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It’s Hard Being A Highly Sensitive Person Living In This Cruel World
Let’s be honest, right now, things suck. U.S. coronavirus cases are spiking. Unemployment levels are still high, with experts warning that our economy is about to sleepwalk off a massive cliff. Despite inspiring the largest movement in U.S. history, the tragic killing of George Floyd has done little to actually change brutal police policies. Adding tension to the chaos, many Americans are still stuck in their homes, squirrely, anxious and isolated.
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A Growing Push to Treat Racism’s Impact on Mental Health
There’s an accelerating push by psychologists and psychiatrists to identify stress and trauma caused by racism—and develop interventions to address it. The move comes out of a growing recognition that the impact of racism on the mental health of Black people has often been ignored. This has led many patients to be undiagnosed, misdiagnosed or not adequately treated for their distress, doctors and therapists say. The most recent efforts are being led by a new generation of Black psychologists, psychiatrists and mental health advocates. Research has found a link between racism and psychological distress, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder and depression among Black people.
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Is There Really a Covid Mental Health Crisis?
Back in the middle of March, I was pretty stressed out. Funnily enough it was the handwashing that got me; this was a few days before lockdown, and the real public health message had been wash your hands. So I washed them, dozens of times a day. My hands were raw and cracked, sometimes to the point of bleeding. They itched — burned — constantly. I was at every moment aware of this burning sensation, and it was an ever-present, unignorable reminder of how the world had changed. My six-year-old son’s hands were red and raw too, from his conscientious efforts at washing his hands at school.
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Schooling Is Critical for Cognitive Health Throughout Life
Education provides little protection against the onset of cognitive declines but can boost the cognitive skills. [August 10, 2020]
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New Research in Psychological Science
A sample of research on sexual decisions, interventions to improve educational outcomes, confidence in estimates, mindfulness and false memories, children’s stereotypes, and links between sound and meaning.
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The Coronavirus Seems to Spare Most Kids From Illness, but Its Effect on Their Mental Health Is Deepening
Pandemics can be indiscriminate, with viruses making no distinctions among the victims they attack and those they spare. If you’re human, you’ll do. COVID-19 has been different, particularly when it comes to age. The disease has shown a special animus for older people, with those 65-plus considered at especially high risk for hospitalization and death, and those 18 and below catching a semblance of an epidemiological break. Though a small share of adolescents have suffered severe cases, most who contract the disease in that age cohort are likelier to experience milder symptoms or none at all. But if COVID-19 is sparing most kids’ bodies, it’s not being so kind to their minds.
