Social Media News and Mental Health

Excess emersion in social media is unwise. We become overwhelmed when spending hours online seeking answers. The mind is not constructed to process an oversaturation of discouraging material and millions of digital comparisons. When people become flooded with too much data, one response is to ‘give up,’ which can lead to learned helplessness. This manifestation of learned helplessness is related to a person’s belief in their ability to reach a goal. In this case, finding the correct piece of information that satisfies a sense of safety in what we perceive to be an unsafe world. An impression of powerlessness that comes with a perceived lack of control over a particular outcome can lead to depression. It is important to proactively take control over our wellbeing and lessen the effect of learned helplessness.

On Creative Problem Solving

“The mind does most of its best thinking when we aren't there.
The answers are there in the morning.”
– Alain de Botton

What is Default Mode Network (DMN)? DMN is an empirically supported phenomena when one develops their best ideas during times in which they are otherwise mentally unoccupied. Examples may be when in the shower, walking your dog or raking fall leaves. Some may term this daydreaming, an activity we engage in almost 50% of time.

World Mental Health Day - 10/10/2022

The World Federation for Mental Health (WFMH) announced the theme for World Mental Health Day 2022, which is 'Make mental health for all a global priority”.

Fitting Work into your Life

We know work can be taxing in two ways:
Time Pressure – The perception one has of uncompleted tasks and that
time is running out to accomplish those responsibilities.
Emotional Labor – The management of one's emotions in order to present oneself and interact with other people in a certain way while doing a job. An example of emotional labor may be working daily with customers and coworkers, while making a good effort to appear cheerful and friendly, can be especially draining when one is under time pressure on tasks.

Resiliency in Challenging Times

Resilience is necessary now. Trying to be toughly impervious to our serious changes is not rational, as change is the only thing we can really expect in life. With a rigidly resistant attitude, one could become unnaturally inflexible and be unable to adapt to life’s sudden twists and turns. Realistically, we must honor what is taking a real toll on us all. It may be better to think of the tree that bends and flexes with a strong gale so as not to ultimately collapse.

Mental Health Apps

The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the clinical development of a host of self-help apps. Possibly it is due to disruptions in mental health services, economic or convenience factors, but our populace is adopting this form of care. Drawbacks of using apps are that some software is unregulated prior to hitting the market, which may render them ineffective or even risky. If a person is already in therapy, the use of undiscussed external programs can muddy the waters of the person’s clinical treatment plan, which would be a problem. In psychotherapy a good deal of work is done outside the session. In my experience, clients have trouble enough completing outside tasks (even with therapeutic support). There may be less resolve towards homework success left to their own devices – pun intended.