Category Archives: Articles

Anxiety, Articles, Depression

Coronavirus is causing a mental health crisis. Here’s how to fight it.

Original article https://www.vox.com/identities/2020/4/16/21219693/coronavirus-anxiety-depression-mental-health-ptsd-covid

EXCERPTS

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The fact that many people are unable to see their friends and loved ones in person only makes the situation worse. “Social distancing is really hard on people, and it’s especially taking its toll on people who are isolated at home alone,” Meredith said. “Loneliness can be a big source of stress.”

Even under more normal circumstances, prolonged loneliness can contribute to depression and anxiety, as well as to physical health problems. One 2016 study, for example, found that being lonely was associated with an increased risk of stroke and heart disease. Today, the ordinary risks of loneliness could be magnified by the stress of living during a pandemic. For people who are social distancing right now, “there is a high risk that they’re going to become more anxious, much more depressed, and it’s going to have longer-term effects,” Rima Styra, an associate professor of psychiatry at the University of Toronto, told Vox.

Overall, a lot of people around the world are experiencing a dip in mental well-being. Factors from “looming severe shortages of resources” to the “imposition of unfamiliar public health measures that infringe on personal freedoms” are likely to increase emotional distress during this time, psychiatry professors Betty Pfefferbaum and Carol S. North wrote in a paper published this week in the New England Journal of Medicine.

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Articles, Pictures

When to let a friendship go 😞

https://www.oprahmag.com/life/relationships-love/a25919349/signs-of-toxic-friendship/

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What a blessing friendship can be. Studies have suggested that those with really solid friends live longer. Like all deep relationships, however, even your platonic ones are bound to have their shaky moments. But if those tiffs, or lingering feelings that you’re not getting out as much as you’re putting in, happen more often than not, your friendship could be unhealthy, or even toxic.

“Friendships can be protective and rewarding, nurturing and uplifting. If a friend has the opposite impact, we may want to reconsider our relationship and reconfigure that person’s role in our lives. It doesn’t mean you need to end the friendship altogether—maybe you still see them for social gatherings—but they shouldn’t be who you turn to for emotional support,”

Recognizing that you’re in the midst of a toxic friendship by evaluating the signs is the first step toward extricating yourself—a painful but necessary process. “As you get older, it’s important to evaluate your friendships. If they’re not healthy or serving a positive purpose, it’s time to phase those people out,”

Articles, Pictures

What Is Nostalgia Good For? Quite a Bit, Research Shows

Original article: https://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/09/science/what-is-nostalgia-good-for-quite-a-bit-research-shows.html

Science of Nostalgia – It was first thought to be a “neurological disease of essentially demonic cause,” but it turns out that nostalgia is good for your brain. And there’s science to prove it.

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“Nostalgia made me feel that my life had roots and continuity. It made me feel good about myself and my relationships. It provided a texture to my life and gave me strength to move forward.”

Nostalgia has been shown to counteract loneliness, boredom and anxiety. It makes people more generous to strangers and more tolerant of outsiders.

Nostalgia does have its painful side — it’s a bittersweet emotion — but the net effect is to make life seem more meaningful and death less frightening. When people speak wistfully of the past, they typically become more optimistic and inspired about the future.

“Nostalgia makes us a bit more human,” Dr. Sedikides says. He considers the first great nostalgist to be Odysseus, an itinerant who used memories of his family and home to get through hard times, but Dr. Sedikides emphasizes that nostalgia is not the same as homesickness. It’s not just for those away from home

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Articles, Narcissistic PD, Pictures

Covert Narcissists and CPTSD

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The covert Narcissist will use their targets personal information to attack them, whereas healthy relationships allow for vulnerability, the narcissist will use vulnerabilities against their victim as ammunition and show no empathy to their victims as they have none.

These behaviours will wear the victim down but the skill the narcissist has in throwing just enough crumbs or plausibility to win/ entrap their victim again and again is truly astonishing. The behaviours of the covert narcissist are psychopathic and waver on the verge of evident danger and covert danger which is how they get away with it for so long…. until they don’t when the victim finally breaks free if they are able to. Setting free from the narcissist is not easy as the covert narcissist fears abandonment and will attempt to keep the loop going as long as possible, in fact the victim is their prey and they ‘own it’, they are predatory and dangerous. The victims to this abuse are often left feeling like they are a shell of their former selves and shattered at what has happened, it is like experiencing a bomb and being left shell shocked. Should the narcissist fail to keep their victims they will move on to their next person or better known as narcissistic supply without so much as a look in the rear view mirror they are recklessly harmful.

The Narcissist is unlikely to be self-reflective and will not accept accountability for their own actions, this is another good clue to help identify if you’re in the presence of a narcissist; they are hungry for Power, control and thrive on inflicting hurt and pain in any perverse form.

The effects of this crazy making behaviour and way of relating leave its indelible mark on their victims. This abuse can even lead to psychological trauma, PTSD and CPTSD.

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https://www.ecronicon.com/ecpp/pdf/ECPP-08-00464.pdf