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Johns Hopkins opening a new psychedelic research center, studying use of 'magic mushrooms' and more
Emotional Brain-Training: What We Need When Stress Levels Get Too High
What can you do for yourself when you are feeling stressed? Often, the habits of a healthy lifestyle are also good for keeping stress at bay. They include exercising regularly, getting enough sleep, and eating in healthy ways.
Sometimes, though, the usual ways of coping with stress are just not effective. They are especially likely to be inadequate when we are experiencing more than ordinarily levels of stress, sadness, or grief. What can we do then?
Associate Professor Laurel Mellin of the University of California, San Francisco, addressed that question in the wake of the shootings at El Paso and Dayton that left so many people feeling unusually fearful. Based on research from neuroscience, Dr. Mellin believes that different brain circuits, more toxic ones, are activated under conditions of high stress than low stress; they require different coping strategies. “When you feel overwhelmed, lost, numb, depressed, or in a panic,” she said, “that is usually caused by the activation of one of these toxic stress circuits.”
Although specific events, such as sudden acts of violence, can activate faulty brain circuits, experiences we accrue over the course of our lives can exacerbate things, too. For example, if we have experienced periods of extreme stress at particular times in our lives, we may end up feeling stressed for prolonged periods of time even there are no real threats to our well-being.
When you are feeling extra stressed, it may be tempting to try to distract yourself, but Dr. Mellin suggests that you do just the opposite. “Stop pretending you are not stressed,” she advises. Don’t tell yourself that you can’t do anything about your stress — you can.
Have you heard that it is helpful to try to reinterpret your experience in a way that gives it meaning, or to focus on potentially positive aspects? It can be. But those kinds of cognitive strategies take more mental capacity and more effort than we can manage when we are feeling particularly stressed, research shows.
Just talking about your experiences may be one of the best things you can do:
“Share your feelings with others who will not interrupt you or give you unasked-for advice. In other words, vent to a loving relative, friend or therapist. All the while, stay present to your own feelings.”
You don’t have to have another person around, though, to deal with high levels of stress effectively. Dr. Mellin also suggests that you “explore whether a deep emotional connection within, time for contemplation or meditation, can ease your stress.”
Dr. Mellin has been treating people who have experienced trauma for many years. She has helped them to acknowledge their stress, rather than distracting themselves. She has guided them through the sharing of their feelings with others as well as the development of emotional connections from within. She believes that these brain-based stress tools represent “the next generation of coping techniques, or emotional brain training.” What she is training, she says, is resilience. That’s something we all need when life piles on the stressors.
The mass shootings at El Paso and Dayton were also cause for concern for the American Psychological Association (APA). The organization commissioned a nationally-representative survey soon afterwards. The results attested to a widespread experience of stress among adults in the U.S. in the wake of those tragic events:
- Nearly 4 out of 5 adults report that they are experiencing stress because of worrying about the possibility of a mass shooting.
- 1 out of 3 report that because of their fear of mass shootings, they are avoiding specific kinds of places such as public events (53%), malls (50%), universities or schools (42%), or movie theaters (38%).
- Nearly 1 in 4 (24%) said that they are changing how they live their lives because of their fear of mass shootings.
- Only about 1 in 5 (21%) say they never experience stress as a result of any fear of mass shootings.
APA also offered tips for coping with the stress of mass shootings and other deeply troubling events. Some echo the advice from Laurel Mellin:
Talk about it
“Ask for support from people who care about you and who will listen to your concerns.”
Honor your feelings
“Remember that it is common to have a range of emotions after a traumatic incident. You may experience intense stress similar to the effects of a physical injury. For example, you may feel exhausted, sore or off balance.”
In addition, APA suggests a strategy that is focused on actions:
Help others or do something productive
“Locate resources in your community on ways that you can help people who have been affected by this incident, or have other needs. Helping someone else often has the benefit of making you feel better, too.”
6 Ways to Change Our Media Diet — and Change the World
Is the news driving you crazy? It’s not the news — it’s how the media reports the news, piling on calamity and suffering — because that’s what sells. We’re subjected to a media diet that damages our mental health and can trigger anxiety and depression. But we have the power to change our media diet, becoming more informed, engaged and empowered.
We can refuse to accept that negative news is the only narrative worth telling; refuse to accept that the news “is the way that it is” and instead decide it should be more balanced in its coverage. Restructuring the way we consume the news is a much simpler way to fix the problems we currently face than restructuring how the news is produced. Humans have great collective power to change for the better, in industries and societies. After all, it is not society or industry that changes, it is people that change.
Here are six steps to change our media diet:
1. Become a Conscious Consumer
Industries that have undergone their own consumer-driven evolution share one thing in common: they rely on a conscious consumer. The news media is no different. In the pursuit of profit, news organizations need audience engagement. It is up to us to be conscious about what we engage with.
A critical requirement of becoming conscious about our news consumption is education. As Nelson Mandela said, ‘Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.’ Once we are educated about the helpful and harmful effects of the news, we can shift from being merely consumers to being conscious consumers. Then, we can embrace solutions-focused news as part of our balanced media diet. This change can improve our individual psychological well-being but can also, as a side effect, motivate the industry to meet this new demand.
2. Read/Watch Good-Quality Journalism
The conflict between good-quality journalism and profitability is not just a problem for the industry; it is our problem to solve too. We rely so heavily on the news to help us understand as well as help shape our society, and poor-quality information leads to poor-quality decisions. We cannot abdicate from this responsibility by believing that our actions don’t matter. Our actions do matter — human beings still have the capacity to create change. Let us be the ones to make quality news profitable and abundant once again. Traditional industry leaders in the media may fear change and experimentation as it is their livelihood on the line and they have their own vision. However, they can often be convinced by demonstration.
3. Burst Your Filter Bubble
The news was not founded on ideals of entertainment. Its goal was to educate, inform and empower us — by helping us understand the world beyond our personal experience of it. Can you imagine if schools, which also exist to educate a large audience, used the commercial case that by giving their pupils what they want, they are more likely to come back in the next day? We understand that school is about long-term objectives over immediate pleasure, and we need to look at the news the same way. News should not be about entertainment, as is the trend today, and we need to expect more of it.
4. Be Prepared to Pay for Content
We cannot have a free and independent press if we are not willing to pay for the content. If news organizations have to rely on advertising to be their main source of income, then corporations and their needs will take priority over our needs as consumers. Simply, we must be prepared to support news organizations to enable them to truly become independent, whether by buying the newspaper or magazine, subscribing either online or offline, or simply donating to news organizations that value good-quality journalism.
5. Read Beyond the News
Thomas Jefferson said, “The man who reads nothing at all is better educated than the man who reads nothing but newspapers.” I would have to agree. We cannot solely rely on news organizations to educate us on world issues. Today’s information-rich environment offers plenty of valuable sources.
Fiction helps us flex our emotional muscles, developing empathy and understanding. Nonfiction provides well-researched depth, insight and knowledge. Documentaries take a deep-dive into a specific issue happening in the world. Podcasts help us connect with and learn about the world and each other. Trusted organizations, such as TED, feature the world’s most inspired thinkers. Good sources provide good-quality information, enabling you to make good-quality decisions.
6. Read Solutions-Focused News
Whether you believe the news is too negative or not, the news does affect how you view and feel about the world, yourself and others. We should all understand the potential impact of the news on our mental health and become more deliberate about how we consume the news.
By including solutions in your media diet, you give yourself the necessary information needed, over time, to feel inspired. Seeing others progress and develop in the face of personal, local, national or global challenges ignites a sense of possibility. It creates a feeling of optimism, hope and empowerment — the emotional fuel we need to mobilize our own potential. We can a positive force in this world, not by ignoring problems but by feeding ourselves the information we need to feel motivated and able to tackle problems head-on.
With so much choice in our modern-day media environment, we do not need to wait for the industry to change. We can create this change ourselves. By deliberately creating a more balanced media diet that includes solutions as well as problems, we become aware that the world is filled with incredible people doing incredible things. It is up to us to find them, learn from them, be inspired by them. These stories inspire us to create change — changing not just the media, but also potentially changing the world.
Heart failure deaths highest in poorest US counties
Heart failure deaths highest in poorest US counties
Reuters: Health
(Reuters Health) - People living in U.S. counties with the highest rates of poverty are more likely to die from heart failure than those from more affluent areas, a new study suggests.
Reuters: Health
(Reuters Health) - People living in U.S. counties with the highest rates of poverty are more likely to die from heart failure than those from more affluent areas, a new study suggests.
Can vaping damage your lungs? What we do (and don’t) know
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The rising popularity of vaping has been dramatic, especially among teenagers. According to a recent study, about 37% of high school seniors reported vaping in 2018, up from 28% the year before. An estimated 2.1 million middle school and high school students reported using e-cigarettes in 2017; that number jumped to 3.6 million in 2018. Certainly, age restrictions — it’s illegal to sell e-cigarettes to anyone under 21 (18 or 19 in some states) — aren’t preventing use among teens and young adults. And nearly seven million adults 18 or older use e-cigarettes, according to a 2017 survey by the CDC.
E-cigarettes use a battery-powered device that heats a liquid to form vapors — or, more accurately, aerosol — that the user can inhale (thus “vaping”). These devices heat up various flavorings, nicotine, marijuana, or other potentially harmful substances. Nicotine is addictive, of course. And while that fact is prominently displayed in advertising, we know from experience with regular cigarettes that warnings don’t always work!
Recent reports link vaping to lung disease
You may have seen news reports of lung problems, including two deaths — one in Illinois and another in Oregon— linked to vaping. According to the CDC:
- Nearly 200 e-cigarette users have developed severe lung disease in 22 states (and the numbers keep rising — a Washington Post story put the number at 354). Most cases were among teens and young adults.
- Experts aren’t sure if vaping actually caused these lung problems, but believe the most likely culprit is a contaminant, not an infectious agent. Possibilities include chemical irritation, or allergic or immune reactions to various chemicals or other substances in the inhaled vapors.
- Typically, symptoms have started gradually, with shortness of breath and/or chest pain before more severe breathing difficulty led to hospital admission.
- The lung disease has not been linked to a specific brand or flavor of e-cigarette.
- The FDA, CDC, and state health officials are investigating these cases to determine the specific cause(s) and how to prevent and treat them.
What we don’t know about vaping and lung disease
It’s not clear how often vaping might lead to lung trouble or who is at highest risk. For example, are lung problems more common among vapers who already have breathing problems (such as asthma) or who use marijuana? Is it more common among younger individuals? Does use of e-cigarettes cause the lung disease? Or is an added substance (such as marijuana) or another contaminant the culprit? Since the FDA does not actively regulate e-cigarettes, it’s particularly difficult to get answers.
Other health risks of vaping
The recent tragic and alarming cases of severe lung disease are clearly cause for concern. A number of other health effects are also worrisome:
- Nicotine is highly addictive and can affect the developing brain, potentially harming teens and young adults. Even some “nicotine-free” e-cigarettes have been found to contain nicotine.
- Some substances found in e-cigarette vapor have been linked to an increased risk of cancer.
- Teens who vape are more likely to begin smoking cigarettes.
- Explosions and burns have been reported with e-cigarettes while recharging the devices, due to defective batteries.
- Accidental exposure to liquid from e-cigarettes has caused acute nicotine poisoning in children and adults.
- Vaping during pregnancy could harm a developing fetus.
How vaping affects our overall health is uncertain.
But what about the benefits?
In addition to whatever enjoyment vaping brings, some evidence suggests vaping helps some people stop smoking. However, how it compares to a nicotine patch or other methods of smoking cessation is not clear. So far, the FDA has not approved vaping as a method of smoking cessation. And many smokers who vape continue to use both cigarettes and e-cigarettes.
The CDC’s position is that “E-cigarettes have the potential to benefit adult smokers who are not pregnant if used as a complete substitute for regular cigarettes and other smoked tobacco products.” Meanwhile, the FDA warns that vaping is “not safe for youth, young adults, pregnant women, or adults who do not currently use tobacco products.”
The true balance between the benefits and risks of vaping remains impossible to assess. We don’t always know what’s in e-cigarettes. The FDA does not regulate these products. And there is no information available about long-term health impact.
The bottom line
Perhaps vaping should be viewed as a “lesser of evils” for current cigarette smokers. Still, it’s clear that there is a lot about vaping we don’t know. One way we’ll learn more is by people reporting possible vaping-related health problems to the FDA — you can let them know if you’ve had such problems.
Until we know more, think twice about vaping. Federal and state authorities recommend avoiding all vaping until more is known. If you do decide to vape, avoid e-cigarettes bought “off the street” and stick with brand name e-cigarette products without modification (such as adding marijuana or other drugs).
These cases of severe lung disease among people who vape raise important questions about the safety of vaping. Perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised that lung problems might develop in people who vape: our lungs were meant to inhale clean air and nothing else. It took many years to recognize the damage cigarettes can cause. We could be on a similar path with vaping.
Follow me on Twitter @RobShmerling
The post Can vaping damage your lungs? What we do (and don’t) know appeared first on Harvard Health Blog.
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