Category Archives: Depression

Anxiety During the Pandemic

A study published in the Lancet found that the COVID-19 pandemic has led to a surge in anxiety and major depressive disorders across the world, particularly among women and young people. The study included 48 previously conducted studies from around the world, and pulled together their findings in an analysis of 204 countries and territories …

How Anxiety and Stress Negatively Impact Decision Making

Have you ever found your ability to make a seemingly-simple choice hindered by your emotional state? Caroline Leaf, PhD—neuroscientist and Cleaning Up The Mental Mess author—and Sage Grazer, therapist and co-founder of mental health startup Frame, describe the ways in which stress and anxiety can heavily effect your decision-making process. After describing the science behind it …

Another Disease Called Loneliness

In a Scientific American article, researchers discuss the effects that social isolation has had on the population. Statistics suggest that even prior to the pandemic, poor social health was an issue for many people, with 79 percent of Gen Zers, 71 percent of millennials and 50 percent of baby boomers reporting a feeling of loneliness. …

New Year Blues

Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) and the “New Year’s Blues” continue to affect many people this time of year, with an estimated average of 10 million people reporting symptoms. When seasonal depression coincides with the holiday period, it’s often exacerbated by feelings of tension, uncertainty, social conflict, changed sleep patterns, and increased alcohol consumption. This year …

Emotional Safety Nets for Men?

Though mental illness has never discriminated, men typically find it more difficult to talk about their problems than women do, often influenced by societal pressures to remain silent. Men suffer from anxiety and depression far more than we realize, but often mask it behind greater anger, substance abuse, and risky behaviors. This often leads to …

What is Light Therapy?

Seasonal depression is sometimes used as a punchline during the winter, but for many, the waning daylight has a very real effect on one’s mental health. You may experience mood swings, shifts in eating habits, and decreasing energy levels, and for some, the symptoms are so severe that winter disrupts their entire lives. Recently, research …

Self-Care is Hard

Self-care is about, as this Psychology Today article puts it, “identifying your own unique needs and taking steps to meet them…it’s provided for you, by you.” However, for people with depression, self-care can be hard to attain. There’s a neurobiological reason for this: depression leads to dysfunction in the frontal lobes, making self-care extremely difficult. …

Celebrities with Depression

Even for celebrities always in the limelight, they’ve found that “depression never discriminates.” It can happen to anyone and even when the world is looking at you and doesn’t see it, it doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. These 19 celebrities, including Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, Michael Phelps, Jim Carrey, and Dwayne Johnson, are just a …

Depression during COVID-19

It’s no surprise by now that COVID-19 has worsened people’s mental health. Data from the COVID-19 and Life Stressors Impact on Mental Health showed that all levels of depression showed a significant increase, while people with household incomes below $45,000 were 2.37 times more likely to show symptoms. What might surprise people is that not …

Mindfulness meditation “super-effective” as front line for depression and anxiety

Photo of leaf floating on water

Even 10 minutes a day of mindfulness meditation improves symptoms of anxiety and depression, brain-imaging research shows. The practice is associated with an increase in gray-matter volume in four areas of the brain, and activates other beneficial changes in the brain. Saundra Jain, MA, PsyD, LPC, and psychiatrist Michele Hauser, director, Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy in …