In a thought provoking article, Sleep study at Pitt is a researcher’s dream job, in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the role of sleep in mental health is explored. Some of the many interesting points from the interview of Dr. Anne Germain are: “…there is growing evidence that sleep problems are actually the cause of many psychological …
Two new articles of note: First, Charles M. Blow, in the New York Times, writes about two 11 year old boys who recently suicided. It is thought that being bullied at school played a major role in their separate decisions to end their lives. A very moving and thought provoking article. You can read it …
In the very first post on this blog, I wrote: "Actions based on anxiety are often regrettable." That may be true, but someone experiencing intense anxiety or a panic attack feels under great pressure to do something, anything to relieve the anxiety and improve their situation. Nevertheless, actions born from anxiety often have poor or …
This is a brief follow-up to my fourth post on anxiety: “Biological Aspects of Stress and Anxiety.” In researching for the next topic for the blog, I ran across a video about Robert Sapolsky, the author of Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers. The video is short but makes a dramatic point about the effects …
This is the fifth post in the series on anxiety. This post covers the relationship between the 3rd and 4th posts. That is, the relationship between some of the stress reduction techniques and the biology of the stress model. Once more, I need to repeat that this is a tremendous simplification of a highly complex …
This is the fourth installment on the topic of anxiety. By necessity, this discussion of the biological aspects of anxiety will be limited to a simplified overview. If you would like a thorough discussion, allow me to direct you to “Neuroendocrine pharmacology of stress,” or “The Neuroendocrinology of Stress” or “The Neuropsychology of Anxiety: Reprise.” …