All posts by arjen

Uncategorized

Busyness: A Modern Health Crisis | LinkedIn

Benjamin Cardullo writes about an issue that we really have to take (more) seriously.  Particularly with mobile devices enabling us to be “connected” 24/7, being busy (or available) all of that time is not a good thing at all.

How do we measure professional success? Is it by the location of our office or the size of our paycheck? Is it measured by the dimensions of our home or the speed of our car? Ten years ago, those would have been the most prominent answers; however, today when someone is really pulling out the big guns, when they really want to show you how important they are, they’ll tell you all about their busy day and how they never had a moment to themselves.

Read the full article: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/busyness-modern-health-crisis-benjamin-cardullo

Sleep, Uncategorized

Explainer: what’s the link between insomnia and mental illness?

https://theconversation.com/explainer-whats-the-link-between-insomnia-and-mental-illness-49597

The relationship between insomnia and mental illness is bidirectional: about 50% of adults with insomnia have a mental health problem; up to 90% of adults with depression have sleep problems.

Uncategorized

OSMI Mental Health in Tech Survey 2016

http://j.mp/osmisurvey2016

Participate in a survey about how mental health is viewed within the tech/IT workplace, and the prevalence of certain mental health disorders within the tech industry.

Brain Hacking

Just made a bad decision? Perhaps anxiety is to blame

http://medicalxpress.com/news/2016-03-bad-decision-anxiety-blame.html

Most people experience anxiety in their lives. For some, it is just a bad, passing feeling, but, for many, anxiety rules their day-to-day lives, even to the point of taking over the decisions they make.

Scientists at the University of Pittsburgh have discovered a mechanism for how anxiety may disrupt decision making. In a study published in The Journal of Neuroscience, they report that anxiety disengages a region of the brain called the prefrontal cortex (PFC), which is critical for flexible decision making. By monitoring the activity of neurons in the PFC while anxious rats had to make decisions about how to get a reward, the scientists made two observations. First, anxiety leads to bad decisions when there are conflicting distractors present. Second, bad decisions under anxiety involve numbing of PFC neurons.

Uncategorized

World Mental Health Day 2015

On this year’s World Mental Health Day, some info from Lifeline and Mental Health Australia:

Mental Health Begins with Me

Did you know 70% of people with mental health issues don’t seek help? […] As a community we can encourage others to take care of their mental health by breaking down the barriers that stop people seeking help when they need it.

How can you help?

Make your mental health promise and share it today.  Encourage your friends and family to do the same and share their promises here or on social media using the hashtag #WMHD2015.

Here are some great tips and promises to make to yourself this 10/10 (October 10th):

  1. Sleep well
  2. Enjoy healthy food
  3. Plan and prioritize your day
  4. Tune into the music you love
  5. Cut down on bad food and booze
  6. Switch off your devices and tune out
  7. Hangout with people who make you feel good
  8. Join in, participate and connect
  9. Exercise your body and mind
  10. Seek advise and support when you need it

 

Brain Hacking

Interactive Self-Care Guide

Interesting find:

[…] interactive flow chart for people who struggle with self care, executive dysfunction, and/or who have trouble reading internal signals. It’s designed to take as much of the weight off of you as possible, so each decision is very easy and doesn’t require much judgement.

Some readers may find it of use. I think it’d be useful to have the source code for this available so that a broad group of people can tweak and improve it, or make personalised versions.

Brain Hacking, Sleep

The Effect of Screens Before Bedtime

Staring at screens right before sleep turns out to be a lot worse than previously thought. Dr. Dan Siegel, clinical professor of psychiatry at the UCLA School of Medicine, lays out all of the negative effects that bedtime screen viewing can have on the brain and body.

And of course, that’s aside from the effects of the contents! If you read any news, you may find yourself all riled up and annoyed at something you can do absolutely nothing about (or at least not at that moment). If you check your work email, just as problematic.

Written Reflections

tears in rain | Wil Wheaton

http://wilwheaton.net/2015/08/tears-in-rain/

I walked out of the loading dock, through a cloud of rotting garbage, and into the alleyway behind the theater. A curtain of rain fell between me and my destination, a little over a block away.

“Do you want to wait here, while I get you an umbrella?” Liz, the producer from Wizards of the Coast, asked me.

“No,” I said, stepping into the rain, extending my arms outward and turning my palms and face to the sky, “it’s been so long since I felt rain fall on my body, I’m not going to let this opportunity pass me by.”

I walked down the sidewalk, surrounded by other PAX attendees. Some were not bothered by the rain, while others held up programs and newspapers and other things to keep it away. A man walked his dog next to me. The dog was unperturbed by the weather. We got to the corner and waited for the light to change. The rain intensified and it was glorious.

“Are you sure this is okay?” She said.

“Oh yes, this is so much more than okay,” I answered, “this is perfect.”

[…]

I’ve been feeling pretty much the opposite of awesome for several weeks, now, and actually getting to sit down, face to face, in a semi-quiet few moments with real people who wanted to be there with me was … restorative, I guess is the best word. One player told me, “Thank you for everything you do. From Tabletop to Titansgrave — which is the best thing I’ve ever seen — to talking so openly about anxiety and depression.”

[…]

Read Wil’s entire post at http://wilwheaton.net/2015/08/tears-in-rain/

Books

The Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurodiversity

The New York Times published an interesting review of a book entitled “NeuroTribes: The Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurodiversity”, authored by Steve Silberman (534 pp. Avery/Penguin Random House).

Silberman describes how autism was discovered by a few different people around the same time, but with each the publicity around their work is warped by their environment and political situation.

This means that we mainly know the angle that one of the people took, which in turn warps our view of Aspergers and autism. Ironically, the lesser known story is actually that of Hans Asperger.

I reckon it’s an interesting read.