High risk individuals frequently became so immersed and personally invested in news stories that the stories dominated the individual’s waking thoughts, disrupted time with family and friends, made it difficult to focus on school or work, and contributed to restlessness and an inability to sleep. Perhaps not surprisingly, people with higher levels of problematic news consumption were significantly more likely to experience mental and physical ill-being than those with lower levels, even when controlling for demographics, personality traits, and overall news use.
News
New study examines how self-compassion makes life better
A new study published in Personality and Individual Differences reveals that there is more to self-compassion than meets the eye. While we already know it can help us deal with setbacks adaptively and with dignity, it can also help us appreciate the good times more fully.
Friendships empower women against unwelcome sexual experiences
Sexual victimization is a widely studied phenomenon on college campuses, yet surprisingly little is known about how first-year college women navigate and respond to this risk. A new study reviews how perpetrators might target first-year women for a variety of reasons that include inexperience with alcohol, and being new to many of the social settings that are common in college. Strategies developed by researchers called “capable guardianship” helps women understand that by working together they can maximize their protection and safety and reduce the possible occurrence of nonconsensual sexual acts, ranging from unwanted touching to rape.
Patients with dissociation following trauma more likely to experience PTSD
Results from the largest prospective study of its kind indicate that for individuals who experience trauma, the presence of dissociation — a profound feeling of detachment from one’s sense of self or surroundings — may indicate a high risk of later developing severe post-traumatic stress, depression, anxiety, physical pain, and social impairment. The research, which was led by investigators at McLean Hospital, is published in the American Journal of Psychiatry.
How to Empower Yourself to Make Positive Change
When we are stressed, when we are tired and overwhelmed, it’s easy to hold our breath without even knowing it. And when we do that, we deprive ourselves of oxygen, which, in turn, limits our ability to think clearly in the moment and do things like problem-solving and affect-regulation.
Speaker Aims to Improve Mental Health Access for Older Adults
An estimated one in four older adults experiences a mental health condition, including depression, anxiety and substance use disorder, and individuals age 85 or older had the highest suicide rate in 2020, according to the committee. The opioid epidemic has also severely burdened older Americans. Almost 80,000 older adults died from an opioid overdose between 1999 and 2019.