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Beijing’s SARS Lockdown Taught My Children Resilience. Your Covid Kids Will Likely Be Fine.
This story also ran on The Washington Post. It can be republished for free. Many parents are filled with angst as they prepare for their children to exit a year of pandemic isolation: Will it be OK to send them to school, per the recent recommendation from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention? Will school feel like school if students are masked and can’t trade snacks? Will children’s development be impaired by nearly a year of seeing few friends? With 20-20 hindsight, I can provide some reassurance, because my kids were 8 and 10 when SARS hit Beijing nearly two decades ago, shutting ...
Kaiser Health News
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Beijing’s SARS Lockdown Taught My Children Resilience. Your Covid Kids Will Likely Be Fine.
This story also ran on The Washington Post. It can be republished for free. Many parents are filled with angst as they prepare for their children to exit a year of pandemic isolation: Will it be OK to send them to school, per the recent recommendation from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention? Will school feel like school if students are masked and can’t trade snacks? Will children’s development be impaired by nearly a year of seeing few friends? With 20-20 hindsight, I can provide some reassurance, because my kids were 8 and 10 when SARS hit Beijing nearly two decades ago, shutting ...
California Healthline
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New California Law Makes It Easier to Get Care for Mental Health and Substance Abuse
USE OUR CONTENT It can be republished for free. Karen Bailey’s 20-year-old daughter has struggled with depression and anxiety for years. Since 2017, she’s been in three intensive group therapy programs and, each time, the family’s insurer cut her coverage short, says Bailey. “At a certain point, they would send us a form letter saying: We have determined that she is all better, it’s no longer necessary, so we are not covering it anymore,” says Bailey, 59, who lives in Los Angeles. “And believe me, she was not all better. In one case, she was worse.” In making coverage decisions about mental he...
Kaiser Health News
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College Tuition Sparked a Mental Health Crisis. Then the Hefty Hospital Bill Arrived.
This story also ran on NPR. It can be republished for free. Despite a lifelong struggle with panic attacks, Divya Singh made a brave move across the world last fall from her home in Mumbai, India. She enrolled at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York, to study physics and explore an interest in standup comedy in Manhattan. Arriving in the midst of the covid-19 pandemic and isolated in her dorm room, Singh’s anxiety ballooned when her family had trouble coming up with the money for a $16,000 tuition installment. Hofstra warned her she would have to vacate the dorm after the term ended if sh...
Kaiser Health News
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College Tuition Sparked a Mental Health Crisis. Then the Hefty Hospital Bill Arrived.
This story also ran on NPR. It can be republished for free. Despite a lifelong struggle with panic attacks, Divya Singh made a brave move across the world last fall from her home in Mumbai, India. She enrolled at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York, to study physics and explore an interest in standup comedy in Manhattan. Arriving in the midst of the covid-19 pandemic and isolated in her dorm room, Singh’s anxiety ballooned when her family had trouble coming up with the money for a $16,000 tuition installment. Hofstra warned her she would have to vacate the dorm after the term ended if sh...
California Healthline
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Fighting loneliness during the pandemic
Japan’s fight against loneliness and suicide during the pandemic By Anuja Venkatachalam That humans are inherently social beings is well-established. Strong social relationships have long been linked to physical and mental well-being. The largest study on happiness conducted by Harvard University has consistently found a strong association between happiness and close relationships, and the lack of social relationships or social isolation has been linked to suicidal tendencies. Suicide is currently one of the top 20 leading causes of death worldwide. Over 800,000 people die by suicide every yea...
Health Analytics
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Study explores the psychological benefits of adult play among a group of comedy improv performers
New research published in Adaptive Human Behavior and Physiology explores the idea that organized play that is mentally absorbing can reduce anxiety and stress among adults. The researchers found that while absorption does play a role in improvisational comedy, the stress-reducing effects may not extend outside the improv context. Cognitive scientists use the term “psychological absorption” to describe a personality trait defined by a readiness for deep involvement in self-altering experiences. This type of focused attention has been observed in certain religious practices, such as speaking in...
PsyPost
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Researchers link serious physical injury with posttraumatic stress and depression among university students
When most people think of PTSD, they may imagine soldiers and civilians struggling with the horrors of war, victims of abuse, witnesses of terrorist attacks, and other extreme incidents. However, PTSD — and the depression, stress and anxiety that often accompany it — is not the sole domain of extraordinary trauma. PTSD and depressive symptoms are known to affect individuals following moderate to serious physical injuries. The nature of this relation in university students, however, and especially those from low and middle-income countries is not well researched. This was the theme of a recent ...
PsyPost
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Engaging in art shown to improve anxiety and depression
Researchers at the University of Gloucestershire and Cardiff Metropolitan University have found that engaging in a course of creative art is associated with decreases in anxiety and depression, alongside improvements in wellbeing. The research, due to appear in the forthcoming special issue in Public Health on Arts, Creativity & Health, also examined patterns of change across two cycles of referral for this social prescribing scheme. The use of social prescribing in patient medical care has been increasing in recent years, particularly in the UK. Social prescribing is the practice of referring...
PsyPost
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Psychopathy linked to fear-specific reductions in brain activity when taking another’s perspective
Psychopathic individuals exhibit reduced brain activity when taking the perspective of another person who is experiencing fear, according to new research published in NeuroImage. The findings shed light on the underlying neurobiological mechanisms linked to psychopathy. “Psychopathy takes an enormous financial and human toll on society. Lack of empathy is thought to be a key characteristic that contributes to psychopathic people’s behavior that victimizes other people,” said study author Philip Deming (@phil_deming), a PhD student in the Department of Psychology at University of Wisconsin-Madi...
PsyPost
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