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.
ScienceDaily: Why does everything look gray when you feel blue?
Regardless of culture, language, era, or individual artist, the arts consistently depict depression using darkness. Scientific findings now lend empirical support to this representation of depression that everything looks gray when you feel blue.
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)
UPI: Fighting depression by logging off.
A recent study by researchers at Stony Brook University in New York found that online forums and chat sites can aggravate symptoms of depression. Over the course of a year, 13-year-old girls were found to become increasingly depressed and anxious when they participated in online chat sites allowing the girls to discuss issues over and over again
(Via GoodTherapy.org)
Three from the morning feed…
Brooding Russians: Less distressed than Americans (ScienceDaily)
Bad Breath Troubles? (WebMD)
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.
PsychCentral looks at ways to get the most out of depression treatment during tough economic times. Suggestions include:
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.
One computer can detect depression in blog posts. Another can win at Jeopardy!
Next: ?
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.
