December 2016

“Frozen” is my ultimate Disney movie. Elsa my ultimate warrior and the person I keep looking up to, time and time again, when my mental health is wearing me down. Why? Because I believe that Elsa’s struggles with her “powers” are more than that. I believe her struggles are representations of an array of different mental disorders, and that “Frozen“ contains a wide range of lessons that could impact and console almost any one who lives with a mental illness. [For more of this story, written...

Most of us have grown up on the “once upon a time… and they lived happily ever after” relationship fable. It is written into the script of nearly every Disney film and we have bought it, lock, stock and barrel. We lose ourselves in dreaming of Prince or Princess Charming who will fulfill all our romantic desires, will never disagree with us and will appear eternally youthful and beautiful. Recovery pioneer John Bradshaw coined the phrase Post Romantic Stress Disorder to describe an all too...

Sexual harassment is a prevalent form of victimization that most antibullying programs ignore and teachers and school officials often fail to recognize, according to bullying and youth violence expert Dorothy L. Espelage, Ph.D. The recent teen suicide of Brandy Vela, a teen in Texas City, Texas, is a case in point. According to Vela’s parents, the teen fatally shot herself following months of bullying and sexual harassment, perpetrated in part through text messages and social media. Espelage...

The violence that women in disadvantaged neighborhoods experience and witness can result in post-traumatic stress disorder ( PTSD ) symptoms and full diagnoses, according to a new study. The Northwestern University study of a disadvantaged Chicago neighborhood also found that women with PTSD diagnosis or sub-threshold PTSD had significantly more severe depression symptoms than women in the study who didn’t report experiencing trauma. Every woman who was recruited for the study had symptoms...

Mental-health issues such as anxiety and depression can have many causes. Newly published research identifies one that we don’t usually think about: government policy. According to a new study , American Latinos living in states with more exclusionary immigration policies report higher rates of psychological distress than their counterparts in states with more liberal laws. Obviously, “not all immigrants are Latinos, nor are all Latinos immigrants,” a research team led by Mark Hatzenbuehler...

It is a core tenet of the American Dream: the idea that if you work hard, America awards you the freedom and opportunity to live a more prosperous life than the one you were born into. That’s how it used to work, at least. Of kids born in the 1940s, 90 percent did better than their parents. But this scenario has become increasingly rare in recent decades. “Absolute income mobility,” as economists call it, fell to a mere 50 percent for kids born in the 1980s, regardless of where their parents...

The biggest argument against raising the minimum wage is that it’s going to end up cutting jobs. By having to pay each worker extra, the cost of producing goods or services will increase. So , the argument goes , employers will either pass that cost off to customers (by raising prices) or try to find savings elsewhere (by investing in equipment rather than workers, or reducing the hours their employees work). Either way, the total demand for labor will drop. But this explanation is based on...

The Greater Good Science Center has collected many resilience practices on our website Greater Good in Action , alongside other research-based exercises for fostering kindness, connection, and happiness. Here are 12 of those resilience practices (squeezed into five categories), which can help you confront emotional pain more skillfully. 1. Change the narrative 2. Face your fears 3. Practice self-compassion 4. Meditate 5. Cultivate Forgiveness To read more of Kira M. Newman's article, please...

Watch the new UPLIFT film ‘The Science behind Yoga’ (26 minutes) Featuring Bruce Lipton Ph.D, Sat Bir Khalsa Ph.D, Dr. Mithu Storoni, and many other experts on the scientific research behind the benefits of Yoga. UPLIFT media channel is dedicated to telling the new story of inspired co-creation. Working together, we can create a better world for all. http://upliftconnect.com/watch-science-behind-yoga/

As practitioners and researchers, our emphases on evidence-based practices often focus our attentions on services and systems. But it is often the people we hire — more than the curriculum and services we develop — that participants say have the greatest positive impact on their lives. Last summer, I wrapped up a yearlong benchmarking study of highly effective reentry programs that had received funding from the U.S. Department of Labor to provide employment-focused reentry services to youth...

Thanks to the Wisconsin Department of Health Services for allowing us to share this list of links that they categorize every couple of weeks. Most of the links are from posts on ACEsConnection. ACEs, Adversity's Impact Congressional Briefing Addresses Public Policy to Improve Response to ACEs Business leaders in the ACE and resilience movement: A different kind of bottom line Effects of Childhood Trauma on Depression and Suicidality in Adulthood Brain and Biology Nascent Neurons Journey...

My aunt shared the article below with me this morning. I love that people in my life now know what ACEs are. I'm happy I'm learning more from them! This is a great overview article with nice video and a clear explanation of the original ACEs study. In addition, it talks about how childhood sexual abuse can be particularly damaging, to men and women. It's not that the ACE, itself, is any worse but that the secrecy and shame and difficulty in sharing it can be consequential. That's my take,...