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What’s the difference between shyness and social anxiety?

<div class="theconversation-article-body"><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/kayla-steele-1042011">Kayla Steele</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/unsw-sydney-1414">UNSW Sydney</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/jill-newby-193454">Jill Newby</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/unsw-sydney-1414">UNSW Sydney</a></em></p> <p>The terms “shyness” and “social anxiety” are often used interchangeably because they both involve feeling uncomfortable in social situations.</p> <p>However, <a href="https://theconversation.com/shyness-isnt-nice-but-shyness-shouldnt-stop-you-28010">feeling shy</a>, or having a shy personality, is not the same as experiencing <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-is-social-anxiety-disorder-36601">social anxiety</a> (short for “social anxiety disorder”).</p> <p>Here are some of the similarities and differences, and what the distinction means.</p> <h2>How are they similar?</h2> <p>It can be normal to feel nervous or even stressed in new social situations or when interacting with new people. And everyone differs in how comfortable they feel when interacting with others.</p> <p>For people who are shy or socially anxious, social situations can be very uncomfortable, stressful or even threatening. There can be a strong desire to avoid these situations.</p> <p>People who are shy or socially anxious may <a href="https://theconversation.com/paralysed-with-fear-why-do-we-freeze-when-frightened-60543">respond with</a> “flight” (by withdrawing from the situation or avoiding it entirely), “freeze” (by detaching themselves or feeling disconnected from their body), or “<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-fawning-how-is-it-related-to-trauma-and-the-fight-or-flight-response-205024">fawn</a>” (by trying to appease or placate others).</p> <p>A complex interaction of biological and environmental factors is also thought to influence the development of shyness and social anxiety.</p> <p>For example, both <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.3758/s13415-021-00916-7">shy children</a> and <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5428215/">adults with social anxiety</a> have neural circuits that respond strongly to stressful social situations, such as being excluded or left out.</p> <p>People who are shy or socially anxious commonly report physical symptoms of stress in certain situations, or even when anticipating them. These include sweating, blushing, trembling, an increased heart rate or hyperventilation.</p> <figure class="align-center zoomable"><a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/592825/original/file-20240508-22-heev7f.png?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=1000&amp;fit=clip"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/592825/original/file-20240508-22-heev7f.png?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;fit=clip" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/592825/original/file-20240508-22-heev7f.png?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=456&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/592825/original/file-20240508-22-heev7f.png?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=456&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/592825/original/file-20240508-22-heev7f.png?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=456&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/592825/original/file-20240508-22-heev7f.png?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=573&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/592825/original/file-20240508-22-heev7f.png?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=573&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/592825/original/file-20240508-22-heev7f.png?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=573&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 2262w" alt="" /></a><figcaption></figcaption></figure> <h2>How are they different?</h2> <p>Social anxiety is a diagnosable mental health condition and is an example of an anxiety disorder.</p> <p>For people who struggle with social anxiety, social situations – including social interactions, being observed and performing in front of others – trigger intense fear or anxiety about being judged, criticised or rejected.</p> <p>To be diagnosed with social anxiety disorder, social anxiety needs to be persistent (lasting more than six months) and have a significant negative impact on important areas of life such as work, school, relationships, and identity or sense of self.</p> <p>Many adults with social anxiety report feeling shy, timid and lacking in confidence when they were a child. However, not all shy children go on to develop social anxiety. Also, feeling shy does not necessarily mean a person meets the criteria for social anxiety disorder.</p> <p>People vary in how shy or outgoing they are, depending on where they are, who they are with and how comfortable they feel in the situation. This is particularly true for children, who sometimes appear reserved and shy with strangers and peers, and outgoing with known and trusted adults.</p> <p>Individual differences in temperament, personality traits, early childhood experiences, family upbringing and environment, and parenting style, can also influence the extent to which people feel shy across social situations.</p> <p>However, people with social anxiety have overwhelming fears about embarrassing themselves or being negatively judged by others; they experience these fears consistently and across multiple social situations.</p> <p>The intensity of this fear or anxiety often leads people to avoid situations. If avoiding a situation is not possible, they may engage in safety behaviours, such as looking at their phone, wearing sunglasses or rehearsing conversation topics.</p> <p>The effect social anxiety can have on a person’s life can be far-reaching. It may include low self-esteem, breakdown of friendships or romantic relationships, difficulties pursuing and progressing in a career, and dropping out of study.</p> <p>The impact this has on a person’s ability to lead a meaningful and fulfilling life, and the distress this causes, differentiates social anxiety from shyness.</p> <p>Children can show similar signs or symptoms of social anxiety to adults. But they may also feel upset and teary, irritable, have temper tantrums, cling to their parents, or <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-selective-mutism-and-is-it-a-lifelong-condition-219930">refuse to speak</a> in certain situations.</p> <p>If left untreated, social anxiety can set children and young people up for a future of missed opportunities, so early intervention is key. With professional and <a href="https://theconversation.com/back-to-school-blues-how-to-help-your-child-with-shyness-90228">parental support</a>, patience and guidance, children can be taught <a href="https://theconversation.com/7-tips-to-help-kids-feeling-anxious-about-going-back-to-school-139207">strategies</a> to overcome social anxiety.</p> <h2>Why does the distinction matter?</h2> <p>Social anxiety disorder is a mental health condition that <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12916-017-0889-2?utm_source=getftr&amp;utm_medium=getftr&amp;utm_campaign=getftr_pilot">persists</a> for people who do not receive adequate support or treatment.</p> <p>Without treatment, it can lead to <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22306132/">difficulties</a> in education and at work, and in developing meaningful relationships.</p> <p>Receiving a diagnosis of social anxiety disorder can be validating for some people as it recognises the level of distress and that its impact is more intense than shyness.</p> <p>A diagnosis can also be an important first step in accessing appropriate, evidence-based treatment.</p> <p>Different people have different support needs. However, <a href="https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/cg159/chapter/Recommendations">clinical practice guidelines</a> recommend cognitive-behavioural therapy (a kind of psychological therapy that teaches people practical coping skills). This is often used with <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-is-exposure-therapy-and-how-can-it-treat-social-anxiety-64483#:%7E:text=Exposure%20therapy%20is%20where%20people,addresses%20the%20underlying%20unhelpful%20thoughts.">exposure therapy</a> (a kind of psychological therapy that helps people face their fears by breaking them down into a series of step-by-step activities). This combination is effective <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-is-exposure-therapy-and-how-can-it-treat-social-anxiety-64483#:%7E:text=Exposure%20therapy%20is%20where%20people,addresses%20the%20underlying%20unhelpful%20thoughts.">in-person</a>, <a href="https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Computer-therapy-for-the-anxiety-and-depression-is-Andrews-Basu/25e9ee98a1af8d2780ac3e1f687ebc40ebd1b47c">online</a> and in <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34534800/">brief treatments</a>.</p> <h2>For more support or further reading</h2> <p>Online resources about social anxiety include:</p> <ul> <li> <p>This Way Up’s <a href="https://thiswayup.org.au/programs/social-anxiety-program/">online program</a> for managing excessive shyness and fear of social situations</p> </li> <li> <p>Beyond Blue’s <a href="https://www.beyondblue.org.au/mental-health/anxiety/types-of-anxiety/social-anxiety-disorder">resources</a> on social anxiety</p> </li> <li> <p>a guide to <a href="https://www.cci.health.wa.gov.au/Resources/Looking-After-Yourself/Social-Anxiety">looking after yourself</a> if you have social anxiety, from the Western Australian health department</p> </li> <li> <p>social anxiety <a href="https://brave4you.psy.uq.edu.au/">online program for children and teens</a> from the University of Queensland</p> </li> <li> <p>inroads, a <a href="https://inroads.org.au/">self-guided online program</a> for young adults who drink alcohol to manage their anxiety.</p> </li> </ul> <hr /> <p><em>We thank the Black Dog Institute <a href="https://www.blackdoginstitute.org.au/about/who-we-are/lived-experience/">Lived Experience Advisory Network</a> members for providing feedback and input for this article and our research.</em><!-- Below is The Conversation's page counter tag. Please DO NOT REMOVE. --><img style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important;" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/225669/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /><!-- End of code. If you don't see any code above, please get new code from the Advanced tab after you click the republish button. The page counter does not collect any personal data. More info: https://theconversation.com/republishing-guidelines --></p> <p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/kayla-steele-1042011">Kayla Steele</a>, Postdoctoral research fellow and clinical psychologist, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/unsw-sydney-1414">UNSW Sydney</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/jill-newby-193454">Jill Newby</a>, Professor, NHMRC Emerging Leader &amp; Clinical Psychologist, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/unsw-sydney-1414">UNSW Sydney</a></em></p> <p><em>Image credits: Shutterstock</em></p> <p><em>This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/whats-the-difference-between-shyness-and-social-anxiety-225669">original article</a>.</em></p> </div>

Mind

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If you have money anxiety, knowing your financial attachment style can help

<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/ylva-baeckstrom-1463175">Ylva Baeckstrom</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/kings-college-london-1196">King's College London</a></em></p> <p>The number of people struggling with money in Britain is at a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/money/2024/mar/18/record-numbers-of-uk-people-in-debt-warns-charity">record high</a>. Financial charities say that people are contacting them for help with debt, paying bills and insolvency. The campaign group Debt Justice found in a <a href="https://debtjustice.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/WalnutOmnibus-Debt-Justice-Policy-Development-Weighted.xlsx">survey</a> that 29% of 18- to 24-year-olds and 25% of 25- to 34-year-olds had missed three or more bill payments in the last six months.</p> <p>A majority (65%) of people don’t think they can survive on their savings for three months without <a href="https://www.money.co.uk/savings-accounts/savings-statistics">borrowing money</a>. Statistics from the UK’s financial markets regulator show that more than one-third of UK adults have less than £1,000 in savings. And a survey by Money.co.uk found that 30% of Brits aged 25-64 do not save at all <a href="https://www.pensionsage.com/pa/Nearly-one-third-of-Brits-are-not-saving-for-retirement.php">for retirement</a>.</p> <p>With figures like that, is it any wonder that 75% of people in the UK feel <a href="https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/about-us/news/financial-strain-driving-uks-anxiety#:%7E:text=Almost%20three%2Dquarters%20of%20the,cited%20job%20insecurity%20or%20unemployment">anxious about money</a>?</p> <p>The current state of the economy is particularly scary for young people. Unless you were born with a trust fund (not most people), you are likely part of the first generation to be financially worse off than <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2020/01/11/politics/millennials-income-stalled-upward-mobility-us/index.html">your parents</a>. Retirement seems like an impossibility, and you’re unlikely to own your own home. Eighty percent of people in their early 20s worry about <a href="https://www.youngminds.org.uk/parent/parents-a-z-mental-health-guide/money-and-mental-health/#Thelinksbetweenmoneyandmentalhealth">not earning enough</a>.</p> <p>It is important to start planning for your financial future early in your career, but you may find it overwhelming. The good news is, there are ways to overcome this.</p> <h2>Finding your financial attachment style</h2> <p>As a psychotherapist and finance researcher, I work with people to help them to increase their financial confidence and find the motivation to start planning. This often starts with understanding what influences their relationship with money.</p> <p><a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/behavioral-and-brain-sciences/article/bowlbyainsworth-attachment-theory/6D35C7A344107195D97FD7ADAE06C807">Attachment theory</a> is a psychological concept introduced in the late 1950s. Your attachment style – which can be, for example, secure, anxious or avoidant – explains how you approach creating emotionally intimate relationships with other people. Some people feel secure building relationships, while others are extremely anxious. Some avoid close relationships altogether.</p> <p>Attachment style can also apply to your finances. If you feel confident and safe when it comes to money, you are secure in your relationship to saving and spending. But if the thought of opening an ISA or filling out a tax return, let alone planning for retirement, fills you with dread and panic, you may be anxiously attached. And if you if you push money worries to the back of your mind, you are likely avoidant.</p> <p>Attachment theorists and psychotherapists like me think that attachment styles are shaped by childhood experiences – for example, how well you were looked after by your parents or carers, and how safe and loved you felt.</p> <p>The way money was handled in your family growing up is likely to have set the blueprint for your <a href="https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/02/200225114410.htm">financial attachment style</a>. Outside influences like education or work experiences may shape this too.</p> <p>Although financial education is part of the <a href="https://maps.org.uk/en/work-with-us/financial-education-in-schools">school curriculum</a> in the UK, 76% of children leave school without sufficient <a href="https://maps.org.uk/en/media-centre/press-releases/2024/hundreds-of-thousands-leaving-school-without-money-skills#:%7E:text=In%20its%20poll%20of%201%2C012,knowledge%20they%20need%20for%20adulthood">financial knowledge</a> to manage their lives. Similarly, financial services like banks have done a poor job helping people establish secure financial relationships. Complex and <a href="https://www.pwmnet.com/private-view-blog-time-for-the-financial-industry-to-jettison-the-jargon">off-putting language</a> has placed a barrier between those who know about money and those who need to learn.</p> <p>If you feel unable to keep up with financial terms, or that you don’t understand money, this is likely to hurt your confidence in your financial planning abilities and fuel a more avoidant attachment style.</p> <p>Identifying your attachment style can help you nurture a better relationship with money. You will be able to understand and predict how and why you react to finances in certain ways. And, it can provide confidence by reminding you that money struggles are not necessarily your fault.</p> <h2>Getting over financial anxiety</h2> <p>Some of the recent financial trends spreading on social media may give an insight into your attachment style. Are you <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/select/what-is-loud-budgeting-trend-can-it-work/">“loud budgeting”</a> (being vocal about why you aren’t spending money)? This could be a sign of financial confidence and that you have secure financial attachment. Or are you “doom spending” (spending money you don’t have instead of creating a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2024/jan/31/are-you-loud-budgeting-or-doom-spending-finance-according-to-gen-z">nest egg</a> for the future)? You may be avoidant.</p> <p>Healthy relationships with <a href="https://www.nhs.uk/every-mind-matters/lifes-challenges/maintaining-healthy-relationships-and-mental-wellbeing/#:%7E:text=People%20with%20healthy%2C%20positive%20and,such%20as%20stress%20and%20anxiety">people</a> and <a href="https://www.nhs.uk/every-mind-matters/lifes-challenges/money-worries-mental-health/#:%7E:text=Our%20mental%20health%20might%20be,earning%20enough%20or%20currently%20unemployed">money</a> are both critical for our survival and mental health. As an adult, you have the power to improve these relationships. But because attachment patterns were formed early on, they are difficult to change. Therapy and other support can help you adopt healthier habits, as can increasing your financial knowledge.</p> <p>If you want to change your relationship with money, you should try to be mindful of what may be influencing you. While financial advice on social media may be useful and help young people feel more empowered to <a href="https://www.forbes.com/advisor/investing/financial-advisor/adults-financial-advice-social-media/">talk about money</a>, it can also <a href="https://www.mcleanhospital.org/essential/it-or-not-social-medias-affecting-your-mental-health">increase anxiety further</a> and be <a href="https://theconversation.com/if-you-get-your-financial-advice-on-social-media-watch-out-for-misinformation-222196">full of misinformation</a>. A good place to start for accurate and helpful information is the government’s <a href="https://www.moneyhelper.org.uk/en">Money Helper website</a>.<img style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important;" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/225243/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /></p> <p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/ylva-baeckstrom-1463175">Ylva Baeckstrom</a>, Senior Lecturer in Finance, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/kings-college-london-1196">King's College London</a></em></p> <p><em>Image credits: Getty Images </em></p> <p><em>This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/if-you-have-money-anxiety-knowing-your-financial-attachment-style-can-help-225243">original article</a>.</em></p>

Money & Banking

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Anger, sadness, boredom, anxiety – emotions that feel bad can be useful

<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/heather-lench-1349234">Heather Lench</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/texas-aandm-university-1672">Texas A&amp;M University</a></em></p> <p>Remember the sadness that came with the last time you failed miserably at something? Or the last time you were so anxious about an upcoming event that you couldn’t concentrate for days?</p> <p>These types of emotions are unpleasant to experience and can even feel overwhelming. People often try to avoid them, suppress them or ignore them. In fact, in psychology experiments, people will <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-012-9394-7">pay money to not feel many negative emotions</a>. But recent research is revealing that emotions can be useful, and even negative emotions can bring benefits.</p> <p><a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=fzHtrJIAAAAJ&amp;hl=en&amp;oi=ao">In my</a> <a href="https://emotionsciencelab.com">emotion science lab</a> at Texas A&amp;M University, we study how emotions like anger and boredom affect people, and we explore ways that these feelings can be beneficial. We share the results so people can learn how to use their emotions to build the lives they want.</p> <p>Our studies and many others have shown that emotions aren’t uniformly good or bad for people. Instead, different emotions can result in better outcomes in particular types of situations. Emotions seem to function like a Swiss army knife – different emotional tools are helpful in specific situations.</p> <h2>Sadness can help you recover from a failure</h2> <p>Sadness occurs when people perceive that they’ve lost a goal or a desired outcome, and there’s nothing they can do to improve the situation. It could be getting creamed in a game or failing a class or work project, or it can be losing a relationship with a family member. Once evoked, sadness is associated with what psychologists call a deactivation state of doing little, without much behavior or <a href="https://dictionary.apa.org/arousal">physical arousal</a>. Sadness also brings <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/ap.12232">thinking that is more detailed and analytical</a>. It makes you stop <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721412474458">and think</a>.</p> <p>The benefit of the stopping and thinking that comes with sadness is that it <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-77619-4_4">helps people recover from failure</a>. When you fail, that typically means the situation you’re in is not conducive to success. Instead of just charging ahead in this type of scenario, sadness prompts people to step back and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/a0016242">evaluate what is happening</a>.</p> <p>When people are sad, they process information in a deliberative, analytical way and want to avoid risk. This mode comes with <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.75.2.318">more accurate memory</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/02699939108411048">judgment that is less influenced</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2004.11.005">by irrelevant assumptions or information</a>, and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2008.04.010">better detection of other people lying</a>. These cognitive changes can encourage people to understand past failures and possibly prevent future ones.</p> <p>Sadness can function differently when there’s the possibility that the failure could be avoided if other people help. In these situations, people tend to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-8986.1994.tb01049.x">cry and can experience</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10286-018-0526-y">increased physiological arousal</a>, such as quicker heart and breathing rates. Expressing sadness, through tears or verbally, has the benefit of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/147470491301100114">potentially recruiting other people to help you</a> achieve your goals. This behavior appears to start in infants, with <a href="https://doi.org/10.2307/1127506">tears and cries signaling caregivers to help</a>.</p> <h2>Anger prepares you to overcome an obstacle</h2> <p>Anger occurs when people perceive they’re losing a goal or desired outcome, but that they could improve the situation by removing something that’s in their way. The obstacle could be an injustice committed by another person, or it could be a computer that repeatedly crashes while you’re trying to get work done. Once evoked, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/a0024244">anger is associated with a “readiness for action,”</a> and your <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/S0191-8869(02)00313-6">thinking focuses on the obstacle</a>.</p> <p>The benefit of being prepared for action and focused on what’s in your way is that it motivates you to overcome what’s standing between you and your goal. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1754073913512003">When people are angry</a>, they <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.2420240104">process information and make judgments rapidly</a>, want to take action, and are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsycho.2010.03.010">physiologically aroused</a>. In experiments, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2010.04.017">anger actually increases the force of people’s kicks</a>, which can be helpful in physical encounters. Anger results in better outcomes in situations that involve challenges to goals, including confrontational games, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/pspa0000350">tricky puzzles</a>, video games with obstacles, and responding quickly on tasks.</p> <p>Expressing anger, facially or verbally, has the benefit of <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/pspp0000292">prompting other people to clear the way</a>. People are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.86.1.57">more likely to concede in negotiations</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2012.12.015">give in on issues</a> when their adversary looks or says they are angry.</p> <h2>Anxiety helps you prepare for danger</h2> <p>Anxiety occurs when people <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/070674371105601202">perceive a potential threat</a>. This could be giving a speech to a large audience where failure would put your self-esteem on the line, or it could be a physical threat to yourself or loved ones. Once evoked, anxiety is associated with being prepared to respond to danger, including increased physical arousal and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2006.01701.x">attention to threats and risk</a>.</p> <p>Being prepared for danger means that if trouble brews, you can respond quickly to prevent or avoid it. When anxious, people detect threats rapidly, have fast reaction times and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2006.01701.x">are on heightened alert</a>. The eye-widening that often comes with fear and anxiety even <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/nn.2138">gives people a wider field of vision</a> and improves threat detection.</p> <p>Anxiety prepares the body for action, which improves performance on a number of tasks that involve motivation and attention. It motivates people to prepare for upcoming events, such as devoting time to study for an exam. Anxiety also prompts protective behavior, which can help prevent the potential threat from becoming a reality.</p> <h2>Boredom can jolt you out of a rut</h2> <p>There is less research on boredom than many other emotions, so it is not as well understood. Researchers debate <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2023.02.002">what it is</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.3390/bs3030459">what it does</a>.</p> <p>Boredom appears to occur when someone’s current situation is <a href="https://doi.org/10.3390/bs3030459">not causing any other emotional response</a>. There are three situations <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s11031-011-9234-9">where this lack can occur</a>: when emotions fade, such as the happiness of a new car fading to neutral; when people don’t care about anything in their current situation, such as being at a large party where nothing interesting is happening; or when people have no goals. Boredom does not necessarily set in just because nothing is happening – someone with a goal of relaxation might feel quite content sitting quietly with no stimulation.</p> <p>Psychology researchers think that the benefit of boredom in situations where people are not responding emotionally is that it <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/emo0000433">prompts making a change</a>. If nothing in your current situation is worth responding to, the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/jocb.154">aversive experience of boredom can motivate you</a> to seek new situations or change the way you’re thinking. Boredom has been related to more risk seeking, a desire for novelty, and creative thinking. It seems to function like an emotional stick, nudging people out of their current situation to explore and create.</p> <h2>Using the toolkit of emotion</h2> <p>People want to be happy. But research is finding that a satisfying and productive life includes a <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/pspp0000292">mix of positive and negative emotions</a>. Negative emotions, even though they feel bad to experience, can motivate and prepare people for failure, challenges, threats and exploration.</p> <p>Pleasant or not, your emotions can help guide you toward better outcomes. Maybe understanding how they prepare you to handle various situations will help you feel better about feeling bad.<img style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important;" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/217654/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /></p> <p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/heather-lench-1349234">Heather Lench</a>, Professor of Psychological and Brain Sciences, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/texas-aandm-university-1672">Texas A&amp;M University</a></em></p> <p><em>Image credits: Getty Images </em></p> <p><em>This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/anger-sadness-boredom-anxiety-emotions-that-feel-bad-can-be-useful-217654">original article</a>.</em></p>

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If anxiety is in my brain, why is my heart pounding? A psychiatrist explains the neuroscience and physiology of fear

<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/arash-javanbakht-416594">Arash Javanbakht</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/wayne-state-university-989">Wayne State University</a></em></p> <p>Heart in your throat. Butterflies in your stomach. Bad gut feeling. These are all phrases many people use to describe fear and anxiety. You have likely felt anxiety inside your chest or stomach, and your brain usually doesn’t hurt when you’re scared. Many cultures tie cowardice and bravery more <a href="https://afosa.org/the-meaning-of-heart-qalb-in-quran/">to the heart</a> <a href="https://byustudies.byu.edu/article/bowels-of-mercy/">or the guts</a> than to the brain.</p> <p>But science has traditionally seen the brain as the birthplace and processing site of fear and anxiety. Then why and how do you feel these emotions in other parts of your body?</p> <p>I am a <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=UDytFmIAAAAJ&amp;hl=en">psychiatrist and neuroscientist</a> who researches and treats fear and anxiety. In my book “<a href="https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781538170380/Afraid-Understanding-the-Purpose-of-Fear-and-Harnessing-the-Power-of-Anxiety">Afraid,</a>” I explain how fear works in the brain and the body and what too much anxiety does to the body. Research confirms that while emotions do originate in your brain, it’s your body that carries out the orders.</p> <h2>Fear and the brain</h2> <p>While your brain evolved to save you from a falling rock or speeding predator, the anxieties of modern life are often a lot more abstract. Fifty-thousand years ago, being rejected by your tribe could mean death, but not doing a great job on a public speech at school or at work doesn’t have the same consequences. Your brain, however, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1006/nimg.2002.1179">might not know the difference</a>.</p> <p>There are a few key areas of the brain that are heavily involved in processing fear.</p> <p>When you perceive something as dangerous, whether it’s a gun pointed at you or a group of people looking unhappily at you, these sensory inputs are first relayed to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038%2Fnpp.2009.121">the amygdala</a>. This small, almond-shaped area of the brain located near your ears detects salience, or the emotional relevance of a situation and how to react to it. When you see something, it determines whether you should eat it, attack it, run away from it or have sex with it.</p> <p><a href="https://theconversation.com/the-science-of-fright-why-we-love-to-be-scared-85885">Threat detection</a> is a vital part of this process, and it has to be fast. Early humans did not have much time to think when a lion was lunging toward them. They had to act quickly. For this reason, the amygdala evolved to bypass brain areas involved in logical thinking and can directly engage physical responses. For example, seeing an angry face on a computer screen can immediately trigger a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1006/nimg.2002.1179">detectable response from the amygdala</a> without the viewer even being aware of this reaction.</p> <figure><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/xoU9tw6Jgyw?wmode=transparent&amp;start=0" width="440" height="260" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe><figcaption><span class="caption">In response to a looming threat, mammals often fight, flee or freeze.</span></figcaption></figure> <p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/npp.2009.83">The hippocampus</a> is near and tightly connected to the amygdala. It’s involved in memorizing what is safe and what is dangerous, especially in relation to the environment – it puts fear in context. For example, seeing an angry lion in the zoo and in the Sahara both trigger a fear response in the amygdala. But the hippocampus steps in and blocks this response when you’re at the zoo because you aren’t in danger.</p> <p>The <a href="https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ajp.2016.16030353">prefrontal cortex</a>, located above your eyes, is mostly involved in the cognitive and social aspects of fear processing. For example, you might be scared of a snake until you read a sign that the snake is nonpoisonous or the owner tells you it’s their friendly pet.</p> <p>Although the prefrontal cortex is usually seen as the part of the brain that regulates emotions, it can also teach you fear based on your social environment. For example, you might feel neutral about a meeting with your boss but immediately feel nervous when a colleague tells you about rumors of layoffs. Many <a href="https://theconversation.com/trump-the-politics-of-fear-and-racism-how-our-brains-can-be-manipulated-to-tribalism-139811">prejudices like racism</a> are rooted in learning fear through tribalism.</p> <h2>Fear and the rest of the body</h2> <p>If your brain decides that a fear response is justified in a particular situation, it activates a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/med/9780190259440.003.0019">cascade of neuronal and hormonal pathways</a> to prepare you for immediate action. Some of the fight-or-flight response – like heightened attention and threat detection – takes place in the brain. But the body is where most of the action happens.</p> <p>Several pathways prepare different body systems for intense physical action. The <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2014.00043">motor cortex</a> of the brain sends rapid signals to your muscles to prepare them for quick and forceful movements. These include muscles in the chest and stomach that help protect vital organs in those areas. That might contribute to a feeling of tightness in your chest and stomach in stressful conditions.</p> <figure><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/0IDgBlCHVsA?wmode=transparent&amp;start=0" width="440" height="260" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe><figcaption><span class="caption">Your sympathetic nervous system is involved in regulating stress.</span></figcaption></figure> <p>The <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK542195/">sympathetic nervous system</a> is the gas pedal that speeds up the systems involved in fight or flight. Sympathetic neurons are spread throughout the body and are especially dense in places like the heart, lungs and intestines. These neurons trigger the adrenal gland to release hormones like adrenaline that travel through the blood to reach those organs and increase the rate at which they undergo the fear response.</p> <p>To assure sufficient blood supply to your muscles when they’re in high demand, signals from the sympathetic nervous system increase the rate your heart beats and the force with which it contracts. You feel both increased heart rate and contraction force in your chest, which is why you may connect the feeling of intense emotions to your heart.</p> <p>In your lungs, signals from the sympathetic nervous system dilate airways and often increase your breathing rate and depth. Sometimes this results in a feeling of <a href="https://theconversation.com/pain-and-anxiety-are-linked-to-breathing-in-mouse-brains-suggesting-a-potential-target-to-prevent-opioid-overdose-deaths-174187">shortness of breath</a>.</p> <p>As digestion is the last priority during a fight-or-flight situation, sympathetic activation slows down your gut and reduces blood flow to your stomach to save oxygen and nutrients for more vital organs like the heart and the brain. These changes to your gastrointestinal system can be perceived as the discomfort linked to fear and anxiety.</p> <h2>It all goes back to the brain</h2> <p>All bodily sensations, including those visceral feelings from your chest and stomach, are relayed back to the brain through the pathways <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK555915/">via the spinal cord</a>. Your already anxious and highly alert brain then processes these signals at both conscious and unconscious levels.</p> <p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ajp.2016.16030353">The insula</a> is a part of the brain specifically involved in conscious awareness of your emotions, pain and bodily sensations. The <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038%2Fs41598-019-52776-4">prefrontal cortex</a> also engages in self-awareness, especially by labeling and naming these physical sensations, like feeling tightness or pain in your stomach, and attributing cognitive value to them, like “this is fine and will go away” or “this is terrible and I am dying.” These physical sensations can sometimes create a loop of increasing anxiety as they make the brain feel more scared of the situation because of the turmoil it senses in the body.</p> <p>Although the feelings of fear and anxiety start in your brain, you also feel them in your body because your brain alters your bodily functions. Emotions take place in both your body and your brain, but you become aware of their existence with your brain. As the rapper Eminem recounted in his song “Lose Yourself,” the reason his palms were sweaty, his knees weak and his arms heavy was because his brain was nervous.<!-- Below is The Conversation's page counter tag. Please DO NOT REMOVE. --><img style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important;" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/210871/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /><!-- End of code. If you don't see any code above, please get new code from the Advanced tab after you click the republish button. The page counter does not collect any personal data. More info: https://theconversation.com/republishing-guidelines --></p> <p><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/arash-javanbakht-416594"><em>Arash Javanbakht</em></a><em>, Associate Professor of Psychiatry, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/wayne-state-university-989">Wayne State University</a></em></p> <p><em>Image credits: Getty Images</em></p> <p><em>This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/if-anxiety-is-in-my-brain-why-is-my-heart-pounding-a-psychiatrist-explains-the-neuroscience-and-physiology-of-fear-210871">original article</a>.</em></p>

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Why is a messy house such an anxiety trigger for me and what can I do about it?

<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/erika-penney-1416241">Erika Penney</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-technology-sydney-936">University of Technology Sydney</a></em></p> <p>Do you ever feel overwhelmed by the sight of clutter and mess in your home? Have you walked in the door only to feel overloaded by scattered papers, unwashed dishes and clothes in disarray? Maybe you’ve even had arguments because it bothers you more than it bothers you partner or housemates.</p> <p>You’re not alone. Many people report a messy house can trigger feelings of <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0146167209352864">stress</a> and <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0272494421000062?via%3Dihub">anxiety</a>.</p> <p>So why do clutter and chaos make some of us feel so overwhelmed? Here’s what the research says – and what you can do about it.</p> <h2>Cognitive overload</h2> <p>When we’re surrounded by distractions, our brains essentially become <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21228167/">battlegrounds</a> for attention. Everything competes for our focus.</p> <p>But the brain, as it turns out, <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1994-43838-001">prefers</a> order and “<a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnhum.2015.00086/full%22%22">singletasking</a>” over multitasking.</p> <p>Order helps reduce the competition for our attention and reduces mental load. While some people might be better than others at <a href="https://www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073/pnas.1523471113">ignoring distractions</a>, distractable environments can overload our cognitive capabilities and memory.</p> <p>Clutter, disorder and mess can affect more than just our cognitive resources. They’re also linked to our <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23907542/">eating</a>, <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0360132318307157?via=ihub">productivity</a>, mental health, <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1207/s15374424jccp3401_9">parenting</a> decisions and even our willingness to donate <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23907542/">money</a>.</p> <h2>Are women more affected than men?</h2> <p>Research suggests the detrimental effects of mess and clutter may be more pronounced in women than in men.</p> <p>One <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0146167209352864">study</a> of 60 dual-income couples found women living in cluttered and stressful homes had higher levels of cortisol (a <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19596045/#:%7E:text=After%2520controlling%2520for%2520the%2520individual,and%2520poor%2520self-rated%2520health.">hormone</a> associated with stress) and heightened depression symptoms.</p> <p>These effects remained consistent even when factors like marital satisfaction and personality traits were taken into account. In contrast, the men in this study seemed largely unaffected by the state of their home environments.</p> <p>The researchers theorised that women may feel a greater responsibility for maintaining the home. They also suggested the social aspect of the study (which involved giving home tours) may have induced more fear of judgement among women than men.</p> <p>We will all live with clutter and disorganisation to some degree in our lives. Sometimes, however, significant clutter problems can be linked to underlying mental health conditions such as <a href="https://beyondocd.org/information-for-individuals/symptoms/ocd-related-hoarding#:%7E:text=Examples%20of%20hoarding%20in%20the,are%20not%20needed%20any%20more">obsessive-compulsive disorder</a>, <a href="https://beyondocd.org/information-for-individuals/symptoms/ocd-related-hoarding#:%7E:text=Examples%20of%20hoarding%20in%20the,are%20not%20needed%20any%20more">hoarding disorder</a>, <a href="https://psychcentral.com/depression/messy-room-depression#does-it-exacerbate-symptoms">major depressive disorder</a>, <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0005796704000531">attention deficit hyperactivity disorder</a>, and <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0887618510001647">anxiety disorders</a>.</p> <p>This raises a crucial question: which came first? For some, clutter is the source of anxiety and distress; for others, poor mental health is the source of disorganisation and clutter.</p> <h2>Not all mess is a problem</h2> <p>It’s important to remember clutter isn’t all bad, and we shouldn’t aim for perfection. Real homes don’t look like the ones in magazines.</p> <p>In fact, disorganised spaces can result in increased <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23907542/">creativity</a> and elicit fresh insights.</p> <p>Living in constant disorder isn’t productive, but striving for perfectionism in cleanliness can also be counterproductive. Perfectionism itself is associated with feeling overwhelmed, anxiety and <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28026869/">poor mental health</a>.</p> <h2>Mess makes me anxious so what can I do about it?</h2> <p>It’s important to remember you have some agency over what matters to you and how you want to prioritise your time.</p> <p>One approach is to try to reduce the clutter. You might, for example, have a dedicated de-cluttering session every week. This may involve hiring a cleaner (if you can afford it) or playing some music or a podcast while tidying up for an hour with your other household members.</p> <p>Establishing this routine can reduce clutter distractions, ease your overall mental load and alleviate worry that clutter will spiral out of control.</p> <p>You can also try micro-tidying. If don’t have time for a complete cleanup, commit just five minutes to clearing one small space.</p> <p>If the clutter is primarily caused by other household members, try to calmly discuss with them how this mess is affecting your mental health. See if your kids, your partner or housemates can negotiate some boundaries as a household over what level of mess is acceptable and how it will be handled if that threshold is exceeded.</p> <p>It can also help to develop a self-compassionate mindset.</p> <p>Mess doesn’t define whether you are a “good” or “bad” person and, at times, it may even stimulate your <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23907542/">creativity</a>. Remind yourself that you deserve success, meaningful relationships and happiness, whether or not your office, home or car is a mess.</p> <p>Take comfort in <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0013916516628178">research</a> suggesting that while disorganised environments can make us susceptible to stress and poor decision-making, your mindset can buffer you against these vulnerabilities.</p> <p>If clutter, perfectionism or anxiety has begun to seem unmanageable, talk with your GP about a referral to a <a href="https://psychology.org.au/psychology/about-psychology/what-is-psychology">psychologist</a>. The right psychologist (and you may need to try a few before you find the right one) can help you cultivate a life driven by values that are important to you.</p> <p>Clutter and mess are more than just visual nuisances. They can have a profound impact on mental wellbeing, productivity and our choices.</p> <p>Understanding why clutter affects you can empower you to take control of your mindset, your living spaces and, in turn, your life.<img style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important;" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/211684/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /></p> <p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/erika-penney-1416241">Erika Penney</a>, Lecturer in Clinical Psychology, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-technology-sydney-936">University of Technology Sydney</a></em></p> <p><em>Image credits: Shutterstock</em></p> <p><em>This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-is-a-messy-house-such-an-anxiety-trigger-for-me-and-what-can-i-do-about-it-211684">original article</a>.</em></p>

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Tracking the shift in meanings of ‘anxiety’ and ‘depression’ over time

<p>The mental health terms ‘anxiety’ and ‘depression’ have become increasingly pathologised since the 1970s, according to analysis by Australian researchers of more than a million academic and general text sources. </p> <p><a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0288027" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Publishing</a> in PLOS ONE, psychology and computer science researchers from the University of Melbourne tracked the frequency and meaning of the concepts ‘anxiety’ and ‘depression’ from 1970 to 2018, and words that occurred in their vicinity.</p> <p>Using natural language processing, the team analysed more than 630 million words across 871,340 academic psychology papers, as well as 400,000 texts from general sources such as magazines, newspapers and non-fiction books.</p> <p>Paper co-author psychologist Professor Nicholas Haslam has a long standing interest in how mental health terms change their meanings over time, particularly the way harm-related words like bullying, abuse and trauma tend to expand over time, incorporating new, and often less severe kinds of experiences.</p> <p>Haslam says that trend reflects progressive social change and a rising sensitivity to harm and suffering in our culture. “We emphasize [that’s] mostly a good thing,” he says.</p> <p><iframe title="The Emoji Squad: The Mysterious Group Behind the Little Icons We Love 🤝" src="https://omny.fm/shows/huh-science-explained/the-emoji-squad-the-mysterious-group-behind-the-li/embed?in_playlist=podcast&amp;style=Cover" width="100%" height="180" frameborder="0"></iframe></p> <p>The terms ‘anxiety’ and ‘depression’ were selected for analysis as prevalent, prominent mental health concepts.</p> <p>The researchers expected the emotional intensity and severity of the two terms to reduce over time as the frequency of their use increased.</p> <p>That expectation was informed by previous research using a similar approach, co-authored by Haslam and <a href="https://sciendo.com/article/10.58734/plc-2023-0002" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">publishing in</a> Sciendo, where increasing use of the word ‘trauma’ since the 1970s was associated with a shift in meaning including a broadening of use and declining severity.</p> <p>They hypothesised a similar trend for ‘anxiety’ and ‘depression’.</p> <p>“Well, we didn’t find what we expected,” Haslam says.</p> <p>Contrary to expectation, the emotional severity associated with anxiety and depression increased linearly over time. </p> <p>The authors say this is possibly due to growing pathologising of the terms, given their analysis shows use of the words increasingly linked to clinical concepts. </p> <p>In particular, the terms ‘disorder’ and ‘symptom’ have become more commonly associated with ‘anxiety’ and ‘depression’ in more recent decades, the paper says, finding similar patterns in both the academic and general texts. </p> <p>Anxiety and depression were also increasingly used together, compared to use in the ‘70s where the terms were more likely to refer to separate things.</p> <p>Haslam says, these shifts in meaning could reflect growing awareness of mental health in society and more research is needed into the implications, he says. </p> <p>But he notes this is an area where there can be “mixed blessings”.</p> <p>On the one hand, greater awareness of anxiety and depression can help people to seek appropriate treatment; and on the other, pathologising more ordinary variations in mood can risk become self-fulfilling or self-defeating.</p> <p>At a more systemic level, pathologising the milder end of the mental health spectrum could risk leading to a misallocation of resources away from the more severe and urgent mental health problems, Haslam says.</p> <p><em>Image credits: Getty Images</em></p> <p><em><a href="https://cosmosmagazine.com/people/social-sciences/tracking-the-shift-in-meanings-of-anxiety-and-depression-over-time/">This article</a> was originally published on <a href="https://cosmosmagazine.com">Cosmos Magazine</a> and was written by <a href="https://cosmosmagazine.com/contributor/petra-stock">Petra Stock</a>. </em></p>

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What it means when your teeth fall out in a dream

<p dir="ltr">Dreaming of your teeth falling out is never pleasant, but surprisingly and unfortunately they’re one of the most common types of dreams people experience and there are a few reasons why. </p> <p dir="ltr" role="presentation"><strong>1. Insecurity or shame</strong></p> <p dir="ltr">Dreams often represent feelings more than literal symbolism, and teeth falling out can represent issues with confidence and self-esteem. To interpret this dream, think about any areas of your life where you are experiencing shame or self-doubt.</p> <p dir="ltr"><strong>2. Rebirth or transformation</strong></p> <p dir="ltr">A theory popularised by renowned psychiatrist Carl Jung suggests that teeth falling out in a dream could represent a type of rebirth or transformation. Losing teeth is not necessarily a bad omen, but rather could be a sign of growth or positive changes, as adult teeth come in afterwards.</p> <p dir="ltr"><strong>3. Loss or grief</strong></p> <p dir="ltr">Losing teeth in a dream could represent a real-life loss or grief, and if the subconscious is trying to assimilate a real-life loss, it could lead to ‘losing’ things or parts of you in your sleep.</p> <p dir="ltr"><strong>4. Lack of control </strong></p> <p dir="ltr">Another popular idea is that losing your teeth in a dream is about control, more so a lack thereof. It’s important to consider if there is something in your life that makes you feel powerless, such as an issue out of your control or a sudden change.</p> <p dir="ltr"><strong>5. Literal dental issues</strong></p> <p dir="ltr">There is a possibility that dreaming of your teeth falling out could represent literal dental issues. Researchers in the Frontiers in Psychology study found that teeth dreams often correlated with dental irritation. </p> <p dir="ltr"><em>Image credit: Shutterstock</em></p>

Mind

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How to beat the retirement blues

<p>When people plan their retirement they don’t usually expect Post retiring depression (PRD). This kind of depression usually stems from dashed expectations, financial trouble or feeling lost and lonely. That’s why we’ve got four top tips to avoid PRD and enjoy your free time.</p> <p><strong>1. Plan it out</strong></p> <p>Know what you want to do, not what you think you should be doing. Don’t hold back in indulging yourself, travelling the world, volunteering abroad – the temporary discomfort of not knowing is better than realising when it’s too late that you never completed your bucket list.</p> <p><strong>2. Routine</strong></p> <p>A sudden lack of structure can become exhausting or at least unsettling. Schedule activities such as exercise, housework, errands, and social time. Then let the day flow from there.</p> <p><strong>3. Keep active</strong></p> <p>There is a lot of research to show that the people who cope best with retirement are those who stay active and involved. This might include:</p> <ul> <li>Developing an old hobby or starting a new one. </li> <li>Staying physically active, through walking, swimming, gym or sport. Make sure your exercise routine is appropriate for your physical capacities and limitations. </li> <li>Volunteering with a charity or church group. </li> <li>Working part-time. </li> <li>Studying a course.</li> </ul> <p><strong>4. Stay in touch</strong></p> <p>Loneliness and isolation can be easily avoided, so don’t fall into the trap of feeling alone. Make the effort to stay in contact with family and friends. Offer to babysit your grandchildren. Check out local community centres for upcoming activities you might enjoy. Even if you're not sure try something new, you might surprise yourself!</p> <p><em>Images: Getty</em></p>

Retirement Life

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Anxious dogs have different brains to normal dogs, brain scan study reveals

<p>Dog ownership is a lot of furry companionship, tail wags and chasing balls, and ample unconditional love. However, some dog owners are also managing canine pals struggling with mental illness.</p> <p>A newly published study <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0282087">in PLOS ONE</a> has examined the brain scans of anxious and non-anxious dogs, and correlated them with behaviour. The research team at Ghent University, Belgium, found that our anxious dog friends not only have measurable differences in their brains linked to their anxiety, but these differences are similar to those found in humans with anxiety disorders as well.</p> <h2>Anxious friends</h2> <p>Anxiety disorders in humans are varied and can be categorised into several main types. Overall, they represent high levels of fear, emotional sensitivity and negative expectations. These disorders can be difficult to live with and sometimes difficult to treat, in part due to how varied and complex anxiety is.</p> <p>Researching anxiety in animals can help us to understand what drives it, and to improve treatment for both humans and animals. The new study sought to investigate possible pathways in the brain that are associated with anxiety in dogs. Understanding this could both improve treatment for anxiety in veterinary medicine, and reveal similarities with what we know of human anxiety.</p> <p>Dogs with and without anxiety were recruited for functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans of their brains. Dogs have been involved in awake fMRI studies before, but for this one, with dogs that might get easily stressed out, the dogs were under general anaesthesia.</p> <p>Owners of the dogs also filled out surveys on their pets’ behaviour. The researchers performed data analysis and modelling of brain function, focusing on regions of the brain likely to show differences related to anxiety. Based on previous research on animal and human anxiety, the team dubbed these brain regions the “anxiety circuit”.</p> <p>They then analysed whether there were differences between the brain function of anxious and non-anxious dogs, and if those differences actually related to anxious behaviours.</p> <h2>Different brains</h2> <p>The researchers found there were indeed significant differences between anxious and non-anxious dogs. The main differences were in the communication pathways and connection strength within the “anxiety circuit”. These differences were linked with higher scores for particular behaviours in the surveys as well.</p> <p>For example, anxious dogs had amygdalas (an area of the brain associated with the processing of fear) that were particularly efficient, suggesting a lot of experience with fear. (This is similar to findings from human studies.) Indeed, in the behaviour surveys, owners of anxious dogs noted increased fear of unfamiliar people and dogs.</p> <p>The researchers also found less efficient connections in anxious dogs between two regions of the brain important for learning and information processing. This may help explain why the owners of the anxious dogs in the study reported lower trainability for their dog.</p> <h2>A difficult time</h2> <p>Brains are exquisitely complex biological computers, and our understanding of them is far from comprehensive. As such, this study should be interpreted cautiously.</p> <p>The sample size was not large or varied enough to represent the entire dog population, and the way the dogs were raised, housed, and cared for could have had an effect. Furthermore, they were not awake during the scans, and that also may have influenced some of the results.</p> <p>However, the study does show strong evidence for measurable differences in the way anxious dog brains are wired, compared to non-anxious dogs. This research can’t tell us whether changes in the brain caused the anxiety or the other way around, but anxiety in dogs is certainly real.</p> <p>It’s in the interests of our anxious best friends that we appreciate they may be affected by a brain that processes everything around them differently to “normal” dogs. This may make it difficult for them to learn to change their behaviour, and they may be excessively fearful or easily aroused.</p> <p>Thankfully, these symptoms can be treated with medication. Research like this could lead to more finessed use of medication in anxious dogs, so they can live happier and better adjusted lives.</p> <p>If you have a dog you think might be anxious, you should speak to a veterinarian with special training in behaviour.</p> <p><em>Image credit: Shutterstock</em></p> <p><em>This article originally appeared on <a href="https://theconversation.com/anxious-dogs-have-different-brains-to-normal-dogs-brain-scan-study-reveals-201775" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Conversation</a>.</em></p>

Family & Pets

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Why does money cause anxiety? 5 finance habits to transform your peace of mind

<h2>Money and your mental health</h2> <p style="font-size: medium; font-weight: 400;">Money is the top source of stress among Australians, according to private health insurance provider, Medibank. And this pressure is taking a toll on our collective mental health. Another poll conducted in July revealed that almost 90 per cent of us are experiencing anxiety over our finances and the ever-rising cost of living.</p> <p style="font-size: medium; font-weight: 400;">Money can hold such power over mental health because it plays a big role in how we navigate our place in today’s world. Our financial perceptions and experiences closely overlap with our sense of self-worth, confidence, and personal power, explains clinical psychologist, Jonathan D. Friedman. That’s why “financial anxiety is a mix of material and psychological concerns,” he says, which can be based on both concrete and perceived realities. This means that freaking out about money may stem from a range and combination of situations, from the actual lack of funds to pay bills to social pressures and obligations.</p> <h2>Why does money cause anxiety?</h2> <p style="font-size: medium; font-weight: 400;">Your life experiences with money have a big effect on your current relationship with it, explains mental health counsellor, Aja Evans. At a base level, if you grew up in a financially insecure environment, many people will bring this anxiety-ridden scarcity mentality with them into adulthood – spending money feels wrong or dangerous, even if it doesn’t necessarily reflect their current reality. But other messages stick with us, too.</p> <p style="font-size: medium; font-weight: 400;">Maybe money was ignored or never discussed in your family, so dealing with finances as an adult makes you feel overwhelmed. Studies show that this type of anxiety often snowballs into to avoidance behaviours, like neglecting your finances. Whether that means you avoid checking bank statements, delay saving (or learning about money-saving methods), or don’t form a budget, “[this] can easily lead to a cycle of overspending and always trying to catch up with financial responsibilities,” says psychiatrist, Dr Jason Hunziker.</p> <p style="font-size: medium; font-weight: 400;">Or, if you grew up experiencing money as a way to deal with problems or your feelings, that can help explain your attitude toward “retail therapy” impulse buys today, Evans says. Similarly, society props up wealthier people as being smarter or happier, she says – cues we’re exposed to from a young age that are difficult to unlearn, even if we know better. And social media makes these messages stronger than ever. According to a survey from Allianz Insurance, 57 per cent of people spend money they hadn’t planned to because of what they see on social media.</p> <h2>Why do I keep overspending?</h2> <p style="font-size: medium; font-weight: 400;">“Our emotions or moods govern a lot of our actions,” Evans says. Often, she says, overspending and impulse-buying are coping mechanisms to deal with uncomfortable feelings. And research confirms that we’re more likely to spend money when we’re stressed out.</p> <p style="font-size: medium; font-weight: 400;">A major part of this tendency is that it works, in a sense. Spending money is a form of instant gratification, triggering a rush of dopamine through the body. But when this feel-good hormone wears off, we’re left back at where we started – and potentially with some added guilt or stress about that spending. That’s why overspending can be a vicious cycle.</p> <p style="font-size: medium; font-weight: 400;">Now, find out how to build better money habits.</p> <p style="font-size: medium; font-weight: 400;">“Looking for a quick fix to a problem, a temporary solution is extremely appealing when you just want to feel better,” Evans says. “At some point, the overspending and impulse buying becomes the go-to problem solver” – whether the problem you face is boredom, a bad day at work, or something deeper.</p> <p style="font-size: medium; font-weight: 400;">Plus, advertisers and marketers know this human tendency inside and out – and they’re good at using it to their advantage. “Our email inbox, home mailbox, ads on television, and social media are full of advertisements telling us that our life is incomplete unless we have the item that they are trying to sell,” Dr Hunziker adds. “Because this information is present in all aspects of our lives, it makes it easier for us to impulsively make purchases, even when it falls outside of our financial budget.”</p> <h2>Tap into your feelings</h2> <p style="font-size: medium; font-weight: 400;">Before heading into a store or opening a shopping app, take a pause, Evans urges. “What are you feeling? Are you upset, hungry, angry, lonely, tired? Recognising that you are trying to deal with discomfort through spending helps you to shift the behaviour.”</p> <h2>Find other ways to get that feel-good hit</h2> <p style="font-size: medium; font-weight: 400;">It will be hard to break an impulse-buying habit at first. But Evans recommends that once you realise that you’re shopping to mask a bad mood or emotion, be deliberate about getting gratification from another source. “Talking to a friend, taking a class, exercising, journaling, cleaning your home – literally anything that will take you out of the desire to shop,” she says. “You won’t get it right every time, but slowly you will begin to learn that you can shift your mood without spending money, and your brain will adjust to getting that rush from something other than spending.”</p> <p style="font-size: medium; font-weight: 400;">Just like with fad diets, totally depriving yourself isn’t sustainable – and trying to justify every single dollar you spend can create more anxiety. That’s why as you work on your spending habits, leave some room in there for the occasional indulgence. Just make sure that you’re spending with intention and in a way that aligns with your values.</p> <h2>Allow permission to treat yourself</h2> <p style="font-size: medium; font-weight: 400;">For example, ask yourself: will spending this money save you time, make your job easier, bring you relaxation or genuine connection with a friend? “You can make it a personal rule to never purchase anything impulsively,” Dr Hunziker offers. “Wait at least one night to ‘sleep on it’ before making a purchase.”</p> <h2>Reframe your shame</h2> <p style="font-size: medium; font-weight: 400;">Whether it’s the holiday you’ve always wanted, a new laptop for work, or a morning latte, if intentionally spending money still brings you feelings like shame and guilt, try this science-approved trick. Researchers found that shame around spending money creates a self-reinforcing cycle of financial anxiety. But their review of studies, published in Organizational Behaviour and Human Decision Processes, found that you can counter this feeling by ‘reaffirming valued aspects’ of yourself, like your kindness or your hard work.</p> <p style="font-size: medium; font-weight: 400;">Over time, this process retrains your brain not to associate all spending with shame – but removing this barrier doesn’t mean you’ll just start spending frivolously. The study shows that taking shame out of the equation eases money anxiety while reducing poor or counterproductive financial decisions.</p> <h2>Understand your finances</h2> <p style="font-size: medium; font-weight: 400;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Raleway, sans-serif, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial; font-size: 16px; background-color: #ffffff;">Avoidance behaviours work to keep you stuck in a cycle of money anxiety – so the experts say it’s important to take an honest look at your finances and spending habits for lasting peace of mind. “Start learning about the different aspects about money you don’t understand,” Evans says. Tackling your avoidance behaviours head-on is an important part of stopping the financial anxiety cycle. But “building comfort in navigating your money gives you a sense of control that reduces stress,” too, so you’re more resilient if something unexpected happens financially.</span></p> <p>This article originally appeared on <a href="https://www.readersdigest.co.nz/food-home-garden/money/why-does-money-cause-anxiety-5-finance-habits-to-transform-your-peace-of-mind" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Reader's Digest</a>. </p> <p><em>Image credit: Getty</em></p>

Money & Banking

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Pilot shares why nervous flyers should always book the first flight of the day

<p dir="ltr">A pilot has shared her ultimate travel hack for nervous flyers, revealing why anxious travellers should aim to get the first early morning flight. </p> <p dir="ltr">Morgan Smith, a Boeing 737 pilot, claims that flying in the morning can greatly reduce the amount of turbulence you feel in the air. </p> <p dir="ltr">In an interview with the New York Times, Ms Smith said that morning flights are less likely to be turbulent because of the effects of rising heat.</p> <p dir="ltr">She said, “As the day warms into the afternoon, heat rising off the land increases the chance for turbulence near the ground and turbulence caused by storms.”</p> <p dir="ltr">Morgan also had a couple of other suggestions for those worried about shaky plane journeys, offering some reassurance on the minimal danger of turbulence. </p> <p dir="ltr">She added, “The only thing people should fear from turbulence is possibly spilling their drink on a flight.”</p> <p dir="ltr">“Most injuries from turbulence come from people being out of their seats or not having their seatbelts on when it gets bumpy. So keep your seatbelt fastened, and don’t set your drink on your laptop.”</p> <p dir="ltr">Others have also shared that sitting towards the front of the plane can reduce the effects of turbulence, no matter what time of day you fly. </p> <p dir="ltr">A flight attendant told Sun Online Travel, “For anyone who is really scared of turbulence, my advice would be to sit as close to the front of the plane as possible because it acts like a wave.</p> <p dir="ltr">“What starts as a slight bump at the front of the aircraft can feel much worse by the time it reaches the rear.</p> <p dir="ltr">“Sometimes passengers at the front won’t even be aware of anything, while those at the back get really badly shaken up.”</p> <p dir="ltr"><em>Image credits: Getty Images</em></p>

Travel Tips

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5 simple ways to ease anxiety

<p>Everyone knows what it feels like to lay awake at night worrying about something, whether it be if you locked the car, sent that email, or how prepared your family is for an earthquake.</p> <p>For some, it's a minor annoyance – nothing more than a niggling feeling. For others it's an anxiety which consumes their every thought and can affect their daily lives.</p> <p>Sufferers of generalised anxiety disorder (GAD) will find themselves worrying about everything, big or small, and may also suffer from conditions like depression, panic attacks and obsessive compulsive disorder. GAD sufferers are people who generally expect the worst, worry excessively for no apparent reason, are irritable and restless, have difficulty concentrating, and may suffer from stomach issues including nausea and diarrhoea.</p> <p>While it's unknown what exactly causes GAD, it is to do with the "wiring" of some areas of the brain, and there is a genetic link, however children and teens won't often recognise the symptoms.</p> <p>Adults need to keep an eye out for behaviours including a fear of making mistakes, a feeling that they're to blame for any disaster, and a need for frequent reassurance.</p> <p><strong>Five fast ways to feel calmer</strong></p> <p>On a day-to-day basis, there are simple ways to help manage anxiety and worries. Here are five things you can do to get through tasks that make you anxious and to access some calm when you really need it.</p> <p><strong>1.  Break up a mammoth task into small steps:</strong> Say you need to clean up your garage, but it's currently a storehouse for everything you've ever owned and dumped. Write a list of the individual steps needed: sort out items for giving away, give them a clean, ask friends/recipients to pick up, sort items for selling, decide value, list on Trade Me, etc. Tick off each task as you achieve it.</p> <p><strong>2. Just breathe:</strong> The first sign of a change in emotion is our breathing. One study has shown that up to 47 minutes before a panic attack, breathing starts to change. If you're breathing from mouth to chest, consciously focus on breathing from nose and belly. Consciously slowing down your breaths to a normal speed, might help temper anxiety symptoms and restore baseline calm.</p> <p><strong>3. There's an app for that:</strong> The <strong><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="http://www.mentalhealth.org.nz/get-help/a-z/apps-e-therapy-and-guided-self-help/">Mental Health Foundation recommends a number of apps</a></span> </strong>and other forms of e-therapy to help you cope with anxiety. The <strong><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://www.happier.com/">Happier</a></span> </strong>app is a simple way to collect happy moments you find in every day, share them with close friends and family, and be reminded to do more of what makes you happier.</p> <p><strong>4. Listen up:</strong> Music is one of the best ways to escape a repetitive thought and perhaps help trigger happier memories. If it helps, sing at the top of your lungs or dance in your room until you drop – this can be a great way to release tension. But if it spins your wheels, listening to slow, quiet classical music can have a particularly beneficial effect; evidence suggests it slows the pulse and heart rate, lowers blood pressure, and decreases levels of stress hormones.</p> <p><strong>5. Share the load:</strong> The saying "a problem shared is a problem halved" really has some merit. Sharing your problem with someone you trust or spending time with someone who shares the same concerns can ease the burden. But now there are multiple ways to share positive, happy thoughts too. Using Pinterest, for example, you can pin quotes that inspire and motivate you. It might be nice to know you're helping to inspire others and, in some cases, comfort them. Building a space for positivity, and a community around it, might help you feel less alone and subsequently alleviate some anxiety. </p> <p><em>Image: Shutterstock</em></p>

Mind

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We studied how COVID affects mental health and brain disorders up to two years after infection – here’s what we found

<p>The occurrence of mental health conditions and neurological disorders among people recovering from COVID has been a concern since early in the pandemic. Several studies have shown that a <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2215036621000845" target="_blank" rel="noopener">significant proportion</a> of adults <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanpub/article/PIIS2468-2667(22)00042-1/fulltext" target="_blank" rel="noopener">face problems</a> of this kind, and that the risks are greater than following other infections.</p> <p>However, several questions remain. Do the risks of psychiatric and neurological problems dissipate, and if so, when? Are the risks similar in children as in adults? Are there differences between COVID variants?</p> <p>Our new study, published in <em><a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanpsy/article/PIIS2215-0366(22)00260-7/fulltext" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Lancet Psychiatry</a></em>, explored these issues. In analyses led by my colleague Maxime Taquet, we used the electronic health records of about 1.25 million people diagnosed with COVID, mostly from the US. We tracked the occurrence of 14 major neurological and psychiatric diagnoses in these patients for up to two years.</p> <p>We compared these risks with a closely matched control group of people who had been diagnosed with a respiratory infection other than COVID.</p> <p>We examined children (aged under 18), adults (18-65) and older adults (over 65) separately.</p> <p>We also compared people who contracted COVID just after the emergence of a new variant (notably omicron, but earlier variants too) with those who did so just beforehand.</p> <p>Our findings are a mixture of good and bad news. Reassuringly, although we observed a greater risk of common psychiatric disorders (anxiety and depression) after COVID infection, this heightened risk rapidly subsided. The rates of these disorders among people who had COVID were no different from those who had other respiratory infections within a couple of months, and there was no overall excess of these disorders over the two years.</p> <p>It was also good news that children were not at greater risk of these disorders at any stage after COVID infection.</p> <p>We also found that people who had had COVID were not at higher risk of getting Parkinson’s disease, which had been a concern early in the pandemic.</p> <p>Other findings were more worrying. The risks of being diagnosed with some disorders, such as psychosis, seizures or epilepsy, brain fog and dementia, though mostly still low, remained elevated throughout the two years after COVID infection. For example, the risk of dementia in older adults was 4.5% in the two years after COVID compared with 3.3% in those with another respiratory infection.</p> <p>We also saw an ongoing risk of psychosis and seizures in children.</p> <figure class="align-center "><em><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/479705/original/file-20220817-11701-ygfp4m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;fit=clip" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/479705/original/file-20220817-11701-ygfp4m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=338&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479705/original/file-20220817-11701-ygfp4m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=338&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479705/original/file-20220817-11701-ygfp4m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=338&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479705/original/file-20220817-11701-ygfp4m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=424&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479705/original/file-20220817-11701-ygfp4m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=424&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479705/original/file-20220817-11701-ygfp4m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=424&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 2262w" alt="A woman sits by a window, hiding her head." /></em><figcaption><em><span class="caption">Rates of depression and anxiety were higher after COVID, but only for a short time.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/beautiful-young-blonde-caucasian-female-feeling-2057071157" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Stock Unit/Shutterstock</a></span></em></figcaption></figure> <p>In terms of variants, although our data confirms that omicron is a much milder illness than the previous delta variant, survivors remained at similar risk of the neurological and psychiatric conditions we looked at.</p> <p>However, given how recently omicron emerged, the data we have for people who were infected with this variant only goes up to about five months after infection. So the picture may change.</p> <p><strong>Mixed results</strong></p> <p>Overall, our study reveals a mixed picture, with some disorders showing a transient excess risk after COVID, while other disorders have a sustained risk. For the most part, the findings are reassuring in children, but with some concerning exceptions.</p> <p>The results on omicron, the variant currently dominant around the world, indicate that the burden of these disorders is likely to continue, even though this variant is milder in other respects.</p> <p>The study has important caveats. Our findings don’t capture people who may have had COVID but it wasn’t documented in their health records – perhaps because they didn’t have symptoms.</p> <p>And we cannot fully account for the effect of vaccination, because we didn’t have complete information about vaccination status, and some people in our study caught COVID before vaccines became available. That said, in <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35447302/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a previous study</a> we showed the risks of these outcomes were pretty similar in people who caught COVID after being vaccinated, so this might not have significantly affected the results.</p> <p>Also, the risks observed in our study are relative to people who had had other respiratory infections. We don’t know how they compare to people without any infection. We also don’t know how severe or long lasting the disorders were.</p> <p>Finally, our study is observational and so cannot explain how or why COVID is associated with these risks. Current theories include persistence of the virus in the nervous system, the immune reaction to the infection, or problems with blood vessels. These are being investigated in <a href="https://academic.oup.com/braincomms/advance-article/doi/10.1093/braincomms/fcac206/6668727?searchresult=1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">separate research</a>.<img style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important;" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/188918/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /></p> <p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/paul-harrison-1371295" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Paul Harrison</a>, Professor of Psychiatry, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-oxford-1260" target="_blank" rel="noopener">University of Oxford</a></em></p> <p><em>This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/we-studied-how-covid-affects-mental-health-and-brain-disorders-up-to-two-years-after-infection-heres-what-we-found-188918" target="_blank" rel="noopener">original article</a>.</em></p> <p><em>Image: Getty Images</em></p>

Mind

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Man sues company for celebrating his birthday

<p dir="ltr">A man has been awarded $US450,000 ($A611,000) after his colleagues threw a birthday party, despite him asking not to due to his anxiety disorder.</p> <p dir="ltr">Kevin Berling was working as a lab technician at Gravity Diagnostics in Kentucky when his fellow employees threw a celebration for his birthday on August 7, 2019.</p> <p dir="ltr">The 29-year-old suffered a panic attack following the celebrations and was eventually fired from his job. </p> <p dir="ltr">Mr Berling then filed a compensation lawsuit, seeking damages and compensation for lost income.</p> <p dir="ltr">“Managers started giving him a hard time for his response to the birthday celebrations,” his lawyer Tony Bucher told local TV news outlet WKRC.</p> <p dir="ltr">“They actually accused him of stealing his co-workers’ joy.”</p> <p dir="ltr">Mr Berling specifically told his boss in 2018 that he did not want any celebrations for his birthday at work due to his anxiety. </p> <p dir="ltr">His employer claims to have “forgot” about the request which resulted in a panic attack on that fateful day in 2019.</p> <p dir="ltr">It took Mr Berling almost an hour to recover from the awful ordeal in his car, which was then questioned the following day.</p> <p dir="ltr">Following the interrogation, Mr Berling suffered another panic attack. </p> <p dir="ltr">A week later, he was fired from his job with his manager being “worried about him being angry and possibly becoming violent”.</p> <p dir="ltr">Mr Berling was awarded a $US450,000 ($A611,000) judgment against the company by a unanimous jury.</p> <p dir="ltr">The settlement included $US120,000 ($A163,000) in lost wages and benefits, $US30,000 ($A40,000) in future wages, and $US300,000 ($A408,000) for “past, present and future mental pain and suffering, mental anguish, embarrassment, humiliation, mortification, and loss of self-esteem”.</p> <p dir="ltr"><em>Image: Shutterstock</em></p>

Money & Banking

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The reality of retiring

<p dir="ltr">A lot of people think that retirement is just having all the time in the world to do whatever you want.</p> <p dir="ltr">But what some don’t understand is that the realities of retirement can trigger stress, anxiety and depression. </p> <p dir="ltr">What can trigger these feelings can stem from what your life was like before you decided to retire. </p> <p dir="ltr">Below is a list of common challenges that <a href="https://www.helpguide.org/articles/aging-issues/adjusting-to-retirement.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Help Guide</a> identified that are experienced by people during retirement.</p> <ul> <li dir="ltr" aria-level="1"> <p dir="ltr" role="presentation">Struggling to “switch off” from work mode and relax, especially in the early weeks or months of retirement.</p> </li> <li dir="ltr" aria-level="1"> <p dir="ltr" role="presentation">Feeling anxious at having more time on your hands, but less money to spend.</p> </li> <li dir="ltr" aria-level="1"> <p dir="ltr" role="presentation">Finding it difficult to fill the extra hours you now have with meaningful activity.</p> </li> <li dir="ltr" aria-level="1"> <p dir="ltr" role="presentation">Losing your identity. If you’re no longer a doctor, teacher, designer, sales person, electrician, or driver, for example, who are you?</p> </li> <li dir="ltr" aria-level="1"> <p dir="ltr" role="presentation">Feeling isolated without the social interaction of being around your coworkers.</p> </li> <li dir="ltr" aria-level="1"> <p dir="ltr" role="presentation">Experiencing a decline in how useful, important, or self-confident you feel.</p> </li> <li dir="ltr" aria-level="1"> <p dir="ltr" role="presentation">Adjusting your routine or maintaining your independence now you’re at home with your spouse during the day.</p> </li> <li dir="ltr" aria-level="1"> <p dir="ltr" role="presentation">Some retirees even feel guilty about receiving money from a pension without directly working for it.</p> </li> </ul> <p dir="ltr">If you feel as though any of these relate to you and your retirement (or pre-retirement!) situation, we’ve put together a handy list of OverSixty articles to help you overcome these issues and a whole host of others.</p> <ol> <li dir="ltr" aria-level="1"> <p dir="ltr" role="presentation"><a href="https://www.oversixty.com.au/lifestyle/retirement-life/how-to-make-the-most-of-your-super-as-you-retire-or-semi-retire" target="_blank" rel="noopener">How to make the most of your super as you retire or semi-retire</a></p> </li> <li dir="ltr" aria-level="1"> <p dir="ltr" role="presentation"><a href="https://www.oversixty.com.au/lifestyle/retirement-life/five-quick-ideas-for-staying-active-in-retirement" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Five quick ideas for staying active in retirement</a></p> </li> <li dir="ltr" aria-level="1"> <p dir="ltr" role="presentation"><a href="https://oversixty.com.au/lifestyle/retirement-life/how-much-do-australians-need-to-retire" target="_blank" rel="noopener">How much do Australians need to retire?</a></p> </li> <li dir="ltr" aria-level="1"> <p dir="ltr" role="presentation"><a href="https://oversixty.com.au/lifestyle/retirement-life/5-tips-to-make-transitioning-into-retirement-easier" target="_blank" rel="noopener">5 tips to make transitioning into retirement easier</a></p> </li> <li dir="ltr" aria-level="1"> <p dir="ltr" role="presentation"><a href="https://oversixty.com.au/lifestyle/retirement-life/ten-key-steps-to-help-you-make-your-retirement-the-best-years-of-your-life" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Ten key steps to help you make your retirement the best years of your life</a></p> </li> <li dir="ltr" aria-level="1"> <p dir="ltr" role="presentation"><a href="https://oversixty.com.au/lifestyle/retirement-life/why-retirement-living-is-the-perfect-way-to-upsize-your-lifestyle" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Why retirement living is the perfect way to upsize your lifestyle</a></p> </li> <li dir="ltr" aria-level="1"> <p dir="ltr" role="presentation"><a href="https://oversixty.com.au/lifestyle/retirement-life/how-one-day-off-work-led-to-a-dream-retirement" target="_blank" rel="noopener">How one day off work led to a dream retirement</a></p> </li> <li dir="ltr" aria-level="1"> <p dir="ltr" role="presentation"><a href="https://oversixty.com.au/lifestyle/retirement-life/the-only-way-is-up" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The only way is up!</a></p> </li> <li dir="ltr" aria-level="1"> <p dir="ltr" role="presentation"><a href="https://oversixty.com.au/lifestyle/retirement-life/want-to-see-a-therapist-but-don-t-know-where-to-start-here-s-how-to-get-a-mental-health-plan" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Want to see a therapist but don’t know where to start? Here’s how to get a mental health plan</a></p> </li> <li dir="ltr" aria-level="1"> <p dir="ltr" role="presentation"> <a href="https://oversixty.com.au/lifestyle/retirement-life/why-it-s-important-to-try-new-things-in-later-life" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Why it's important to try new things in later life</a></p> </li> </ol> <p dir="ltr"><em>Image: Shutterstock</em></p>

Retirement Life

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Rapidly increasing climate change poses a rising threat to mental health

<p>Climate change poses serious risks to mental well-being. For the first time, a <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/report/sixth-assessment-report-working-group-ii/">new climate report</a> by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has assessed how climate change is having widespread and cumulative effects on mental health globally. </p> <p>Over the past decade, research and public interest on the effects of climate change on mental health have been increasing, as the number of individuals and communities exposed and vulnerable to climate change hazards grows. </p> <p>Weather and climate extremes such as storms, floods, droughts, heat events and wildfires can be traumatic and have immediate impacts on mental health. Slow onset events like changing seasonal and environmental norms, sea level rise and ice patterns can also affect people’s mental well-being.</p> <p>Growing evidence confirms that the consequences of rapid, widespread and pervasive climate events may include <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.janxdis.2020.102263">anxiety</a>, <a href="https://changingclimate.ca/health-in-a-changing-climate/chapter/4-0/">PTSD</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-018-0222-x">higher rates of suicide</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.janxdis.2020.102237">a diminished sense of well-being (stress, sadness)</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/S2542-5196(20)30144-3">ecological grief</a>, a rise in domestic violence, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-015-1874-3">cultural erosion</a> and diminished social capital and social relations.</p> <p>As scientists who contributed to the latest IPCC report <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/report/sixth-assessment-report-working-group-ii/">Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability</a>, we are pleased that this Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) assesses climate change impacts on mental health for the first time in detail, representing a major advancement and new contribution. </p> <h2>Significant threats</h2> <p>The Earth will <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/report/sixth-assessment-report-working-group-i/">likely reach 1.5 C of warming above pre-industrial levels by 2040</a>under intermediate and high greenhouse gas emissions scenarios, bringing with it <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/sr15/chapter/spm/">higher temperatures on land and in the ocean, declining sea ice, more heat waves, more rainfall in some regions and a greater chance of drought in others</a>. </p> <p>With increasing exposures to these hazards comes greater incidences of negative mental health outcomes. The findings outlined in the report confirm the depth, breadth and significance of the ways climate change impacts mental health. This synthesis of global research indicates that these negative mental health outcomes are on the rise and unequally distributed due to climate change. </p> <p>Here are three things that the latest IPCC report tells us about climate change and mental health in North America.</p> <p><strong>1. There is greater scientific understanding about the ways that climate change negatively impacts mental health.</strong></p> <p>When the <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar5/wg2/">IPCC Fifth Assessment Report</a> (AR5) was published in 2014, there was emerging yet limited research on mental health outcomes. The report mentioned that climate change could affect mental health, but there wasn’t enough published research available then to fully assess its impacts. </p> <p>As the volume of research on <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envres.2021.111205">climate change and mental health has grown</a>, this new report is now able to assess its impact. Researchers have been able to examine how both climate and weather extremes such as storms, floods, droughts and fires and slower-onset climate changes such as warming temperatures and changing environmental norms interact with people’s vulnerabilities such as socio-economic inequities, age, gender, identity, occupation and health and lead to a diverse range of negative mental health outcomes.</p> <p>For example, a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0119929">synthesis of global literature</a> found that those exposed to flooding events — such as the floods in southern British Columbia in 2021, in Ottawa in 2019 and Alberta in 2013 — experience PTSD, depression and anxiety in the short term and have elevated risks for these mental health outcomes in the long term. Similar mental health outcomes were found for those <a href="https://doi.org/10.17269/s41997-018-0070-5">exposed to wildfires and related smoke</a>, such as the wildfires in the Northwest Territories in 2014, Fort McMurray, Alta., in 2016 and Lytton, B.C., in 2021. </p> <p>Our <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2012.03.043">own work</a> with Inuit in Nunatsiavut, Labrador, demonstrates the ways in which slower, cumulative impacts from rising temperatures, declining sea ice and changing seasonal, animal and plant patterns disrupt land-based activities and livelihoods, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-013-0875-4">leading to negative consequences for mental and emotional well-being</a>. This includes <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.emospa.2011.08.005">strong emotional reactions</a> (stress, anger, fear and distress), <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-018-0092-2">ecological grief</a> and loss, expressions of anxiety and depression and <a href="http://www.lamentfortheland.ca/">loss of cultural knowledge and place-based identities and connections</a>.</p> <p><strong>2. The mental health impacts of climate change are unequally distributed.</strong></p> <p>Climate change works across intersecting social determinants of health — factors such as age or gender that influence health and how people live — to disproportionately affect certain groups.</p> <p>For example, AR6 demonstrates that some people and communities are most at risk for increasingly worsening mental health outcomes, due to their proximity to the hazard, their reliance on the environment for livelihood and culture and their socio-economic status:</p> <ul> <li><a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2017.01.009">Agricultural communities</a> already experiencing drought or changing environmental conditions. </li> <li>People living in areas exposed to <a href="https://doi.org/10.17269/s41997-018-0070-5">wildfires</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0119929">floods</a>.</li> <li><a href="https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ab68a9">Indigenous Peoples</a> and those closely dependent on the natural environment for livelihoods and culture </li> <li><a href="https://changingclimate.ca/health-in-a-changing-climate/">Women, the elderly</a>, <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3918955">children and young people</a> and those already experiencing <a href="https://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2017/03/mental-health-climate.pdf">chronic physical and mental health issues</a>.</li> </ul> <p><strong>3. It’s not too late to promote resilience.</strong></p> <p>Climate change is not a distant threat. It’s a growing reality. Urgent action is needed to protect the mental health of individuals, communities and health systems under rapid climate change and support individual and community resilience and well-being. Resilience can be enhanced through climate-specific mental health outcomes training and policy action, which support health systems to enhance individual and community mental health and well-being. </p> <p>For example, the American Psychological Association outlines strategies to build personal resilience, including building belief in one’s own reslience, fostering optimism, cultivating coping strategies, finding sources of personal meaning, finding social support networks (family, friends, organized groups), fostering and upholding a connection to place and maintaining connections to one’s culture.</p> <p>Incorporating climate-specific training in education and for physicians, nurses, psychologists, psychiatrists, counsellors and allied health professionals, is essential for building climate-literate health professionals capable of supporting individual and community resilience and for preparing health systems to better serve those experiencing climate-sensitive mental health challenges. </p> <p>Finally, <a href="https://changingclimate.ca/health-in-a-changing-climate/chapter/10-0/">health systems and health authorities</a> must take measures to assess and enhance health system readiness to deal with growing mental health needs and increase disaster planning and training, to further support individual and community resilience to climate change.</p> <h2>Moving forward</h2> <p>Based on the available evidence, the mental health impacts from climate change are already widespread and likely to worsen. Even with immediate and strong action towards mitigation and adaptation, climate change will continue to be a serious threat. It is critical that we understand the serious risks that climate change poses to mental well-being and take urgent action to support health systems and enhance individual and community mental health and resilience within a changing climate. </p> <p>Although more evidence is needed to determine the most effective programs and policies to reduce negative mental health outcomes from climate change, the effectiveness of individual and group therapy, place-specific and culturally responsive mental health infrastructure and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1186/s12199-019-0822-8">nature-based therapies</a> have been well-proven in other areas, and show promise. </p> <p>Protecting individual and community mental health and well-being requires action from all levels of government and health authorities and integrating a mental health lens and a “<a href="https://www.cmaj.ca/content/192/3/E61">Health in All Policies</a>” approach. Major <a href="https://changingclimate.ca/health-in-a-changing-climate/chapter/10-0/">co-benefits for health and well-being </a>in general, and mental health in particular, can arise when decision-makers in all sectors consider and promote health and health equity through adaptation strategies, while taking urgent measures to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions and limit global warming to 1.5 C.</p> <p><em>Image credits: Getty Images</em></p> <p><em>This article originally appeared on <a href="https://theconversation.com/rapidly-increasing-climate-change-poses-a-rising-threat-to-mental-health-says-ipcc-177906" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Conversation</a>. </em></p>

Mind

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Music as medicine – can music and sound be used to treat anxiety?

<div class="copy"> <p class="has-drop-cap"><strong>Music can profoundly affect our mood</strong>. Now that technology has enabled us to set our own personal soundtracks wherever we go, we commonly match our beats to our activities – heavy on the drums while we smash through a workout session, upbeat pop to see us through the dreariest of the household chores, and something smooth and sultry to set the tone of a candlelit dinner.</p> <p>But what if our response to music runs far deeper than we realise? Publishing their <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0259312" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">findings</a> in <em>PLOS ONE</em>, researchers from Ryerson University, Canada, say that personally tailored music programs could effectively treat the symptoms of anxiety – an affliction that has been steadily growing in adolescent and young adult populations over recent decades.</p> <p>We’re not just talking about putting on your favourite playlist to help soothe your jangled nerves. In this study, researchers used a machine learning algorithm developed by <a href="https://www.thelucidproject.ca/science" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">LUCID</a> to generate a personalised music sequence designed to manipulate an individual’s mental state.</p> <p>The algorithm first matches the current emotional state of the user, then predicts the optimal sequence of tracks – all instrumental compositions or nature sounds – that will most effectively begin to gradually shift the listener’s mental state towards tranquillity.</p> <p>Alongside these <a href="https://cosmosmagazine.com/people/musicians-networked-brains/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">mellowing melodies</a>, the researchers tested the effectiveness of a technique known as auditory beat stimulation (ABS) that uses sound waves to produce tones and beats at highly specific frequencies that trigger changes in <a href="https://cosmosmagazine.com/science/biology/the-buzz-around-brain-stimulation/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">brain activity</a>.</p> <p>In the current study, the researchers randomly assigned participants who were taking anti-anxiety medications to treatments involving LUCID music therapy, ABS, a combination of both, or pink noise – background noises similar to white noise. For each treatment, participants were asked to close their eyes and listen to 24 minutes of their assigned audio program.</p> <p>For participants with moderate anxiety, a combination of both tailored music and ABS most successfully quelled the physical symptoms of anxiety, as well as helping to tone down the damaging thoughts and feelings associated with this unsettled mental state. For those with more severe anxiety, music alone proved to be the most therapeutic.</p> <p>Given the troubling times we find ourselves in, the researchers believe the demonstrated effectiveness of such a simple and easily distributable method of treating anxiety disorders is welcome news.</p> <p>“With the pandemic and remote work, there has been a remarkable uptick in the use of digital health tools to support mental health,” the authors say. “The results of this clinical trial indicate great promise for the use of digital health tools, such as LUCID’s digital music therapy, in the management of anxiety and other mental health conditions.</p> <p>“The findings from this research are exciting as they indicate that personalised music shows great promise in effectively reducing anxiety in specific segments of the population that suffer from anxiety. Hopefully, with additional research, we can help build a solid evidence base which further supports the use of personalised music as an additional tool in the clinician’s toolbox that can be used to help reduce anxiety in the patient population.”</p> <p><em>Image credits: Getty Images</em></p> <p><em><img id="cosmos-post-tracker" style="opacity: 0; height: 1px!important; width: 1px!important; border: 0!important; position: absolute!important; z-index: -1!important;" src="https://syndication.cosmosmagazine.com/?id=184619&amp;title=Music+as+medicine+%E2%80%93+can+music+and+sound+be+used+to+treat+anxiety%3F" width="1" height="1" data-spai-target="src" data-spai-orig="" data-spai-exclude="nocdn" /></em></div> <div id="contributors"> <p><em>This article was originally published on <a href="https://cosmosmagazine.com/health/body-and-mind/music-affect-mental-health/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">cosmosmagazine.com</a> and was written by Jamie Priest. </em></p> </div>

Mind

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10 small (but effective!) ways to slay social anxiety

<p><strong>What is social anxiety?</strong></p><p>If you have an extreme fear of being judged in social situations, if you have a sadistic focus on all the things that can go wrong – nervously blurting out everything you never wanted to say aloud just to fill conversational lulls, or if you scrutinise all the awkward things you think you did or said after the fact, you could have social anxiety. A little social anxiety is normal for everyone, but when it becomes abnormal, it’s a self-serving narcissist hell-bent on your full attention. Social anxiety is especially tough to manage because it’s not just one thing. And it’s a bit contradictory – you have a general distaste for peopling, but also an internal need for … people. But on your terms, and in limited doses.</p><p>Social anxiety is contagious. Sort of. Researchers are learning that anxiety disorders run in families, and that they have a biological basis, much like allergies and diabetes. Anxiety disorders typically develop from a complex set of risk factors that include genetics, brain chemistry, personality, and life experiences. Anxiety, which is equally common among men and women, typically begins around age 13. Anxiety disorders are highly treatable, yet only about one-third of those with a disorder receive treatment.​</p><p>All of this supports a rationale for keeping a blank social calendar from an underground doomsday bunker. However, you can get out there and actually enjoy it! Here’s how.</p><p><strong>Throw a counterpunch</strong></p><p>Do not give in to what the anxiety is driving you to do. Instead, acknowledge it, and say, “Hey, inner angst, I’m the shot caller and I came to party!” Whatever it is that counters the anxiety, do it. Each time you parry your fear, you are ‘rewiring’ your brain and weakening anxiety’s hold on you. According to clinical professor of psychology, Dr Robert Leahy, social anxiety that’s left untreated is associated with an increased risk for alcohol abuse, depression, loneliness, decreased occupational advancement and the increased likelihood of remaining single. That’s no way to live! And that’s why it’s so important to feel and face your anxiety. You can actually do things while anxious and realise that nothing bad happens.</p><p><strong>Expose yourself</strong></p><p>Many studies demonstrate the success of exposure-based therapies for anxiety disorders, according to a large research review Dr Johanna S. Kaplan and Dr David F. Tolin, published in Psychiatric Times. We tend to avoid what frightens us and, in turn, are frightened by what we avoid. To begin to remedy this negative cycle, you can safely expose yourself to your triggers by creating an exposure hierarchy. Write down scenarios that cause you anxiety in order of severity. Perform the easiest behaviour first, and gradually move down the list. Your hierarchy might start with asking a stranger for directions and end with asking your boss for a raise. It doesn’t matter if your boss laughs you out the door. It matters that you actually asked. Social anxiety wants you timid and poor, but you can outsmart it.</p><p><strong>Play reporter</strong></p><p>According to therapist, Mark Tyrell, asking questions makes for great social lubricant when you otherwise have nothing to say in a social setting. Ask open-ended questions such as, “How do you know the host?” Alternatively, try soliciting advice, asking something like, “Anyone seen any good movies lately?” Ask follow-up questions that take the conversation deeper. Asking where the restroom or vodka is located, or when the party ends doesn’t count.</p><p><strong>Give yourself license to chill</strong></p><p>The more you worry and let anxiety rule your life, the more you wire your brain to continue worrying and being anxious – and the more you mentally link anxiety to specific places or events. In Psychology Today, Dr Eric R. Maisel, suggests using a visualisation technique to lessen anxiety: create a mental picture of relaxing. It could be at a beach sunset, watching trees gently sway in a breeze, leaves falling silently in your backyard. It could be the rhythmic swaying of a hammock under a blue sky with the chirping of birds in the background. When you visualise relaxing, try to engage your other senses as well. What does the place smell and feel like? What do you hear? Do it every day for long enough that it becomes as natural as staring at your smartphone.</p><p><strong>Plug your nose</strong></p><p>Try alternate nostril breathing, or yogic breathing. This is a simple, natural breathing technique from Ayurvedic medicine that brings the body and mind into a state of balance and neutrality. It’s been used by elite athletes for decades for managing stress and anxiety. Close one nostril by placing your thumb gently over it. Exhale; then inhale through the uncovered nostril. After each inhale/exhale (a breath cycle), switch sides. Then, leading with your out-breath, do one out-breath followed by one in-breath through each nostril. Repeat this series, alternating nostrils after each inhalation. It will likely be easier to breathe through one nostril than the other – that’s normal.</p><p><strong>Pump-up your jam</strong></p><p>According to Dr Lisa Legault using self-affirmations actually produces measurable results. Pick a mantra, slogan, or verse to psych yourself up for an event, a performance, or just to walk into a party without sweating. Psalm 55:22 is an example of calming scripture: “Cast your cares on the Lord and he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous be shaken.” Or take your inspiration from AC/DC’s lyric: “For those about to rock, we salute you.” Find your own song or chant that calms or inspires confidence as you head to a gathering or performance. Remember, anticipation of a worrisome social situation is usually worse than the actual event.</p><p><strong>Silence 'Boo'</strong></p><p>Boo is the cruel cynic in your head constantly booing you – filling you with worry and doubt. Like the caricature of a critical mother-in-law, but invisible. Counter Boo’s negative rants with truths such as, “you are more than capable of nailing the upcoming marathon/wedding toast/hostage negotiation,” “there are at least as many reasons things will go right for you,” and “you are competent, skilled, and deserve to be happy! Psychologist Dr Ben Martin presents four main types of challenging questions to ask yourself every time you have a negative thought: (1) what evidence do you have for this thinking? (2) Are there any other ways you could look at this situation? (3) Is this situation as bad as you’re making it out to be? And, (4) What can you do to help yourself solve the problem or to feel better?</p><p><strong>Stop giving a #%@! what others think</strong></p><p>Social anxiety is tied to feelings of being judged. But the truth is that the judgements and opinions of others have no reflection on your worth or talents. Social anxiety treatment includes learning to be flawed, while at the same time rejecting the need for approval from external sources. Being a perfectionist is fine in rocket science, but not in real life. According to an American Psychological Association study, we consistently overestimate how much, and how badly, others think of us, causing us to be more inhibited and less impulsive and happy than we could be.</p><p><strong>Press a lever for a snack</strong></p><p>Rather than berating yourself after each social interaction, reward yourself instead. Not with rounds of tequila or tattoos. But commend yourself for attending the event, for being present, and for facing down your anxiety. Each time you counter your anxiety, you whittle away at its power over you, while gaining confidence to step in the ring again. You are taking your life back one endeavour at a time. A tenet of CBT (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy) is the importance of rewarding yourself for exposing yourself to your fears. You deserve the praise, and you will be more motivated to do it again if there are some self-high-fives or frozen yoghurts on the back end.</p><p><strong>Phone a Freud</strong></p><p>If anxiety disrupts your life or daily activities, make an appointment with your doctor or a mental health provider because you may need treatment to get better. Like a receding hairline, social anxiety happens gradually and initially without much notice. Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) is an effective treatment for social anxiety. Self-medicating is not. Anxiety hates to dance. So get out there and dance.</p><p><em>Written by Jon Patrick Hatcher. This article first appeared in <a href="https://www.readersdigest.co.nz/healthsmart/conditions/mental-health/10-small-but-effective-ways-to-slay-social-anxiety" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Reader’s Digest</a>. For more of what you love from the world’s best-loved magazine, <a href="http://readersdigest.innovations.co.nz/c/readersdigestemailsubscribe?utm_source=over60&amp;utm_medium=articles&amp;utm_campaign=RDSUB&amp;keycode=WRA87V" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here’s our best subscription offer.</a></em></p><p><em>Image: Getty Images</em></p>

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What is catastrophising?

<p>Our brains are constantly building connections, forming relationships between our experiences, thoughts, actions and consequences. It’s this ongoing process that shapes each person’s view of the world – and affects everything from our reactions to daily problem-solving.</p> <p>But sometimes, our brains build cause-and-effect relationships based on overly simplistic, coincidental, or simply incorrect associations.</p> <p>These biased thought patterns – known as cognitive distortions – usually aren’t grounded in reality and tend to skew negative, says Alissa Jerud, PhD, a licensed clinical psychologist and clinical assistant professor of psychology.</p> <p>One common way people distort their worldview is by catastrophising. Here’s what experts want you to know about this cognitive distortion, including how to overcome this type of thinking.</p> <p><strong>What are the different kinds of cognitive distortion?</strong></p> <p>We all experience irrational thoughts now and again. Yet reinforcing negative thought patterns alters our sense of wellbeing for the worse.</p> <p>Psychologist Aaron Beck first proposed this theory of cognitive distortion in 1976. His student David Burns, now a psychiatrist and adjunct clinical professor emeritus at Stanford University School of Medicine, continued Beck’s work by cataloguing how our brains tend to manufacture faulty connections.</p> <p>“None of them is one-size-fits-all,” explains therapist Erica Cramer, but according to Burns’ research, some common ways we cognitively distort our view of the world include:</p> <ul> <li>filtering, magnifying, and dwelling on negative details</li> <li>black-and-white or all-or-nothing thinking</li> <li>overgeneralisation, like thinking that something “always” or “never” happens</li> <li>jumping to conclusions, mind reading and predictive fortune-telling</li> <li>emotional reasoning, or coming to conclusions based on your feelings alone</li> <li>thinking in terms of “should,” “must,” or “ought to” statements</li> <li>holding yourself personally responsible (or blaming others) for things out of your control</li> <li>catastrophising</li> </ul> <p><strong>What is catastrophising?</strong></p> <p>“[Catastrophising] is when you think the worst-case scenario is the most likely scenario,” Cramer says. “Rather than there being an equal chance of something going right or wrong, you assume you are destined to experience a negative outcome.”</p> <p>This line of thinking generally starts with information that has a kernel of truth to it, says Gail Saltz, MD, a clinical associate professor of psychiatry and host of the How Can I Help? podcast from iHeartRadio.</p> <p>But when someone has a catastrophic thought pattern, their imagination takes an otherwise small concern and unravels it to the nth degree – the worst place it can go.</p> <p>Dr Saltz says to imagine a dark and gloomy day.</p> <p>“You look outside, and you think: There’s a thundershower coming; my child’s on her way home from school. It’s probably going to suddenly hit, then she may get struck by lightning and killed, and I will never be able to survive myself because I’ll be in mourning,” she explains. “That would be catastrophising.”</p> <p><strong>What causes catastrophic thinking?</strong></p> <p>“We all engage in catastrophic thinking at times, and there are likely evolutionary roots to this type of thinking,” Dr Jerud says.</p> <p>“In fact, catastrophising may have even been adaptive for our ancestors, as it may have led them to be more vigilant and thus better able to evade potential predators.”</p> <p>But Dr Saltz says switching these evolutionary alarm bells to overdrive can turn catastrophic thinking into an automatic response. Someone living with this cognitive distortion may habitually scan their environment and over-interpret signs of potential danger, concluding the worst-case scenario is the only possible outcome.</p> <p>This snowball effect takes us beyond day-to-day worries. Dr Jerud explains catastrophising is believing that not only will you stutter during your upcoming job interview, but you won’t get that job or any other job. Therefore, you’ll be unemployed forever.</p> <p>“There are infinite causes for cognitive distortions,” Cramer says. “Different situations affect people in different ways.”</p> <p>That’s why there’s no one trigger for catastrophic thinking. People can develop an ingrained catastrophic thought cycle in response to a wide range of situations, like:</p> <ul> <li>past trauma</li> <li>bad parenting</li> <li>work or relationship stress</li> <li>low self-esteem or imposter syndrome</li> <li>conditions like depression or anxiety</li> </ul> <p><strong>Is catastrophising the same as</strong> <strong>anxiety?</strong></p> <p>Catastrophic thinking (and other cognitive distortions) is especially common among individuals who struggle with anxiety, Dr Jerud says. But they’re not mutually exclusive: Not everyone with anxiety gets caught in catastrophic thought patterns.</p> <p>Still, research published in<span> </span><em>Cognitive Therapy and Research</em><span> </span>found that catastrophising is a predictor for mental health conditions, including anxiety, panic, post-traumatic stress and obsessive-compulsive disorders.</p> <p>Catastrophic thinking can also fuel an existing anxiety disorder.</p> <p>“The more you have these catastrophic thoughts, the higher your anxiety does tend to stay,” Dr Saltz says. “It’s kind of a vicious loop.”</p> <p><strong>Is catastrophising connected to other health conditions?</strong></p> <p><span>People can engage in catastrophising without any underlying medical cause. However, research suggests a few conditions may influence catastrophic thought cycles (in addition to anxiety disorders).</span></p> <p><strong>Chronic pain</strong></p> <p>Experiencing chronic or long-term pain is a common avenue to catastrophising thoughts. Research published in<span> </span><em>Expert Review of Neurotherapeutics</em><span> </span>discusses how people with chronic pain often:</p> <ul> <li>worry that they’ll always be in pain (or that it will get continually worse)</li> <li>magnify the threat value of their pain</li> <li>feel helpless that there’s nothing they can do to reduce their pain</li> <li>exaggerate anticipated painful situations</li> </ul> <p><em>Practical Pain Management</em><span> </span>reports that these catastrophic thoughts can actually increase someone’s physical pain – while putting them at a higher risk for disability and complementary conditions like depression.</p> <p>Another 2020 study in the journal<span> </span><em>PAIN</em><span> </span>found that pain catastrophising also leads people to avoid exercise or movement altogether, increasing their potential for greater pain, depression and poor health outcomes.</p> <p><strong>Depression</strong></p> <p>While having catastrophic thoughts is more commonly associated with anxiety, these patterns have a link to depressive disorders, too.</p> <p>Cramer explains that people with depression are more likely to feel like nothing goes right in their lives or that everyone has a low opinion of them. This pattern of negative thinking can make someone more susceptible to developing cognitive distortions like catastrophising.</p> <p><strong>Fatigue</strong></p> <p>Catastrophising can cause somatic – aka physical – symptoms as well. Cramer says cognitive distortion thought patterns could cause someone so much anxiety they experience back pain or headaches, for example.</p> <p>“[Catastrophising] can also make you tired because you are overthinking everything,” she adds.</p> <p>Research backs up this association. A literature review published in the<span> </span><em>Journal of Psychosomatic Research<span> </span></em>suggests someone’s tendency to catastrophise is a good predictor of their fatigue levels and how much that fatigue disrupts their life.</p> <p><strong>How to overcome catastrophic thinking</strong></p> <p>Worries, anxieties and negative thoughts are a normal part of life. But when they evolve into habitual cognitive distortions, these thought patterns can affect your physical and mental health alike.</p> <p>“When we engage in catastrophic thinking, we often miss out on what’s happening in the present moment, which can make it hard to enjoy day-to-day life,” Dr Jerud says.</p> <p>She recommends acknowledging that a feared outcome could happen (as opposed to “will” happen) and then gently shifting your attention back to the present moment. Just don’t try to push the thoughts away, disprove them, or convince yourself that your feared outcomes won’t happen.</p> <p>“The goal here isn’t to get rid of the catastrophic thoughts, but simply to not allow them to dictate what you do or don’t do,” she explains.</p> <p>“This is key because efforts to avoid catastrophic thinking often backfire, causing these thoughts to pop up even more intensely.”</p> <p>Still, rewiring our negative thought patterns might be easier said than done. That’s why the experts recommend a few approaches to help you overcome catastrophic thinking.</p> <p><strong>Therapy </strong></p> <p>Cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT) is a psychological treatment that aims to change thought patterns by helping patients:</p> <ul> <li>learn to recognise and re-evaluate their cognitive distortions</li> <li>develop problem-solving skills and coping mechanisms that help reduce the effect of cognitive distortion triggers</li> <li>build a greater sense of self-confidence, limiting the control that negative fears have over them</li> </ul> <p>“It analyses how your thoughts influence your feelings and behaviours,” Cramer explains.</p> <p>She says CBT not only equips people with concrete tools to recognise and combat their distortions, but when practiced regularly enough, these learned skills become habits, replacing formerly catastrophic thought patterns.</p> <p><strong>Medication</strong></p> <p>While catastrophising isn’t a medical diagnosis itself, it’s often a symptom of conditions like generalised anxiety disorder.</p> <p>Dr Saltz says that for people with high anxiety levels, medication can help reduce symptoms, including diminishing their catastrophic thinking.</p> <p><strong>Mindfulness</strong></p> <p>Cramer says building a practice around distinguishing facts from feelings – a form of mindfulness – can help stop catastrophic thinking in its tracks.</p> <p>“Whenever you are thinking a negative thought, determine if it is a feeling or fact,” she says.</p> <p>“If you do not have any evidence to support the thought, it is simply a feeling and not the actual truth. Anyone can believe anything they want, but is it actually true?”</p> <p><strong>Exercise</strong></p> <p>Physical activity reduces the impact of anxiety disorders on people’s lives, including generalised anxiety disorder, panic disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and social anxiety disorder.</p> <p>That’s because, according to Harvard Medical School, exercise:</p> <ul> <li>reduces levels of the body’s stress hormones</li> <li>stimulates the production of endorphins – the body’s natural painkillers and mood elevators</li> <li>improves self-image</li> <li>increases strength, stamina and energy levels</li> <li>helps people build routines and social connections</li> </ul> <p>Research published in<span> </span><em>Frontiers in Psychiatry</em><span> </span>found that regular exercise may even have a protective effect against the development or progression of mental health conditions. Similar to the medication approach, focusing on ways to treat someone’s underlying anxiety may help reduce their catastrophic thinking.</p> <p><strong>Get another perspective</strong></p> <p>“Sometimes it is helpful to share your feelings with others and get an outside perspective,” Cramer says.</p> <p>“Asking questions like ‘Do you think this will likely happen?’ or ‘How do you view this situation?’ can definitely help you stay grounded and question your negative thoughts.”</p> <p><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">Written by Leslie Finlay. This article first appeared in </span><a rel="noopener" href="https://www.readersdigest.co.nz/healthsmart/conditions/mental-health/what-is-catastrophising" target="_blank"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Reader’s Digest</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">. For more of what you love from the world’s best-loved magazine, </span><a rel="noopener" href="http://readersdigest.innovations.co.nz/c/readersdigestemailsubscribe?utm_source=over60&amp;utm_medium=articles&amp;utm_campaign=RDSUB&amp;keycode=WRA87V" target="_blank"><span style="font-weight: 400;">here’s our best subscription offer.</span></a></em></p> <p><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">Image: Getty Images</span></em></p> <p><img style="width: 100px !important; height: 100px !important;" src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/7820640/1.png" alt="" data-udi="umb://media/f30947086c8e47b89cb076eb5bb9b3e2" /></p>

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Feel alone in your eco-anxiety? Don’t – it’s remarkably common to feel dread about environmental decline

<p>Feeling anxious about the ecological crises we face is entirely understandable, given the enormity of the threats.</p> <p>Eco-anxiety is <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcthree/article/b2e7ee32-ad28-4ec4-89aa-a8b8c98f95a5">sometimes described</a> as a mental health problem. It’s not. Eco-anxiety is a rational psychological and emotional response to the overlapping ecological crises we now face.</p> <p>If you feel this way, you are not alone. We have found eco-anxiety is remarkably common. Almost two-thirds of Australian participants in <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959378021001709">our recent surveys</a> reported feeling eco-anxiety at least “some of the time”.</p> <p>The response <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-02862-3">can be triggered by media stories</a> on environmental and climate crises as well as human efforts to combat them. This includes the barrage of media from the United Nations climate conference, or COP26, now underway in Glasgow.</p> <p>In this age of ecological reckoning, eco-anxiety is not going to go away. That means we must learn how to cope with it – and perhaps even harness it to drive us to find solutions</p> <p><a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/430117/original/file-20211104-17-1846nze.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=1000&amp;fit=clip"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/430117/original/file-20211104-17-1846nze.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;fit=clip" alt="Cleared area of rainforest" /></a> <span class="caption">Awareness of environmental crises like deforestation can provoke anxiety.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></p> <h2>Dwelling on problems we contribute to</h2> <p>Our study found four key features of eco-anxiety:</p> <ol> <li><strong>affective symptoms</strong>, such as feelings of anxiety and worry</li> <li><strong>rumination</strong>, meaning persistent thoughts which can keep you up at night</li> <li><strong>behavioural symptoms</strong>, such as difficulty sleeping, working, studying or socialising</li> <li><strong>anxiety</strong> about your personal impact on the planet.</li> </ol> <p>We found similar levels of eco-anxiety in our surveys of 334 Australians and 735 New Zealanders, with people affected in similar ways in both countries. This supports <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3918955">emerging research</a>, which found more than half of young people surveyed across ten countries experienced climate anxiety. Feeling anxious about the state of the planet is likely to be universal.</p> <p>When we asked Australians how it affected them, they told us eco-anxiety affected everything from their mood to their daily routine to their relationships. It even affected their ability to concentrate, work or study. For some, eco-anxiety made them feel restless, tense and agitated. New Zealanders reported similar impacts.</p> <p>Our study found people were also anxious about their personal contribution to the deteriorating state of the planet. Some participants noted the state of the planet made them “extremely anxious”, so much so they “find it hard to think about anything else”.</p> <p>Other research shows many people are anxious about how their personal behaviours impact the earth, such as <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520343306/a-field-guide-to-climate-anxiety">consumerism or flying</a>. Some young adults are choosing to have fewer children, or none at all, out of concern their children will contribute to the climate crisis or will <a href="https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/02/book-excerpt-the-uninhabitable-earth-david-wallace-wells.html">inherit a degraded world</a>.</p> <p>These fears appeared in our study too, with one parent participant noting:</p> <blockquote> <p>My biggest worry is that climate change will affect my child in their lifetime, and I get very upset that I won’t be able to protect him from the effects of it.</p> </blockquote> <h2>Is eco-anxiety different to generalised anxiety?</h2> <p>Eco-anxiety has similarities with generalised anxiety and stress, but we found important differences, such as the focus on environmental issues and our contribution to the problem.</p> <p>We also found people experience eco-anxiety independent of depression, anxiety and stress, suggesting it’s a unique experience.</p> <p>While it is possible to experience eco-anxiety as someone who is otherwise mentally well, many people experience it on top of <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs12144-021-01385-4">existing mental health issues</a>.</p> <p>What we need to do now is understand what eco-anxiety means for individual (and planetary) well-being, and <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02650533.2020.1844166">provide support</a> to people with varying degrees of this anxiety.<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/429905/original/file-20211103-19-pt7tvl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=1000&amp;fit=clip"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/429905/original/file-20211103-19-pt7tvl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;fit=clip" alt="School students carrying posters calling for climate action" /></a> <span class="caption">School students marching for climate action in the UK, 2019.</span> <span class="attribution"><a href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/london-uk-united-kingdom-15th-february-1315212515" class="source">Shutterstock</a></span></p> <h2>Four ways to cope with your eco-anxiety</h2> <p>Eco-anxiety is not going to go away as an issue, given the range of environmental issues the world is confronting. To stop these feelings becoming overwhelming or debilitating, there are a range of <a href="https://psychology.org.au/getmedia/cf076d33-4470-415d-8acc-75f375adf2f3/coping_with_climate_change.pdf.pdf">behavioural, cognitive and emotional strategies</a> people can use to cope.</p> <p>Here are four techniques:</p> <ol> <li> <p><strong>validation</strong> One part of managing your own anxiety is to <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0887618520300773">validate it</a>, by acknowledging it makes sense to feel anxious and distressed</p> </li> <li> <p><strong>time out</strong> Another technique is to take mental breaks and avoid your 24/7 news feed to give yourself time to restore a sense of balance</p> </li> <li> <p><strong>seek hope</strong> Cultivating a <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0272494412000138?casa_token=mIMzMUtEHZYAAAAA:VHVA59QmgjLMGuMr8n-gb4aCxYKO3OrC-ym8UViPw14R1OBZymnfoW4dmQYsw7FHvvWv2T_J4w">realistic sense of hope</a> about the future can also reduce anxiety emerging from our awareness of ecological threats. That means appreciating the complexity of the problem, while also searching for alternative visions of the future and trusting that we, as a collective, will eventually resolve the crisis before it’s too late</p> </li> <li> <p><strong>take action</strong> Many of us struggle with a sense of overwhelming powerlessness in the face of a deteriorating climate. This can be self-reinforcing. To combat this, you can try action - whether changing your own behaviour or getting involved in campaigns.</p> </li> </ol> <p>As climate campaigner Greta Thunberg <a href="https://www.penguin.co.uk/articles/2019/jul/young-climate-activists-on-greta-thunberg-and-climate-crisis.html">has said</a>, “no one is too small to make a difference”.</p> <p>Climate change has been described as the <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959378018313608?casa_token=W-MRkMOq8DoAAAAA:o81eFiIQ6_82L9CGUP-WDIN9zEtq8cdgQSIUqqsqhH2QXaaHPF4X_bOSXJ4F7qNFmtY05REbfQ">greatest collective action problem</a> we have ever faced. That means the necessary changes will have to come from the collective action of all individuals, industries and governments. We all must act together now, just as we have in combating the COVID pandemic.</p> <p>Eco-anxiety is increasingly common. But being concerned about environmental crises does not need to come at the <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520343306/a-field-guide-to-climate-anxiety">cost of your health</a> and wellbeing.</p> <p>After all, psychological, emotional and behavioural burnout is not helpful for you – or the planet.<!-- Below is The Conversation's page counter tag. Please DO NOT REMOVE. --><img style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important; text-shadow: none !important;" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/170789/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /><!-- End of code. If you don't see any code above, please get new code from the Advanced tab after you click the republish button. The page counter does not collect any personal data. More info: https://theconversation.com/republishing-guidelines --></p> <p><span><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/teaghan-hogg-1284859">Teaghan Hogg</a>, PhD student, Clinical Psychology, <em><a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-canberra-865">University of Canberra</a></em>; <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/lean-obrien-1286734">Léan O'Brien</a>, Lecturer, <em><a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-canberra-865">University of Canberra</a></em>, and <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/samantha-stanley-1205158">Samantha Stanley</a>, Research Fellow in Psychology, <em><a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/australian-national-university-877">Australian National University</a></em></span></p> <p>This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/feel-alone-in-your-eco-anxiety-dont-its-remarkably-common-to-feel-dread-about-environmental-decline-170789">original article</a>.</p>

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