Elemental: What Doomscrolling Does to the Brain. “We’re taking in more media than ever. And often, that means reading or watching gloomy story after gloomier story, or, as New York Times tech columnist Kevin Roose called it back in March, ‘doomsurfing.’ Taken together, this is a dangerous formula. Consuming too much bad news on your phone or the TV can be harmful — studies find it’s bad for your physical and mental health — and the constant bombardment only raises the risk.”
anxiety
New York Times: Mother’s Little Helper Is Back, and Daddy’s Partaking Too
New York Times: Mother’s Little Helper Is Back, and Daddy’s Partaking Too. “I have a yearslong WhatsApp message group with a handful of fellow mothers of small children from across the United States and Canada. Since the pandemic began, what I refer to as ‘mom chats after dark’ start at around 7:30 p.m., Eastern Standard Time. That’s when the children are asleep, and a wave of inebriation begins on the shores of the Atlantic and crashes across the continent. The above message was from July, when we hit 125 days of lockdown.”
Tulane University: Google search data reveals major panic attack issue, Tulane study shows
Tulane University: Google search data reveals major panic attack issue, Tulane study shows. “The team used Google Trends to analyze an extensive list of mental health-related terms that people searched for before and after the World Health Organization issued a pandemic declaration on March 11, 2020. They found a major jump in searches related to anxiety, panic attacks and treatments for panic attacks, especially remote and self-care techniques, in the weeks following the pandemic declaration.”
Stuff New Zealand: Taranaki man launches world’s largest database of mental health helplines
Stuff New Zealand: Taranaki man launches world’s largest database of mental health helplines. “Live For Tomorrow, founded by Taranaki man Elliot Taylor, offers the world’s largest database of more than 1600 mental health helplines instantly through the charity’s Find A Helpline website.” It looks like the new database just covers the United States and New Zealand at the moment, but more countries will be added over time.
CalTech: As Pandemic Progressed, People’s Perceived Risks Went Up
CalTech: As Pandemic Progressed, People’s Perceived Risks Went Up. “In the first week of the coronavirus pandemic, people living in the United States underestimated their chances of catching the virus, or of getting seriously ill from the virus, according to a recently published Caltech-led study. But as the days progressed, those same people became more worried about their personal risk, and, as a result, began to increase protective behaviors such as washing hands and social distancing.”
MedicalXpress: Study links rising stress, depression in US to pandemic-related losses, media consumption
MedicalXpress: Study links rising stress, depression in US to pandemic-related losses, media consumption. “Experiencing multiple stressors triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic—such as unemployment—and COVID-19-related media consumption are directly linked to rising acute stress and depressive symptoms across the U.S., according to a groundbreaking University of California, Irvine study. The report appears in Science Advances.”
Route Fifty: One State Offers Training To Help Teachers Combat Pandemic-Related Stress and Anxiety
Route Fifty: One State Offers Training To Help Teachers Combat Pandemic-Related Stress and Anxiety. “Teachers, counselors and staff members at K-12 schools in Connecticut will be offered free training from Yale University to address the stress, isolation and anxiety that they—and their students—have been experiencing since the Covid-19 pandemic closed schools in March.”
WCNC: Doctors say CBD sales are up due to the concern of the coronavirus
WCNC: Doctors say CBD sales are up due to the concern of the coronavirus. “Demand at Prime Sunshine CBD has quadrupled with more customers coming in to treat increased stress and anxiety. Prime Sunshine is the first CBD company in North Carolina and the first dispensary in Charlotte. Now the business is seeing an unexpected boost from more customers seeking treatment due to ongoing coronavirus concerns.”
Yahoo News: ‘Am I having a panic attack?’ Google anxiety searches break records amid coronavirus pandemic
Yahoo News: ‘Am I having a panic attack?’ Google anxiety searches break records amid coronavirus pandemic. “Scientists from the University of California, San Diego, have since found Google searches for ‘panic attacks’ and ‘anxiety attacks’ in the US were the highest they have been since the data started being collected 16 years ago. More than 3 million anxiety-related searches were carried out in the US alone during the first 58 days of its outbreak.”
New York Times: We’ve Hit a Pandemic Wall
New York Times: We’ve Hit a Pandemic Wall. “I am trying to think of when I first realized we’d all run smack into a wall. Was it two weeks ago, when a friend, ordinarily a paragon of wifely discretion, started a phone conversation with a boffo rant about her husband? Was it when I looked at my own spouse — one week later, this probably was — and calmly told him that each and every one of my problems was his fault? (They were not.)”
Science Blog: ‘Endless Doomscroller’ Asks What Compels Us To Keep Scrolling Through Bad News
Science Blog: ‘Endless Doomscroller’ Asks What Compels Us To Keep Scrolling Through Bad News. “The bad news seems endless. And as part of Ben Grosser’s latest project, it truly is. ‘The Endless Doomscroller’ is a constant stream of headlines, endlessly scrolling, that tell us ‘Cases Surging,’ ‘Panic Rising,’ ‘Global Crisis Looms’ and ‘Experts Say It’s Never Getting Better.’ Grosser – a professor in the School of Art and Design and the co-founder of the Critical Technology Studies Lab at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign – describes the project as ‘an endless stream of doom, without all the specifics.'”
University of Arkansas: Pandemic Leads to Higher Depression, Anxiety and Fear, Studies Show
University of Arkansas: Pandemic Leads to Higher Depression, Anxiety and Fear, Studies Show. “The COVID-19 pandemic led to higher levels of depression, anxiety, suicidal tendencies and psychological trauma among American adults during the early months of its spread, according to three new studies published by University of Arkansas sociologists.”
Study: Gender inequality increases in media during pandemic (Phys .org)
Phys .org: Study: Gender inequality increases in media during pandemic. “According to the survey of 558 journalists in 52 countries, the COVID-19 crisis had a negative impact on women’s salaries as well as on their work responsibilities, career advancement and private life. As a result, three quarters of the respondents saw their stress level increase while half of the women quizzed acknowledged that their health has been affected, mainly by sleeping problems.”
Tubefilter: YouTube Adds Mental Health Information Panels To Videos About Depression, Anxiety
Tubefilter: YouTube Adds Mental Health Information Panels To Videos About Depression, Anxiety. “Since the beginning of the pandemic, YouTube has significantly increased its use of health information panels, which pop up in search results and under videos to provide factual information and updates about specific topics. Now, the platform has expanded these panels to address two common mental illnesses: depression and anxiety. Beginning today, users who search for either illness will see a popup with information and an online screening tool.”
Lifehacker: How to Quit Your Doomscrolling Habit
Lifehacker: How to Quit Your Doomscrolling Habit. “If you’re someone who reaches for your phone as soon as you wake up (other than to turn off the alarm), you may find yourself scrolling through your newsfeed or social media channels out of habit. It can start out innocently enough: quizzes to find out which Golden Girl you are, pictures of your friends’ kids drawing on the walls, and recipes for a one-pot meal you’ll think about making for dinner but never will. But in this year of never-ending doom, it’s hard to avoid all the bad news—primarily because it just keeps coming.”