Leslie Glass's Blog, page 356

I Gave Up Alcohol & Soda For 30 Days: Here’s What I Learned

From Danny Allen @ Popsugar: Have you ever wondered what it’d be like to basically drink only water for an entire 30 days? Let me tell you, it’s not as hard as it would seem, and your body will thank you for it.

For some reason that I did not know of at the time, I decided to go cold turkey and give up both alcohol and soda for 30 days. I felt that my body needed a break from all of the sugar and calories, not to mention that hangovers become exponentially worse as you get older (no one tells you that).

Now, I wasn’t drinking every night, but I was consistently having at least a few beers or cocktails every weekend with friends, which over time catches up with your body. The same goes for soda – I’m the type where I’ll open a can of Coca-Cola and take a few sips with my meal, and then toss it (yes, I know that’s a waste). I’d probably have one or two sodas a week, which was enough to make my teeth feel yellow and my body feel sluggish.

I remember telling myself toward the beginning that the alcohol part will be harder than the soda part, but that I need to stay committed to myself. Fast forward 30 days, sans the two aforementioned culprits, plus a plentiful amount of water, and I feel like a new human.

What Happened?

The first few days were interesting in that it was all mental. I’d see someone having a beer or a soda and think to myself, “that looks so good, but you can’t have it.”

After about a week, I snapped out of that mindset and focused on only consuming water.

After about two weeks, I noticed myself feeling less tired and more refreshed. I stayed in every weekend and either read books or watched movies and realized that I was giving my body the break it needed. My skin definitely exhibited a brighter glow, and I barely broke out with any blemishes.

I made it to the gym at least four times every week, and as an added bonus, I spent zero dollars on ride services such as Uber or Lyft (this was a win in itself for me). I will say that drinking only water minus the occasional Arnold Palmer can get quite boring, so to spice it up, I bought fresh lemons and oranges to throw in some taste.

© popsugar As you can see in the before and after photo, my hair even got lighter! Just kidding, I was just able to actually wake up in time to make my hair appointment.As you can see in the before and after photo, my hair even got lighter! Just kidding, I was just able to actually wake up in time to make my hair appointment.

After my 30 days, I tried a can of Coca-Cola, and it tasted like I had opened a bag of sugarand poured it into my mouth. I was so shocked at how giving something up for a short amount of time can alter the way it tastes. It made me realize how unhealthy soda actually is for your teeth and overall body.

Will I Keep Going?

Yes! I may not become cold sober for the rest of my life, but I will definitely be more conscious of the amount of alcohol I consume on a weekly basis. As for soda, I am happy to report I have done a pretty good job with almost giving it up completely; however, I will admit that I sometimes have one every now and then, or at least a few sips (I don’t know what it is, but I just can’t shake that zest upon the first intake).

If you’re looking for a simple and free cleanse, try this so-called detox, and I can almost guarantee that your body will feel much more relaxed and refreshed! If giving up both at once seems intimidating, then I’d try alcohol first. Say goodbye to headaches and bags under the eyes, and say hello to saving money and feelin’ fresh! Trust me – your inner you will thank you for it!

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Are Adult Coloring Books Actually Helpful?

From Shainna Ali Ph.D., LMHC @ Psychology Today: Within the last decade adult coloring books have surged in popularity. The vast selection available today includes abstract images, mandalas, and your beloved characters ranging from Marvel to Disney, and anything in between (like famous Facebook kitty, Pusheen). If you prefer, you can shift the scenery as you explore a secret garden, lost ocean, or perhaps an enchanted forest. Themes aside, these activity books have often been best sellers and claim to provide users with the opportunity to connect with their inner artists, reduce stress, and live happier lives.

But Do They?

I’ve heard friends, family, students, and clients all share their personal pleasant experiences with adult coloring books. And honestly, I truly enjoy my own. I recognize that just because my personal interpretation tends to be echoed in those around me, that doesn’t mean that an illustration a day keeps the woes away.  Yet noticing this widespread phenomenon caused me to consider that coloring could indeed be broadly therapeutic.

But what is so appealing? Is it the nostalgia for the free coloring we experienced as children? Perhaps it gives us a creative outlet to break our rigid routines?

Or could it be the mindfulness achieved as we disconnect from chaos and connecting to the present?

Previous studies have provided support for adult coloring books. Curry and Kasser induced anxiety in a group of undergraduates, provided them either with a blank page, a plaid print, or a mandala, and instructed them to color for 20 minutes. Both designs reduced anxiety, although the mandala was slightly more effective. However, in a replication study by van der Vennet and Serice no difference was observed between for those who had plaid and blank pages, yet the mandala group still displayed a reduction in anxiety.

In a recent study, Mantzios and Giannou utilized randomized controlled experiments to explore the differences between coloring and free-drawing. In one experiment there were no differences in between an unguided coloring group and free-drawing. However, in the second experiment participants were assigned to either a guided or unguided mandala coloring group, and although no differences were noted in mindfulness, those in the guided group did show a reduction in anxiety.

Researchers at the International Islamic University Islamabad delved further into the potential to reduce anxiety. In a quasi-experimental study it was found that the use of mandalas was able to decrease both state anxiety (i.e. contextual emotional experience) and trait anxiety (i.e. personality, characteristic) in just 30 minutes, however, the difference in state anxiety was almost twice that of the difference noted in trait anxiety.

Adult coloring books have been shown to influence more than anxiety. Researchers at the University of Otago randomly assigned participants to a coloring a logic-puzzle group and found that after a week of daily practice displayed significantly lower levels of anxiety and depressive symptoms. In a study of individuals ages 19-67 participants engaged in coloring independently and in an open studio environment with an art therapist. Both scenarios helped participants to reduce stress and negative affect, however, the session with the art therapist prompted significant enhancements personal perceptions pertaining to creativity, self-efficacy, and positive effect.

It seems as though adult coloring books are therapeutic, but they aren’t therapy.

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How Drinking Alcohol Affects Your Risk Of Cancer & Early Death

From Jacqueline Howard @ CNN: The science is clear: Drinking too much alcohol is bad for your health, but exactly how low-risk is light drinking?

A study published in the journal PLOS Medicine on Tuesday provides some new insight. It found that those who drink the most have the highest risks of death and cancer.

Yet the study also found that a person’s combined risk of dying younger or developing cancer is lowest among light drinkers: those consuming only one to three alcoholic drinks per week. That risk increases with each additional drink consumed per week.

Light drinkers appeared to have a lower combined risk of overall mortality or cancer compared with those who never drink, the study found, but more research is needed to determine why.

The study only showed associations between alcohol and such risks, and not any causal relationships.

“We had expected light drinkers to be at a similar combined risk to never drinkers, so the reduced risk in light drinkers was surprising,” said Andrew Kunzmann, a research fellow at Queen’s University Belfast in Northern Ireland and lead author of the study.

“The reasons for the reduced risk in light drinkers compared to never drinkers are still open to debate amongst the scientific community. Some have suggested that alcohol may have cardio-protective effects that may reduce risk of cardiovascular disease,” Kunzmann said, referring to certain studies on red wine and heart health.

Yet “others have indicated that light drinkers may be at a lower risk of cardiovascular disease for other reasons, as light drinkers tend to be wealthier and more health-conscious in other ways,” he said.

Those who never drink also might do so for other health reasons that could put them at an overall higher risk of death compared with light drinkers.

In general, a better understanding of the health risks that come with drinking alcohol can help inform clearer guidelines on how much you should limit your alcohol consumption, the researchers wrote in their study.

The difference in cancer, mortality risk

The new study included data on 99,654 adults in the United States, who were 55 to 74 years old. The data, collected between 1993 and 2001, came from the US Prostate, Lung, Colorectal and Ovarian Cancer Screening Trial.

The adults completed a diet history questionnaire, which assessed their alcohol consumption. They also were followed up with during an average 8.9 years, and their cancer diagnoses were ascertained through medical records.

After analyzing the data, the researchers found that the average lifetime alcohol intake reported among the adults was 1.78 drinks per week, with men reporting that they drink more — 4.02 drinks per week — than women — 0.80 drinks per week.

In both the men and women, risk of death was lowest among those who consumed less than 0.5 drinks per day, the data showed. How much alcohol was consumed over a lifetime had a J-shaped relationship with overall mortality: Those who never drank had a slightly higher risk, and those who had more than 0.5 drinks per day had a much higher risk.

But the average amount of alcohol someone drank in a lifetime was linearly associated with total risk of cancer, in that risk went up the more someone drank, the data showed.

The study had some limitations, including that the data were limited to adults 55 and older, and the data on alcohol consumption were based on self-reported questionnaire responses, which tends to be the case for epidemiology studies of alcohol.

The study could have been more valuable if it provided specific risk factors for individual cancers, said Dr. Anne McTiernan, a cancer prevention researcher at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, who was not involved in the research.

For instance, “alcohol increases risks for many cancers including, breast, colorectal, esophagus, liver, head and neck, and stomach,” said McTiernan, author of the book “Starved: A Nutrition Doctor’s Journey from Empty to Full.”

“Equally problematic was that they classified men and women the same in relation to categories of alcohol use. Women metabolize alcohol differently than men, so a ‘light’ drinker for men may be more of a ‘moderate’ drinker for women,” she said.

“The study strengths included the large sample size, including both women and men, and a lifetime history of alcohol use,” she said.

‘The more you drink, the higher the risk’

In the United States, the American Cancer Society and the American Institute for Cancer Research both recommend that adults who drink alcohol limit their intake to no more than two drinks per day for men and one drink per day for women.

A “drink” can be counted as 12 ounces of beer, 5 ounces of wine or 1.5 ounces of hard liquor.

In the United Kingdom, the Chief Medical Officers’ alcohol guidelines recommend drinking no more than 14 units per week — 140 milliliters, or less than one drink per day — on a regular basis.

The study added information on specific risk estimates according to lifetime consumption of alcohol, said Dr. Otis Brawley, chief medical and scientific officer and executive vice president of the American Cancer Society, who was not involved in the research.

“It also reinforces the linear relationship between drinking alcohol and cancer risk: The more you drink, the higher the risk,” Brawley said.

“Alcohol is estimated to be the third-largest modifiable risk factor for cancer, responsible for 5.6% of cancers,” he said.

“Alcohol is also estimated to be the third-largest contributor to overall cancer deaths in both men and women,” he added. “The evidence that alcohol increases the risk of cancer has existed for many years.”

A statement from the American Society of Clinical Oncology, published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology in January, endorsed certain public health strategies in an effort to minimize excessive alcohol exposure in a way that could boost cancer prevention efforts.

“The purposes of that statement was twofold. One was to just raise awareness about the link between alcohol and cancer,” said Dr. Noelle LoConte, an oncologist and associate professor of medicine at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who was lead author of that statement.

The second was that the statement supported certain policy strategies for the first time, such as “raising taxes, limiting hours of sale, reducing youth exposure to alcohol marketing as a way of reducing high-risk drinking,” said LoConte, who was not involved in the new PLOS Medicine study.

As for that research, she said, “I think it reinforces what we already knew, which is moderate and heavy drinking is bad universally for cancer.”

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5 Reasons To Attend NAMI’s 2018 National Convention

From NAMI.org: The NAMI National Convention is one of the largest annual gatherings of mental health advocates in the nation. The 2018 NAMI National Convention will convene at the Sheraton New Orleans on Canal St. in the heart of New Orleans, June 27 -30.

This year’s theme “Live. Learn. Share hope.” describes the NAMI experience. Our collective voice spreads hope that recovery is possible and families can be whole again.

The NAMI National Convention connects people affected by mental illness who are looking for resources, research and support. Attendees include individuals with mental illness, family members, caregivers, advocates, policymakers, educators, researchers, clinicians and press.

5 Great Reasons to Attend

Learn from experts who share exciting research, tools and treatment options
Hear powerful stories and make connections with people you can relate to
Deepen your recovery toolbox with advanced support and coping methods
Earn continuing education credits as a licensed counselor, social worker or registered nurse
Develop NAMI leadership skills that can take the NAMI movement to the next level

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1 In 7 Teens Misuse Prescription Opioids

From Jan Hoffman @ The New York Times: One in seven high school students reported misusing prescription opioids, one of several disturbing results in a nationwide survey of teenagers that revealed a growing sense of fear and despair among youth in the United States.

The numbers of teenagers reporting “feelings of sadness or hopelessness,” suicidal thoughts, and days absent from school out of fear of violence or bullying have all risen since 2007. The increases were particularly pointed among lesbian, gay and bisexual high school students.

Nationally, 1 in 5 students reported being bullied at school; 1 in 10 female students and 1 in 28 male students reported having been physically forced to have sex.

“An adolescent’s world can be bleak,” said Dr. Jonathan Mermin, an official with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which conducted the survey and analyzed the data. “But having a high proportion of students report they had persistent feelings of hopelessness and 17 percent considering suicide is deeply disturbing.”

In 2017, 31 percent of students surveyed said they had such feelings, while 28 percent said so in 2007. In 2017, nearly 14 percent of students had actually made a suicide plan, up from 11 percent in 2007.

The Youth Risk Behavior Survey is given every two years to nearly 15,000 students in high schools in 39 states, and poses questions about a wide array of attitudes and activities.

The report did offer some encouraging trends, suggesting that the overall picture for adolescents is a nuanced one. Compared to a decade ago, fewer students reported having had sex, drinking alcohol or using drugs like cocaine, heroin or marijuana.

Because this was the first time that the question about prescription opioids had been given, the researchers who compiled the report could not say whether the 1 in 7 (or 14 percent) figure represented an increase or decrease.

David C. Harvey, a social worker who is executive director of the National Coalition of STD Directors, said that even without a means of comparison, the numbers offered an important look at the lesser-known impact of opioids on adolescents. He said they strongly suggest that opioid use may be contributing to a rise in sexually transmitted diseases among young people.

Mr. Harvey noted that the report also shows that condom use is declining among teenagers. Fifty-four percent of teens who were sexually active reported using condoms the last time they had sex, compared to 62 percent in 2007. Combining that decline with prescription drug abuse, he said, is “a recipe for disaster,” referring to transmissions of HIV and hepatitis as well as other STDs, such as syphilis.

Dr. Mermin, director of the C.D.C.’s National Center for HIV/AIDS, viral hepatitis, STD and TB prevention, echoed his concern, and said, “These numbers call on all of us to respond quickly and effectively.”

Although health disparities still remain among races, some sexual risk behaviors are decreasing across the board. The percentage of white students who’d ever had sex, for example, decreased to 39 percent in 2017 from 44 percent in 2007. Among black students, the rate plummeted to 46 percent from 66 percent in 2007 and, among Hispanic students, decreased to 41 percent from 52 percent.

Overall, the percentage of students who had ever had sex decreased to 39 percent in 2017 from 48 percent in 2007.

The percentage of students who had experienced sexual dating violence declined to 7 percent in 2017 from 10 percent in 2013.

Experts said that the decade-long decline in risky sexual behavior and drug and alcohol use underscored the ability of adolescents to make wise choices, which made Dr. Mermin hopeful.

“There’s strong data to show that family support and attention by your parents to what you’re doing can make a difference in an adolescent’s life,” he said. “Communities can support access to mental health and substance use services. Schools can offer coping skills and bystander intervention training.”

Risky behaviors were disproportionately higher among gay and bisexual teenagers.

Their sense of emotional and physical safety is becoming only more threatened. In the 2015 survey, three times as many lesbian, gay and bisexual teenagers reported having been physically forced to have sexual intercourse as their heterosexual peers. This year, four times as many indicated that they had been raped. They were more likely in 2017 than in 2015 to report having stayed out of school because of worries about their own safety.

Geography also had an effect on results. In New York, for example, 31 percent of students reported ever having had intercourse. By contrast, in Delaware, 45 percent said they had, as did 39 percent in South Carolina.

Experts remain puzzled about why condom use is dropping. “Condom use is decreasing as hormonal birth control increases,” Dr. Mermin said. “Some students do not appreciate the additional benefit of condoms.”

And he made a connection between the declining rates and decreases in health education. “We monitor school health policies and there has been a decrease in requirements for HIV, STD and infectious disease prevention education over time,” Dr. Mermin said. “So maybe youth are more complacent about their risk for HIV and STDs.”

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How Drug Companies Helped Revive Heroin Trade

From Keith Humphreys @ The Washington Post: Pharmaceutical companies don’t make heroin or the other illicit opioids that have caused the majority of U.S. opioid overdose deaths since 2014. But that doesn’t mean they can escape some of the responsibility for the current wave of heroin and fentanyl deaths.

In the 1990s, when the industry began aggressively marketing prescription opioids such as OxyContin, heroin was a minimal presence in American life. There were still surviving older users from the heroin epidemic of the 1960s and 1970s, as well as a smattering of younger users in some cities, but the heroin market was small and in decline.

However, as the number of annual opioid prescriptions in the United States nearly quadrupled beginning in the 1990s to the point that U.S. per capita consumption far exceeded that of any other nation in the world, millions of Americans became addicted to prescription opioids.

As documented by investigative journalists such as Sam Quinones and Pagan Harleman, heroin traffickers sensed a business opportunity: They set up shop in the areas of the United States with the highest prevalence of prescription opioid addiction. Already addicted to legal prescription opioids, it was a short jump for many unfortunate people to switch their allegiance over to cheap, potent, heroin.

The heroin traffickers’ business plan was amoral but wildly successful. About 80 percent of Americans who became heroin-addicted were transfers from prescription opioids, according to an assessment from the National Institutes of Health.

And once heroin markets became reestablished around the country, more people had the opportunity to use heroin without starting with legal opioids first. Thus, even heroin overdoses of people who were never prescribed a legal opioid are part of downstream consequence of opioid manufacturers’ conduct.

Many other parties played a witting or unwitting role in bringing back heroin markets: health-care regulators who didn’t protect the public, doctors who prescribed recklessly and, of course, people who sold and used heroin.

But none of that changes the fact that by working to flood the country with legal prescription opioids, manufacturers established the conditions that allowed illicit opioid markets to return to American communities. Courts that adjudicate the wave of lawsuits drug companies face from addiction-racked cities, counties and states would do well to remember that.

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Foods That Are Both Fatty & Sweet Hijack Brain

From Melissa Healy @ Los Angeles Times: It may have taken thousands of generations of hunting, gathering, farming and cooking to get here. But in the end, the genius of humankind has combined fats and carbohydrates to produce such crowning culinary glories as the doughnut, fettuccine Alfredo, nachos and chocolate cake with buttercream…

It goes without saying that these delectables do not exist in nature. It turns out combinations of carbohydrates and fats generally do not exist in the landscape in which man evolved.

Neither, new research finds, does the human capacity to intuit the caloric content of such gustatory delights. Instead, the human brain, when confronted with food products that combine fat and carbohydrates, responds with a surge of motivation that outstrips the response elicited by foods that are high in fat only or in carbohydrates only.

It’s a man-made conundrum like many others, and which probably has helped fuel a worldwide crisis of obesity: What do we do when the products of our genius and our industry short-circuit our evolved traits and lead us down a path of destruction.

The study just published in the journal Cell Metabolism doesn’t really tell us something we didn’t at some level know: We eat too much, and too much of the wrong thing, and we’re paying the price in higher rates of heart disease, diabetes and cancer, and in lives shortened by obesity.

But it does shed some light on why, and why we find everything from the dowdy Ritz cracker to the most sublime pastry confection so very irresistible: It’s that diabolical combination of fat and carbs. Calorie for calorie, it found, we’ll take something fatty and easily converted into sugar over something that’s just fatty or something that’s just high in carbs. And we’ll do so with scant recognition of just how caloric that choice is.

The authors of the new research went about showing this by collecting 56 lean study participants with an average age of 25. A few hours after feeding these subjects a breakfast designed to leave them somewhat hungry, researchers gave their recruits a small monetary allowance, showed them 39 pictures of different foods that would be familiar, and asked the subjects to place bids on those they’d most like to eat. If they outbid the computer, they’d be allowed to use their allowance to buy and eat that item at the end of the game.

The subjects were also asked to judge how calorific each food item they saw was, and to say how much they liked the pictured food. All of the snack portions pictured actually contained the same number of calories. But one-third of the pictures were of items high in carbohydrates, including jelly beans, white bread and spaghetti, one-third were foods high in fat, such as plump wedges of cheese and slices of salami, and one-third were foods that combined fat and carbs, including a stack of round buttery crackers, a pile of chocolate candies, and a multilayered slice of pastry.

Finally, the subjects looked at all of the pictures while having their brains scanned to see which region of the brain became most active as they pondered different kinds of food.

In a series of analyses that combined and cross-referenced subjects’ answers, the researchers found that no matter how much subjects said they liked items that were fatty or carby, they were willing to pay most for (and thus most likely to get the chance to eat) the items that combined fat and carbs. And their brain activity while looking at the pictures told the same story: They might score their liking of salami or jelly beans just as high as they did the cake or crackers. But the items that prompted the reward circuits of their brains to come most alive were the carb and fat combinations.

When asked to rate the calorie content of the pictured items, subjects were a good judge of the fatty items’ value. But they fared more poorly judging the calories in carbohydrate-rich snacks, and in snacks that combined fat and carbs.

“Fat and carbohydrate interact to potentiate reward,” write the authors of a study just published in the journal Cell Metabolism. “Combining fat and sugar independently increases the reward value of foods independently of caloric load, liking or portion size, and disrupts the ability to accurately estimate the energy density of fatty foods.”

Translation: So long as concoctions that combine fat and sugar call out to us from food shelves, shop windows, television screens and menus, we’re vulnerable to our most primal instincts, which have not evolved to ignore, dislike or say no to these products of human invention.

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8 Simple Ways To Detox Your Body

From Shape:

No fad retreats or spas. These easy ways to recuperate will help you feel healthier than ever!

Cut Your Sugar Intake

A seasonal detox is an effective way to clear your body of toxins, which will also speed up your metabolism and enhance your overall health. Start by decreasing the amount of sugar you consume, says Matt Dower, spa director at Mirbeau Inn & Spa in Skaneateles, NY. And that includes honey, molasses, and artificial sweeteners.

“If you eat more sugar, you ask your body for more insulin, straining your pancreas and wearing yourself out,” he says. “In the long term, this kind of habit can cause you to become chronically fatigued, diabetic, develop cancer, and pack on excess weight.”

Start with Water

Dower also suggests you drink a tall glass of water with juice from half of a lemon in the morning. “Lemon helps re-hydrate the system and promotes digestion, which will help the flow of waste out of your body,” he says.

Move Your Body

Regular exercise encourages circulation in the blood and lymph system, Dower says. Doing so will also enhance digestion, reduce tension, lubricate joints, and strengthen your body. It’s a proven fact. “People who exercise regularly have far fewer total toxins in their systems,” he points out.

Drink a Lot of Tea

“Not only is tea full of antioxidants, it hydrates you (especially if it’s herbal) and fills you up,” says Ashley Karr, a research psychologist and wellness coach. “This means you will be less likely to overeat or eat the wrong things!” Keep in mind, the caffeine in tea is different than the caffeine in coffee—it’s gentler on your system. It’ll also give you a pick-me-up minus the jitters.

Eat Organic

Chad Sarno, research and development chef for Whole Foods’ Health Starts Here initiative suggests you reconfigure your diet this year. “A colorful variety of fruits and veggies should be the main focus of your diet, along with whole grains, beans and legumes, and small amounts of nuts and seeds,” he says.

You should eat whole plant foods because processed foods lack the nutrients your body needs. Dark green vegetables, for instance, are full of micronutrients and are very low in calories, so you can eat a lot of them.

Combat Environmental Pollutants

Don’t forget that pollution and allergens are all around you. They’re in the air and can trigger allergy symptoms (such as yucky, puffy, red eyes). Dr. Travis Stork, host of daytime talk show The Doctors advises you flush your nasal passages regularly with a Neti Pot. Doing so can eliminate the side effects of air pollutants and lead to better breathing naturally. If you use the Neti Pot before bed, even better—it will enhance your sleep.

Sweat It Out in a Sauna

Forbes Riley, creator of fitness product SpinGym who you may also remember co-hosting Jack LaLanne’s juicer infomercial, is a big fan of detoxing. It’s how she lost her pregnancy weight gain at the age of 42 after giving birth to twins. She suggests you use a sauna regularly. “There’s nothing more detoxing than sweating it out,” she says.

Exfoliate

“Skin brushing and oil massages will help exfoliate the toxins from your skin and refresh circulation,” says Christina Chodos, a certified health counselor and educator from Chicago, IL.

 

 

 

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The Words That Can Signal You’re Depressed

From the Wall Street Journal:

Feeling down? Pay attention to your language.

Language changes significantly in both content and word choice in people who are depressed, according to a growing body of research using computer programs to analyze speech and writing. People who are depressed tend to use the pronoun “I” more, indicating a greater focus on self. They also use “absolute” words like “must,” “completely,” “should” or “always,” reflecting an overly black-or-white outlook.

Scientists have long known that people change how they speak when they are depressed—their speech becomes lower, more monotone and more labored, with more stops, starts and pauses. But newer studies, including several published this year, have found differences in the actual words depressed people use.

People who are depressed “don’t see subtleties, and we can see this in the words they use,” says James W. Pennebaker, professor of psychology at the University of Texas at Austin, who studies how language relates to a person’s psychological state.

The study of computer-assisted language analysis for depression is still a nascent field, but apps and other technology that track language could eventually help doctors and patients identify a depressive episode more quickly. Since there are no biological markers for depression as there are for cancer and other diseases, therapists currently have to rely on a patient’s self-reported symptoms and on their own analysis to diagnose the disorder. Both can be highly subjective. The apparent suicides of designer Kate Spade and chef Anthony Bourdain last week underscore just how challenging it can be to identify and treat depression.

In research published online in March in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, researchers at the Universities of Arizona, Zurich and Texas, as well as Michigan State and Georgia Southern, gave questionnaires designed to measure depression to more than 4,700 people at six labs in the U.S. and Germany. Participants were asked to write about their lives, a recent relationship breakup, their level of satisfaction with life, or just their general thoughts and feelings. Then software analyzed their language. The results: In addition to using more negative, or sad, words, people who were depressed used more first-person pronouns or “I-talk” than people who were not depressed.

Pronouns show where a person is focusing attention, says Dr. Pennebaker, who is an author on the study. Someone who is really interested in another person will use the third person “he” or “she.” Someone closely focused on a relationship will use “we.” “But if you are thinking about yourself—if you are more self-conscious or self-aware, as depressed people are—you will use the first-person singular ‘I’ or ‘me,’” Dr. Pennebaker says.

Depressed people also tend to view the world in a concrete, black-or-white way, using words such as “must,” “completely,” “should” or “always” that express absolutist thinking, as shown in a series of three studies published together in Clinical Psychological Science in January.

The researchers, from the University of Reading in the U.K., used software to calculate the percentage of absolutist words used in messages by approximately 6,400 members of internet forums for depression, anxiety, suicidal ideation and a host of control forums. They found that approximately 1.5% of words used by people in the depression and anxiety forums were absolutist—which was 50% more than those used by people in the control forums. The percentage was even higher for people in the suicidal ideation forums: about 1.8%.

Why are absolutist words so bad? People often don’t realize they are using them, and they can amp up negative thoughts. (Think about having your barbecue rained out. Saying “this always happens” is a much harsher thought than “sometimes the weather is unpredictable in June.”) Absolutist words also require that the world correspond to your view. (“I must get that promotion.” “My children must behave.”) “If the world doesn’t adhere to what you demand of it, that is when depression and anxiety set in,” says Mohammed Al-Mosaiwi, a Ph.D. candidate in psychology at the University of Reading and lead author on the studies. The more flexible you are, the better, he says.

Psychologists say people can use language as a tool to help them reframe their thoughts. “Very often, what you say is what you internalize,” says Mr. Al-Mosaiwi. Here are some tips:

Remember that the actual words you say matter, not just the thoughts they convey. Even if you are unable to replace negative words with positive ones, try replacing them with more accurate neutral ones. Instead of: “This party is horrible,” try “This event is not for me.”

Banish absolutes, especially in relation to your goals or relationships, where falling short of your expectations can be particularly depressing. These words and phrases include: always, never, nothing, must, every, totally, completely, constantly, entirely, all, definitely, full and one-hundred percent. Replace them with nuance. Instead of: “I can never catch a break,” try “Sometimes things don’t work out.”

Write. Keep a journal. Try a stream-of-consciousness writing exercise. Compose an email to a friend. Then analyze what words you are using. Are they too negative or absolutist? All about you? Tweak those sentences—and stay vigilant for those words in your speech.

Ask a loved one to help you identify absolutist or negative words or sentences and suggest reframing. It is easier to notice someone else’s language than our own.

Create a mantra you can use to override absolutist language. So instead of saying “This always happens to me,” say “This time. This happened this time.”

Put your mantra on sticky notes and place them where you can see them. Make it your screen saver. Have a needlepoint pillow made.

Pay attention to your use of the word “I.” If most of your sentences have “I” or “me” in them, you are probably too self-focused, says Dr. Pennebaker.

The post The Words That Can Signal You’re Depressed appeared first on Reach Out Recovery.

Policy and Laws Affect LGBTQ Population

June is National Pride month for the LGBTQ population. In the last two decades prior to the current administration, we have seen significant positive changes regarding the legal rights of the LGBTQ population. Positive strides have included:

Changing from “don’t ask, don’t tell” to open acceptance in the military
Marriage rights that began in the states that are now a national policy of marriage rights
Prior to marriage rights, it was estimated that there were over 10,000 rights that were given to heterosexuals that were not given to the LGBTQ population
Other rights of inclusion including housing, property laws, partnership laws requiring the rights of the partner for medical reasons (visitation, power-of-attorney, etc.), employment, tax rights, protections for hiring and from firing, and many other positive changes
Increased understanding of the medical community of the special needs of this population
Increased services for mental health issues
Seeing the detrimental effects of so-called conversion therapy (therapy which is unethical and harmful in the attempt to try to convert someone gay or transgender into becoming heterosexual and status quo of gender identity), often with inappropriate negative and destructive therapy techniques (please note that ethical therapists would never offer this type of therapy)
Adoption rights by both parents
Significant increase in visibility of the population and being out and proud
Significant increase in the number of people supporting equal rights as well as gay marriage
Increased acceptance from religious institutions

Recent Attacks On LGBTQ Population Affect Acceptance

However, what rights that have been gained in the last 20 years are currently under attack. While gay marriage is a federal right, there are many states, where people who identify as part of the LGBTQ population can still be fired, denied specific services where owners refuse to serve us such as in restaurants and shops, and refused housing or face eviction based solely on our status.

Also at this time, the Human Rights Campaign (www.hrc.org) relates that 31 states still have laws where we can be fired, evicted, and or deny services based solely on LGBTQ status. Likewise, many states do not have co-adoption rights of an LGBTQ couple. Also, there has been an increase in hate crimes in the past year due to the political climate which makes violence more acceptable, especially against minorities.

What Can Be Done To Protect LGBTQ Rights

Get educated about the issues
Honor those who are LGBTQ
Work within the community and with those who are LGBTQ allies (heterosexual/cisgender persons)
Take legal action if you have been discriminated against
Take legal action if you have been the target of a hate crime
Support the young people who are demonstrating political savvy
Demonstrate and protest
Frequent service providers who are LGBTQ friendly
Boycott those providers who aren’t supportive or are anti-gay rights such as Chick Fil-A and Hobby Lobby as well as local establishments
Display the rainbow, transgender, and HRC flags at home and at work
Fight for inclusive policies at the local, state, and federal level
Boycott cities and states who are not LGBTQ friendly- do not vacation or shop there
Fight for sane gun laws and hate-crime laws
Help spiritual/religious leaders and congregations focus on acceptance
Don’t give up

We must protect and regain those rights that are quickly ebbing away and whether you are LGBTQ or an ally, take part in whatever you can do bring us back to hope and acceptance.

 

 

 

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