LINKS - September 21st, 2022
Welcome to LINKS — my attempt to provide Rhapsody readers with five interesting stories that tell us something about what it means to be human. LINKS is published every Wednesday. Have a link you want to share? Drop it in the comments.
Who Is Going to Therapy in America?
“The number of Americans seeking mental health treatment is on the rise. According to the C.D.C., a 2021 survey found that nearly one in four adults ages 18 to 44 had sought mental health treatment in the past 12 months. This summer, we wanted to hear from readers who’d started going to therapy in the past two years: Why had they taken that step? What had they gotten out of it?”
Busting Misconceptions About Mindfulness
By Jason N. Linder, PsyD, Psychology Today
“Now you see it everywhere when it comes to mental and physical health. But myths and misconceptions prevail. Particularly harmful is the misnomer that mindfulness is an individually focused or a "solo project." It's mostly concerned with improving relationships, families, communities, nations, and the world–collective harmony and peace.”
Why it is awesome that your brain can experience awe
By Richard Sima, Washington Post
“Awe has two fundamental components, say researchers who study the emotion. It is a response to encountering something more vast, complex, or mind-blowing than we had conceived of either physically or conceptually. The experience also induces a change in how we see the world, producing ‘little earthquakes in the mind.’”
Are Insomniacs Overthinking Sleep?
By Matthew Gwynfryn Thomas, Sapiens
“The sleep tech industry is worth billions of dollars (but not quite as many billions as lost sleep costs the U.S. economy). You can buy a smorgasbord of gadgets. Weighted blankets. Heated mattresses. White noise machines. Fake-sunlight lamps. Special pillows. Earplugs. Nose plugs. Smart watches and rings. And a range of masks that could belong in an ethnographic museum. And that’s before we get onto antidepressants, benzodiazepines, and other drugs.
“But evidence for the effectiveness of many forms of sleep tech seems to be low or lacking.”
Playing an instrument is linked to better cognition
“Studies comparing the mental abilities of musicians and non-musicians often show that musical training is related to small, but significant, cognitive benefits even when confounding factors, such as socioeconomic status, are accounted for. Findings from experimental studies with children have also lent support to the idea that musical training might cause an improvement in cognitive ability. Indeed, there is evidence that just two years of such training enhances cognition.”