crisis

Four immediate priorities to flatten the mental distress curve

by

The men­tal health cri­sis trig­gered by COVID-19 is esca­lat­ing rapid­ly. One exam­ple: When com­pared to a 2018 sur­vey, U.S. adults are now eight times more like­ly to meet the cri­te­ria for seri­ous men­tal dis­tress. One-third of Amer­i­cans report clin­i­cal­ly sig­nif­i­cant symp­toms of anx­i­ety or clin­i­cal depres­sion, accord­ing to a late May 2020 release of Cen­sus Bureau data.

While all pop­u­la­tion groups are affect­ed, this cri­sis is espe­cial­ly dif­fi­cult for stu­dents, par­tic­u­lar­ly those pushed off col­lege cam­pus­es and now fac­ing eco­nom­ic uncer­tain­ty; adults with chil­dren at home, strug­gling to jug­gle work and home-school­ing; and front-line health care work­ers, risk­ing their lives to save oth­ers. [Read more…] about Four imme­di­ate pri­or­i­ties to flat­ten the men­tal dis­tress curve

Q&A with Rick Hanson on Neurodharma, brain science, personal practice and well-being

by

Psy­chol­o­gist and neu­ro­science expert Rick Han­son stud­ies the men­tal resources that pro­mote resilience, from calm and grat­i­tude to con­fi­dence and courage. Accord­ing to Han­son, the coro­n­avirus cri­sis is expos­ing some of our psy­cho­log­i­cal vul­ner­a­bil­i­ties, and remind­ing us how impor­tant it is to nur­ture our social and emo­tion­al strengths.

In his new book, Neu­rod­har­ma, Han­son writes about how we can cul­ti­vate more equa­nim­i­ty, wis­dom, and moral action using med­i­ta­tion and oth­er prac­tices. As he illus­trates with neu­ro­science research, prac­tic­ing pos­i­tive states of being like these can lead to phys­i­cal changes in the brain, which in turn [Read more…] about Q&A with Rick Han­son on Neu­rod­har­ma, brain sci­ence, per­son­al prac­tice and well-being

Technology and the Cognition Crisis

by

___

“Our lives on this plan­et have improved in so many amaz­ing ways over the last cen­tu­ry. On aver­age, we are now health­i­er, more afflu­ent and lit­er­ate, less vio­lent and longer liv­ing. Despite these unprece­dent­ed pos­i­tive changes, clear signs exist that we are in the midst of an emerg­ing crisis–one that has not yet been rec­og­nized in its full breadth, even though it lurks just beneath the sur­face of our casu­al con­ver­sa­tions and swims in the under­cur­rents of our news feeds. This is not the well-known cri­sis that we’ve induced upon the earth’s cli­mate, but one that is just as threat­en­ing to our future. This is a cri­sis of our minds. A cog­ni­tion cri­sis [Read more…] about Tech­nol­o­gy and the Cog­ni­tion Crisis

Obesity Crisis or Cognitive Crisis?

by

The arti­cle Clum­sy kids more like­ly to become obese adults: study (CBC)…

- “The study was based on tests of about 11,000 peo­ple in Britain who were test­ed for hand con­trol, co-ordi­na­tion and clum­si­ness at age sev­en and 11, and were then fol­lowed until age 33.”

- “Prof. Scott Mont­gomery of the Karolin­s­ka Insti­tutet in Stock­holm and his col­leagues at Impe­r­i­al Col­lege Lon­don in Eng­land said they pur­pose­ly chose mea­sure­ments of fine hand con­trol such as pick­ing up match­es, rather than those like­ly to be influ­enced by par­tic­i­pat­ing in sports, such as catch­ing balls.”

- “While it is often assumed that the cog­ni­tive impair­ments seen in adult obe­si­ty are a con­se­quence of excess weight, that could be putting the chick­en before the egg, the researchers say”

…reminds me of Judith Beck­’s words on how to “Train Your Brain to Think Like a Thin Person”

- “The main mes­sage of cog­ni­tive ther­a­py over­all, and its appli­ca­tion in the diet world, is straight-for­ward: prob­lems los­ing weight are not one’s fault. Prob­lems sim­ply reflect lack of skills–skills that can be acquired and mas­tered through prac­tice. [Read more…] about Obe­si­ty Cri­sis or Cog­ni­tive Crisis?