive behavioural approaches for pain management are not exactly the same as cognitive behavioural therapy for mental health problems.Â While there are some underlying concepts that are the same, cognitive behavioural approaches for pain management include a wider range of strategies, and are far less readily defined than the very structured approach used in mental health.Â In fact it has only been in the last few years that research into the process of change in pain management have been conducted. What defines a cognitive behavioural approach? The assumption that people can learn to accept their chronic pain That people can broaden their self-concept beyond being “a patient” into being “a person with pain” That people can learn or re-explore skills to deal ... ...»

How our Intuitions Deceive Us: An Interview with Daniel Simons
	In 2004 Daniel Simons and Christopher Chabris received the Ig Nobel Prize in Psychology, awarded for "achievements that first make people laugh, and then make them think," for the experiment that was the inspiration for their popular book,Â The Invisible Gorilla, and website. Daniel Simons is a Professor in the Department of Psychology and the Beckman Institute at the University of Illinois. His research focuses on the limits of human perception, memory, and awareness, and he is best known for his research showing that people are far less aware of their visual surroundings than they think. We recently sat down with Simons to talk about his current work. In celebration of the June 7th release of the paperback edition of The Invisible Gorilla you guys are starting a charity campaign. Ple... ...»

In the News: Brain Calisthenics, Bilingual Brains, Debunking Myths on Mental Illness
	Let us highlight a couple of insightful and brief articles in the New York Times and a very powerful analysis in The New York Review of Books; they provide useful clues about Brain Calisthenics, Bilingual Brains, and Debunking Myths on Mental Illness. Brain Calisthenics for Abstract Ideas (NYT): Now, a small group of cognitive scientists is arguing that schools and students could take far more advantage of this same bottom-up ability, called perceptual learning. The brain is a pattern-recognition machine, after all, and when focused properly, it can quickly deepen a person's grasp of a principle, new studies suggest. The challenge for education, Dr. Kellman added, "is what do we need to do to make this happen efficiently?" Experts develop such sensitive perceptual radar the old-fashi... ...»

Think! Encouraging Girls to Stay Smart in a Dumbed-Down World
	In her gutsy book, Think: Straight Talk for Women to Stay Smart in a Dumbed-Down World, attorney and national television legal analyst Lisa Bloom paints a dire picture: The problem is not just about that 25 percent of young women who would rather be hot than smart; rather, it's about a culture that actually makes that a rational choice: rewarding girls for looks over brains. And it's about ALL of us, intelligent American females, ranging from girlhood to old age, who are dazzling ignorant about some critically important things. An aggravating thing happened in the last generation. As girls started seriously kicking ass at every level of education (girls now out-perform boys in elementary, middle, and high schools; we graduate from college, professional, and graduate schools in greater ... ...»

Identifying and Avoiding Contaminated Mindware
	Broadly speaking, there are two key problems that contribute to irrational thoughts and behaviors:Â processing problems and content problems. The processing problem is reflected in our tendencies to be cognitive misers.Â We naturally engage in thinking that is rapid and computationally inexpensive.Â This cognitive thriftiness often serves us well, but at other times it can lead to less than optimal decisions.Â Content problems include- mindware gaps, and mindware contamination. Mindware (a term invented by cognitive scientist David Perkins) is defined as rules, procedures and other forms of knowledge that are stored in memory and can be retrieved in order to make decisions and solve problems (Stanovich, 2009). A mindware gap occurs when the tools of rationality — scientific think... ...»

6 Bipolar Rules for Eating
	The following post is by Hilary Smith, author of “Welcome to the Jungle: Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Bipolar But Were Too Freaked Out to Ask” (Conari Press, 2010) as well as a cool blog to go with it, Welcome to the Jungle. We’ve all heard about “mood foods” that can promote wellness for people with bipolar and depression–fish oil for brain health, oatmeal for stable blood sugar, chocolate for, well, chocolateness. But it’s also important to think about how we eat. How we eat can have just as big an impact on our mood as what we eat, yet it often gets neglected in conversations about bipolar and food. Here are some tips for maintaining a healthy mood through mindful eating practices. 1. Make eating an art. How you eat is sometimes a r... ...»

A Look Inside the Mind of Schizophrenia
	Schizophrenia is one of the more debilitating types of mental illness. Over a year ago, I wrote an article for Psych Central about living with schizophrenia. In the beginning, I featured an excerpt from E. Fuller Torrey's, M.D., excellent book Surviving Schizophrenia: A Manual for Families, Patients and Providers, because it captures the confusion and misinformation about this disorder. "Your daughter has schizophrenia," I told the woman. "Oh, my God, anything but that," she replied. "Why couldn't she have leukemia or some other disease instead?" "But if she had leukemia she might die," I pointed out. "Schizophrenia is a much more treatable disease." The woman looked sadly at me, then down at the floor. She spoke softly. "I would still prefer that my daughter had ... ...»

When Should You Consider Hospitalization for Depression?
	I wish psychiatrists sent people with depression home with instructions on when to go to the hospital similar to the ones obstetricians give to pregnant women once they reach 37 weeks of gestation: when your contractions last for a minute each and are five minutes apart, start the ignition! “How did you know it was time to go to the hospital?” a friend asked me the other day. “I didn’t,” I replied. “My friends did.” Each psych ward experience is different. And no doctor judges the decision to enter one in the same way. In hindsight, I wonder why my therapist didn’t urge me to commit myself months before I did. I talked about wanting to die most of my hour with her. Because it was all I thought about. That idea, alone, gave me relief. But I ... ...»

6 Tips for Battling Loneliness
	The more I’ve learned about happiness, the more I’ve come to believe that loneliness is a terrible, common, and important obstacle to consider. A while back, after reading John Cacioppo’s fascinating book Loneliness, I posted Some counter-intuitive facts about loneliness, and several people responded by asking, “Okay, but what do I do about it? What steps can I take to feel less lonely?” I recently finished another fascinating book, Lonely — a memoir by Emily White, about her own experiences and research into loneliness. White doesn’t attempt to give specific advice about how to combat loneliness, but from her book, I gleaned these strategies… 1. Remember that although the distinction can be difficult to draw, loneliness and solitude are dif... ...»

Run Like a Girl: How Sports Can Empower You
	I never considered myself an athlete. My twin sister grew up with the reputation of being the tomboy of the family, the sporty one who participated in soccer and other organized sports. I was the brain and artsy one, who spent more time practicing my scales and arpeggios on our baby grand piano and perfecting pirouettes in the dance studio. I was intimidated by sports. And I found that I had absolutely no coordination once you threw a ball into the competition. So out were softball, volleyball, soccer, and pretty much every other sport. I swam during the summer and for my high school, and I started running in junior high, but just to lose enough weight to stop my period (I was a tad anorexic). I continued jogging and swimming through college into early adulthood. But just to stay in shape.... ...»

9 Tips to Find a Fulfilling Work-Life Balance
	Recently, I had the pleasure of interviewing several amazing women on how they juggle all the responsibilities that come with their professional and personal lives. (Stay tuned for the article in our mental health library!) In addition to sharing what works for them, they provided a slew of solutions for readers, too. Here's what they had to say… 1. Challenge society’s standards. In our society, productivity is prized and praised. We reward workaholic ways, even though this is both emotionally and physically unhealthy. As such, productivity coach Laura Stack, MBA, suggested "challenging the social acceptance "” even society's encouragement "” of these common phrases: "˜Look how productive you're being. You are accomplishing great things' "˜After all, you posses... ...»

All About Wellness
	A while back, I posted about where and how I purchased cannabis (The Kind Budtender). I never updated the blog with the unfortunate news that the dispensary closed. This was months ago. At first, I was, of course, worried about finding an equally compassionate dispensary in the Sacramento area. I then began visiting various other local Continue reading All About Wellness (Source: Cancer, life, and me) ...»

May Update: Brain Training in Mental Health Toolkits for Prevention and Rehabilitation
	The use of a variety of brain training interventions is growing in the area of mental health. Emerging evidence suggests that in the near future targeted brain training may even be used to prevent substance abuse. For example, training working memory may reduce subÂstance abusers' discounting of long-term rewards and punishments "” such discounting is one of the reasons why people susceptible to addictions do not benefit from traditional informational/ educational approaches to drug prevention. Let's explore some expanding applications of brain training, and much more, in this latest edition of the monthly SharpÂBrains eNewsletÂter. Brain Training and Mental Health ADHD: Brain Training, Neurofeedback, Diet, andÂ More: What can be done to fight ADHD and improve the lives of peoÂpl... ...»

10 Steps to Conquer Perfectionism
	Perfectionism. It’s the enemy of creativity, productivity, and, well, sanity. In The Artist’s Way, author Julia Cameron writes: “Perfectionism is a refusal to let yourself move ahead. It is a loop — an obsessive, debilitating closed system that causes you to get stuck in the details of what you are writing or painting or making and to lose sight of the whole.” But you don’t even have to be creating anything to be crippled by perfectionism. It can also frustrate your efforts as a mom, a wife, a friend, and a human being. Because no one and no thing is perfect in this blemished world of ours. I tackle this adversary everyday. And although my inner perfectionist clearly has hold of my brain many days, I do think I am handcuffed less often by the fear of mes... ...»

7 Good Reasons to Cry: The Healing Property of Tears
	New York Times reporter Benedict Carey referred to tears in a piece as “emotional perspiration.” Given that I sweat a lot and hate deodorant, I suppose it makes sense that I weep often. But I’m not going to apologize for that, because after a good cry, I always feel cleansed, like my heart and mind just rubbed each other’s backs in a warm bath. In his intriguing article, “The Miracle of Tears”, from which I’ve borrowed some of the research for this post, author Jerry Bergman writes: “Tears are just one of many miracles which work so well that we taken them for granted every day.” Here, then, are seven ways tears and the phenomenon we call “crying” heal us physiologically, psychologically, and spiritually. 1. Tears help us ... ...»

Top 30 Brain Fitness Articles
	Here are the top 30 Sharpbrains articles based on our readers' ranking since 2006 and since 2010. Brain science news, brain fitness trends, brain health and maintenance tips, read on to expand your mind! . Top 50 Brain Teasers, by SharpÂBrains Team The Ten Habits of Highly EffecÂtive Brains, by Alvaro Fernandez How can I improve my short term memÂory?, by Pascale Michelon Brain PlasÂticÂity: How learnÂing changes your brain, by PasÂcale Michelon Brain Fitness Program and Neuroplasticity @Â PBS,Â by Alvaro Ferandez What are Cognitive Abilities?, by Pascale Michelon How can I improve my short term memÂory?, by CarÂoÂline Latham Your Brain on Trading, by JaniceÂ Dorn Stress ManÂageÂment WorkÂshop for InterÂnaÂtional Women's Day, by Alvaro Fernandez Video Games Pros andÂ Co... ...»

8 Tips for Teenage Depression
	Teenagers are moody. Absolutely. Fluctuations in hormones cause anger outbursts, irritability, emotional hysteria, bursts of anger, defiant behavior, and weepiness. So it's very difficult to tease apart teenage drama from legitimate depression and other mood disorders. However, it's worth the effort because depression and other mood disorders that begin in adolescence often become much more serious and difficult to treat as adult disorders. A 1996 study by the National Institute of Mental Health estimated that more than 6 percent of adolescents, between the ages of 9 and 18 years old, suffered from depression during the six-month period of the study, and almost five percent suffered from major depressive disorder. Moreover, many of the 20 percent of people who suffer from depression a... ...»

Sexual Chemistry and Keeping Your Relationship Alive
	Our partner, YourTango.com, recently completed a scientific survey of over 20,000 people with their partner sites, MSN’s lifestyle website Glo.com and Chemistry.com, on sexual chemistry and what keeps a relationship alive and growing. The effort was overseen by a leading biological anthropologist and relationship expert, Dr. Helen Fisher, who also analyzed the results. Some of their findings might just surprise you, including the finding that 90 percent of men and women believe that dwindling attraction in a relationship can be rekindled. Their findings are detailed below. Did you know? The Truth About Sexual Chemistry (Video) The New Age Of Relationships: Sex, Love And Attraction In 2011 (An interview with Helen Fisher) Survey:Â 90% Of Americans Believe Attraction Can Be Rekindled... ...»

Brain Training as a New Treatment for Addictions
	Substance abuse can have dramatic consequences on the brain and behavior. The traditional way of preventing drug abuse is often education. Awareness programs do work with people who can picture long-term repercussions of abusing drugs. Other people, most often those vulnerable to addictions, do not benefit from such programs. It seems that they tend to devalue both rewards and punishments that will happen in the future, a behavior known as delay discounting. This leads them to opt for immediate rewards, such as those provided by drugs, and ignore future consequences. Would it be possible then to train the brain of these people so that they show less delay discounting? Would that help them stay away from addictive substances? Delay discounting is a brain function that involves the frontal l... ...»

When Mental Illness Stigma Turns Inward
	This study shows in some cases, it might even be increasing.) We see stigma everywhere. Every time violence is automatically connected to mental illness in an article or news report, we see it.* We see it in movies and other forms of media. We see it at work where stereotypes might be perpetuated, where employees are afraid to "come out" with their diagnosis. We see it with our families or friends, who might say versions of "just snap out of it" or "get over it already" or offer “advice” like sleep more, eat less, look on the bright side and try harder. There's also just pure ignorance, especially when it comes to serious mental illness such as bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. As E. Fuller Torrey, M.D., wrote in Surviving Schizophrenia: A Manual for Families, ... ...»

Twitter Chat Tonight on Mental Health in Older Adults #mhsm
	I’ll be hosting my first Tuesday night #mhsm chat on twitter tonight, on the topic of mental health in older adults. I blogged about this issue earlier this month, and we recently started a whole blog about getting older, Boomers on the Rise: Aging Well. Older adults have the same human needs, wants and desires as the rest of us (as we’ll all find out first-hand soon enough). Sometimes loneliness and depression is a factor for seniors, and sometimes seniors feel forgotten in life, as they watch their children grow up, move away, and have lives quite independent of their parents. It is a time of change, a time of recognition that our bodies often can’t do all the things they once could, but also a time of new discovery and reinvention. Much of an older adult’s mental... ...»

The Brain Grows With Practiceâ€¦and Then Shrinks Back to Normal.
	If you practice biceps curls at the gym, you will get bigger muscles that are also stronger. So far, the same seemed true for the brain. Thanks to neuroplasticity, practice triggers neuronal and synaptic growth (i.e., brain volume growth), which correlates with better performance. In this fascinating Scientific American article we learn that as the brain masters a new skill, some brain areas do get bigger but eventually shrink back to normal! The performance gain acquired through practice stays present, in spite of the shrinkage. Studying the auditory cortex of rats, they found that the expansion of a "˜skill-specific' brain area with training is only short lived, even when changes in ability are long lasting. So what does change? Although newly learned perceptual skills don't show up... ...»

Self-Exploration: Getting To Know Thyself
	Many of us go through life skimming the surface of our identities. That is, we don't truly dig deeply into our thoughts, feelings, desires and dreams. Part of the problem is that we're always on the go. When to-do lists keep swelling, self-exploration takes a backseat. How can it not, when we barely find time for self-care? Specifically, self-exploration involves "taking a look at your own thoughts, feelings, behaviors and motivations and asking why. It’s looking for the roots of who we are — answers to all the questions we have about [ourselves],” according to Ryan Howes, Ph.D, psychologist, writer and professor in Pasadena, California. Having a deeper understanding of ourselves has many benefits. It "helps people understand and accept who they are and why they d... ...»

Abandoned Minds: Social Justice, Civil Rights and Mental Health â€“ Part 1
	"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." — Edmund Burke "What conditions?” asked Rivera. "In my building," responded Wilkins, "there are sixty retarded kids with only one attendant to take care of them.Â Most are naked and they lie in their own sh*t.” This exchange was from a telephone call from Dr. Wilkins, who had been fired from Willowbrook State School in Staten Island, New York. He and a coworker were fired for their concern for the welfare of the inhabitants.Â The person they were talking to was a young television reporter: Geraldo Rivera. On January 6th, 1972, Wilkins and Rivera met at a diner.Â Wilkins still had the keys to many buildings, and the plan was set to bring in a camera crew to (illegally) film the... ...»

Brain Fitness Essentials
	This Huffington Post article is written by Dr. Cynthia Green, an active member of the Friends of SharpBrains.com: Innovation to Enhance Brain Fitness group on LinkedIn. A good reminder of what we should all do to boost our brain fitness: getting off the couch and on your feet maintaining a healthy weight with a low ratio of belly fat Leading a brain-healthful lifestyle Play games against the clock Learn simple strategies to enhance your daily recall Look for activities out of your comfort zone Let's add to this list managing your stress (via meditation or physical exercise for instance), staying socially connected, and reading interesting and stimulating posts! For more info, revisit our readers' favorite one: The Ten Habits of Highly Effective Brains (Source: SharpBrains) ...»

Hard to Find a Male Therapist?
	Well, yes. Fewer men are choosing clinical psychology as a profession. We’ve known this for many years, as graduate programs in psychology — both Master’s level and doctoral — have increasingly become female-dominated. In my graduate class of 1990, over 75% of the class was female. That percentage has only increased in the past two decades. So Benedict Carey’s new article in the New York Times is a bit of a puzzler. The angle is that because of this gender discrepancy, a good male therapist is increasingly becoming difficult to find: Researchers began tracking the "feminization" of mental health care more than a generation ago, when women started to outnumber men in fields like psychology and counseling. Today the takeover is almost complete. And I say, &#... ...»

5 Ways to Silence Your Inner Critic
	A few years back, Health Journal columnist Melinda Beck penned an amazingly accurate and helpful article in the Wall Street Journal about the self-criticism that so often accompanies depression and anxiety. Not only was I delighted that she approached such a difficult and complicated aspect of our illness with compassion and insight, but I was ecstatic to see myself as one of the “experts” mentioned with suggestions on how to silent the annoying voice that says we are incapable, weak, and worthless. Depression and self-criticism, of course, are great companions. Beck writes: Unrelenting self-criticism often goes hand in hand with depression and anxiety, and it may even predict depression. In a study of 107 patients in the latest issue of Comprehensive Psychiatry, David M. Dunkl... ...»

The Link Between Creativity and Eccentricity
	It's common knowledge that creatives can be eccentric. We've seen this throughout history. Even Plato and Aristotle observed odd behaviors among playwrights and poets, writes Harvard University researcher Shelley Carson, author of Your Creative Brain: Seven Steps to Maximize Imagination, Productivity and Innovation in Your Life, in the May/June 2011 issue of Scientific American. She gave several examples of creatives’ strange behaviors: "Albert Einstein picked up cigarette butts off the street to get tobacco for his pipe; Howard Hughes spent entire days on a chair in the middle of the supposedly germ-free zone of his Beverly Hills Hotel suite; the composer Robert Schumann believed that his musical compositions were dictated to him by Beethoven and other deceased luminaries fro... ...»

6 Steps to Get Anyone (Yourself Included) to Do Anything
	I am not promising these things. A motivational coach, consultant, therapist, and award-winning faculty member at Yale School of Medicine is. A guy named Michael V. Pantalon. He has a bunch of credentials like publishing articles in the New England Journal of Medicine and the Journal of the American Medical Association, so I read though his book, Instant Influence: How to Get Anyone to Do Anything"”FAST with curiosity. I have a lot of projects that I was hoping he could help me with. I have not had enough time to accurately test-drive his recipe of influence; however, I think I'm coming with a bit of a handicap considering my strong urge to want to please people. I only have to hear a vague "I don't really see it that way," to abandon my way and go with someone else's. However,... ...»

The Suffering Prevention Act: a social fiction story
	The Suffering Prevention Act Dr. Sam Fisher walked into the small exam room with chart in hand. He looked up, and extended a tired hand to the well dressed gentleman on the exam table before him. Mr. Mason, I’m Dr. Fisher. What can I do for you? he said for the 35th time that evening. Without a pause, Roger Mason looked at him, and said the words that had become so common. I claim the right to free care and to your voluntary effort as guaranteed by the Federal Health Care Rights Charter. Sam Fisher knew that he was required to reply in one manner and one manner only. I am here to serve you. What is your need? Roger Mason looked at him with a disdain that seemed to ask if there were any other doctors available. I’m in pain, as if you shouldn’t know by now. He looked down a... ...»

ADHD: Brain Training, Neurofeedback, Diet, and More.
	ADHD, or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, affects millions of children and adults (up to 5% of children in the US).Â More and more evidence suggests that brain training may be key to help these individuals. With this in mind, we put together our most recent articles on the topic toÂ a) help you better understand what is going in the brain of a person with ADHD, and b) provide you with up-to-date information on what can be done to fight the disorder and improve the lives of people suffering from it. We particularly thank Dr. Rabiner from Duke UniÂverÂsity for writing many of these articles. What is ADHD? What kind of attention is involved inÂ ADHD? ADHD may be considered as a problem in the willful control of attention as opposed to a pure deficit in the ability to pay attent... ...»

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	Kindness as Medical Treatment (This originally appeared as one of my columns in Emergency Medicine News, in 2001.) Before me on the exam table was a young woman in her mid- to late 30s. She was a little anxious. Her chart indicated that she had back pain, neck pain, headache, chest pain, and insomnia. I took a deep breath, rolled my eyes, and began to take a history. I tried my best to tease out what things might be serious and what was not. No injuries, no weakness, no shortness of breath, no history of heart disease, no thunderclap headaches, no, no, no. Her exam was almost as unremarkable. Until we went a little further. As her history continued and she opened up, I learned that she was working third shift at a local factory, raising three small children and caring for a husband on dia... ...»

When the Rapture Doesnâ€™t Happen, How Will Harold Camping React?
	There will be no rapture on Saturday, May 21st. And I can’t wait to see how Harold Camping reacts on Sunday when he’s still alive, on this Earth, and in this human body. That said, let’s talk about a method of persuasion called “social proof”. In “Influence: the Psychology of Persuasion”, Dr. Robert Cialdini describes social proof as follows: “In general, when we are unsure of ourselves, when the situation is unclear or ambiguous, when uncertainty reigns, we are most likely to look to and accept the actions of others as correct” (p. 129). We’re familiar with this concept. Should I laugh at this joke? Better wait and see if anyone else laughs first. Should I join a sorority? Better wait and see if one of my friends joins first. Sh... ...»

What is Brain fitness? What are Future Opportunities? Experts Answer.
	What is brain fitness really? What will happen in terms of brain fitness innovation in the next decade? What's the biggest challenge? Who could answer these questions better than the expert SharpBrains 2011 Summit speakers? Discover below the answers of 7 of them. .1. How would you define "brain fitÂness" vs. "physÂiÂcal fitÂness"? Alvaro Pascual-Leone, HarÂvard MedÂical School: PhysÂiÂcal fitÂness can refer to an overÂall or genÂeral state of health and well-being. HowÂever, it is also often used more specifÂiÂcally to refer to the abilÂity to perÂform a given activÂity, occuÂpaÂtion, orÂ sport. SimÂiÂlarly brain fitÂness might be used to refer to a genÂeral state of healthy, optiÂmized brain funcÂtion, or a more speÂcific brain-based abilÂity to proce... ...»

ADHD and Depression: Common Bedfellows
	Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and depression commonly occur together. According to Ari Tuckman, PsyD, a clinical psychologist who specializes in ADHD and wrote the book More Attention, Less Deficit: Successful Strategies for Adults with ADHD: “ADHD makes people’s lives harder, so it makes sense that they have more to be depressed about. This is especially true because ADHD difficulties usually persist — it’s not like going through a bad break-up where things get better with time.” Because ADHD is lifelong, it "robs the person of optimism that things will ever improve, at least before a diagnosis is made and treatment started." Below, Tuckman talks about both disorders, which is treated first and what readers can do. Depression Signs At f... ...»

Muzzling Doctors Who Ask Questions About Gun Safety
	Imagine that your 16-year-old daughter has been bullied mercilessly in school, but hasn't talked to you about it, or spoken about her suicidal impulses. One day, she is brought by ambulance to your local hospital emergency room, having made superficial cuts on her arms while in school. The emergency room physician tries to call you at work, but your cell phone isn't picking up. The doctor begins her evaluation of your daughter, including an assessment of all relevant risk factors for suicide. Now imagine that the doctor believes she is forbidden by law from asking your daughter whether there are guns in your home — despite the fact that firearms in the home markedly increase the risk of gun-related suicide.1 You needn't use much imagination. In Florida, Gov. Rick Scott is expec... ...»

Emergidate, the ER matchmaking service!
	Heck, if we have to see patients for free, at least we could bill for a dating service.Â Couldn’t we? http://www.xtranormal.com/watch/11938527/emergidate-the-er-matchmaking-service (Source: edwinleap.com) ...»

APA Mental Health Blog Party 2011 Roundup
	Here is our roundup of posts from the Psych Central Blog Network that blogged about mental health today as a part of the American Psychological Association’s (APA) Mental Health “Blog Party.” Psych Central is the world’s largest independent mental health network run by ordinary mental health professionals. Each month, over 1.5 million people visit our site from around the world to learn more about better mental health and conditions like depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, ADHD and anxiety. Psych Central bloggers are some of the most dedicated and passionate people I’ve met in the field of mental health. Some are professionals, some are not, but all share one thing in common — they have a knack for writing about psychology and mental health issu... ...»

Increasing Mental Health Awareness: Too Much of a Good Thing?
	Today is the American Psychological Association’s “Blog Party” in recognition of May being mental health month. The marketing effort behind designating a specific month a time to recognize and help increase awareness of a certain disease, disorder or condition is intended to help people learn more about various medical and mental health concerns. But a few weeks ago, physician H. Gilbert Welch wrote an op-ed in the LA Times that questioned whether the pendulum has swung too far the other way. Have we become a nation of people who will get diagnosed for all sorts of sub-clinical problems at the drop of a hat? Indeed, I think there is a very real danger of that becoming the case. And nowhere is that more likely than in mental health. Dr. Ron Pies talked about some of these... ...»

New Study Says Treating Mom Helps Childrenâ€™s Mental Health
	In this study, researchers learned that children's improvement, in terms of both depressive symptoms and social functioning, is associated with the time it took their mothers to get better." I sort of cringe when I read those facts because it took me two years to get better when I was severely depressed. My kids were the ages of one and three when my symptoms began, and they were three and five when I finally regained some stability. And yes, there were huge behavioral ramifications. Especially in my son. I suspect much of the anxiety he suffers today goes back to that frightening time in his life. Wall Street Journal columnist Melinda Beck writes about the new study in this week's "Health Journal." Beck mentions a report published in the journal Pediatrics that says at early a... ...»

Brain Teasers: A Good Laugh
	Laughing feels good. Laughing is indeed good in most cases. A good belly laugh amounts to an aerobic exercise as your blood pressure and heart rate increase, your breathing changes and your diaphragm contracts. Laughing has also been shown to boost the immune system and reduce stress. Laughing is thus good for your brain! Here are two fun ways to take a further look at laughter and the brain : Listen to these laughs and decide whether it is a human or a computer laughing. Try this to find out how much you are stressed. You may be surprised"¦ Enjoy! (Source: SharpBrains) ...»

The Healing Power of Laughter
	A year and a half ago, John McManamy interviewed me on the topic of humor in relation to mental health in a post he called "On the Dark Side of Humor." I explained to him that of all my tools to combat depression and anxiety, humor is by far the most fun. I realize I run into trouble with some folks who think there is nothing funny about being depressed and not able to get up from bed. But even if you have a broken funny bone while buried in the Black Hole, the minute you surface I think it's helpful to look back and poke fun of what just happened. If that is at all possible. I wasn't always able to laugh at myself. In fact, on my dad's deathbed, he urged me to have more fun. That was his only wish. I took life WAY too seriously and was annoyed by people who didn't. And then it... ...»

Exercise Improves the Cognition of Overweight Children
	Conclusions Aerobic exercise seems to benefit overweight children not only physically but also mentally. These findings mirror the ones observed in the aging population. Aerobic exercise influences cognition through the increase of growth factors such as brain derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), which leads to increased capillary blood supply to the brain and growth of both new neurons and synapses. With childhood obesity on the rise, these are very timely findings. In addition, exercise is a simple solution to increase physical health and mental performance. Something to tell to your school board, over and over! Related posts: Fitter bodies = fitter brains. True at allÂ ages? Exercise as a Treatment forÂ ADHD (Source: SharpBrains) ...»

Playing Music as a Protection Against Dementia
	This article explores another relationship between music and dementia: playing a musical instrument, even as an amateur, may protect the brain later on against dementia-related damages. Researchers had 70 people ages 60 to 83 perform a variety of tests to measure visuospatial memory, ability to name objects, the brain's ability to adapt to new information ["¦] those who had engaged in musical activity for 10 years or longer scored substantially better than those with no musical activity in their past. the longer people play instruments, the more benefits they may derive. All were amateurs who had started playing when they were 10 years old. the relationship between cognitive skills and years of musical activity held up whether the musicians were currently involved in making music or not... ...»

Wellness Articles from Medworm | Healthy Figures

Wellness Articles from Medworm