The New York Times regularly reports on topics related to mental health and wellbeing. You can easily access stories like the ones below from the Times free with a library card. Below you'll find some articles recommended by members of the Synapse Team.
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The 7-Minute Stress Workout
by Danielle Friedman
“Strengthening the connection between the body and the mind is a two-way street,” said Cassandra Vieten, a clinical professor of psychology and director of the Center for Mindfulness at the University of California, San Diego. Just as your thoughts can influence your body, moving your body can influence your thoughts. It’s like “reverse engineering your mindfulness,” she added.
4 Ways to Turn Around a Bad Day
by Jancee Dunn
How can you turn a bad day around quickly? I chatted with experts about a few things that can help. When clients tell Dr. Albers that they are having a lousy day, she often advises them to “respond, rather than react,” by stepping back from whatever prompted that thought and looking at it from a different perspective.
The Case for Eating Lunch With Your Colleagues
by Michael Snyder
At workplaces including Ava DuVernay’s production office and the fashion designer Joseph Altuzarra’s atelier, the staff meal is a way to fuel the creative process.
A Nation of Homebodies
by Ronda Kaysen and Alicia Parlapiano
A recent analysis of census data found that Americans are spending more time at home, and a large part of it alone. The analysis, based on responses to the American Time Use Survey, shows that time spent at home increased by 1 hour 39 minutes a day, or 10 percent, from 2003 through 2022.
Is Nighttime Depression Really a Thing?
by Christina Caron
Feeling down after dusk doesn’t necessarily mean that you have a mental health condition, experts said. Understanding why it happens can help you take steps to feel better.
End-of-Day Meltdowns Are Not Just for Kids
by Jancee Dunn
It’s been a while since I really fell to pieces at the end of a long day. But I know the feeling, and I instantly recognized it when a colleague with young children told me about a concept called “after-school restraint collapse.”
How to Let People Down and Be OK With It
by Catherine Pearson
In the last few years, several celebrities have captured the spotlight by stepping back to prioritize their mental health. First it was Simone Biles bowing out of the 2020 Olympics early. Then Naomi Osaka avoided talking to the press at the 2021 French Open, and the singer Shawn Mendes canceled a tour in 2022. Most recently, the pop star Chappell Roan pulled out of two music festival performances. These high-profile acts of self-preservation highlight an uncomfortable truth: Although self-care is important, putting your own needs first often means letting others down.
Teen Girls' Brains Aged Rapidly During Pandemic, Study Finds
by Ellen Barry
A study of adolescent brain development that tested children before and after coronavirus pandemic lockdowns in the United States found that girls’ brains aged far faster than expected, something the researchers attributed to social isolation.
What Doctors Want You to Know About Beta Blockers for Anxiety
by Christina Caron
Beta blockers can ease the physical symptoms of the “fight or flight” response to stress, such as tremors, sweaty palms or a racing heart, but they are not F.D.A.-approved to treat anxiety disorders.
How to Help Someone Through a Panic Attack
by Christina Caron
A meteorologist stepped away from a live broadcast when he noticed familiar feelings of panic start to arise. We can all learn from how he and his colleagues handled it.
How Inside Out and Its Sequel Changed Therapy
by Melena Ryzik
Mental health professionals and educators say the movies are remarkably helpful in providing a common language they can use with children and parents.
We Know Mental Health Affects Physical Health. Why Don't We Act Like It?
by Helen Ouyang
We need a care system and medical culture that support the health of the whole person. My patients already seem to grasp this truth. Many of them are eager for integrated care that prevents both mental and physical illness. Now the health care system needs to catch up to their wisdom so that we can help them do so.
The Loneliness Epidemic Has a Cure
by David French
Millions of Americans are lonely. They feel sad, mad and stuck. They’re alienated from their communities and angry at their predicament, and they don’t feel that they have many options to improve their lives. But friendship can help fix each of those problems.
Do You Have a Case of the 'September Scaries'?
by Elizabeth Angell
Those familiar with the concept of the Sunday Scaries will recognize this feeling. (And yes, the analogy suggests we should call it the August Scaries, but alliteration trumps symmetry here.) It’s a combination of dread, regret and anticipation that accompanies the end of a communal pause and the beginning of a hectic and demanding time.
I Used to Be Resilient. What Happened?
by Erik Vance
I have my coping mechanisms: Intense exercise, getting out into nature or distracting my brain with a Rubik’s Cube can all keep me from spinning out. But these feel like Band-Aids, not real grit. So I called a few experts to find out how I can become tougher. What I discovered was that my view of resilience was all wrong.
Rethinking Addiction as a Chronic Brain Disease
by Jan Hoffman
For decades, medical science has classified addiction as a chronic brain disease, but the concept has always been something of a hard sell to a skeptical public. That is because, unlike diseases such as Alzheimer’s or bone cancer or Covid, personal choice does play a role, both in starting and ending drug use.
Why Is the Loneliness Epidemic So Hard to Cure?
by Matthew Shaer
Squint, and you can see it: a scenario in which the loneliness crisis today is really a mass period of acclimatization. It’s a bridge, an evolutionary step, during which we make our peace with certain trade-offs and realities — that in 2024, we’re not all going to race to rejoin the local grange.
Americans' Struggle with Mental Health
by Ellen Barry
It is no mystery why rates of anxiety and depression in the United States climbed in 2020, at the height of the pandemic. But then life began a slow return to normal. Why haven’t rates of distress returned to normal, too?
Why gardening is so good for you
by Dana G. Smith
For me, gardening is a workout, meditation and opportunity to socialize with my neighbors all rolled into one. And while I’m admittedly biased, research backs up some of my observations that gardening can have real benefits for your mind and body.
The loneliness curve
by Christina Caron
When Surgeon General Vivek Murthy went on a nationwide college tour last fall, he started to hear the same kind of question time and again: How are we supposed to connect with one another when nobody talks anymore?
Loneliness can change the brain
by Dana G. Smith
Humans evolved to be social creatures probably because, for our ancient ancestors, being alone could be dangerous and reduce the odds of survival. Experts think loneliness may have emerged as a unique type of stress signal to prompt us to seek companionship.
Are we talking too much about mental health?
by Ellen Barry
Now, some researchers warn that we are in danger of overdoing it. Mental health awareness campaigns, they argue, help some young people identify disorders that badly need treatment — but they have a negative effect on others, leading them to over-interpret their symptoms and see themselves as more troubled than they are.
Why is it so hard to shower when I'm depressed?
by Anna Gibbs
If you have depression, you know how challenging everyday efforts can be. Cooking, cleaning, socializing — all of these can feel as if you’re trudging through the mud, said Dr. Lindsay Standeven, a psychiatrist and professor at Johns Hopkins Medicine.
What you really need to know about antidepressants
by Christina Caron
Despite the prevalence of these medications, some patients have “significant misconceptions” about how the drugs work, said Dr. Andrew J. Gerber, a psychiatrist and the president and medical director of Silver Hill Hospital in New Canaan, Conn.
Perfectionism Is a Trap: Here's How to Escape
by Christina Caron
But perfectionism isn’t about being the best at any given pursuit, Dr. Sun said, “it’s the feeling of never arriving to that place, never feeling good enough, never feeling adequate.” And that can make for a harsh internal voice that belittles and chastises us.
How are you, really?
by Dana Smith
We know we should get a physical exam every year; we have annual reviews at work; some couples even do periodic relationship audits. And yet many of us don’t regularly check in with our emotional health — though it is arguably the most important contributor to overall well-being.
Hope for Suicide Prevention
by Ellen Barry
The bridge is sealed up.” Last month, with those words, the general manager of the Golden Gate Bridge announced the completion of a suicide barrier — stainless steel netting that extends about 20 feet out from the walkway for the length of the bridge, making a jump into the water below extraordinarily difficult.
I want to work out more, but...
by Danielle Friedman
We’ve all been there. You set a goal to exercise regularly, but when the moment comes to get moving, your mind unleashes a torrent of excuses: I’m tired. It’s cold outside. I don’t want to spend money on a class.
These mental blocks may explain why it’s so hard to keep a New Year’s resolution for longer than four months. So how do you cut through them?
10 Ways to Support Your Mental Health
by Christina Caron and Dana G. Smith
Since the height of the pandemic, there has been a cultural shift in the way we talk about mental health. It’s as though the years of isolation and uncertainty helped us understand how vital our emotional needs were to our overall well-being.
That lingering 'meh' feeling has a name
by Christina Caron
Persistent depressive disorder is chronic depression that lasts for at least two years in adults. As with many types of mental illness, there are different levels of severity.
What Does It Really Mean to Dissociate?
by Christina Caron
Although dissociation can help a person mentally escape during a threat, it can interfere with daily life when people continue to dissociate during benign situations. Some people might find themselves in a new location without knowing how they got there, for example.
This simple fix could help anxious kids
by Camilo Ortiz and Lenore Skenazy
And as the years went by, parents growing wary of a winner-take-all economy focused ever harder on getting their kids into college. They sprang for things like tutors and travel teams, giving kids a more curated, less autonomous childhood.
How the arts can benefit your mental health (no talent required)
by Christina Caron
There’s a “really robust body of evidence” that suggests that creating art, as well as activities like attending a concert or visiting a museum, can benefit mental health, said Jill Sonke, research director of the University of Florida Center for Arts in Medicine.
We Know the Cure for Loneliness. So Why Do We Suffer?
by Nicholas Kristof
“We’re not meant to be lonely as a species,” said Paul Dolan, a professor of behavioral sciences at the London School of Economics who attended the Brighton event. “If you were to think of the most significant interventions to improve life expectancy, after quitting smoking, it’s: Don’t be lonely.”
Small Steps to Improve Your Mental Health
by Hannah Seo
This year may not have been the sea of calm you had hoped for after the tumult of 2020 and 2021. The pandemic continued; war broke out in Europe; we experienced natural disasters and troubling shortages; and more viruses stoked fears. But 2022 was also a year of learning and discovery.
I Answer the Phone at a Mental Health Hotline: Here's What I've Learned
by Benedict Carey
“Oh my, you picked up the phone.”
The caller sounded genuinely surprised and held her breath for a moment before telling her story. For more than a year, she and her husband had been largely trapped in their home by their 25-year-old son, who suffered from psychotic episodes. He refused any treatment, he had been making threats, and most nights he holed up in his room doing drugs while his parents tried to sleep behind their double-locked bedroom door.
“Is there someone who can come out to help us?” she said. “I mean, what do we do?”
I didn’t have a quick answer. It was my first call at a brand-new volunteer job.
How Parents Can Help Struggling Teens
by Melinda Wenner Moyer
For over 25 years, the psychologist Lisa Damour has been helping teens and their families navigate adolescence in her clinical practice, in her research and in best-selling books like Untangled: Guiding Teenage Girls Through the Seven Transitions Into Adulthood.
This moment in time, she says, is like no other.
The Phone in the Room
by David Leonhardt
Digital technology has caused the biggest changes to teenage life in many decades. Typical American teenagers spend about half of their waking hours on their smartphones. They are on the phones when they are alone at home and when they are hanging out with friends.
When I compare my own teenage years in the 1980s with those of my parents in the 1950s and ’60s, I realize how much more rapidly habits have changed in the past 15 years than in the previous 50 years. My teenage experiences and those of my parents weren’t all that different. We talked on the telephone, drove cars, watched movies, went to parties and so on. My children’s social rhythms look much different.
How to Help Teens Struggling with Mental Health
by Matt Richtel
Health risks in adolescence are undergoing a major shift. Three decades ago, the biggest health threats to teenagers were binge drinking, drunken driving, teenage pregnancy, cigarettes and illicit drugs. Today, they are anxiety, depression, suicide, self-harm and other serious mental health disorders.
From 2001 to 2019, the suicide rate for American youngsters from ages 10 to 19 jumped 40 percent, and emergency room visits for self-harm rose 88 percent.
Surgeon General Warns that Social Media May Harm Children and Adolescents
by Matt Richtel, Catherine Pearson, and Michael Levenson
The nation’s top health official issued an extraordinary public warning on Tuesday about the risks of social media to young people, urging a push to fully understand the possible “harm to the mental health and well-being of children and adolescents.”
For the first time, there's a pill for postpartum depression
by Pam Belluck
The Food and Drug Administration on Friday approved the first pill for postpartum, opens a new window depression, a milestone considered likely to increase recognition and treatment of a debilitating condition that afflicts about a half-million women in the United States every year.
