Mental Health Articles of Interest
by Andrew Kemp, MSW, SWLC
After the interest in my last blog entry, I have decided to continue highlighting articles of interest around mental health. Over the course of any given month I read 20 to 25 articles. I take information from most of them, some are good, some are not so good and read more like pop psychology than actual research articles. It is important to understand the source of the article, who has published it, the sources cited, and make sure it is a reliable source of information. I have listed three links below that caught my interest over the course of the last month. If you have any suggestions of articles that I should read feel free to send them to me at andy@acbmt.com
The article in the link below highlights a study that compares the medication, Lexapro, and a mindfulness meditation training. The results of the study show the participants who only took the medication had the same results of those participants that were in the meditation training and not taking a prescription. Take a look for yourself and see what you think. These are promising results for people who are not wanting to add a medication regime to their healing process. And, in general, meditation is a very healthy exercise, with lots of research to back up the claims and health benefits!
The following article asks a serious question that is significant in understanding the difference between sadness and depression. Often times it is easy to confuse one with the other. The intent of this article is to help identify the subtle and noticeable differences between the two. The article states, “sadness as a normal emotional state that all people experience in their lives following a loss, disappointment, or other upsetting events. Depression, on the other hand, is a mental health condition characterized by a persistent sad mood or loss of enjoyment for most of the day and nearly every day for at least two weeks”. An important point of to this article is to recognize when to treat depression as well so that it does not persist.
https://lifehacker.com/how-to-tell-the-difference-between-sadness-and-depressi-1849775776
The following article is good milestone article to understand change and thinking in how behavioral health and mental health are viewed in our current society. A new generation of publishers, booksellers, authors and illustrators, parents and teachers are looking at how we address mindfulness in change. This shows an amazing trend in sales of children’s books over the last couple years towards books about mindfulness. This is also a great resource for ideas for books as gifts for kids with the holidays approaching.
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2022/nov/14/mindfulness-books-children-runaway-publishing-trend
