Do you avoid social situations? Although you might be saving yourself anxiety in the short-term, in the long-term your avoidance is creating more fear and dread. The key to overcoming your avoidance is to take small steps towards facing those situations that you fear; both in your mind and in real life. Read more…
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In a recent study published in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science, researchers investigated whether Facebook profiles could reveal social anxiety.
Every year About.com hosts an awards program to choose the best products and services in various categories across the network. The About.com 2012 Readers’ Choice Awards will showcase the best of the best based on nominations and votes submitted by visitors to the site.
“In my last post, I noted that Facebook and social media are major contributors to career anxiety. After seeing some of the comments and reactions to the post, it’s clear that Facebook in particular takes it a step further: Its actually making us miserable.
Facebook’s explosive rate of growth and recent product releases, such as the prominent Newsticker, Top Stories on the newsfeed, and larger photos have all been focused on one goal: encouraging more sharing. As it turns out, its precisely this hyper-sharing that is threatening our sense of happiness.” Daniel Gulati.
When I’m not berating myself about exercise I’m feeling hassled by our cluttered house. Complexity in life – including number of possessions – affects my mental health. There is a psychological cost to clutter and I feel calmer with less.
Gretchen Rubin, a well-known writer about happiness, makes the same observation:
“One of my key realizations about happiness, and a point oddly under-emphasized by positive psychologists, given its emphasis in popular culture, is that outer order contributes to inner calm. More than it should…”
In this post she walks through the things that stop us from clearing clutter. They are largely psychological.
What do 325 Facebook friends, one romance novelist, and a New Year’s resolution have in common?
They are the topic of an upcoming documentary called “Face to Facebook” about a woman who went on a year-long journey to overcome her fear of people and leaving her home.
Don Mills, self-confessed “crabby old fart”, rails incessantly against young people. ”They all have “disorders”. That’s the problem with young people today.”
Apart from this contention, Don’s blog really has nothing to do with mental health. I’m just passing it along as potential laugh therapy.
From a recent post:
“The problem with young people today is that they’re too damned soft.
Have you ever kept a personal diary about your feelings and problems related to social anxiety? Did it make you feel better? New research published in the APA journal Psychological Services suggests that going a step further and blogging about your difficulties online might be the key to improvement.
New research published by the American Psychological Association shows that blogging has psychological benefits for teens suffering from social anxiety.
The study’s lead author, Meyran Boniel-Nissin from the University of Haifa, says that “writing about distress in itself, even without audience interaction, generates desired changes in participants. Although social feedback is an important factor in causing change in bloggers, the very writing has its own value, thus supporting the arguments and replicating the findings pertaining to the therapeutic value of traditional expressive writing.”
A new blog, We Have to Make It, is a good example of a teen writing for therapeutic reasons, although in this case for depression.
A blogger once took me to task – quite publicly – for naming our applications “Optimism”. According to him, they should be called “Hope”. Without a doubt.
I’ve always been puzzled by this. “Optimism” has an element of confidence, with an expectation of progress. Hope is more wishful* . You could say that hope is a precursor to optimism.
With applications unashamedly named “Optimism”, naturally enough I’m very interested in the role of optimism in improving mental health.