Mental Health Archive

With the increased stress caused by the the COVID-19 pandemic, prescriptions for medications to treat mental illnesses have increased, leading to potential shortages of certain psychiatric medications. This means that some people might need to discuss their options with their prescribing clinician.

Stressful experiences are hard to avoid and impossible to predict. But taking steps to bolster your resilience may help.

The palpable stress stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic has made things once considered stressful — such as deadlines or traffic jams — seem pretty trivial in comparison. But while you may not be able to avoid the stressful situations that come your way, there are ways to mitigate your body's response to those events.

So far, the evidence that stress management strategies can protect your heart is limited but growing. Yet there's no doubt that stress contributes to heart problems. "The link between stress and cardiovascular disease is well established," says cardiologist Dr. Ahmed Tawakol, an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School.

Do you struggle with decisions? These strategies can help you make good choices more efficiently.

We make countless choices every day. Most are the mundane variety: what to eat, what to wear, what movie to watch. But often our decisions (or lack thereof) have a significant impact on our well-being.

Poor decision making is often a consequence of natural cognitive decline. This can cloud people's judgment about what is the right course of action or make it harder to weigh multiple options. The result is that people make questionable choices, or they feel overwhelmed and don't make any decision, which is sometimes even worse.

If you haven't made a video call yet, give it a try to fight isolation.

When much of the world began lockdowns to battle coronavirus in March 2020, many people turned to video calls to fight off the loneliness that often accompanies social isolation. Tech companies reported that the use of video calls for socializing surged by as much as 80%, enabling people to "see" family and friends. But it doesn't take a lockdown to warrant the use of this technology.

The epidemic of loneliness and isolation

Loneliness affects more than a third of older Americans. Another third of older adults feel isolated: they may be living alone, lack transportation, or live far from loved ones. Or they may have outlived a spouse or friends.

In the journals

Need help staying positive during trying times? Live more in the moment, but also focus on how to cope with future stresses. This advice comes from a study published online March 25, 2020, by Personality and Individual Differences.

Researchers explored two factors in how people handle stress: mindfulness and proactive coping. Mindfulness is when people live in the moment rather than dwelling on the past or worrying about the future. Proactive coping is when people make efforts to reduce the effect stress has on them.

Stress can raise your risk of developing a substance use disorder. Here's how to get help when you need it.

In recent months, Americans' collective stress level has risen in response to the pandemic and economic fallout. Many people are looking for ways to help themselves feel better. Unfortunately, stress can trigger a number of unhealthy coping strategies — drinking alcohol to excess, bingeing on junk food, engaging in drug use, or other harmful behaviors. If you've ever had a substance use disorder, a bout of significant stress may even put your recovery at risk.

This is likely due to the shift the human brain makes in times of trauma. Instead of focusing on long-term goals, your brain zeroes in on short-term objectives.

Before taking pills for a temporary situation, consider the risks.

You might think that using an antidepressant temporarily could help you weather a challenging time, such as a period of grief, extreme stress, or serious illness. But you shouldn't just jump into taking an antidepressant, cautions Dr. Jane Erb, psychiatric director of the Behavioral Health Integration in Primary Care Program at Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women's Hospital.

"There's no evidence that taking an antidepressant in the short term will help or that it will prevent longer-term consequences of stress, such as post-traumatic stress disorder," she says.

Resources to teach you new skills are more accessible than ever, and the experience could lead to sharper thinking.

The world is full of ordinary people who've learned to do extraordinary things without entering a classroom. For example, British fashion designer Nadine Merabi taught herself to sew watching how-to videos on YouTube. Video game developer Lual Mayen learned to write computer programs using a laptop tutorial, as he grew up in a Ugandan refugee camp.

But learning new things doesn't have to lead to fame or fortune; learning also brings invaluable health benefits, such as more purpose in life, sharper thinking, and maybe even better brain health. "Engaging in mentally stimulating activities has not only been linked with a lower risk of full-blown dementia, but also a lower risk that the mild cognitive lapses we can have as we get older will get worse," says Dr. Joel Salinas, a neurologist who specializes in behavioral neurology and neuropsychiatry at Harvard-affiliated Massachusetts General Hospital.

The brain’s neuroplasticity — its ability to adapt and change — makes it possible for us to learn new skills and solve complex problems, but it also makes some people more vulnerable to the consequences of substance use disorders. This same ability also makes it possible for a person to make cognitive modifications in order to change an addictive behavior.