In some cases, fear of looking dumb is a symptom of social anxiety disorder (APA, 2022), and it can be associated with perfectionism and fear of failure. It can show up in issues such as imposter syndrome, or feeling like a fraud and worrying about not rising to the expectations of a high-achieving position. It can also be related to stereotype threat, when someone's membership in a marginalized group leads them to worry that they will act in a way that confirms negative stereotypes.
Patience is a capacity to endure difficulties, frustrations, and suffering with some sense of calm. Perseverance, self-regulation, and judgment are components of patience. Patience can help you manage your emotions, reactions, and responses in stressful situations. While positive psychologists don't specifically name patience as one of the top 24 character strengths, it is seen as an important element of human behavior. Strengths researchers propose that patience is an amalgam of several recognized character strengths, including perseverance, self-regulation, and judgment (Niemiec, 2018; Peterson and Seligman, 2004).
A shortage of mental health beds and poor communication between agencies contributed to the death of a teenage girl on hospital grounds, an inquest has found. Ellame Ford-Dunn, 16, who had a history of self-harm, died in March 2022 after absconding from an acute children's ward where she had been put because of a dearth of appropriate mental health beds.
Last August, Adam Thomas found himself wandering the dunes of Christmas Valley, Oregon, after a chatbot kept suggesting he mystically "follow the pattern" of his own consciousness. Thomas was running on very little sleep-he'd been talking to his chatbot around the clock for months by that point, asking it to help improve his life. Instead it sent him on empty assignments, like meandering the vacuous desert sprawl.
This comes after millions of women, myself included, have spent years trying to unlearn the toxic messages we were fed in our youth. That beauty equals thinness. That discipline means restriction. That our bodies must be controlled and minimized to be acceptable. We fought for size diversity, for the radical idea that you can be beautiful, strong and worthy without disappearing. And just as that movement was starting to shift the cultural tide, here comes this trend of pharmaceutical shrinking that pretends thinness is wellness.
When we think of rituals, we tend to think of face masks and wellness trends. But there are actually ways to use rituals to help heal grief and deal with stressful times. On this episode, Lucy Lopez, Elizabeth Newcamp, and Zak Rosen are joined by ritual expert Betty Ray to talk about creative ways to help children process grief and big emotions, how to use ritual to create safety and expression, and much more.
When Justin Harrison got the call in 2022 telling him that his mother would likely die within the day, he didn't panic. He got on a plane to Singapore, where he was scheduled to present at a conference about his start-up, You, Only Virtual, a platform on which users can chat with AI versions of their dead loved ones, and which Justin believes can ultimately eliminate grief as a human experience. He learned about his mother's death while flying over the Pacific.
Over the 74,301 years he's been playing tennis, warming to Novak Djokovic hasn't always been easy. And the man himself knows it, frequently bristling at sleights perceived, imagined and real, his 24 grand slam titles unable to replace the basic need to feel loved. What we all learn from Djokovic, though what even Djokovic himself can learn from Djokovic is how to execute the perennially torturous business of loving yourself.
I've often asked patients why they're so preoccupied with becoming the best in some domain, why they need something so much that they're willing to organize their lives around it, sacrificing all types of pleasures for it. Most of the time, there isn't much of an answer. It's like a game, a distraction, and a fantasy; there's no rhyme or reason, no sense of why they do it or what's to come, and no understanding of how being the best generates long-standing happiness.
What these parents don't realize is that today's failure to launch is not always behavioral in nature. It can be due to cognitive constipation (bear with me on the Gastrointestinal metaphor; I am trying to make a point). Yes, that's right. It is those nasty doses of overthinking-the behind-the-scenes fuel-that crank up the hidden anxiety burning in your adult child's brain.
After 18 weeks of the NFL regular season, the moment is almost here. The Super Bowl represents the pinnacle of pressure. For the athletes that take the field, it's the moment they've been waiting for. The culmination of years of preparation for that one game. There is little margin for error and the moment is unforgiving. Yet, the psychological demands of Super Bowl game day aren't as unique as we think.
People may avoid romantic relationships for various reasons. Some genuinely prefer being single, others are focused on other life goals, and some may simply not feel drawn to dating at a certain stage in life. But for some, avoiding dating is not a free choice. Instead, it is driven by fear, doubt, and attempts to protect themselves from emotional distress. In these cases, relationship obsessive-compulsive disorder ( ROCD) may be operating quietly in the background, shaping decisions from behind the scenes.
One of my earliest cognitive therapy patients asked if we'd spend time exploring his past. He thought we might find patterns that would explain his depression. I was taken aback. I had just discovered a set of powerful, active techniques that helped people change how they felt in the here-and-now. As a psychiatric resident, I had seen that endless venting without specific techniques for change led to little or no relief.
The Molly Rose Foundation (MRF) said online networks linked to a global ecosystem labelled the Com were carrying out extreme exploitation, cyberbullying, violence and abuse and called for a coordinated global response from governments, regulators, law enforcement and tech companies. The warning follows the publication of a report by the online risk consultancy Resolver in partnership with the MRF, which was founded by the family of Molly Russell, a British teenager who killed herself in 2017 after viewing harmful content online.
Jake's marriage to Louise is in trouble, and she has insisted he come and see me. If not for Louise, you wouldn't be here, would you? I enquire tentatively. He looks sheepish at first; then emboldened, he gives an emphatic No. As is almost always the case, Jake's wife has registered a problem that has passed him by, and prompted his visit.
Growing up outside Manchester, I remember watching my mum count out exact change at the supermarket checkout, keeping a running total in her head as she shopped. Meanwhile, my university roommate would just toss things in his trolley without a second thought. That's when it hit me: Financial security isn't just about having money. It's about the mental space that money creates.
That sounds impressive; however, the devil is in the details that the popular media completely ignored. For example, only 11 of those studies were focused on depression. The authors concluded that exercise had a medium effect on depression. It is impossible to know how a "medium" effect compares with drug therapy since the studies were not head-to-head comparisons. The study also reported that exercise benefited many other health conditions, including HIV or kidney disease, various mental disorders, and cancers.
Sometimes, you don't need to think about your brain. It just... runs. You wake up, remember your passwords (mostly), answer emails without crying (ideally), sleep at night instead of staring at the ceiling replaying a weird thing you said in 2016 (actually), and generally move through the day without feeling panicked, sluggish, or sad.
Most people will forget a name, misplace their phone, or lose track of a conversation at some point. Usually, those moments pass without much thought. But for many adults, especially as they age, small lapses can trigger a much deeper fear: Is this the beginning of cognitive decline? As a neurologist, I hear this concern often. And as a researcher, I have learned something important: Worry about cognition and cognitive disease are not the same thing.
You've just had a crummy day, and you wish you hadn't. Your first instinct is to pick up the phone, call your best friend, and complain. But you also know deep down that you want to be more positive. You know that complaining emphasizes the negative in your life, and you'd like to create a shift for yourself. You recall that you started a gratitude journal, and when you use it, you find you really enjoy noticing the good things more than the bad.
Almost two in three women over 50 in the UK struggle with their mental health as they deal with menopause, relationship breakdowns and changes to their appearance, a survey has found. Brain fog, parents dying, children leaving home and financial pressures can also trigger difficulties such as sleeping problems, feeling anxious or overwhelmed, and a loss of zest for life.