One of the most recent studies on the subject, published in early September in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, found that people who received intravenous ketamine sessions showed notable improvement in depression and anxiety symptoms. It also significantly reduced suicidal ideation. Treatments like ketamine therapy are still very new and need more research before becoming more widely accepted or available. Still, many people have had tremendously heartening luck, and it’s their stories that will ultimately broaden acceptance of these therapies....

Psychologist Philip Zimbardo, the founder of the Heroic Imagination Project (HIP), believes that heroism can be taught and has developed a program designed to help children learn how to be heroes. Most people know Zimbardo as the man behind the famous Stanford prison experiment, a study that demonstrated how people are heavily influenced by social and situational pressures. In the experiment, participants took on the roles of guards and prisoners in a mock-prison setting....

What Is PTSD? PTSD is a complex reaction to serious stress trauma. For PTSD to develop, the sufferer must have been exposed to a situation in which grave physical harm or sexual violence was present, threatened, or witnessed. Examples of situations that may lead to PTSD include combat, natural disaster, sexual abuse, learning of a traumatic event to a close family member or viewing the death of another person. Symptoms of PTSD The symptoms of PTSD are far more varied than those of a phobia, although some symptoms do overlap....

Signs of Psychological Abuse These are some of the warning signs that someone is being psychologically abused: Being visibly upset or agitatedBeing withdrawn and unresponsiveAvoiding certain people or being scared, nervous, or timid around themBehaving in unusual ways, such as rocking, biting, or sucking There are also more subtle signs, such as: Starting to cancel plans at the last minuteMaking excuses for the partner’s hurtful words or behaviorsBeing more quiet when the partner is aroundBeing overly apologeticAppearing to be more indecisive and insecureFeeling rushed all the timeConstantly checking the phone/partner is constantly checking in...

Slow and shallow breathing characterizes this breathing disorder, sometimes as low as 8 to 10 breaths per minute. The normal breathing rate is between 12 and 20 breaths per minute. During normal breathing, the blood carries inhaled oxygen to all the tissues of the body while removing carbon dioxide through the lungs as a waste product. Medical conditions that affect the brain and the functioning of the central nervous system can cause respiratory depression....

Schizophrenia is a mental illness that causes people to interpret reality abnormally. It involves a range of cognitive, emotional, and behavioral problems that impair a child’s ability to function. This article discusses the symptoms, causes, and prevalence of schizophrenia in children. It also covers how the disorder presents in kids, the available treatments, and things that parents can do to help kids cope. Prevalence of Schizophrenia in Kids Onset usually occurs between the late teens and the mid-thirties....

Strong self-esteem helps you remain confident, strong and connect with other people. But if you have BPD, feeling capable and serving may be very rare. Instead, you may feel incompetent or worthless more often. Follow Now: Apple Podcasts / Spotify / Google Podcasts Low Self-Esteem and BPD Poor self-esteem can be an issue for many, not just those with BPD. If a person does not feel good about herself, she is not able to trust or validate her own feelings or experiences....

If you’ve been the victim of a sexual assault, you might have even blamed yourself. You might have convinced yourself that somehow you did something wrong — or that you didn’t do enough to stop it. It’s important to understand our tendency to blame the victim. Learning more about why it happens can help you learn to recognize victim blaming when you see it — and it can help you stop blaming others or yourself....

Seroquel can be helpful and effective, but it is also important to be aware of the potential side effects. This includes common symptoms such as constipation, drowsiness, and rapid heartbeat, as well as more serious side effects such as tardive dyskinesia. Common Side Effects Along with its therapeutic effects, Seroquel can sometimes cause side effects. Some side effects will have symptoms that you can see or feel. Your doctor may watch for others, such as changes in the lenses of the eyes, by doing certain tests....

A team from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte’s Brain Institute (IC-UFRN) in Brazil analyzed 133 dream reports (from 20 young adult volunteers) word by word using graph theory, a branch of analysis that focuses on networks and other kinds of relationships among words or other items in a set. The volunteers were woken up during rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, when dream reports are most plentiful, and also during non-REM sleep, which produces fewer dream reports....

How Does St. John’s Wort Work? If you plan to take St. John’s wort, there are a few things you should know about how it can interact with your other medications as well as its potential side effects. St. John’s wort is an herbal supplement marketed as a natural remedy for depression, anxiety, and other mood disorders. Proponents of St. John’s wort believe the herb can increase the amount of serotonin in the brain....

A new review, published in the journal Psychological Science in the Public Interest, found that formal education is strongly related to cognitive functioning across all adult ages, cultural contexts, races, and genders. The paper finds that education, especially earlier in life, can play a role in delaying the onset of dementia. “From a public-health perspective, education appears to be one of the best-established preventive measures for dementia, and newly emerging evidence appears to suggest that this effect is partly causal,” says Serhiy Dekhtyar, PhD, assistant professor at the Karolinska Institute’s Aging Research Center in Solna, Sweden....

What Is Stress? First, an answer to the question, ‘What is stress?’ The term ‘stress’ refers to the response you have when facing circumstances that force you to act, change, or adjust in some way to maintain your footing or to keep things balanced. (The circumstances themselves are known as ‘stressors’, but we’ll have more on them later.) This stress response, also known as the fight-or-flight response, triggers many involuntary changes in your body, which give you an extra burst of energy so that you can fight or run away from perceived threats....

Positive Effects of Stress Management The following are some reasons why: Your Health: Excessive stress really can lead to poor health outcomes, from relatively minor things like headaches and digestion problems in the short run to major conditions like heart disease, high blood pressure and stroke after years of unmanaged stress. Your Looks: Many stress relievers can also make you healthier and even more attractive. For example, taking care of your body by getting enough sleep can make you more productive and healthier, and can help you better manage stress, as well as staving off dark circles under the eyes and a poor complexion....

Some eye pillows are fragrant, some are wearable—equipped with a strap—, and some can be microwaved or frozen. No matter how you use an eye pillow, it should be comfortable enough to achieve your desired level of relaxation. When choosing an eye pillow, you should focus on the filling, the fabric, and the temperature therapy. Style may come into play if you plan on wearing it in public, but the utility of the eye pillow is most important....

Friday Fix: Episode 162 Imposter syndrome is that uncomfortable feeling you experience when you think you’re unqualified and incompetent. You might look around and assume everyone knows what they’re doing except you. And if you achieve something good, you’ll chalk your accomplishments up to “good luck.” Almost everyone experiences imposter syndrome at one point or another. For some people, it’s a small problem. For others though, it can be debilitating. Imposter syndrome isn’t just something that happens at work....

Painters such as Vincent van Gogh, who famously cut off his ear and ultimately took his life in 1890, contribute to this idea, as does the writer Sylvia Plath, who died by suicide in 1963. Both artists detailed their mental illness in writing. Popular Artists and Mental Illness Van Gogh sent an 1888 letter to his brother Theo explaining, “I am unable to describe exactly what is the matter with me....

The best strategy for solving a problem depends largely on the unique situation. In some cases, people are better off learning everything they can about the issue and then using factual knowledge to come up with a solution. In other instances, creativity and insight are the best options. In order to correctly solve a problem, it is often important to follow a series of steps. Researchers sometimes refer to this as the problem-solving cycle....