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Tag: anxiety

  • Baking Becomes Growing Outlet For Anxiety

    Baking Becomes Growing Outlet For Anxiety

    Some therapists are even prescribing baking for their patients struggling with anxiety.

    For Kelly Caiazzo, relief from her anxiety comes from an unexpected place: cooking and baking. 

    Caiazzo, 35, told The Portland Press Herald that the constant flow of negative news contributes to her anxiety. 

    “Even when I’m trying to take a rest day and take a deep breath, I’m still getting it because of social media,” she said. “It’s one headline after another about things that are going to make our country less safe from an environmental perspective.”

    So, in such instances, Caiazzo turns to prepping food. And she isn’t alone. In December, The Atlantic ran a piece about millennials turning to baking to decrease stress and anxiety. And, according to the American Psychiatric Association, stress levels are only increasing as 40% of Americans reported feeling more anxious in 2018 than the previous year. 

    It seems people are seeking out comfort foods as well, according to the Press Herald. Pete Leavitt, owner of Leavitt & Sons delis in Portland and Falmouth, said sales of his chicken potpie have skyrocketed in the last year with more than a double-digit increase. Ali Waks-Adams, executive chef at the Brunswick Inn, told the Press Herald the same can be said for their tapioca pudding. 

    Another increase has been seen in the number of people applying for jobs in the food industry, especially people with no prior culinary experience. Stacy Begin, owner of the Two Fat Cats bakeries, told the Press Herald that many “describe baking as a ‘release,’” in their resumes.

    Andrea Swanson, owner of Portland’s Scattoloni Bakery, said she has had an overwhelming increase in enrollment in her baking classes in recent years.  

    “Most of them want to do it as a hobby,” Swanson told the Press Herald, “but a lot of them, especially the bread ones, they’re into it as something to do at home to kind of decompress. They’ve tried bread machines, and it’s not the same thing.”

    Some therapists, such as Hannah Curtis of Falmouth, are even prescribing baking for their patients struggling with anxiety.

    “In baking, there are still rules we can count on,” she said. “If I do it right, and I do it in the right order, I’m going to get the right result.”

    Kathy Gunst, a South Berwick food writer and cookbook author, told the Press Herald she found comfort in baking during the hearings for Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh. 

    “People would come into my house and say ‘What is going on here?’” Gunst stated. “And I would say ‘I’m trying to stay sane. That’s what’s going on here.’” 

    For Caiazzo, the urge to cook and bake also gives her a greater sense of control. 

    “Even though I can’t control the world at large, I can have a major impact on taking responsibility for my own personal impact and actions,” she said.

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Iggy Azalea Talks Anxiety

    Iggy Azalea Talks Anxiety

    The Aussie rapper opened up about anxiety on social media.

    Australian rapper Iggy Azalea is one of many celebrities who talks about her anxiety on social media.

    In the last several months, she’s made several confessions about being antsy, and in the new year, she’s opened up about her struggles again, this time with a good combination of humor and optimism.

    In the new year, Azalea revealed on Twitter that she’s moving as well as wrapping up her new album, “[which] is giving me anxiety. But; the good kind? Sorta.”

    Yet as she also tweeted, “All my life I’ve never been scared to fall in heels because I know I have cankles & you can’t break me.”

    Like many celebrities, social media can be a double-edged sword for Azalea. Several months ago she explained on her Instagram story that public scrutiny of her love life “gives me crazy anxiety and makes me feel like I can’t have normal in passing conversations with people because everything ends up being some ‘story’ for the internet.”

    At the same time, Azalea has also used social media as a way to deal with anxiety. Earlier this year she posted on Twitter, “Say what you want about me posting pictures on instagram but honestly, it gives me something else creative i can focus on  . . . when sometimes im in a dark place or i feel stagnant . . . and maybe it’s silly, but it really has been helping me lately to feel more positive and just keep my mind in a creative space constantly thinking of new visual things and color palates. Im really glad ive got something i can do without needing permission.”

    Azalea has been open with the public about her mental health struggles in the past, telling Billboard that she was inspired by Demi Lovato to get help. She’s also written a song about her mental challenges, “Savior,” which she performed live as a duet with Lovato.

    Yet as she heads into the new year, Azalea feels a lot more optimistic about her future and is “excited” because she signed “my new deal/partnership! 2.7 mil, can sign others, own my masters + 100% independent – I’m feeling like such a bossy grown ass b***h today!”

    Her last tweet can be interpreted in several different ways, but perhaps it’s a message that she wants to concentrate on her mental wellness: “Time to get back to ME.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Can Music Therapy Help Ease Anxiety For Pregnant Women?

    Can Music Therapy Help Ease Anxiety For Pregnant Women?

    Researchers examined whether music could work as a tool to help calm symptoms of anxiety in pregnant women.

    With four prior miscarriages, 42-year-old Elizabeth Larsen of Huntley, Ill., struggled with severe anxiety during her pregnancy. But Larsen says she found relief through music therapy, in which music is used to improve health.

    New research indicates that mothers with anxiety during pregnancy, like Larsen, can benefit from such therapy.

    “I wanted to find wellness tools to ensure that my baby and I would have a safe and wonderful birth,” Larsen told The Washington Post. “Music therapy opened up my bodily senses and helped me to relax.” Recently, researchers studied music and mental health during pregnancy. There were 409 participants, all in their third trimester of pregnancy.

    None had a history of anxiety. Of the group, half underwent music therapy where they listened to a relaxing CD three times per week. The other half of the group did not do so. Upon completion of the study, researchers found that those who had taken part in music therapy were overall less anxious than the other group.

    “During pregnancy, fears and anxieties about the health of the baby are very common. Many of the women in our study were anxious about the stress test, an ultrasound that examines the health of the baby,” lead researcher Jessica Garcia-Gonzalez told the Post.

    She added that the study indicates that “anxiety during pregnancy can increase a woman’s risk of postnatal anxiety and depression, but music therapy can help reduce stress.”

    According to Postpartum Support International, anxiety and depression before and after a child’s birth are not rare. The organization says about 6% of pregnant women and 10% of new mothers struggle with anxiety, and about 15% of women grapple with depression after a child is born.

    Karen Kleiman, a psychotherapist who specializes in maternal mental health, told the Post that it is vital for mothers and pregnant women to seek treatment for such issues. “Anxiety is associated with prenatal health concerns like preeclampsia, preterm delivery, and low-birth weight, which is why it’s important for women to learn coping strategies to minimize their worries during pregnancy,” she said.

    As a board-certified music therapist and birth doula, Kate Taylor told the Post she often provides music therapy for her clients. “I use music as a teaching tool,” she said. “We might analyze song lyrics or listen to instruments or music that can aid in relaxation. Songs can bring up intense emotions for women, which can help them connect with the baby, and openly share their worries and feelings about motherhood.”

    For Larsen, music therapy resulted in a more calming pregnancy overall. “During our sessions, we listened to the acoustic guitar,” she told the Post. “At home, I listened to relaxing music on my headphones. The music calmed my anxiety, which helped me stay positive.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Have Depression Or Anxiety? There May Be Health Risks Down The Line

    Have Depression Or Anxiety? There May Be Health Risks Down The Line

    A new study examined whether people with depression/anxiety could be at higher risks of future health problems.

    Could struggling with depression and anxiety put you at risk for more health issues down the road? According to Forbes, new research points to yes.  

    A recent study determined that those with depression/anxiety could be at the same or higher risk level for future health problems as smokers or those who are overweight.

    The study examined data from the Health and Retirement Study, which included the health data of 15,000 older US adults over four years. Of those, 16% reported high levels of depression and anxiety, 31% were considered obese and 14% were smokers. 

    In comparing individuals with anxiety and depression to those without, researchers found that those with depression and/or anxiety had a 65% higher risk of heart conditions, a 64% higher risk for stroke and a 50% higher risk of high blood pressure. Especially high was the increased risk of arthritis, at 87%. 

    Lead study author Aoife O’Donovan of the UCSF Department of Psychiatry says these odds are in line with individuals who smoke or are overweight.

    “These increased odds are similar to those of participants who are smokers or are obese,” he said, according to Forbes. “However, for arthritis, high anxiety and depression seem to confer higher risks than smoking and obesity.”


    Researchers also discovered connections between depression/anxiety and more mild health issues like back pain, stomach pain and shortness of breath. Headaches were 161% higher in those with depression and/or anxiety in comparison to those who were smokers or obese.

    However, the study did not find any links between depression and anxiety and cancer. 

    “Our findings are in line with a lot of other studies showing that psychological distress is not a strong predictor of many types of cancer,” O’Donovan tells Forbes. “On top of highlighting that mental health matters for a whole host of medical illnesses, it is important that we promote these null findings. We need to stop attributing cancer diagnoses to histories of stress, depression and anxiety.”

    A possible limitation of this study, according to Forbes, is that the data used came from self-assessments of individuals versus clinical assessments. 

    “The methodology in this case relied on in-depth interviews and other survey methods, but the results are still observational, not clinical,” Forbes states.

    As these findings are in line with other past studies, researchers are reiterating the importance of mental health care. 

    “Anxiety and depression symptoms are strongly linked to poor physical health,” the study’s first author, Andrea Niles said, according to Forbes. “Yet these conditions continue to receive limited attention in primary care settings, compared to smoking and obesity.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Paramore's Hayley Williams Talks Mental Health, Social Media Break

    Paramore's Hayley Williams Talks Mental Health, Social Media Break

    Paramore’s Hayley Williams opened up about mental health in a candid Instagram post.

    Hayley Williams is taking a break from social media. The lead singer of Paramore announced Saturday that she will be focusing on her side project, Good Dye Young, a line of vegan and cruelty-free hair products, in lieu of posting on Instagram and Twitter.

    “Hey friends. It’s holiday season… but I’m working a lot from home,” she said in a lengthy collage-style message on Instagram. “There’s… a lot… going on. It’s exciting and it’s also a lot.”

    While she is taking “another extended break” from social media, she will be managing Good Dye Young’s social media accounts, she assured fans.

    “I am careful not to sensationalize issues around mental health as it’s such a sensitive and very layered conversation for every individual,” she continued in her Instagram post.

    Williams confessed that she “could never fully admit to nor bring myself to go get a true diagnosis for my own issues until recently.”

    “I’m working really hard on getting strong for myself. I am so grateful to people who have kept this conversation safe and sacred for me in the last couple of years.”

    With the release of the album After Laughter in the spring of 2017, after a dry spell since 2013, Williams revealed that her mental health had suffered for a while as a young artist in the public eye.

    “I don’t feel as hopeful as I did as a teenager. For the first time in my life, there wasn’t a pinhole of light at the end of the tunnel. I thought, I just wish everything would stop,” she said in a Fader interview.

    But with the release of After Laughter, Williams said she’s moving on from feeling hopeless. “[After Laughter] helps me mark this time as a significant turning point in my life. I’m noticing similar movement in my friends’ lives too,” she said in Paper Magazine earlier this year. “More presence and awareness. More tenderness. I’m alive to both pain and joy now. I have my old laugh back, as my mom says… And only a couple years ago, I had hoped I’d die.”

    Williams urged fans to take mental health seriously. “It’s important to do what you can to find a solution that works for you. Be it therapy, medication, fighting the tendency to isolate and asking people you trust to keep you accountable,” she said in her recent Instagram post.

    The singer-songwriter said that she’s done feeling “okay” and ventured to want more for herself. “I know it is very popular to say ‘it’s okay to not be okay,’ but please give me the grace to admit that as I am quickly approaching 30 I am just not okay with not being okay anymore,” she said. “I am interested in living out a much more fulfilling life than just ‘okay’ could ever offer. I think that you are worth more than ‘okay’ has to offer too.”

    “Please take care of yourselves and try to believe that you are worth more than just ‘okay’ or ‘been better’ or ‘can’t complain.’ I think we are all worth experiencing joy. We are worth feeling hope.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Ashley Tisdale Reveals Depression & Anxiety Struggles On New Album

    Ashley Tisdale Reveals Depression & Anxiety Struggles On New Album

    “This is the first time I’m being super vulnerable. This is me sharing my journey through anxiety and depression.”

    Ashley Tisdale, who first broke through starring in High School Musical, is now confessing her years long battle with anxiety and depression in a new album, aptly titled Symptoms.

    Tisdale told People that with Symptoms, “This is the first time I’m being super vulnerable. This is me sharing my journey through anxiety and depression. I didn’t know the anxiety symptoms I had in the past while touring. Before, I would freak out before going on stage. That was a panic attack. I had no idea what that was until I started reading about it.”

    About the lead single from the album, “Voices in My Head,” Tisdale explains, “There are so many times I’m at an event or even just a social party and I feel like I’m not good enough to be there, and I feel that a lot of us struggle with that. That negative thinking, that little voice in your head…”

    Tisdale hopes her new album will help erase the stigma around mental health issues. “The reason I wanted to do this album was because I wanted to make someone at home not feel so alone in what they go through. They could look at me and go, ‘We’re all human. We all go through things.’”

    Tisdale adds, “It’s so easy for people when someone goes, ‘Does anyone have anxiety?’ Everyone at the table will go, ‘Yeah, I do.’ If someone says, ‘Do you have depression?’ Nobody really wants to talk about it.”  

    She also told AOL, “I feel really vulnerable talking about it, and it’s weird to talk about it, but if I could make someone at home feel less alone, then I’m doing my job as an artist. I’ve gone through a journey. It’s obviously painful and hard, but it’s also the most beautiful thing.”

    When recording the album, Tisdale called the studio “my happy place,” and “my safe place” where she could be creative, and she called recording Symptoms “therapeutic. I feel like it saved me from just dwelling in what I was feeling.”

    And through the process of recording Symptoms, Tisdale learned to accept and embrace herself. “I think that when you struggle with those things, instead of being like ‘Oh I hate that stuff,’ I really accept it. I think that’s what makes you beautiful, that you’re not perfect.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Can Tetris Help Alleviate Anxiety?

    Can Tetris Help Alleviate Anxiety?

    Researchers explored whether the classic game could have positive effects on those battling anxiety.

    Could an old-school video game help ease your anxiety? New research points to yes. 

    According to NPR, Kate Sweeny, a psychologist at the University of California, Riverside, conducted research into whether the game Tetris can have positive effects for those struggling with anxiety. 

    The premise of the game is to rotate and adjust moving tiles so they fit into a flat line at the bottom of the screen.

    “Years of my life were lost disappearing into a game of Tetris on my Nintendo system,” Sweeny told NPR.

    The game, according to Sweeny, can help ease anxiety by allowing players to enter a state psychologists call “flow.”

    “The state of flow is one where you’re completely absorbed or engaged in some kind of activity,” Sweeny told NPR. “You lose your self-awareness, and time is just flying by.”

    In conducting the study, Sweeny’s team focused on people who were waiting for “uncertain, potentially life-altering news” with the idea that playing Tetris could help their minds focus elsewhere for a period of time.

    Specifically, they took a group of 300 college students and told them their peers would be rating how attractive they were. 

    “I know, it’s kind of cruel, but we found it’s a really effective way to get people stressed out,” Sweeny told NPR.

    While the students were waiting for the results, they were instructed to play Tetris. There were three levels of difficulty assigned to different students: one slow, easy and boring; one fast, challenging and frustrating; and one classic version, meaning the game is adjusted based on the player’s ability. 

    While players still reported varying degrees of worry, the group that played the classic version reported slightly increased levels of positive emotions and slightly decreased levels of negative ones. 

    “It wasn’t a huge difference, but we think it’s noticeable,” Sweeny told NPR. “And over time, it can add up.”

    Games aren’t the only way to reach a state of flow, according to Elizabeth Dunn, a psychologist at the University of British Columbia who studies happiness.

    “Think of the activity that grabs your attention and doesn’t let it go,” Dunn told NPR. “For me, it’s mountain biking.” 

    While Dunn was not involved in the research, she says the results were not surprising.

    “I can’t say I found this study particularly surprising at all,” she told NPR. “Mostly because, based on previous research, it’s hard to find a situation where the experience of flow isn’t a good thing.”

    Dunn also noted that the research indicates “that even in tough moments, we should push ourselves to do something challenging to get us out of the moment.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • How Communication Affects Teen Mental Health

    How Communication Affects Teen Mental Health

    The more removed teens feel during adolescence, the less likely they are to trust their parents, a new study suggests.

    A number of environmental factors can lead to anxiety and depression in teens, and a recent study has added another to the list: a fragmented parent-child bond.

    According to WSB-TV Atlanta, researchers worked with a group of teens and monitored them through stages of adolescence. More specifically, the researchers followed 335 children from affluent white-collar communities from the 6th grade in 1998 until they turned 18.

    Each year, they were given an annual assessment in which they rated their attachment levels to each parent, as well as their levels of depression and anxiety.

    As the teens progressed in adolescence, their relationships with their parents saw significant changes, especially at the middle school level.

    Researchers found that preteens felt more than one-and-a-half times as alienated at the middle school level as they did earlier on. As a result, they trusted their parents less and researchers say communication dropped about four times as much.

    Such teens who felt alienated were also found to have lost more trust in their mothers than fathers and as a result, were more likely to have higher levels of anxiety and depression by 12th grade.

    According to researchers, most relationships stabilized again toward the end of high school. However, the more removed a teen felt during their adolescence, the less likely they were to communicate well with their parents or trust them.

    Study co-author Dr. Suniya Luthar, a foundation professor of psychology at Arizona State University, told ABC News that parents can play a role in curbing these feelings by creating strong connections with their children and overlooking attitudes.

    “It would be helpful if, during this time of adolescence, parents would look past all the moodiness, distance and irritability, and express feelings of love and affirmation,” Luthar said.

    Luthar also says that parents have to take care of themselves in order to take care of and connect with their children.

    “Parents, particularly moms, hurt emotionally as well,” Luthar said. She added that when in crisis, mothers “act as first responders, meaning they do their best to diffuse a stressful situation.”

    As such, mothers can be risking their own mental wellbeing, Luthar says. “Don’t pour from an empty or leaking cup,” she said. “Fill it first.”

    According to Psych Central, researchers chose to collect responses only from children rather than children and parents.

    “We wanted the child’s perspective on the relationship with their parents because ultimately it doesn’t matter much how parents think they are doing,” Luthar told Psych Central. “It’s what the children experience that is far more important in terms of effects on their mental health.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Michael Phelps Speaks Out About Battling Depression, Anxiety

    Michael Phelps Speaks Out About Battling Depression, Anxiety

    “I was so down on myself. I didn’t have any self-love and, quite honestly, I just didn’t want to be alive.” 

    Michael Phelps has won 28 Olympic medals, but despite his incredible history as a swimmer he’s also had serious bouts with depression, anxiety and alcoholism.

    Since getting help, Phelps has been very open with the public about what he went through, but he recently admitted on Today that he’s “struggling weekly” with his mental health.

    “From time to time, I’ll have bad days where I do go into a depression state,” Phelps said. “Being an athlete, you’re supposed to be strong and be able to push through anything. My struggles carried on through my career and I hid them well. There are so many people who struggle from very similar things that I go through and still go through… At times, it was a little scary and challenging to go through, but I found a way to get through it and I’m addressing these issues that I have.”

    Phelps has certainly come a long way since he hit his personal bottom in October 2014. Phelps said he was so engulfed in despair, he couldn’t leave the house for five days and felt suicidal.

    He admitted that he had “at least half a dozen depression spells” before this one. He recalled, “I was so down on myself. I didn’t have any self-love and quite honestly, I just didn’t want to be alive. It was a really, really, really crazy time for me and I didn’t want to see anybody. I saw myself as letting so many people down—and myself in particular. That’s hard to carry.”

    Finally something in Phelps clicked, and he “realized that I can ask for help and it’s going to be okay. For me, that’s what changed my life. I never asked for help really ever in my career. That was the first time that I really did that. I was basically on my knees, crying for help.”

    Since that dark time, Phelps has been very involved in getting help for others. He’s on the board of TalkSpace, a teletherapy company, and he was also interviewed for a documentary, Angst, where he discussed his anxiety.

    “I’m lucky to be able to sit down with a therapist and chat and talk and open up,” Phelps says. “It’s challenging for people to do… It’s something that continues to teach me more and more about myself.” 

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Is Anxiety The Sixth Stage Of Grief?

    Is Anxiety The Sixth Stage Of Grief?

    One therapist provides compelling examples of the relationship between loss and anxiety. 

    Is anxiety the sixth stage of grief? Therapist and author Claire Bidwell Smith thinks so, and she shares why in a recent column in the Washington Post. 

    Bidwell Smith writes that a few years ago, she began seeing an increased number of patients reporting anxiety after the loss of a loved one. Some of the patients had dealt with anxiety before, but she says for the majority it was a new issue. 

    “Grief and anxiety are inextricably linked,” Bidwell Smith explains. “We experience anxiety after a loss because losing someone we love thrusts us into a vulnerable place. It changes our day-to-day lives. It forces us to confront our mortality, and facing these fundamental human truths about life’s unpredictability causes fear and anxiety to surface in profound ways.”

    When Bidwell Smith began experiencing the increase in patients dealing with anxiety and grief, she began to research. Though she says there was little information about the connection between the two, she was able to use her own experiences with anxiety and grief after losing her mother at age 18. 

    She says she soon came to realize that much of the anxiety in such situations stemmed from not having processed the loss thoroughly due to expectations from society to move on from a loss. 

    “Unfortunately, this is a common experience for many people who lose a loved one,” she writes. “Our culture is not very adept at making space for grief. That was true over 20 years ago when I was going through it, and is still largely true today.”

    Bidwell Smith references one case in particular where a patient in his 40s had lost his father and had come to see her about six months later, as he’d been dealing with panic attacks and bursts of anger. 

    Bidwell Smith worked with the patient to confront his loss, after which he began to feel relief from the anxiety and anger. Additionally, she says it is important to address how loss makes us “confront our mortality.”

    “When we lose someone significant, we are starkly reminded of how precarious life is, how the unexpected lurks at every turn and how wide-ranging the actual impact of loss can be,” she writes.

    According to Bidwell Smith, treating anxiety brought on by grief is doable through cognitive behavioral therapy, deep grief processing and meditation techniques. But it’s also important that the societal narrative around grief begins to change. 

    “Working through these components is vital to healing ­grief-related anxiety,” Bidwell Smith writes. “As a culture, we tend to push away our thoughts, fears and questions about death. Given how reluctant our society is to deeply explore this topic, it’s no wonder that we falter individually when faced with it. After all, at the root of most anxiety is fear. And what are most people afraid of more than death?”

    View the original article at thefix.com