Category: Mental Health

The Personality Trait That Is A Sign Of Poor Mental Health

This personality trait is linked to mental health problems.

This personality trait is linked to mental health problems.

Being impulsive can be a sign of poor mental health, research finds.

People who are impulsive tend to prefer a small immediate reward over a larger reward later on.

Impulsive people tend to act on their immediate thoughts and emotions without thinking about the consequences.

In other words, impulsive people want to have fun now, not later — even if waiting is more sensible.

People who are depressed, have bipolar disorder, schizophrenia or some eating disorders are more likely to be impulsive.

Psychologists can measure this type of impulsivity with a test of  ‘delay discounting’.

Delay discounting is the idea that people tend to discount a reward more, the longer the delay until they receive it.

So, psychologically, $5 right now is worth more than $10 in three weeks time.

Or, as the proverb has it: a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.

People who can delay their gratification find it easier to wait for their rewards.

However, people with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and borderline personality disorder find it particularly hard to delay gratification.

The conclusions come from a review of 43 separate studies.

Dr Michael Amlung, the study’s first author, said:

“The revelation that delay discounting is one of these ‘trans-diagnostic’ processes will have a significant effect on the future of psychiatric diagnosis and treatment.”

Among people with mental health problems, though, anorexia was the exception.

People with anorexia tend to make excessively self-controlling decisions.

This makes sense given that anorexia is a disorder characterised by a very high level of self-control over eating behaviours.

Professor Randi McCabe, study co-author, said:

“Examining factors that cut across psychiatric disorders, such as delay discounting, helps to illuminate commonalities and distinguishing characteristics amongst disorders that then guide further research on treatment and prevention.”

The study was published in JAMA Psychiatry (Amlung et al., 2019).

This Is Why Modern Living Is So Bad For The Heart

This social epidemic increases heart disease risk by 30 percent.

This social epidemic increases heart disease risk by 30 percent.

Loneliness increases the risk of heart disease by 30 percent, research finds.

Coronary heart disease and stroke are the leading causes of death in rich countries.

The conclusions come from a review of 23 studies including over 181,000 adults.

The researchers found that social isolation or loneliness was linked to a 32 percent increase in stroke risk and 29 percent increase of a heart or angina attack.

The study’s authors write:

“Our work suggests that addressing loneliness and social isolation may have an important role in the prevention of two of the leading causes of morbidity in high income countries.”

Writing in a linked editorial, psychologists Dr Julianne Holt-Lunstad and Dr Timothy Smith, say:

“With such rapid changes in the way people are interacting socially, empirical research is needed to address several important questions.

Does interacting socially via technology reduce or replace face to face social interaction and/or alter social skills?

Given projected increases in levels of social isolation and loneliness in Europe and North America, medical science needs to squarely address the ramifications for physical health.

Similar to how cardiologists and other healthcare professionals have taken strong public stances regarding other factors exacerbating [cardiovascular disease], eg smoking, and diets high in saturated fats, further attention to social connections is needed in research and public health surveillance, prevention and intervention efforts.”

The studies were published in the journal Heart (Valtorta et al., 2016; Holt-Lunstad & Smith, 2015).

How Holidays Affect Mental Health (M)

While travel is often seen as merely recreation, some think it provides real health benefits.

While travel is often seen as merely recreation, some think it provides real health benefits.

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Knowing These Words Is A Sign Of Good Mental Health

The words were also linked to better physical health.

The words were also linked to better physical health.

People who know more positive words relating to the emotions are likely to have better mental health, research finds.

People who naturally use words like glad, joyful, gleeful, perky and jolly are also likely to be in better physical health.

The use of a wider variety of positive emotion words was also reflected in personality: cheerful words were linked to being more outgoing, agreeable and conscientious.

Conversely, those who know more words for negative emotions report higher levels of neuroticism and depression — they are also likely to be in worse physical health.

Dr Vera Vine, the study’s first author, said:

“Our language seems to indicate our expertise with states of emotion we are more comfortable with.

It looks like there’s a congruency between how many different ways we can name a feeling and how often and likely we are to experience that feeling.”

The conclusions come from stream-of-consciousness essays written by 1,567 students and an analysis of over 35,000 public blogs.

The results showed that the language people use feeds back into their mental state.

While writing the essays, people who used more words for sadness grew sadder and people who talked about fear became more fearful.

People using many different words for positive emotions, though, tended to show more linguistic markers of mental well-being.

They talked about achievements, leisure activities and being part of a group.

Dr Vine said:

“There’s a lot of excitement right now about expanding people’s emotional vocabularies and teaching how to precisely articulate negative feelings.

While we often hear the phrase, ‘name it to tame it’ when referring to negative emotions, I hope this paper can inspire clinical researchers who are developing emotion-labeling interventions for clinical practice, to study the potential pitfalls of encouraging over-labeling of negative emotions, and the potential utility of teaching positive words.”

The study helps underlines how important language is to our lived experience.

It is not just a way of communicating with others, it is also how we tell ourselves how we are feeling.

Professor James W. Pennebaker, study co-author, said:

“It is likely that people who have had more upsetting life experiences have developed richer negative emotion vocabularies to describe the worlds around them.

In everyday life, these same people can more readily label nuanced feelings as negative which may ultimately affect their moods.”

The study was published in the journal Nature Communications (Vine et al., 2020).

Why Some People React More Emotionally To Life’s Ups and Downs (M)

The novelist Marcel Proust, famous for his emotional sensitivity, probably carried this genetic variation.

The novelist Marcel Proust, famous for his emotional sensitivity, probably carried this genetic variation.

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The Best Way To Limit Phone Use And Improve Mental Well-Being (M)

Cutting back on phone usage also led to greater physical activity, reduced nicotine intake and fewer symptoms of depression and anxiety.

Cutting back on phone usage also led to greater physical activity, reduced nicotine intake and fewer symptoms of depression and anxiety.

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How To Boost Your Mental Health In Only 10 Minutes

It boosts our ability to regulate our emotions, avoid temptations and control bad habits.

It boosts our ability to regulate our emotions, avoid temptations and control bad habits.

Just ten minutes of moderate-intensity exercise, like running, is enough to improve mental health, a study finds.

This amount of exercise is enough to boost blood flow to various areas of the bilateral prefrontal cortex.

These areas of the brain are important to how we feel and control our actions.

The study suggests that even this small amount of exercise boosts our ability to regulate our emotions, avoid temptations and control bad habits.

Professor Hideaki Soya, study co-author, said:

“Given the extent of executive control required in coordinating balance, movement, and propulsion during running, it is logical that there would be increased neuronal activation in the prefrontal cortex and that other functions in this region would benefit from this increase in brain resources.”

For the study 26 people were given tests of their mood and brain function before and after they did 10 minutes on a treadmill.

The results showed that people felt better after running,

Chorphaka Damrongthai, the study’s first author, said:

“This was supported by findings of coincident activations in the prefrontal cortical regions involved in mood regulation.”

Not only this, but their brains demonstrated improved performance in areas related to mood and inhibitory control.

Inhibitory control is people’s ability to stop themselves from temptations, such as eating unhealthy food or any other habits that might otherwise be difficult to avoid.

It is also involved in controlling unwanted thoughts and directing attention efficiently.

The mental benefits of exercise

Exercise has been linked to a huge range of mental benefits, including that it:

  • increases stress resilience,
  • reduces anxiety,
  • lowers the risk of dementia,
  • speeds up the mind,
  • fights depression,
  • consolidates long-term memory,
  • and much more…

→ Related: Exercise: 20 Mental Benefits Of Physical Activity

The study was published in the journal Scientific Reports (Damrongthai et al., 2021).