ScienceDaily: Emotions help animals to make choices
Happy? Angry? Anxious? How can we measure animal emotions? To understand how animals experience the world and how they should be treated, people need to better understand their emotional lives. A new review of animal emotion suggests that, as in humans, emotions may tell animals about how dangerous or opportunity-laden their world is, and guide the choices that they make.
PsychCentral: Early Life Experiences Boost Adult Mental Health.
A new study suggests infants who receive strong affection from their mothers are well equipped to cope with life stressors as adults. Although the sample is small, the research is meaningful. Most prior studies have relied on recall; few have tracked participants from childhood to adult life, say the authors.
Worry a lot? To consider: The Wisdom of Insecurity by Alan Watts. You may know Alan Watts from oft-broadcast lectures–eager audience hanging on every wryly wise, British-accented utterance. (Lectures can be sampled via this podcast or downloads around the net.)
In this short book, Watts takes on worry and anxiety–a.k.a. insecurity. He argues that to live is to be insecure; all we be can certain about is the present moment. He encourages awareness, mindfulness, acceptance–Buddhist principles all adopted as central tenets of many therapy approaches (ACT, DBT, MBSR…) since the book was penned in 1951. Here’s a sample, about acceptance:
The human organism has the most wonderful powers of adaptation to both physical and psychological pain. But these can only come into full play when the pain is not being constantly restimulated by this inner effort to get away from it, to separate the “I” from the feeling. The effort creates a state of tension in which the pain thrives. But when the tension ceases, mind and body begin to absorb the pain as water reacts to a blow or a cut.
A study at PhysOrg.com–feelings catchable.
[R]esearchers [have] found a correlation between an individual’s emotional state and those of the person’s contacts. In other words, it appears that you can catch happiness. Or sadness.
(Via GoodTherapy.org)
Results from a giant Consumer Reports mental health survey, reported earlier, have been posted. Here are the bullet points they came up with:
Talk therapy helps
Some drugs have an edge
Anxiety rises [is on the rise, that is, since 2004]
Side effects shift
Type of therapist doesn’t matter
Details on the site.
ScienceDaily: Anger Drives Support for Wartime Presidents, Study Finds
Contrary to popular opinion and previous speculations among psychologists, Lambert’s study shows that the impulse to support the president in times of war has little to do with feelings of anxiety or uncertainty or needing a president to somehow make us feel safe.
Ordered the couch yesterday for new therapy offices in Los Feliz. I’ll post pictures once it’s all set up. In the meantime, help with anxiety, depression, relationships, stress-related chronic pain, and addiction recovery ongoing at offices in Los Feliz, Silver Lake, and Beverly Hills. Call me at (323) 610-0112 to talk about what you’re going through and arrange a first appointment.
Taking care of a spouse who is ill can increase anxiety and depression, however…
[A study] found that when spouses were engaged in active caring tasks they had an increase in positive emotions, while time spent in passive care tended to provoke more negative emotions. Spouses who viewed themselves as sharing a mutually close relationship with their spouse had even higher levels of positive emotion while engaged in active caring.
NYT: Add Psyche of Gulf Workers to Spill’s Toll.
Beyond the environmental and economic damage, the toll of the mammoth spill in the Gulf of Mexico is being measured in hopelessness, anxiety, stress, anger, depression and even suicidal thoughts among those most affected, social workers say.
From ScienceDaily: Drug Induces a Memory of Safety in Rat Brains.
Researchers have found a way to pharmacologically induce a memory of safety in the brain of rats, mimicking the effect of training. The finding suggests possibilities for new treatments for individuals suffering from anxiety disorders.
