CNET: Don’t Stress, but ‘Permacrisis’ Is the 2022 Word of the Year. “Over the last few years, it’s seemed like the ‘new normal’ keeps getting weirder and darker as historical events pile up. This month the Collins Dictionary acknowledged our apparent spiral into ever darker timelines by naming ‘permacrisis’ its 2022 Word of the Year.”
Purdue University: Developing game-based tech to detect and intervene against stress and anxiety. “A high-tech startup that uses game-based interventions to help users identify stress- and anxiety-related events in real time and receive a personalized intervention has been awarded a federal grant to partially develop its technology through research at Purdue University’s College of Engineering.”
The Guardian: Museums on prescription: Brussels tests cultural visits to treat anxiety. “A tour of ancient sewers? An encounter with a masterpiece of 16th-century lace-making? These are two of the therapies on offer to people in Brussels suffering from depression, stress or anxiety. From this month, psychiatrists in one of the city’s largest hospitals have been able to offer patients ‘museum prescriptions’, a free visit with a few friends or family members to discover one or more of Brussels’ cultural institutions.”
Arizona State University: ‘News addiction’ can cause stress, anxiety, study says. “The obsessive urge to keep up with that news can lead to stress, anxiety and worsening physical health, according to a study in the journal Health Communication. The study found that 16.5% of 1,100 people polled in an online survey showed signs of ‘severely problematic’ news consumption, which led them to focus less on school, work and family, and contributed to an inability to sleep. Just more than 73% said they experienced mental health issues ‘quite a bit’ or ‘very much,’ and 61% reported their physical health suffered.”
Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas: Free online course on mental health and journalism: Learn how to take care of yourself and responsibly report on mental health issues. “In a recent survey of nearly 1,000 Canadian media workers, 69% reported having anxiety and 46% reported suffering from depression. Fifty-three percent have sought out health professionals to deal with work-related stress and mental well-being. In response to this pervasive issue in our global journalism community, the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas, the Carter Center and The Self-Investigation are offering the free online course, ‘Mental health and journalism: How journalists can responsibly report on it and take care of themselves.’”
MakeUseOf: 15 Relaxing Websites to Help When You Feel Overwhelmed. “Life gets overwhelming for us all. Even browsing the internet can be taxing, with the vitriol of social media or the depressing news. Occasionally, we just need to step back, take a deep breath, and relax. What’s the best way to do that? One way to help yourself is to use relaxing websites. We’ve rounded up some of the most relaxing corners of the web; sites designed for nothing more than clearing your mind and being present.”
WIRED: How to Stay Informed Without Getting Paralyzed by Bad News. “Although technology can produce bad-news paralysis, online tools can also help you make productive contributions within your various roles. As an organization junkie who juggles four part-time jobs with college classes and a private life, here’s how I balance responsibilities.” Personally, I keep lots of tissues handy.
NBC News: Study finds ‘burnout epidemic’ for working women two years into pandemic. “Now, the latest survey of 5,000 women in 10 countries by Deloitte, first reported Tuesday by NBC News, finds a troubling evolution for working women in a ‘burnout epidemic.’ Fifty-three percent of women reported stress levels higher than they were a year ago, with mental health lagging and work-life balance nearly nonexistent. And whereas women were considering leaving their employers last year, the top-cited driver to leave now is burnout.”
MakeUseOf: 5 Instant Calming Apps to Relieve Stress, Beat Anxiety, and Battle Negative Thoughts. “Sometimes, you don’t know why you’re low. Is it stress? Anxiety? Anger? Depression? It could be anyone or all of these, or something entirely different. All you know is that you just want to stop feeling like that right now. These free apps offer instant relief from negative thoughts and feelings. Importantly, none of these apps are claiming to be a substitute for therapy. If you feel such negativity often, it’s best to seek professional medical advice rather than rely on apps. Think of these stress-relievers as a stop-gap measure or a temporary treat, rather than a solution.”
Mashable: TikTok meets meditation: The singing bowl is a hit. “[Elizabeth] Jasmine, whose videos have garnered 32,000 followers and half a million likes, is part of a fast-growing ‘singing bowl’ or ‘sound bowl’ community on the app. The hashtag #singingbowl has 106 million views on TikTok, while #singingbowlmeditation has 5.3 million. Videos are often saturated in colors such as violet or midnight blue, which creators hope will evoke the calming sensation their sound is known for.”
NBC News: Americans are besieged by stress, poll finds. “Financial woes, coupled with a barrage of horrifying scenes from Ukraine as Russia continues its invasion, have pushed a majority of Americans to unprecedented levels of stress, according to a new report from the American Psychological Association.”
WIRED: How to Get Mental Health Support—on Social Media. “Some groups, like the one I first joined, cater to individuals who need space to vent, fret, even panic. That kind of support is important when validation is missing in real life. But for someone seeking to recover, with or without professional help, inundation with those types of posts can trigger incremental worries. I’ve become more selective with the groups I frequent. Currently, I’m part of a new private Facebook group created by Anna Christie, owner of an emetophobia website and a licensed therapist specializing in the disorder. Her group is for people focused on recovery.”
News Medical: New tool could help detect geographical hotspots for mental health problems caused by COVID. “A new proof of concept tool that allows the tracking and location of people’s emotions and stresses on social media in real-time has been proposed. The tool incorporates bot detection and community-level geospatial analysis, in order to filter out artificial content, while detecting stress hotspots over time.”
MedicalXpress: Social media anaylsis reveals health system stress. “Analysis of social media posts in January 2022 has revealed new insights into stresses on the health system and health workers, the need for fairness and clarity around rules and regulations, and the impact of uncertainty around the course of the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia.”
PsyPost: Psychological distress may increase your risk of contracting COVID-19 and worsen symptom severity, study suggests. “A longitudinal study conducted during the pandemic has found evidence that people with greater psychological distress are not only more likely to get infected with COVID-19, but more likely to experience severe symptoms. The findings were published in the journal Annals of Behavioral Medicine.”
The ResearchBuzz Firehose is regular RB content presented as individual posts.
For digest-type posts a couple of times a day, please visit ResearchBuzz.
Want to know how to best use the Firehose for content discovery?
Check out this handy article.