Clinical Psychology
Quitting Smoking Can Set Off a Chain Reaction of Positive Mental Health Changes
There are obvious physical health benefits that come with giving up tobacco, but it turns out there are some mental health benefits too. Researchers have consistently found a link between quitting smoking and positive mental health outcomes. For example, a meta-analysis of 26 studies published in 2014 found that smoking cessation was associated with lower…
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Physical Punishment, Childhood Maltreatment Linked to Antisocial Behaviors in Adulthood
Problematic behaviors in adulthood often have roots in childhood, and a new study of over 36,000 adults in the United States adds more evidence for that idea. In the study, researchers from University of Manitoba looked at whether the type of childhood someone has can predict how likely they are as adults to have symptoms…
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Why Do Religious People Report Higher Rates of Porn Addiction?
Pornography addiction is a hot debate (no pun intended!) because it gets at two themes that tend to stir up a lot of moralistic opinions: sex and the growing role of technology in our daily lives. In the media, there has been a rise in the idea that people commonly become addicted to porn in…
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What Makes a “Healthy” Personality?
Do you ever meet someone who just seems remarkably free of stress and comfortable with themselves? You might come away wondering whether there’s a certain set of personality traits that predisposes some people to be happy and successful no matter what life throws their way. This idea is one that’s long appealed to psychologists, as…
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Should Therapists Disclose Their Own Mental Health Struggles?
As a mental health blogger, I don’t have to think twice over pouring my heart out about my own mental health challenges. But therapists are in a more delicate position. On one hand, therapists might want to establish a sense of rapport by mentioning their personal experiences with problems their clients are confronting. On the…
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“Popular” Teens May Be Lonelier
Along with the changes of adolescence comes an increased desire to be “popular.” But teenagers who aspire to high levels of social prestige might want to be careful what they wish for. A new study from researchers at the University of Michigan suggests that, paradoxically, popularity and loneliness tend to go together in adolescence. In…
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Social Ostracism Linked to Internet Addiction
To understand people’s online behavior, it’s worth looking at what’s happening in their offline lives. That’s one takeaway from a new study published in the journal Psychiatry Research showing a relationship between social ostracism and internet addiction. Previous research has suggested that social factors play into excessive internet usage. As the authors point out, studies…
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Online Interventions Can Lower Stress Response
As far as practical steps you can to take to improve your mental health, you could do worse than learning some new techniques for coping with stress. Stress is something we deal with in multiple parts of our lives, and finding healthy ways to manage stress can lead to real improvements in quality of life.…
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Writing Part of Your Life Story Can Boost Self-Esteem
How we make sense of events that have happened to us affects how we see our place in the world around us. As I wrote about last year, for example, studies suggest that how people frame their life stories seems to be a key component of identity. Our life stories aren’t static, though. We’re constantly…
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Insomnia Can Be a Harbinger of Other Mental Health Conditions
Just in case you needed anything else to worry about in the wee hours, here’s a scientific finding that might keep you up at night: insomnia appears to be associated with the subsequent onset of mental health conditions including anxiety, depression, alcohol abuse and psychosis. That’s according to a meta-analysis recently published by researchers in…
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