Mental Health Archive

As people face their mortality, they often focus on how to live their best life in their remaining time. Two Harvard experts-Dr. Howard LeWine and Dr. Anthony Komaroff-share advice on how they are achieving this during their golden years. Some of their suggestions include embracing the natural changes of aging, doing inspiring activities, learning to live in the moment, and finding one's sense of purpose.

A 2024 study suggests that women in perimenopause are significantly more likely to experience depression than either before or after this stage.

Anxiety can produce physical symptoms, such as headaches, stomach upset, and tightness in the chest. Sometimes this sets up a vicious cycle, in which anxiety triggers physical symptoms, and the symptoms magnify anxiety, which makes them even worse. Doing distracting tasks or relaxation exercises can help break this cycle. People should seek professional help if symptoms can't be controlled.

As people age, cognitive skills wane and thinking and memory become more challenging, so they need to build up the brain's reserve. Embracing a new activity that requires thinking, learning, ongoing practice can be one of the best ways to improve cognitive skills like memory recall, problem solving, and processing speed.

A 2024 study found that people with high blood sugar and high triglycerides are more likely to develop chronic stress, anxiety, or depression later in life, compared with people who have low or normal blood sugar levels.

Spending several minutes lying on the ground in a resting supine pose can help people feel grounded by calming their body and mind.

Resilience is a psychological response that helps you adapt to life's difficulties and seek a path forward through challenges. While everyone has the ability to be resilient, life stresses can take a toll on you. It's possible to cultivate resilience - but how?

Cognitive behavioral therapy, or CBT, teaches people to challenge negative thought patterns and change their responses to unsettling situations. It is an effective therapy for many mental health conditions as well as issues like pain or insomnia, and for managing difficult life experiences.